For the second consecutive year, the WTM Vision Conference landed at Rimini Fiera during the days of TTG Incontri (Oct 9) to set out an overview of the sector and the challenges of the future. A game that will be played, in fact, on three basic grounds: personalization, social and new technologies.
Indeed these are the three pillars that will enable companies to gain a tremendous advantage over competitors. Provided, however, that they know how to play them in the best way. A clear analysis from Angelo Rossini, online travel analyst at Euromonitor International who spoke at the WTM Vision Conference outlined the guidelines for the future of the sector.
Guidelines that stem from an assumption of the growing influence of technology in the world of tourism. "Just think of the wearable technologies that, just born, are already proving a huge interest; in light of this 2014 was a year of great innovation, which culminated with the creation of a smartwatch app for the Samsung Galaxy Gear," said Rossini.
Another interesting technology for the tourism sector is the 'connected car', which allows consumers to retrieve information at any time or make hotel reservations. A new way of traveling in which companies of the future will have to engage their services, if they want to keep up with the pace of the times.
"Today the offer is still too standardized, and whoever is able to customize it will stand out from their competitors in a clear way. In this, a great support is provided by big data that, in the coming years, will be analysed in a more rapid and effective way and allow the operator to predict what the potential traveller will do in the future, based on past habits."
In terms of yielding markets, China is the country that will increase foreign travel in the coming years more and that has the greatest potential for growth in spending on international travel. The Land of the Dragon is followed by other promising economies, all towards the East: Russia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
The prospect of increased spending by tourists from China encourages the hotel sector to develop medium or low cost facilities. "The orientation towards a high standard hotel remains a prerogative for Mexican and American travellers" while, as Rossini anticipated "in general, the structures that will collect the lion’s share will be the mid-price range."