This report from Lab 8 describes what trends in tourism are important. It centers its attention in 5, which are: proximity escape, scientific stay, eclectic overnight, digital companions and hyper-localized tourism (Lab 8, 2021, p. 2).
Why is it relevant?
I found this report interesting because it is always good knowing in what direction tourism is going and how it might change. It is always important adapting and anticipating changes to attract customers. Therefore, getting to know the trends is indispensable in any industry. Relating to the study unit, one of the reasons I think getting to know the trends is so important is for marketing. In order to do effective marketing, businesses have to understand what their customers want. And this information also comes from the trends.
What trends in tourism are the most important?
All of them are important, but some of them are having or will have a bigger effect. Those are the ones nobody wants to miss, and I took 3 of them.
Hyper-localized tourism
This refers to people wanting to do as many different things as possible near home. Covid has made travelling abroad harder than ever and for this reason rediscovering one’s surroundings is becoming a trend. The way to adapt to this trend is by being creative. Since creating a drive-thru festival like in Houston or safe park/outdoors activities (Lab 8, 2021, p. 16). From my experience, this is a trend I practice myself. People are tired of being indoors but travelling far away has become more stressing than it was before. For this reason, we are looking for different activities or vacations near where we are. I personally went to a kind of festival in a park where we were separated by circles on the ground. It was fun, different and also respected the Covid rules that were at the moment.
Digital companion
The name says it itself, it is about the digital world. That technology is constantly evolving is a fact, and businesses have to keep up with it. This trend talks about this, about implementing digital into tourism. We can see it in many ways today, from not having to print any paper when travelling to having robots serving people (Lab 8, 2021, p. 13).
In my opinion, I think this is an obvious trend that will increase with time. I experiment it every time I travel and nowadays sounds very risky, even impossible, travelling with no electronical devices such as phone. I recently got scared as just before a trip my phone got somehow broken. This caused me some anxiety just thinking of how complicated my trip got suddenly. At the end, my phone responded for the trip and I did not have any difficulty.
However, as it is obvious in my story, this trend also causes another trend, which is the detox one. I think that people are getting and will get overwhelmed by technology which makes them look for a detox destination. This is not mentioned in the report, but I think both will increase throughout time. All the apps and digitalization we are getting make our lives and travelling easier, but at the same time creates and overwhelming feeling in many cases.
Sustainability
This last one did not appear as a trend from Lab 8 but was the answer that the panelists gave (Lab 8, 2021, p. 17). There are also others that they mentioned such as solo traveling, ecological values, experiences and safety. I have chosen this one because I think it is a factor that many travelers take into account when travelling. And it also explains why travelling abroad might become something permanent even after Covid. The reason behind this trend is obvious: climate change. And tourism has to adapt to it as well and offer solutions. In my personal experience, I completely fall under this group of people as I changed many things for sustainability. Trying to get the train of any other mean of transportation instead of plane or staying at accommodations that are sustainable are just some of them.
Time to observe
As mentioned at the beginning, it is key to stay informed and to know about the trends in tourism. This report helped me to think about some trends I did not think of before and to pay attention to them. I find the scientific stay an interesting one apart the ones I mentioned and I want to see how it evolves in some years. The fun part about trends is that the only way to prove them is by observing. And this is what I plan to do, now that I know about some of them I plan on follow them and apply this knowledge to future projects. I invite you to do the same, what other trends do you follow to?
References
Lab 8. (2021, September). The Future of Tourism. Haaga-Helia. https://lucit-my.sharepoint.com/personal/outi_kahkonen_lapinamk_fi/_layouts/15/onedrive.aspx?id=%2Fpersonal%2Fouti%5Fkahkonen%5Flapinamk%5Ffi%2FDocuments%2FCEMIT%2DMECIT%2FMaterials%2FReaction%20paper%20%2B%20LC%2Flab8%2Dtrendreport%2D4%2D2021%2Dtourism%5F1%2Epdf&parent=%2Fpersonal%2Fouti%5Fkahkonen%5Flapinamk%5Ffi%2FDocuments%2FCEMIT%2DMECIT%2FMaterials%2FReaction%20paper%20%2B%20LC