Between emerging markets and novel hospitality models, everyone is looking for “the experience”. The terms of contemporary hospitality explained by VOIHotels
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Hotel Ca' di Dio, Venezia, Italy, VOIHotels
Image copyright: @VOIHotels
Atlantis Bay, Taormina, Italy, VOIHotels
Image copyright: @VOIHotels
Your career in tourism began in 1995. What has changed in the way of travelling and in the traveller in these twenty-eight years?
Everything has changed. However, I would say that there are two specific elements that dictated this change. The first is, of course, the advent of the internet. It has revolutionized the world of tourism in terms of communication, purchasing, marketing and distribution. When I started my career in 1995, selling and advertising were all on TV. The other important factor is the birth of the low cost, which has allowed a more wide range of people to travel. Today, everything is more accessible, people arrive on site already prepared and informed, and for this reason they are also more demanding. It is difficult to plan a trip, especially in the medium or long distance, without having previously watched videos or been documented. The travel agent is a figure that we find less and less, as well as catalogs. Therefore, these were the two biggest turning points of the last thirty years.
Your role involves identifying new market segments. What are the most interesting segments today?
As the group’s Marketing Director, I observe with a keen eye the younger generations, their way of getting informed, booking and traveling. This is fundamental to understanding the future trends and the direction in which the sector is moving, also because today’s young people will be the rich of tomorrow. Today a young man of twenty years has limited possibility to travel, especially as a student, but in not many years will be part of the new class of workers and high-end travelers. Therefore, thanks to profiling tools, we can begin to analyze this target ahead of time.
Speaking of markets, one of the most interesting is the Middle East. While the UK and US are important and mature markets, the future is somewhere else. In the Middle East young people are changing the approach and organization of countries. Another hot topic is that of India, now listed among the markets with the greatest growth prospects due to the many millionaires from this country. Finally, looking at the 2023 figures, the most surprisingly interesting markets have been Brazil and Australia.