‘Agents must respond to demands of future travellers’

ABTA Convention special report:  Personal service will outweigh price to minimise travel stress, a report into the traveller of 2020 predicts.

The forecast comes from a study by The Future Foundation commissioned by Cendant Travel Distribution Services and released to coincide with the ABTA Travel Convention.

The report says “experience-led” travel retailing will become essential in 15 years times as travellers adopt a “check-list mentality” buying a series of one-off experiental holidays, rapidly moving from one adventure to the next. Future travellers will be looking for an average of four different holiday experiences a year.

Cendant TDS president and CEO Gordon Wilson told convention delegates: “The real value is in selling experiences rather than packages. People don’t want to feel they’ve got a manufactured, bog standard product.”

He said the future for agents was to creat bespoke trips fo customers including a range of added elements such as airport transfers and city guides – services offered by the company’s new Galileo Leisure online tool which has attracted 250 agents in a week since its launch at World Travel Market.  

The report goes on to warn that travel companies will have to redefine their luxury offers as consumers will increasingly incorporate “extremes of value” into a holiday.

“They are likely to combine pampering with personal development and experiences, purchasing holidays based on emotional not financial values,” according to the study.

It points to an expected rise in authentic cultural encounters – or anthropological tourism – as more people look for the opportunity to experience different cultures at first hand.

A shift in away from the standard package of two adults and two children is expected within 15 years to reflect the changing nature of family life.

The traditional “fly and flop” beach holiday will need to incorporate exciting, self-improving, educational or cultural elements to meet the demands of 2020 tourists. 

Travel suppliers will also have to adapt to cater for a more complex social make up of future travellers, such as “aspiring third-agers” and a rise in single householders.

Cendant TDS business services managing director EMEA Chris Vukelich told TravelMole that agents need to respond by reassessing the retail experience they offer customers.

“Travel agents are supposed to be experts but over the years they have become places where you pick up and air ticket and a brochure,” he said. “What they need to learn to do is retail, understand who to sell to, know the market your customer is interested in and give them what they want.”

Customers will be looking for experts to craft their travel experiences by offering expert knowledge and high standards of service.

He added that customers will also demand more responsible and sustainable behaviour from travel companies.

As a result, responsible tourism will need to move beyond being a niche sector to become an “essential guarantee” with ethical initiatives entering the mainstream tourism offering via airlines, operators, regional and national tourism bodies, according to the report. 

A new phenomenon dubbed ‘low cost luxury’ air travel will emerge to meet an anticipated demand for individual attention.

This will see passengers choose extras such as in-flight movies, chauffeur pick-ups or deluxe meals and drinks “to create an additional aspect to the transport experience”.

Commenting on the report, Wilson said: “More people taking more holidays, on the face of it, represents a fantastic opportunity for the travel industry.

“However, what this study demonstrates is that if the travel industry is to capitalise on this opportunity they need create a loyal customer base, and to do this they must start thinking and acting like true retailers. This means understanding their customers and ensuring they have partners to deliver the content and technology.”  

Report by Phil Davies