News & Views (English)
"News is what someone somewhere wants to suppress. All the rest ist Advertising"
(Lord Northecliffe)
ITB 2012 after-thoughts
Tourists book, what they can identify with
Good news: It is expected by German market researchers that long-haul leisure travel will once again increase above average. Whether Southern Africa can participate in the expected growth depends very much on the relevant country's competitive identity. During this year’s ITB, Ministers, Consuls, National Tourism Board C.E.O.’s and smart-assed Strategy Consultants talked a lot about their new tourism strategies. Whilst I am dead against Politicians interfering in tourism marketing and operational matters, I fully agree that Politicians have an important role to play in the creation of their respective country’s competitive identity. After all tourists’ perceptions of a holiday destination are mainly formed by the things that are done in the country (and by the way they are done!), by the way other people talk about the destination, and by the way a country talks about itself. See what British journalist Simon Anholt has to say:
- Find out how people really see the country today, and understand why this view is preventing more of them from taking an active interest in the country, respecting and admiring it, listening to what it says, investing in its economy, spending more time and money there, or whatever the particular aims of the country are.
- Come up with a clear vision of how people would need to see the country, in order for them to start doing all of those things.
- Work out a democratic, effective and accountable process for getting from the current image to the desired future image (brand).
Expect a changing structure and a shift in target groups
The German tourism market is characterised by an astonishing stability, even in times of economic uncertainty. In the coming years, momentum will not so much be generated by a quantitative expansion of tourist demand, but the structure will change. The ever increasing use of the Internet, coupled with holiday-makers evolving into "multi-optional" tourists, will generate the main impetus. In addition, a shift in target groups will become apparent as a result of changes in the demographic structure and the composition of households. This too will impact on demand. Changes in the social fabric (e.g. more poor people and more wealthy people, but fewer people in the middle class) will also produce new target group weightings.
Knowing your customers and your customer’s customers
One of the liabilities of "knowing" a market and its end use customers is that it is natural to build up a set of assumptions about what customers want and what they don't, and about the things that will drive their future buying behaviour.
Marketing managers are often mystified when the damned end use customers behave in seemingly inexplicable ways, contrary to what seems rational. They often think the key to success revolves around "educating" customers, based on the idea that "smarter" customers will choose their products and services over alternatives. But what's really going on here? Why do some customers make these "bad" choices? There must be value that these customers see in alternatives that the organization does not. And we are not talking of price. If that's true, then what is the root source of the value/s that drive these customer choices? To discover the answers to these questions, it is necessary to test traditional assumptions and re-calibrate your knowledge of end customers. Participate at one of the German consumer tourism fairs, and you’ll find out!
Control, comfort, security and personalisation
German travellers of tomorrow will demand higher levels of control, comfort, security and personalisation from the travel experience, and the growing sophistication of Information Technology will underpin travel providers’ ability to deliver to these expectations, transforming the customer experience from booking to baggage collection. As per AMADEUS research the following three key areas of technological development have been identified, which will facilitate a more traveller-centric travel experience:
- Digital personal identities based on easily accessible, up-to-date customer information will make the provision of personalised service accessible to many travel providers.
- An ability to offer travellers up-to-date, real time information when and where they need it via new communication technologies(such as mobile personal devices and the internet) has the potential to transform and streamline the journey.
- Finally, the way in which customers are interacting with technology is developing, and the increasing use of social computing and the growing sophistication of visual technologies may be harnessed to improve the travel experience.
The Travel Technology section at ITB
In his sweeping presentation a young Google wizard showed a stunned audience to which extent the smartphone based technologies have already impacted on the travel trade: From APP’s via split second price comparisons to “AR’s” for augmented realities. Absolutely amazing – and we haven’t seen the end of it. No wonder: The Travel Technology section at ITB was larger than ever before, with 236 (!!!) exhibitors displaying technical innovations in four halls. The number of Namibian & South African exhibitors was probably around 80.