Predictions for the next decade of travel

By Jim Pratt - WEX | December 17, 2019

As the year winds down, it also closes the chapter on a decade of immense evolution within the travel industry. Change has been the only constant throughout the 2010s, and there’s no sign of it slowing down.

Just five years ago, not many people in the travel industry knew the degree to which Instagram‐worthy photos and overtourism would affect travelers’ destination choices - or how dramatically short‐term rentals would disrupt the hotel business. In the transportation sector, the rise of low‐cost airlines and the unbundled services now offered have allowed travelers to customize their experiences even further.

This culture of sustained, rapid change will continue to lead to increased innovation. We’ll see the culture of commerce - the way people spend and make money on travel - expand to include new ways of customization, as well as increased efficiencies in the booking process across the board.

Course‐correcting the trend of overtourism

The rise of the Instagram travel influencer, low‐cost airlines and the sharing economy have created overtourism in popular destinations across the world. But we’ll see a rise of course‐correcting in the next decade.

As the backlash against overtourism in more remote parts of the world leads to regulation in areas like the Galápagos Islands or the Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia, it will provide a unique opportunity for travel companies to discover and open new destinations.

As these new destinations across the world start to pop up, I expect to see the options for travelers multiply tenfold over the next decade. This presents an immense opportunity for world economies to scale their tourism abilities if they have the necessary infrastructure in place.

Value of sharing amenities grows

A perennial disruptor in the travel industry, the sharing economy will continue to evolve. The next phase of that evolution takes these accommodations to a new level - one that offers services that compete even more directly with traditional hotels, like a seamless check‐in process or private access to amenities. Many of these sharing accommodations can present travelers with a more complete experience, including options like tapping into hosts’ golf or beach club memberships.

In a survey commissioned by Airbnb last year , 97% of United States respondents said amenities impact their travel experience. In terms of what factors affect vacation quality, accommodations were the top response, with amenities second. Airbnb reports that amenities rank higher than shopping and dining, location, culture and even family and friends.

Earlier this year, Guesty COO Vered Raviv Schwarz told Forbes.com : “These ‘new’ vacation rental guests are accustomed to hotel services and products, and thus will be demanding more hotel‐like services from their rentals, from bathrobes to concierge‐like communication.”

The sharing economy isn’t slowing down, and we can expect to see many more rental home owners take the concept to the next level by monetizing these benefits or memberships that they aren’t using all the time.

Faces will launch journeys

The use of biometrics in the travel industry is exploding. Two million passengers in the U.S. were scanned using facial recognition in April, and that number grew to 25 million just four months later. Offerings such as digital fingerprint matching, retinal scanning and facial recognition offer benefits for travelers and travel companies alike. Authenticating travelers in this way brings frictionless, seamless, more secure travel closer to reality in the next decade.

When it comes to hotels, checking in using facial recognition means a faster experience for guests and an easier way for a property to ensure that frequent guests are acknowledged and have their preferences accommodated. While the technology isn’t yet perfect, this is where we will see these capabilities evolve and change as hotels work to further streamline the travel experience.

Biometrics have a role in secure payments, too. Mastercard, which used fingerprints for the first biometric cards in 2017, is now testing systems that use smartphone cameras to confirm identities. Travelers can check out of their hotel, pay for meals and confirm their participation in loyalty programs without the risk of a plastic card being lost or duplicated.

Our industry has undergone tremendous change over the past few years, and trips are well on their way to becoming both curated and frictionless. We have a sharing economy and technology that allow us to find a very specific type of accommodation anywhere or open a door with a simple scan of our facial features.

Yet what remains constant is that travelers want a memorable experience, and they want the process to be easy. That expectation will carry over as we head into 2020 regardless of the new technologies we start to see.