Close to Christmas (and New Year), people from various businesses start looking at the current year’s trends in their own industry to intelligently project what the coming year might likely spring on them and their patrons. Those in travel and tourism have already cast their die for what’s in store for them; this you can read in the recent report released by the World Travel Market.
Get a glimpse of it in the “Hottest Travel Trends For 2015” published by Forbes- Personal Finance Section.
Middle-aged men in Lycra (MAMILs, if you will) are on the rise in the Americas and there is no stopping the European quest for the local travel experience, reveals the World Travel Market Global Trends Report 2014, in association with Euromonitor International. The report was released as part of WTM’s 35th annual event in London, from November 3 – 6.
The biggest take-away from the business-to-business event? Travel and tourism continue to prosper globally, hitting a record 1.1 billion arrivals in 2013, up 5.1%.
After the success of peer-to-peer accommodation like Airbnb and HomeAway, the sharing economy concept is moving into the food sector in a big way.
Posh hostels, home-cooked meals prepared by strangers… and we’ll all be surfing in Africa: Top travel trends for 2015 revealed
A more detailed account can be read in Chris Kitching’s “Posh hostels, home-cooked meals prepared by strangers… and we’ll all be surfing in Africa: Top travel trends for 2015 revealed.” Read these details in Mail Online – Travel Section.
“Forget eating in fancy restaurants, travellers are increasingly opting for meals in private homes for the ultimate ‘local’ experience, according to a new travel trends report.
Predicting the trends that will take off in 2015, a new study revealed that more travellers than ever before will eat local, stay in posh hostels – dubbed poshtels – and use new technology like smartwatches to plan their trips.
The popularity of cycling holidays is also set to endanger golf tourism, while Africa has been named the world’s new top surfing spot in the World Travel Market and Euromonitor International report.
The WTM Report identified nine trends for 2015; the first 5 are:
- Poshtels mix modern and luxurious design with high-tech facilities
- Smartwatches can be used as a room key or a boarding pass
- Peer-to-peer dining trend aims to duplicate the success of Airbnb
- Africa is poised to become the surfing capital of the world
- Popularity of cycling is threatening golf tourism in the Americas
The other top global travel trends to watch for are:
- “Braggies” will get treats. This is a new word coined to refer to those who take their photos in posh hotels so travellers can show their social media friends and followers where they are and what they are having a great time enjoying. To encourage braggies, more hotels and hotel chains are gearing up to offer rewards to encourage them, after all that would be a lot of free promotions for them.
- Expect the Middle East to play harder. The region is repositioning itself as a premier destination for people with creative minds. Design tourism will be aggressively promoted to revitalize visitor arrivals.
- The Chinese will get boosting from WeChat. This messaging, service ranking second only to WhatsApp, will be the Chinese’ way of driving tourism to their country. It is visualized as a feasible sales channel for travel companies in China.
- India will drive its travel and tourism through online and rail bookings. With enhanced work done on its rail network, expect India to be getting its share of travellers.
Authentic food experience will become a major attraction for foodies. There will be much demand for home-cooked. Many cooks and chefs will be opening their kitchen to wannabe and aspiring cooks, as well as food enthusiasts. There will much demand not only to home cooking, but also to exotic cooking and use of local indigenous ingredients.
This is the inspiration of Bookalokal and EatWith. Bookalokal started in Brussels in 2012 and spread out to 20 other countries. EatWith, which originated in Israel and Spain, has also expanded to 21 cities around the world.
And for budget travellers, you can smile all the way to the airport as budget airlines “continue to be the most successful sector in air travel.” Their business model is so successful it is now being copied many other airlines.
