Sharing a short essay that arrived in my inbox today, courtesy of Dense Discovery — a newsletter about design, tech, sustainability and urbanism curated by Kai Brach, based in Melbourne, Australia.
Do we travel for transformation or validation?
It's always interesting to hear what thought leaders "outside" the travel industry have to say about the state of tourism, so I'm sharing Kai's article with his permission.
There's a few good points in this piece, including how touristic travel (e.g. mass tourism) can import more culture to a destination than it exports. I also agree that seeking validation on social media is drowning out good quality travel content.
There's some truth to Kai's point about escapism. Consider this: the biggest competitor to a travel agent is the electronics shop, where consumers can instead buy a new 50" flatscreen TV. In this scenario, which "escapism" is worse? Buying a new TV or booking a trip on a cruise ship? 😅
However, I don't believe that all trave...
Comments
I used to work in an R&D of a hotel management software company what gave me opportunity to talk with many innovative hotels.
I'm passionate in researching how hotels operate, what some do differently than others.
The market has changed a lot in the last years...
The MICE is not the same, business travel revenue is shrinking.
On other hand you have digital nomads, remote companies, a lot of guest's behaviour has changed.
In my newsletter I'm trying to transform my observations and research into actionable "nuggets". We will chat about hybrid hospitality and how the most progressive hotels combine coworking, coliving, events, etc.
Any feedback and ideas for new topics are highly appreciated!
Love this! I read through a few articles and I like the bite size content style.
I used to explore the hybrid hospitality concept and many of the brands you mentioned as part of my PhD thesis on hospitality.
Is your PhD thesis somewhere available to read online?
Unfortunately, not. It's also only in Bulgarian. I explored models which city hotels in Sofia can incorporate to increase their earnings through ancillary products, so I used lots of examples of city hotels in other places in the world.
Very interesting, the first time I heard about hybrid hospitality.
Subscribed!