We’re back to a new normal, but not quite living life in the same way. An incredible 86% of adults thought there were lessons humankind should learn from the pandemic – and you can already see big changes playing out. COVID-19 hit a reset button where people realised that life is short, re-prioritised what matters most, and started living life on their own terms.
In this new era, health has started coming before wealth, people want a better work/life balance, and 90% of employees want flexibility when it comes to doing their job. An incredible one in six people even plan to mix business with pleasure by working from foreign climes next year. Socialising has become more special than ever – but at the same time, we’re less afraid to say no to the things we don’t really want to do. It’s safe to say that people are less likely to put up with the things they don’t want to do. In fact, they’re seeking the sublime and, right now, are making life choices around getting just that.
After a few bumpy years, this new breed of consumer presents an exciting opportunity for travel brands over the year ahead. But what should they be doing to meet the travel expectations of the zeitgeist, and ensure they’re giving travellers the sublime in 2023?
The robustness of travel
This new consumer, if catered for correctly, should be a dream come true for travel companies – and are likely behind the industry’s current robustness. It’s why, in a cost-of-living crisis, two thirds of people said they’d rather forego all other non-essential purchases in order to preserve their travel budgets. Furthermore, according to Booking.com research, 72% of people think that, despite uncertainty and chaos, travel will ‘always be worth it’. And, it looks like a preference for travelling will continue to grow from hereon in, with people saying they plan to make either the same number of holidays in 2023 as 2022 (41%) – or to go away even more (1 in 3).
We’ve also been buoyed by the number of people visiting the lounges in our global network. Whilst growth post pandemic was expected, from Jan 2022 to Dec 2022, Priority Pass airport lounge visit volumes in India have grown ~4.5X and we are expecting this growth to continue this year. In fact, we believe people’s desire to travel will keep the industry thriving long beyond 2023. It’s why we’re forecasting an almost 200% growth in revenue for our insurance division, for example, and can see other organisations are feeling buoyant too. Take, for instance, Delta expecting its 2023 earnings to nearly double next year or United recently announcing it has ordered 200 new Boeing aircraft.
But, even with these promising facts and figures, travel companies shouldn’t get complacent. After all, as much as the post pandemic consumer is looking to travel, they’re going to want their trips to be sublime, and will be far less likely than the pre-pandemic consumer to tolerate anything that’s not quite right. This is a sentiment that will only intensify when people have had to make sacrifices or save even harder to be able to make a trip during a cost-of-living crisis – and especially with travel costs continuing to rise after being under-priced for so long.
Unpicking personal preference
So how to ensure each and every traveller has an experience they not only feel was worth it, but that they’ll cherish forever? All in all, this will come down to travel companies understanding – and catering to – the vast wealth of consumer preferences.
Of course, what’s considered ‘the sublime’ differs significantly from person to person.
This will be even more true for travel in 2023, when it looks like we’ll be seeing travellers head off in even more different directions than they ever have before. Research has shown that, next year, there will be record numbers of people wanting holidays that take them completely off-grid, and that there are high numbers of people who want ‘survival’ holidays. The same research also showed an increase in people seeking out sustainable, wildlife-filled trips, as well as the more unique, UFO or alien spotting tours. And, of course, there will always be the large numbers of the population who want a more traditional city break or beach holiday abroad.
Choice, choice and more, choice
More choice equals more happy travellers – after all, a greater variety of options leaves more room for the tailoring and personalisation of trips. The continued growth of ancillary revenues in travel supports the view that the brands giving their customers a variety of propositions will be the ones winning out over the next twelve months.
It’s why we’re always looking at how we can diversify our range of lounge services and travel experiences for our 40 million global Priority Pass Members. Most recently, we’ve added exciting new lounge options like Game Space – the first gaming lounge in the Middle East at Dubai International – and a new sleep ‘n fly lounge at Doha Hamad International Airport. It’s also why, among other things, we’ve invested in Inflyter and Servy, to improve the retail and dining experience within airports, bringing more flexibility to travel retail and letting members order food in the way that’s most convenient to them.
For many travellers, ‘sublime’ now means finding wellness and many travel commentators expect this trend to continue into 2023. From our perspective, wellness is something we’ve had on the radar for our members for a while now, launching partnerships with BeRelax to offer spa experiences and WithU to offer audio enabled workouts from anywhere in the world. If the industry can focus on working together to enable more differentiated and varied propositions, we’ll increasingly start to see journeys more tailored to exactly what travellers need.
A collective force for travel excellence
Partnerships or – rather – collaboration, is key here. The travel industry will need to continue to come together as a whole if it is to truly prepare itself for people seeking the sublime. For a trip to be the best it can possibly be, the entire journey needs to feel like a seamless end-to-end experience. While each company in the ecosystem plays their own individual part in the process, the cohesive sum of the parts is what we should all be striving for.
As well as partnering on complementary services and value-adds, we need to share more insights across the ecosystem to not only understand passenger preferences, but to map out what a ‘sublime’ journey looks like as a whole. With greater shared insights and a willingness to collaborate, we can, together, understand what each traveller wants from their trip and better support them from their initial booking, through to arrival, return and even, re-booking.
Loyalty and the sublime
Naturally, loyalty will play a big part in consumers seeking the sublime – as the two tend to go hand in hand. Again, data and differentiation will be key here, as loyalty programme managers seek to understand what travellers are looking for, and then to deliver the rewards and offers that are targeted and relevant to what they’re looking for from their membership. With many loyalty programmes calling an end to free status extensions in 2023, finding other rewards and benefits that truly add value to their members’ trips will be extremely important.
Ultimately, the robustness of travel has shown that people want to be loyal to the industry over the next twelve months and beyond. With the right mindset, approach and propositions, we can come together to not only keep that loyalty strong but repay it with trips and experiences that people just won’t want to forget.
With consumers opting to do more on their own terms post-pandemic, and so many making sacrifices to ensure travelling is the thing they can still do during tougher times, there are opportunities for brands across travel to collaborate and ensure they are offering consumers a truly rewarding experience in recognition of their loyalty. So let’s come together to help them find their unique sublime.
