Google recently published their Future of Travel Report which explores what travel will look like in 2040. The report is based on billions of Google Search queries and over 90,000 external data points from the past five decades – just imagine 🤯
• India, China, and the U.S. will be the fastest growing markets in outbound departures. • Indian travellers, in particular, are expected to increase by 5X by 2040. [...] And the majority of Indians prefer to use their local language to search and carry out tasks online. • New hotspot destinations emerge: Spain is projected to overtake France as the world's most visited country, and newcomer Mexico is set to enter the top 5. • When building out your strategy for the future, look at how you can cater to visitors from different countries. For example, consider whether there are payment options that overseas travellers expect to have access to that may not be mainstream yet locally. • As the global population ages and individuals enter retirement in better health, a new segment of travellers with distinct needs and preferences is emerging
Travel Predictions for 2025:
I personally think next year - 2025, will be extremely exciting for tourism. There's many changes happening, AI taking a lead in many realms (like it or not), climate changes dictating destination experiences, travellers changing their travel habits...
A few questions to tourism business owners (especially small ones):
• What top trends do you see in travel in 2025? • How are you adjusting your Marketing Strategies in 2025? • Are you increasing/decreasing/keeping your marketing budget the same in 2025? • Are you considering any major changes/adjustments in your business in 2025? • How are you incorporating AI into your business? • Is sustainability something you are addressing in your business?
I think 2025 might be the year we figure out what to do with AI properly within travel: whether operations or distribution. It won't be any surprise that (the many) payment services that are part of each transaction will score for fraud using complex models, however, I've yet to have an "oh wow" moment with AI for the customer perspective.
Perhaps something to remain optimistic for is the developments in SAF tech (sustainable aviation fuel) following Virgin Atlantic's first "SAF 100" flight in 2023.
Another hot take: the new, more refined Expedia and the ever-growing Uber may start one of a series of integrations leading to strategic partnership and possibly merger.
I've enjoyed the round-ups from Mike Coletta (Phocuswright) and Gilad Berenstein (Brook Bay) over on Linkedin
I don't believe Expedia and Uber could merge because of antitrust laws.
In which case, which could replicate the other's functionality? 🤔
Even though Dara Khosrowshahi moved from Expedia to Uber, I think it's easier for Expedia to cross Uber's moat (either through acquisition or building).
That said... I hope it never happens because once apps become too convenient / dominant they tend to exploit their customers.
Freelance tour guide and travel consultant and travel blogger.
Talking about the Indian tourists, then I come across them all the time and talk to people who work with Indian tour groups. The thing that seems to give my colleges the biggest headaches, when it comes to Indian tourists, is that the vast majority of Indian holiday makers are not ready to try a lot of foreign food yet. It was the same thing with the first generation of tourists from other countries as well. The destinations that will be able to capture the growing Indian market will quite likely be destinations that can offer several restaurants serving Indian cuisine. Great Britain has an edge on that market, because of the huge community from the Indian subcontinent.
Freelance tour guide and travel consultant and travel blogger.
In terms of my own year in travel and tourism, then I am already booked solid for most of the year. 2024 has been my best year ever as a freelancer in tourism. I am mostly focused on freelance tour leading at the moment, as there is a massive shottage of tour leaders with solid experience. I just had to turn down yet another offer from a company yesterday, who send me a list of more than 50 tours around the globe, where they were interested in employing me. But I am fully booked during all busy periods already. I only have a bit of spare dates in June, July and December, as it is right now. That also means no reasons for a marketing budget for me. Because it's the jobs seeking Claus and not Claus seeking jobs at the moment :-)
Another season of "next year's travel predictions" rolls around! 😅
I tend to look at travel predictions in two ways:
1. Distribution — where people are going, and how they are booking it 2. Product/tech — things like transport methods (eg. planes), hotels, etc.
When you look at the distribution predictions of travel, it seems the best method is a statistical exercise to forecast where the purchasing power (of the outbound traveler) is most convenient to the traveler. And then factor that in with some geo politics, airline routes, and population/economic growth models. I feel there is a huge risk in betting everything on a "super destination" to drive distribution — you only have to look at how tourism economies suffer when the tap is turned off. However, a new cohort of travelers does give people at conferences something to talk about!
In terms of product / tech — I'm much more excited about this area.
Here's a few wild examples I can think of:
1. Starlink offering LTE phone connections directly from space (they just launched 12 LTE-capable satellites) will allow you to get internet ANYWHERE in the world. 2. Auto translation on-device will unlock easier travel for non-native speakers. 3. China's new C919 narrow-body aircraft could unlock more point-point routes. 4. Meta's AR glasses will eventually bring friends (virtually) to your couch (2030+) 5. BRICS... nobody is talking about this but I think BRICS-economies could make their own visa-free travel system (similar to APEC) and this could be a big challenge to everyone's distribution models.
Sadly, I don't think that sustainable travel is on anyone's trends radar, however the message appears to be growing within the industry and with travelers, so perhaps sustainability is less of a trend and more of an expectation these days?
And this is another interesting resource about AI + tourism, from the Global Travel Tech Thinktank, an invite-only collaboration between Web in Travel (WiT), Phocuswright, and Phocuswire, that brought together 50 executives from companies like Booking, Agoda, Klook and Trip.com to hash out the future of travel tech:
Share Your Travel Predictions for 2025 and Beyond
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Updated on Nov 30, 2024 (3 days ago).
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Google recently published their Future of Travel Report which explores what travel will look like in 2040. The report is based on billions of Google Search queries and over 90,000 external data points from the past five decades – just imagine 🤯
👉 See the report here: thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-emea/consumer-insights/consumer-trends/future-of-travel-2040-insights
Key points for 2040:
• India, China, and the U.S. will be the fastest growing markets in outbound departures.
• Indian travellers, in particular, are expected to increase by 5X by 2040. [...] And the majority of Indians prefer to use their local language to search and carry out tasks online.
• New hotspot destinations emerge: Spain is projected to overtake France as the world's most visited country, and newcomer Mexico is set to enter the top 5.
• When building out your strategy for the future, look at how you can cater to visitors from different countries. For example, consider whether there are payment options that overseas travellers expect to have access to that may not be mainstream yet locally.
• As the global population ages and individuals enter retirement in better health, a new segment of travellers with distinct needs and preferences is emerging
Travel Predictions for 2025:
I personally think next year - 2025, will be extremely exciting for tourism. There's many changes happening, AI taking a lead in many realms (like it or not), climate changes dictating destination experiences, travellers changing their travel habits...
A few questions to tourism business owners (especially small ones):
• What top trends do you see in travel in 2025?
• How are you adjusting your Marketing Strategies in 2025?
• Are you increasing/decreasing/keeping your marketing budget the same in 2025?
• Are you considering any major changes/adjustments in your business in 2025?
• How are you incorporating AI into your business?
• Is sustainability something you are addressing in your business?
I'm curious to hear your thoughts 🙏
interesting factoid on India's growth and their preference for native tongue.
I think 2025 might be the year we figure out what to do with AI properly within travel: whether operations or distribution. It won't be any surprise that (the many) payment services that are part of each transaction will score for fraud using complex models, however, I've yet to have an "oh wow" moment with AI for the customer perspective.
Perhaps something to remain optimistic for is the developments in SAF tech (sustainable aviation fuel) following Virgin Atlantic's first "SAF 100" flight in 2023.
Another hot take: the new, more refined Expedia and the ever-growing Uber may start one of a series of integrations leading to strategic partnership and possibly merger.
I've enjoyed the round-ups from Mike Coletta (Phocuswright) and Gilad Berenstein (Brook Bay) over on Linkedin
I don't believe Expedia and Uber could merge because of antitrust laws.
In which case, which could replicate the other's functionality? 🤔
Even though Dara Khosrowshahi moved from Expedia to Uber, I think it's easier for Expedia to cross Uber's moat (either through acquisition or building).
That said... I hope it never happens because once apps become too convenient / dominant they tend to exploit their customers.
Talking about the Indian tourists, then I come across them all the time and talk to people who work with Indian tour groups. The thing that seems to give my colleges the biggest headaches, when it comes to Indian tourists, is that the vast majority of Indian holiday makers are not ready to try a lot of foreign food yet. It was the same thing with the first generation of tourists from other countries as well. The destinations that will be able to capture the growing Indian market will quite likely be destinations that can offer several restaurants serving Indian cuisine. Great Britain has an edge on that market, because of the huge community from the Indian subcontinent.
In terms of my own year in travel and tourism, then I am already booked solid for most of the year. 2024 has been my best year ever as a freelancer in tourism. I am mostly focused on freelance tour leading at the moment, as there is a massive shottage of tour leaders with solid experience. I just had to turn down yet another offer from a company yesterday, who send me a list of more than 50 tours around the globe, where they were interested in employing me. But I am fully booked during all busy periods already. I only have a bit of spare dates in June, July and December, as it is right now. That also means no reasons for a marketing budget for me. Because it's the jobs seeking Claus and not Claus seeking jobs at the moment :-)
Another season of "next year's travel predictions" rolls around! 😅
I tend to look at travel predictions in two ways:
1. Distribution — where people are going, and how they are booking it
2. Product/tech — things like transport methods (eg. planes), hotels, etc.
When you look at the distribution predictions of travel, it seems the best method is a statistical exercise to forecast where the purchasing power (of the outbound traveler) is most convenient to the traveler. And then factor that in with some geo politics, airline routes, and population/economic growth models. I feel there is a huge risk in betting everything on a "super destination" to drive distribution — you only have to look at how tourism economies suffer when the tap is turned off. However, a new cohort of travelers does give people at conferences something to talk about!
In terms of product / tech — I'm much more excited about this area.
Here's a few wild examples I can think of:
1. Starlink offering LTE phone connections directly from space (they just launched 12 LTE-capable satellites) will allow you to get internet ANYWHERE in the world.
2. Auto translation on-device will unlock easier travel for non-native speakers.
3. China's new C919 narrow-body aircraft could unlock more point-point routes.
4. Meta's AR glasses will eventually bring friends (virtually) to your couch (2030+)
5. BRICS... nobody is talking about this but I think BRICS-economies could make their own visa-free travel system (similar to APEC) and this could be a big challenge to everyone's distribution models.
Sadly, I don't think that sustainable travel is on anyone's trends radar, however the message appears to be growing within the industry and with travelers, so perhaps sustainability is less of a trend and more of an expectation these days?
I think AI is going to be huge and we are going to see a more personal and collaborative approach to travel planning.
Just stumbled upon this great article by Travel Tech Essentialist:
"21 Ridiculously Specific Travel Tech Predictions for 2025"
Interesting read on the topic:
traveltechessentialist.substack.com/p/21-ridiculously-specific-travel-tech?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
And this is another interesting resource about AI + tourism, from the Global Travel Tech Thinktank, an invite-only collaboration between Web in Travel (WiT), Phocuswright, and Phocuswire, that brought together 50 executives from companies like Booking, Agoda, Klook and Trip.com to hash out the future of travel tech:
www.webintravel.com/next-generation-travel-tech-how-ai-is-reshaping-the-future-of-travel