We are surrounded by global trends: population is ageing, everyday life is wrapped in technology and sustainable development. What do these changes mean for the hospitality business?
Senior Lecturer Pasi Tuominen presented how some of the global trends might affect the hospitality business in the near future. Actually some of these changes are already here.
For example the fact that population is ageing means that we in the hospitality business need to consider the following issues:
- Hotel rooms must be wheel chair accessible
- Safety issues must be considered carefully since our customers’ eyesight becomes limited and body control weakened
- Food: nutrition in accordance with medical conditions, wellness as an overall trend
Travelers demand more from services
People in general are having more excess money than free time and there will be more middle-class families travelling. This means that more 3-star hotels and services are needed.
The more people travel, the more they expect from the services. Traditional service is not enough anymore – people want to be treated as individuals. Services should be served as experiences and keeping in mind also wellness and sustainability is appreciated by the customer.
Sustainability and green thinking give rise to social sharing. Sharing economy can be seen as a challenger to the traditional hospitality business but it can also be an opportunity as I wrote in my earlier post.
Social sharing relates also to the customers need for sharing his/her experiences in social media. People assume 3G connection is everywhere and Wi-Fi is a must. Mobile-friendly web services and apps becomes everyday – it is not anymore seen as an extra service but a basic.
Sharing news and photos is the first thing in mind when a customer faces bad or good experience. It brings a possibility to a hotel or restaurant to get instant feedback from its customers. “Always online” should be a part of the company reputation management. You must know what your customers are talking about you.
Multiverse and big data are here
Forerunner companies are blurring the real and virtual life to create experiences to the customers. Added experience is created with apps and for example glasses. Google glasses introduced to the market in the spring of 2013 were not a success and the sales were called off in early 2015– but the work goes on and many new innovations are here soon. Pasi Tuominen believes that this niche is becoming main stream: Start-up event Slush presented several new business ideas related to multiverse.
We are receiving too much information these days and the challenge is increasingly not getting enough information but handling the huge amount of data around us. Who has the time and skill to gather relevant information, analyze it and make right decisions based on the data? Will there be a computer, software or a service that does that for the companies?
Pasi Tuominen has gathered some global trends and their possible affects to Hospitality and Tourism Business with his colleague Mario Ascencao.
Text Elisa Aunola. Article is based on Dr. Pasi Tuominen’s lecture in Hospitality Insiders Club Estonia in November 2015.
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