So it’s very brave of Amadeus to look into the future – 2030 no less – and predict the future traveller tribes. Most of the time, I can’t even figure out what’s going to happen tomorrow which is why I remain a scribe I guess, and not a researcher.
But there’s just so much happening so fast in our industry that it’s hard to keep track of even today. Accor taking over FASTBOOKING – who saw that coming? Yes, on hindsight, I can hear everyone nodding their heads and saying, yes it makes sense. Accor’s making a huge bet on taking back control of its distribution and it’s not going to just sit aside and watch the likes of Booking.com gobble up the hotel space.
So it makes sense for it to acquire companies that will help it realise its goal. You can’t innovate from within and so you buy companies that you hope will innovate if you have the sense to leave it alone. And then there’s this report speculating on the fact that Accor is ripe for a takeover.
Booking.com’s Booking Suite offering to build free websites for hotels in any language it wants as long as it gets 10% commissions on bookings made through their booking engine. How smart is that – it’s like giving farmers their ploughs and saying we get a handful of sand from every field you dig up. (I don’t know why I am thinking about farmers but I think there’s also a global trend towards urban farming and I predict in future, we will have vertical farmland just like those depicted in Interstellar.)
Amazon launching Amazon Destinations, after Amazon Hotels … and that’s just a selection of news from this week.
Anyway, back to Amadeus report – it predicts that by 2030, more than 1.8 billion of us will travel internationally every year, “and what motivates us and how we behave will be radically different to today”.
These are the six tribes, according to the report done by The Future Foundation.
Guess which tribe this boy will grow into? (Image credit: RazoomGames/iStock)
• Social Capital Seekers – those who travel with online audiences in mind, those who take “Klout-boosting breaks”, filled with consciously feed-friendly moments.
• Cultural Purists – enjoyment of the break depends on the authenticity of the experience
• Ethical Travellers – travel plans are based on moral grounds, often improvise or add some element of volunteering, community development or eco-sustainable activity.
• Simplicity Searchers – prefer bundled offers, seeking to avoid managing too many trip details themselves.
• Obligation Meeters – driven by a specific purpose for travel, whether business or leisure, and thus have constraints on time and budget
• Reward Hunters – only interested in indulgent travel.
I think if we look around our friends now, we will already see some of these tribes in them and I suppose by 2030, these future tribes will be more concentrated versions of our 2015 selves. So maybe same, same but different?
The one core truth is that today, travellers have a lot of power. And as part of Amadeus declaring this “The Age of Traveller Power” in its press conference yesterday in Singapore, it showed a few videos of customers talking about their travels.
A 20-something Singaporean who’s been to who knows how many countries and relies on social networks and travel sites to get around. A mid-30s Australian male who says it’s too easy to plan travel these days and he deliberately wants to make it hard for himself to truly travel and discover, so he’s spontaneous and impulsive. A Chinese female executive whose dog always sits on top of her suitcase when she packs and always combines leisure with business trips.
What’d be more interesting to me is what the future travel agency tribes will look like? Amadeus told me that would be the topic for another report called “Future Traveller Tribes 2030: understanding tomorrow’s traveller” coming out shortly from Frost & Sullivan.
So before the report comes out, want to take a bet on the future travel agency tribes? Well, if you relate that to the six tribes, here’s my guess.
• Social Capital Boosters – help people boost their virtual, social profile, a bit like celebrity agents
• Cultural Purists (Local Heroes) – specializes in homestays, community-based experiences
• Ethical Consultants – measures my carbon footprint, offsets it for me, proposes meaningful projects for me
• Simplicity Masters – just get me there, value add – exclusive meditation retreats
• Obligation Meeters – anyone can do this
• Reward Hunters – frequent point whisperers (wait, I know a few already but they’re not travel agents)
Anyway, the point I want to make is, it’s hard to take a stab at the future when so much is happening so fast NOW and you don’t even know what technology will look like next year – did you read about how actor Hugh Jackman made a holographic appearance at a press conference at Hotel nhow Berlin this week – but at least you’ve got to try.
Download the full report here.
