Consumer shopping and buying behaviors are always evolving, but the most disruptive changes are still ahead. The latest research study from Sabre examines today’s emerging trends to reveal what travelers will want tomorrow.
Sabre Hospitality Solutions has partnered with TrendWatching, a company that tracks emerging patterns in consumer behavior, attitude and expectations, to identify the major consumer mega-trends that are expected to have the most impact on the travel and hospitality industry in the future. The global study, Consumer Mega-Trends Impacting Hospitality, analyzes six mega-trends and shows hoteliers what guests will want next.
“In today’s fast-paced world, emerging trends can quickly go beyond a niche, early-adopter group to a deeply-held expectation for a large portion of consumers,” said Sarah Kennedy Ellis, vice president of marketing and strategic development, Sabre Hospitality Solutions. “Hotel brands that learn, understand and respond to these emerging trends will strengthen their customer relationships by providing experiences that go above and beyond what guests expect.”
Going beyond the travel industry, this study looks across industries to identify the most relevant trends to hospitality and includes multiple case studies to help hoteliers create an experience that guests will love.
Here is a summary of the key trends examined in the report:
YOUNIVERSE: A raft of new technologies will allow greater personalisation of travel experiences based on deeper, more authentic, subconscious aspects of a consumers’ personality. For example, hotels will recognise a traveller’s true emotions or needs at a specific time and shape products and experiences around them.
The Youniverse is where an individual’s tastes and preferences reign supreme. In today’s market, personalization is centered on consumers telling brands what they want as the brands work to react. A host of new technologies – including facial recognition, biometric sensors and brainwave readers – will allow brands to customize guest experiences based on deeper, more authentic, or even subconscious motivations of their guests. This deeper level of personalization will mean even more choices for consumers, who are already often overwhelmed with the multitude of options they face. With more than 50 percent of consumers now willing to share data in return for tools that help them make these decisions, hoteliers have an enormous opportunity to fulfill unmet needs through the use of data and technology – not only helping consumers make their decisions, but bringing their hidden travel preferences to light.
HELPFUL: Innovations, products and services that make life more convenient, simpler, easier or more seamless will eternally find favor with consumers. For example, thanks to smartphones, location has become a key customer context leveraged by brands to provide a relevant service. However, anything can be an actionable context, from a customer’s stress level to their lack of recent travel plans, to the emoji they use on Twitter. …However, brands beware! Consumers don’t need (or want) every brand to be everywhere, all the time. Instead, they’ll embrace brands that use new channels and nuanced contexts to be at the right place, at the right time.
As consumers continue to be bombarded with generalized messages, ads, and offers at every turn, click or swipe, they will embrace brands that use new channels and new contexts in order to be at the right place at the right time, with the right offer. Location is already a pervasive consumer context, aiding brands in personalizing offers and experiences. But in the future, anything will be an actionable context, from a customer’s stress level to the emojis they use in social media.
HUMAN BRANDS: Consumers want brands with meaning and personality: that are open, honest, generous, have some fun and stand for something. From tailor-made loyalty perks to supporting a shared value. For example ‘two-way transparency’ – primed by the Peer2Peer economy and on-demand services such as Uber – a more two-way review & rating process may be on the rise, subjecting customers to the same reviews we expect for brands. Loyal guests will get rewarded and the minority of travelers who can ruin shared experiences for others are called out!
UBITECH: Technology has become ubiquitous, universal and impossible to live without. Consumers continue to crave (and build their lives around) the unparalleled ‘superpowers’ that technology offers them: instant information, seamless convenience, limitless choice and more. In 2016 and beyond, consumers will expect brands to use machine learning and Artificial Intelligence to put truly smart products and services into their pockets, homes, inboxes and more.
PRICING PANDEMONIUM: People have always been concerned with price, but thanks to a range of new technologies & services, perceptions of price have become more complex and 2016 consumer attitudes to price will actually become more malleable than ever. What are brands doing? Playfully reframing product offerings as an entirely different product in order to shock consumers into a radically new perspective on – and appreciation of – the value delivered. For example brands – including hotels – will get bolder when reframing their offerings: newsagent candy and crisps (casual purchase, grab quickly) could be re-framed into hotel nights (considered purchase, carefully researched).
POST-DEMOGRAPHIC CONSUMERISM: Demographics are dead! Today’s consumers – free to construct their lifestyles according to their own ideals and tastes – will choose products and services with little regard for traditional demographic conventions. The internet has created a global brain with access to the same information, culture and ideas. And consumers from Boston to Beijing are served by global megabrands (think Apple, IKEA, Airbnb, and Uniqlo). The result? A worldwide convergence in tastes and aspirations.
Since knowledge of a trend does not always translate into understanding how to leverage it, the study concludes with a consumer trend canvas to help hoteliers act on these insights and prepare for consumers’ future expectations. The full study is available for download at http://www2.sabrehospitality.com/trends_report
About the Research Methodology
Trends in this report have been identified by TrendWatching, powered by a global network of 3,000+ trend spotters delivering unrivalled, cross industry insight into changing consumer behavior. TrendWatching focuses exclusively on consumer trends, generating insights on how consumer behavior and preferences are changing, and how to prepare for or benefit from these changes.
About Sabre
Sabre Corporation is the leading technology provider to the global travel industry. Sabre’s software, data, mobile and distribution solutions are used by hundreds of airlines and thousands of hotel properties to manage critical operations, including passenger and guest reservations, revenue management, flight, network and crew management. Sabre also operates a leading global travel marketplace, which processes more than $120 billion of estimated travel spend annually by connecting travel buyers and suppliers. Headquartered in Southlake, Texas, USA, Sabre serves customers in more than 160 countries around the world.
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