United Kingdom
United States
Asia Pacific
Innovate and differentiate or face the consequences
Travel companies need to innovate and differentiate their products from rivals, Institute of Travel & Tourism Conference delegates were told.
Ocean Village Holidays managing director Peter Shanks said innovation was vital to keep giving people the products they wanted and added that without differentiation, companies were forced to compete solely on price.
Shanks said the resorts of Las Vegas and Dubai, and Virgin Atlantic’s Upper Class service, were prime examples of innovation.
“Las Vegas went from being a hole in the desert, to a tacky resort and now massive investment has made it one of the US’s top family resorts,” he said.
“Dubai has also massively invested in hotels and Virgin’s Upper Class is just a terrific service with a personal touch. The great thing is that it has also made British Airways up its game and come back with a better product for consumers.”
Shanks claimed First Choice, Travel Counsellors and Ocean Village had all differentiated from their rivals.
“First Choice’s strategy of offering adventure and specialist holidays has made it almost bullet-proof in the city, while Travel Counsellors took a dowdy travel agent product, invested in clever technology and let people work from home.
“Ocean Village, with our informal approach, is the cruise for people who don’t do cruises.”
Shanks said the potential for cruise growth was still massive and claimed five million people would pay £500 or more for a cruise and a further seven million people would be added to the market if the price dropped below £500.
Shanks also praised Royal Caribbean for its Voyager Class ships which have climbing walls and ice rinks and easyCruise for bringing new people into the market with its cheaper cruises. He said easyCruise was about to sign a deal to put a ship in the Caribbean in the winter.
Report by Jeremy Skidmore
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