PATA talks disruption, innovation to foster new age tourism
UNWTO Taleb Rifai and the Tourism Minister - Pix by Amila Gamage
The future of tourism looks disruptive to the current system with innovation the key concept and transformation in marketing skills set to make a trend in the new age through millennial professionals taking the lead.
An interesting feature of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) 2017 Conference held at the Jetwing Blue, Negombo last week was the millennial generation displaying their work ethics.
During the discussion the next generation called for more participation of the youth in the workplace and for their right to be treated as stakeholders in the entire process.
It was pointed out that there needs to be more transparency and that hiding anything was not the way to do things going forward.
In this respect, without closing doors, millennials said they need to be allowed to participate in the decision-making process and ensure their increased involvement without just dictating to them what needs to be done.
PATA has been organising youth summits alongside their main conference programme that gives opportunities for youth to be more increasingly involved in bringing to the fore their ideas and plans for the future of tourism.
Future of tourism
The tourism industry’s new age developments like the disruptive models of Airbnb have pushed the idea of ensuring the consumer is first and led to more people taking a liking to these structures of travel. This was stated by former Interim CEO and CMO of the Canadian Tourism Commission and Partner with Twenty31 Consulting Greg Klassen during a discussion on “Embracing Disruption: A Blueprint for the Future of Tourism”.
These disruptive models push down the other stakeholders like politics and government to second place, citizen advocates thereafter, followed by tourism partners and the tourism industry, he explained.
On the other hand, the traditional tourism models were found to be slow to innovate mainly because their choice of stakeholder platform starts with politics and government followed by all other sectors pushing the consumer down to the last place, Mr. Klassen noted.
Forecasts indicate that by 2020 the tourist traffic would increase to 1.6 billion globally and that international tourist arrivals will increase by 43 million annually.
Feeding this growth in travel are the low cost carriers, deregulation resulting in an increase in Chinese and Korean travelers; growth of the world’s middle class; commoditisation of travel, technology and investment.
The new age of travel beckons holidaymakers to explore destinations by meeting new people in the places they wish to travel to and with a guide from these locations itself; and even renting a bike from someone like you.
Trends in tourism
The digital overload with the increasing use of mobile phones and other devices in 2017 has brought about the next generation of travellers, the young people also considered the rise of the silent traveller, Founder and CEO Skift, USA Rafat Ali said during the conference speaking on the topic of “The Sharing Economy and Travel and Tourism.”
He explained that a more human attitude was relevant even today as this is an increasing demand from travellers as a result of which hoteliers need to train their staff to improve their skills on reaching out to the consumer in the delivery of service.
In the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI) more and more people are obtaining information online through searches made from talking to the device and receiving answers and not just typing a query in a search box.
This is the kind of development that the travel industry needs to link up with as these changes are set to happen in the next five years, Mr. Ali explained.
In addition, other trends today are that consumers want to book certain activities when they are already in the destination so the industry needs to be prepared for last minute bookings by travelers.
Another interesting trend is that the 45-65 year old generation is changing dramatically with a majority of the women preferring to travel with their girlfriends and men wanting to travel with their wives.
Tourism should also involve the residents and ensuring that the rights and concerns for those living in these destinations should be conserved, Mr. Ali explained
He pointed out that this means travellers should be mindful of the fact that their stay should be made enjoyable by the service provider but not at the cost of the destination’s residents. Else it would mean this site would not be a location to travel to in the future.
Further creating communities outside of a conference ensure that these people could be gathered up to meet later on various creative environments like art and science.
Internet cafes – thing of the past
A majority of travellers in 2016 were booking online and researching their travel preferences on their mobile phones, Etihad Airways Vice President Vijay Poonoosamy said at the conference.
He pointed out that even today the idea of travel and the reason for it by people has not changed and that the only change was their decisions on where to travel and why which would be influenced by social media.
In Asia Pacific it is difficult to make a case for digital marketing with 4.2 billion population and 4 billion mobile users out of which 1.5 billion were social media users and 1.4 billion were continuous users, Beautiful Destinations CEO Jeremy Jauncey said.
On the global platform of 7.5 billion people, 5 billion were mobile phone users with 2.8 billion being social media users.
With the digital video and social video set to be the mega trend the industry needs to market their products by telling a story every time to the consumers as people are less likely to engage in the written word.
Another development is the use of applications or “apps” which travellers increasingly turn to on their mobile phones and for those on desktops as well. Internet cafes have become a thing of the past as people no longer use one device but have a multiple devices to gain access to information they need.
TripAdvisor APAC Hong Kong Head of Destination Marketing Sarah Matthews noted that while sharing moments continue to happen even today the use of social media sites like Instagram, TripAdvisor and in the age of selfies help to continue story telling in the digital age.
Tourism Australia Social and Content Marketing Global Manager Jesse Desjardins said that today most people would check out videos as this was increasingly popular medium which is also adopted by Tourism Australia.
He explained that state institutions need to ensure that videos need to be made that could be uploaded to attract more viewers a reason why Tourism Australia is commended. These videos they make their makers heroes, Mr. Desjardins said.
Sharing your experiences even before getting home by accessing wifi’s at the airport is another trend which the industry needs to make use of for free advertising of their product as the consumer is already selling the product to the next traveler.
Disrupting the travel industry
Visa Worldwide Head of Corporate Communication India, South Asia and Southeast Asia Andrew Craig noted that today 75 per cent of travellers globally are independent travellers; 25 per cent are group travellers; 15 make bookings once they reach the destination and 78 per cent use online sources at the planning stage; while 41 per cent continue to obtain travel agent assistance; only 19 per cent go on online service provider websites.
He explained that while competition in the market is healthy, Visa International was working on start-ups as this helps people access payment systems where the Visa card is accepted. “Disruption is part of the industry, but it comes down to trust,” he explained.
Disrupting the travel industry is the idea of living an experience rather than buying a material object and tourism has created jobs and helps people come online.
The 2-day conference had organisations working in disrupting and innovation that came forward to give their ideas and explain the new methods adopted and how the change of travel and tourism could take place in future.
The ministerial debate and discussion on sustainability and the shared economy was taken up the next day.
The conference had delegates arriving from as far as Azerbaijan and Guam with a total of 406 delegates representing 191 organisations from 39 countries.
PATA CEO Dr. Mario Hardy said at the concluding media briefing that disruption could be positive and negative and in this context the wealth and social impact should be looked at.
He explained that disruptive organisations like Airbnb must be levied taxes by the governments and though a great innovation they need to be managed.
In addition, Dr. Hardy explained that Airbnb has agreed to abide by the Sri Lankan regulations as well and in this regard there had been discussions with the authorities. But the need for such systems in society was relevant in terms of the employment and wealth generation it could be produce.
Sri Lanka, Dr. Hardy told the Business Times was still at an early stage in the disruptive phase and in this context there still is more work to do and more opportunities for arrivals and contribution in terms of job creation that gives back to the economy.
Success in the market is answered not by the government and private sectors but by the marketing strategies adopted, he said.