Over the next one year and beyond, we will witness some new and rising trends in the travel industry. The majority of them will stir the tourism sector with a full power and are likely to stay hot for a while. So, no matter whether you are a traveler, a travel agent or a marketer, you need to get familiar with these tendencies in the sector. Let’s now take a look at the leading travel trends in 2014.
Luxury Travel is Going Strong
Luxury travel is here to stay. This part of the industry will keep evolving and attracting more and more tourists. According to specialists, one of the main reasons for this is the rising number of millionaires. You may not be among them, but more than 10.5 million people across the world are. Moreover, this number is predicted to increase with another 10 million by 2020. The biggest fans of luxury travel will be travelers from the U.S., Europe and Japan.
Creative Tourism on the Rise
This type of tourism will start to become more popular 2014 and the trend will remain persistent over the next few years. Creative tourism is mainly focusing on offering travelers and authentic experience. However, it should not be mistaken for cultural tourism. That is because it offers better connection with the local and much more active engagement with them.
Elders Take Over
Presently, elderly travelers make up more than one-seventh of the world’s population. In addition, over the last couple of years, they are more willing to enjoy travel vacations. The biggest problem, however, is that they are found to have lower tolerance to thing like poor service. This means that the travel and hospitality industry needs to work harder to keep them happy. Yet, not many companies are willing to do this, since elderly travelers are not among their wealthiest clients. Nevertheless, in 2014, they will account for an even larger share of the tourists. Therefore, the industry will be left with no chance, but to pay some extra attention to this group, especially given that elders take longer vacations.
The Rise of the Millennials
For those of you who are not familiar with the term “millennials,” those are the people currently aged from 18 to 30. Just like elders, millenials are also have specific characteristics. The biggest of them is that they are a very ethnically diverse group compared to previous generations. Also, they prefer urban destinations that resorts and prefer to travel with their friends. In addition, millenials often choose destinations based on their favourite activities and personal interests.
Family Travel – Many Generations in One
Middle-aged travelers will prefer to vacate with the whole family. This is not something new. Still, next year this trend will greatly increase. That is why the industry needs to find a way to provide services that will appeal to all age groups.
Social Media Showoff Travelers
This tendency appeared quite recently. It is characterized by travelers who are spending their vacation sharing their vacation experience on the social websites, rather than to actually immerse into it. This usually consists of countless vacation photos and happy social statuses. Therefore, resorts may actually back off a little from the non-tech offers. 2014 will definitely be an interesting and maybe a bit challenging year for the travel industry. It will be interesting because they will be many new trends and challenging because they will require some big changes in the field.
