Sounding Off: Pace of change in travel is not totally under its control

Nicolas Huss, Hotelbeds

“I have this sensation, intuition or conviction that the market is going to mature much quicker post COVID because the pace of change is very different.”

Quote from Nicolas Huss, CEO of Hotebeds, in our In The Big Chair interview on PhocusWire this week.

Each Friday, PhocusWire dissects and debates an industry trend or new development covered by PhocusWire that week.

Nobody should be predicting the next few months, let alone the subsequent years that follow.

The last two years have shown us all that forecasting recovery periods, lockdowns, travel restrictions and the associated chaos behind the scenes for the travel industry is a fool’s errand.

This week has seen an uptick in chatter, as the spooks call it, from health agencies and others as to the emergence of a potential new variant of COVID-19 in southern Africa.

The U.K. has already put a temporary ban on flights to and from six countries in the region, in a bid to stop it taking hold in the country due to its capital London’s status as a major global air transport hub.

The travel, tourism and hospitality industry (and the world) is nowhere near out of the mess of the last two years just yet.

This reality check, and what might be coming in 2022, may apply the brakes on a recovery that the optimists are forecasting – but it is unlikely to stop some of the changes taking place behind the scenes.

Technology will continue to empower consumers and, therefore, travelers to do and want things on their own terms. The industry cannot stop that.

Just see what is happening in the cruise sector, where Royal Caribbean recently admitted that a surge in bookings is mostly coming from the internet and not from traditional travel agencies – a shift many could not have foreseen (or wanted to foresee) just 18 months ago.

If the 2000s and 2010s were about creating mega platforms and the centralization of product, pricing and experience, a new era for travel will see the reverse taking place.

Personalization is a key element in all this, but so is understanding how the digitalization of society and how people want to travel is likely to happen, regardless of whether the industry is ready or not.

Brands and companies will do well to consider their recovery strategy, alongside figuring out how the new traveler will weant to use their services in a sustainable, personal and efficient way.