Tourists are demanding more personalized experiences and the industry in Spain is reinventing itself to meet increasing demand despite high prices
The pandemic has broken the mold in many economic sectors that have changed their models after the crisis has been overcome. One of these is tourism, which has had to reinvent itself after a historic collapse in sales to now accommodate the great ‘boom’ of both national and international demand. Experts consulted at Fitur, the international tourism fair held this week in Madrid, point out that new tourists are more demanding and demand more personalized experiences.
SiteMinder’s World Hotel survey shows that hotel reservations are already 23% above pre-pandemic numbers. But something has changed: reservations are now made at the last minute. For example, according to the platform’s data, 60% of reservations made in the last week of December were for stays between December and January.
Some hotels also offer their customers new experiences not only at the time of the trip itself, but also during the previous reservation process. To do this, they use systems such as Hotelverse, a platform that creates “digital twins” for its network of member hotels. This allows the prospective guest to reserve exactly the room they will be staying in with an immersive experience of walking through the hotel from the website. For example, with 3D images, the customer can check whether his room has a view of the pool or whether the sun is shining in the morning, among many other functions.
Fermín Carmona, co-founder and CEO of the company, explains in an interview with this newspaper in the context of Fitur that the reservation experience had “hardly changed in the last 20 years”, leaving the hotel sector “far behind” compared to others such as fashion or technology. “Our solution enables hoteliers to add value to their website, improve the customer experience and differentiate themselves from other channels such as comparison sites,” says Carmona. This idea will already be active this year on the website of 1,500 hotels of different chains such as Iberostar, Radisson, Grupo Presidente or Palladium.
In addition, a new type of traveler has emerged during the pandemic that is not wholly a tourist, but an employee who takes advantage of the possibilities of telecommuting to visit other countries. They are called digital nomads. Spain is one of the main destinations for these teleworkers, partly due to its climate and cultural offer, but in many cases having to pay for two houses, the one in their city of origin and the one in Spain, puts them off.
To solve this, a platform has been created that allows travelers to exchange homes for a while and thus save a large part of the costs of living away from home. This is Born 2 Be Nomad, the first home exchange platform for digital nomads, born from a group of four friends in the Canary Islands who decided to undertake this project in the middle of a pandemic.
Their slogan is clear: ‘Your home, your currency’, and they intend to create a community of telecommuters who exchange their homes around the world to save money, expand their business markets, see the world and improve their work level. to keep.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
