By Dr Kamelia Chaichi, Senior Lecturer, School of Hospitality and Service Management at Sunway University
COVID-19 has had an enormous impact on the hospitality and tourism industry. In recent years the primary focus for governments and hospitality businesses has been the safety of the people.
Even if we open our borders to tourists, the hospitality and tourism industry will face challenges if people continue to fear travelling.
To remain in the hospitality and tourism business, it is essential to stay updated with the recent trends in the industry. Understanding some hospitality and tourism industry trends will help hospitality organisations communicate better with travellers and improve customer loyalty. There are a few rising trends in the hospitality industry, including:
Safety, Hygiene, and Well-being
One of the critical challenges the hospitality and tourism industry will have to overcome is regaining travellers’ trust for health and safety standards maintained by the hotels, bars, restaurants, cafes, airlines, etc.
There are several emerging concepts to adjust to contain the spread of the virus and gain travellers’ confidence. Some of these concepts include implementing policies related to protective equipment such as wearing masks, hand sanitiser supply, cleaning areas, and ensuring social distancing rules to make customers feel safe.
Enhancing food and beverage (F&B) delivery at rooms, rented Airbnb flats, and other places where travellers are staying allows customers to enjoy the restaurants, cafés, bars experience at home if they want to.
Restaurants, bars, and cafés need to continue accepting online orders while offering contactless and quick deliveries.
Now that people are becoming more aware of healthy food and drink trends, restaurants can think of capitalising on the opportunity to switch their menus to healthier options such as low fat, gluten-free, and various nutritional and organic products. In addition, the trend for healthy F&B can extend to catering services and hotels with healthier room service options.
The Digitalisation of the Industry
Digital and technological innovations drastically change every industry, including the hospitality and tourism industry. For instance, contactless payments are accepted in many hospitality and tourism organisations. In addition, the emergence of different applications such as Google pay and Grab pay, E-wallet, and Apple pay removes the need to carry a wallet or handbag. Hospitality businesses such as hotels and restaurants can use robots to welcome customers and provide customer information while playing a vital role in security operations. In addition, robots can offer room service, cleaning, carry out different aspects of food service while helping to reduce personal contacts.
Artificial intelligence plays an essential role in the industry and improves customer service. For instance, chatbots and smart speakers provide various services to customers. Smart speakers can activate lights on/off inside the hotel rooms, which reduces the number of individuals touching the equipment.
Chatbots can deliver responses to customers when staff are occupied. Chatbots will answer customers’ questions in seconds and reduce the stress level regarding restrictions in accommodation and restaurants. An intelligent hotel design can be another new trend that allows guests to turn on the TV with a voice or smart speaker or even control the air conditioner from their phones.
Virtual reality tours provide an experience for customers regarding their surroundings and available accommodation facilities. Mobile check-in service is another valuable trend to reduce the need for personal contact and create greater convenience to improve customer experience. Augmented reality apps can be designed more efficiently on the customer’s smartphone, enabling them to point their phone at a restaurant/hotel and see reviews, opening times, tourist information maps and create user-generated content.
Personalisation of Hospitality and Tourism Service
Personalisation is another crucial trend in the hospitality and tourism industry to gain and retain customers. A truly customised customer experience starts with gaining information from the customer. Technological platforms such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and automated property management systems (PMS) use data to provide customer insight into past buying behaviours, enabling hotels/restaurants to tailor their offers and promotions and automatically offer similar services to previous customers. CRM data includes information from customer social profiles, email, and interactions on the website, which create a detailed picture of customers. PMS includes customer information and records stay histories and contact details in customer profiles so hospitality and tourism businesses can identify repeat customers and treat them extra special.
Additionally, the organisation will save customer preferences, anniversaries, birthdays, and special interests. Offering tailored packages and services to customers can improve their experience and add value to their stay. Customers can be targeted personally based on their profile information and their interests. For instance, young couples appreciate romantic gestures such as chocolates and wine-covered bedsheets while families with children enjoy options like babysitting and playpens. The hospitality and tourism industry must continually find unique ways to personalise customers’ experiences to keep a competitive advantage.
To summarise, the future of the hospitality and tourism industry will integrate human interaction with advanced technologies that serve consumers and businesses. Therefore, successful organisations need to know how to follow the most significant trends, and this is no secret in the hospitality industry which is constantly evolving.
