|
Insider Tip: Book in advance!
By: Peter Bates
The industry needs to educate consumers that they cannot have everything at the last minute. To get the hotel you want, and the actual suite you prefer – the one with the perfect view, and the bigger bathtub, that kind of thing – the consumer needs to book in advance.
|
  |
The problem is that cruise lines are doing the entire travel and hospitality industry a great disservice with their current pricing programs, cutting costs down to a bare minimum and throwing in free air fares, onboard spending money and lots of other benefits. It creates a false sense of expectation for consumers.
The rest of the luxury travel industry needs more courage. It is essential for everyone involved to connect with discerning consumers much earlier on. I personally think that travel advisors (or travel professionals, travel consultants or even travel agents, call them what you want) can help here. The challenge is that many in the entire industry have forgotten the importance of travel advisors. In the United States, for instance, I believe they are becoming even more important. Forrester Travel Research indicates that many would-be travelers are finding it more and more difficult to actually make their own reservations. Online sites for airlines, for instance, have never been more important because consumers do their research online, but they then go to their travel advisors to make their reservations.
Travel advisors need to be at least as savvy as their clients and it is, indeed, harder than ever for them to keep up to date. The travel advisory sector needs to attract new talent because it is, I believe, a younger generation that will attract new clients. A well-known publisher in the US told me the other day that after years of doing all his own arrangements, he recently used a travel advisor for the first time. He was amazed at the added benefits.
Discerning consumers today are attracted by such benefit buzzwords
|
as bespoke, crafted, handmade, personalized and/or rare. Even at an uber-luxury level they are looking for offers and deals; they are also more adept than ever at finding them. Value rules in the 21st century. What people get for their money is of paramount importance, be it discounts or added value. Bragging rights are gone as people spend with discretion; some even feel guilty about showing they are doing so. (But having thought over the last two years that the word ‘luxury’ has been buried, now I am not so sure. No other term has replaced it.)
We all have to accept that everything is changing, continuously. My eldest son, who is 25, is in strategic marketing. When it comes to strategy nothing has changed, he says. But getting to the strategy means you need tactics. In the hotel sector, I believe it takes a minimum three months to devise a strategy and get it implemented. Developers and operators need to start talking to strategists as soon as they begin any project. If not before.
THE AUTHORPeter Bates, President and Founder of New York-based Strategic Vision.
Sign up for Confidential Newsletter
Send this article to a friend
View other Insider Articles
|
| |   | | Peter Greenberg
...Lake Bled... relax on a beach chair and still get high speed access moreBy: Peter Greenberg |
| |  | | Peter Bates
What is Luxury? Luxury is a global phenomenon and the presence of luxury goods and services is felt almost everywhere in the wo... moreBy: Peter Bates |
| | |
|
|
| | | | Sign up for the Free WOW Confidential Newsletter |  |
Advertisement | |
|
BACK
