Travel Industry Trends 2012
Travel Business
With nearly two decades’ experience in the local and international tourism industry, Weltman is well-placed to give his views on what the major travel industry trends for 2012 are
(Cape Town, 3 April 2012) “The global tourism industry is in the midst of a tumultuous time, having to deal with the effects of a continuing global recession and a steady decline in European tourist numbers. Add to this the rapid growth in travellers from the East – and the distinct cultural adaptations that the travel industry needs to make in order to cater for this emerging group of high-income tourists – and you have all the signs of a massive shift in the travel industry in the coming year.”
So says Jonathan Weltman, CEO of TSG Tourism Services Group, a business-to-business company connecting travel intermediaries to tourism service providers by providing them with cost effective, optimizing tourism services and technologies.
With nearly two decades’ experience in the local and international tourism industry, Weltman is well-placed to give his views on what the major travel industry trends for 2012 are:
Enter the dragon – with 66 million Chinese travelling abroad in 2011 according to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), and 100 million Chinese travellers expected to go abroad by 2015, hotels and tour operators are rushing to tailor services that cater to this flourishing market. “The international travel market could in past be described simply as ‘Europeans travelling abroad’,” says Weltman. “When the Japanese began travelling, it made only a slight difference; and the Korean impact was even smaller. However, the impact of the Chinese middle-class heading abroad in their tens of millions should not be understated – it is likely to change the entire face of the global tourism industry.”
While many hotels are already gearing up for the influx of Chinese tourists – including employing more Mandarin-speaking staff and adding Chinese comforts to their spa and restaurant menus – most are still coming to grips with the cultural differences. “If you want to effectively reach the Chinese market, running a Facebook campaign off your locally-hosted website will have no effect. Hotels and tour operators need to keep in mind that sites such as Facebook and YouTube are banned in China. In order to effectively reach this audience, you’ll have to do proper research, as the Chinese market is unlike any other in the world,” explains Weltman.
The importance of mobile – the ubiquity of the mobile phone and the rapidly-improving technologies supporting today’s smartphones means the mobile platform will play a central role in travellers’ decision-making process. “Recent research in the US has suggested that 37% of Americans will use a mobile phone for restaurant research, 27% will use it for attractions research, and 26% will use a mobile phone to find accommodation. Since mobile phones are always carried along with a person and are often used as a research tool, you can expect to see the entire tourism industry making more extensive – and more innovative – use of this platform in 2012.”
The power of user reviews - sites such as TripAdvisor have been harnessing the power of user-generated reviews for years now - but hotels and the rest of the travel industry have only now seriously started embracing the benefits and importance of that content to their social reputation. “You once had to search hard to find hotel reviews outside of TripAdvisor - now nearly every online travel agent has reviews in their hotel path, hotel chains are displaying reviews on their supplier-direct sites, and even Google has begun to collect reviews,” Weltman adds.
Better value - a continuing global recession means most travellers are still firmly focused on finding great value for their tourism spend. Thanks to increased demand, limited supply, and fluctuating fuel prices, airfares and hotel-room rates are expected to rise by as much as 5 percent in 2012, according to Smith Travel Research. “That’s why it’s more worthwhile than ever to lock in better rates for both through sites such as CityGuideSA that bundles your flight, room, and car rental into packages and can save you a significant amount of money.”
Weltman urges the local travel industry to take heed of these changes in order to remain successful in a very competitive environment. “New technologies, along with the marked shift in the needs of today’s tourists and the emergence of millions of Eastern travellers will make it impossible for the tourism industry to do ‘business as usual’. Tomorrow’s successful tourism company will be the one that adapts to these changes today – it is either that, or be left behind.”
So says Jonathan Weltman, CEO of TSG Tourism Services Group, a business-to-business company connecting travel intermediaries to tourism service providers by providing them with cost effective, optimizing tourism services and technologies.
With nearly two decades’ experience in the local and international tourism industry, Weltman is well-placed to give his views on what the major travel industry trends for 2012 are:
Enter the dragon – with 66 million Chinese travelling abroad in 2011 according to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), and 100 million Chinese travellers expected to go abroad by 2015, hotels and tour operators are rushing to tailor services that cater to this flourishing market. “The international travel market could in past be described simply as ‘Europeans travelling abroad’,” says Weltman. “When the Japanese began travelling, it made only a slight difference; and the Korean impact was even smaller. However, the impact of the Chinese middle-class heading abroad in their tens of millions should not be understated – it is likely to change the entire face of the global tourism industry.”
While many hotels are already gearing up for the influx of Chinese tourists – including employing more Mandarin-speaking staff and adding Chinese comforts to their spa and restaurant menus – most are still coming to grips with the cultural differences. “If you want to effectively reach the Chinese market, running a Facebook campaign off your locally-hosted website will have no effect. Hotels and tour operators need to keep in mind that sites such as Facebook and YouTube are banned in China. In order to effectively reach this audience, you’ll have to do proper research, as the Chinese market is unlike any other in the world,” explains Weltman.
The importance of mobile – the ubiquity of the mobile phone and the rapidly-improving technologies supporting today’s smartphones means the mobile platform will play a central role in travellers’ decision-making process. “Recent research in the US has suggested that 37% of Americans will use a mobile phone for restaurant research, 27% will use it for attractions research, and 26% will use a mobile phone to find accommodation. Since mobile phones are always carried along with a person and are often used as a research tool, you can expect to see the entire tourism industry making more extensive – and more innovative – use of this platform in 2012.”
The power of user reviews - sites such as TripAdvisor have been harnessing the power of user-generated reviews for years now - but hotels and the rest of the travel industry have only now seriously started embracing the benefits and importance of that content to their social reputation. “You once had to search hard to find hotel reviews outside of TripAdvisor - now nearly every online travel agent has reviews in their hotel path, hotel chains are displaying reviews on their supplier-direct sites, and even Google has begun to collect reviews,” Weltman adds.
Better value - a continuing global recession means most travellers are still firmly focused on finding great value for their tourism spend. Thanks to increased demand, limited supply, and fluctuating fuel prices, airfares and hotel-room rates are expected to rise by as much as 5 percent in 2012, according to Smith Travel Research. “That’s why it’s more worthwhile than ever to lock in better rates for both through sites such as CityGuideSA that bundles your flight, room, and car rental into packages and can save you a significant amount of money.”
Weltman urges the local travel industry to take heed of these changes in order to remain successful in a very competitive environment. “New technologies, along with the marked shift in the needs of today’s tourists and the emergence of millions of Eastern travellers will make it impossible for the tourism industry to do ‘business as usual’. Tomorrow’s successful tourism company will be the one that adapts to these changes today – it is either that, or be left behind.”
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