Never Look back, unless you are planning to go that way
David Thoreau, Philosopher 1817 – 1862
Xenophon Petropoulos
Country Director
Horwath HTL Greece
About 20 years ago, humanity observed a big change. Families and individuals started spending more on travel and experiences than they spent on household goods. Gradually, the traveling industry became a huge contributor to global GDP. And then Covid-19 stopped everything.
Monday 9th March 2020. That was the date I took the decision to work from home and distance myself to protect my family. Today, almost two months later, full of zoom meetings with clients, colleagues and friends, I find myself thinking that this is a trust related crisis that will eventually become a fundamental milestone to change.
Covid-19 pandemic and aftermath, is completely shifting our attitude towards human & business priorities, health, moving and travelling, socializing and experiencing. What is positive about this crisis is that for the first time travel and tourism has been named specifically as an industry that is vital in any functioning economy and in fact many countries derive a considerable amount, if not the majority, of their GDP from travel and tourism related activities.
So, change is the only constant on which the tourism industry can rely for the After Covid-19 era. And it must consider it with a positive attitude. Changes made voluntarily yield a better, faster and easier result. The trigger for this change will not be competition. It will be the common effort to restructure the industry in order to survive.
In a marketplace where no one is too big to fail, decisions will need to be taken quickly to protect assets, values, destinations and products and making sure the industry is in good shape to take advantage of the inevitable rebound.
Destinations will need to design from scratch their products, their operating procedures, their provided experiences, their positioning, their identity and message to prove their trustworthiness to travelers and local communities. Hotels and resorts will need to act immediately on their operational plan, their SOPs, their budget, their peoples’ training needs. We all realize how fragile the short-term period looks like. But when the dust is down, we will need to realize and adopt to the new reality.
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The “New Luxury” in hospitality
When the industry starts operating again, travelers will be seeking a more transformative and soul enriching experience. The emotional impact on guests, therefore, needs to be a strategic focus. The strength of emotional touch points is in direct relation to brand engagement.
Luxury hospitality is traditionally known as a human-centric, and we believe it will always stay human-centric. However, in today’s new environment we need to be aware of one significant difference: it must have a transformational impact on the individual.
We have defined ‘New Luxury in Hospitality’ through five perspectives needed for a transformational impact:
Purpose:
Travelers will be in pursuit of a better, more fulfilled – lifestyle, increasingly turning their backs on spending on superficial brand experiences. Brands must address (in business terms) – Maslow’s ‘Self-Actualization’ as a business strategy. Visionary brands recognize that society is in the midst of a major paradigm shift which is not a trend; it is evolution.
Personalization:
Brands should develop a genuine interest in the guest’s lifestyle to create an understanding of preferences. Only with this understanding is personalization possible, thus as a consequence must have the potential to evoke feelings of appreciation and surprise. This is the opportunity to develop an intimacy with the guest and as a result, generate trust.
Experiential:
This perspective pushes us to rethink guest experience and take it to the next level by focusing on the emotional value and the potential to transform ‘me’. The evolved mindset of travelers will include the search of lifestyle solutions while travelling. This shift concentrates increasingly on experiences that address the physical, mental, spiritual and emotional needs.
Balanced Disconnection:
The opportunity lies in focusing on an approach to balance between digitally intensive and digitally aversive experiences. Ironically, technology can serve as an enabler for a personalized and seamless experience leading to a transformational impact.
Seamless Journey:
Impeccable service has always been the core of the luxury hospitality, and today new methods and technologies support delivery of the service. This increased complexity requires detailed planning including scenario planning approaches.
As always, those who are rethinking, planning and implementing and fundamentally changing, will be the winners. The others will have to think of good excuses.
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