With the growing ecommerce travel reservation sites and airline industry changing policies on doing business with other channels, new entrants in the travel industry as well as small players or travel agents cannot help but get discouraged to go further in their investments for a tourism business. Airlines have lowered or cut commissions for travel agencies ; hotels have very narrow difference now between the contracted and published rates. Tour sites have established group rates which the public can enjoy. The list can go on and we will only end up not considering this area for investment anymore.
The changing landscape of the travel industry compels us to re-strategize in order to go with the stream. In this diagram, Fjord presents an encouraging insight on why travel and transportation will never be the same and why businesses will need to drastically upgrade their value propositions if they are to survive.
First, we have to assess scenario. The landscape may have changed but the principle remains the same – we are humans and we are in perpetual motion. Mobility is core to the human condition –yet at the heart of this is a very simple cycle.
The following diagram shows further how many different things an individual might have to deal with on a single trip – making the transitions from one to the next happen more smoothly is a huge opportunity for the industry.
Fjord further states that as globalisation and the availability of low-cost intercity travel sends more and more travellers around the world for work, a growing number of them are already learning to be “at home” in different locations. The same low travel costs make it possible for people to live wherever they want to. And this growing number of “global nomads” get to have more sophisticated preferences and advanced knowledge of the travel industry. This knowledge influences their social circle. And this knowledge drives them to travel not on routine but on exceptions.
Second, we have to understand the key theme for this new landscape :
- The experience is as important as the destination . Any experience can be improved with an injection of style or personality. Delivering the right experience means understanding the unique needs of any journey –P2P services offer huge flexibility in terms of lodging, tours, activities, social opportunities. Big chain hotels with a ‘one size fits all’ mentality are finding it increasingly difficult to compete.
- We take more than luggage with us when we travel. Gone are the days of the awkward post-holiday slideshow. Nowadays, thanks to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, EyeEm, iCloud etc., we can take our friends and family with us when we travel. While many people still create photo books (physical or digital) when they get home, increasingly people share their travels on the fly and let their whole social network participate in the journey. Another side of this is that we can take anything with us on the road – whether that’s work to catch up on, or our entire library of beachside fiction.
Read on and check how are we going to handle this changing landscape and draft your own strategy to serve what the new market demands.
