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Cape Town - Always seeking the edgier neighbourhood and undiscovered adventures, hipsters look to social media and user-review sites to plan their trips, according to Mariette du Toit-Helmbold, owner of Destinate, a destination marketing agency.
"Neighbourhood travel is an exciting development for regions beyond the central hub," explained Du Toit-Helmbold, who recently attended World Travel Market (WTM) in London. WTM is considered the industry’s top showcase of travel products.
This trend spreads the economic benefits of tourism beyond its traditional ownership and entrepreneurs would do well to capture the imagination of young, hip travellers hungry for authenticity," she said.
She quoted Ulane Vilumets, Founder of Like a Local, who said this trend evolves around being "where it is at". Instead of concentrating all their activities around historical centres of cities, young, connected and hip travellers are now checking out what are the best areas for foodies and where creative people hang out. Participation - in other words experience - becomes a huge part of their visit.
Another group to watch in her view is the increasing so-called Millennials and new Generation Z'ers becoming tourists.
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Loosely defined as people born after the mid-1980s, Millennials currently account for 217 million trips globally, a number expected to increase to 320 million in 2020.
Millennials (or Generation Y) travel more overall — on average 4.2 times a year according to HVS Global Hospitality Services - compared to the 2.9 to 3.2 times per year for older generations and 58% prefer travelling with friends.
"Speed, adventure and bragging rights are big incentives for Millenials, who also crave the freedom to make spontaneous decisions on holiday, and are tech natives with an eye on multiple apps and social platforms to curate their adventure," explained Du Toit-Helmbold.
"A far cry from the penniless back-packer of youth travel gone by, the Millenial is prepared to spend – not on souvenirs, but on adventures and experiences."
To Du Toit-Helmbold Millenials should be seen as frontline marketers for South Africa, driven by a desire to share their experiences on multiple platforms.
"Enabling this with free Wi-Fi and easy access to social details is a worthwhile investment for every tourism and tourism-related business. Keeping alert to what your visitors are saying about you on social media also generates honest feedback, a chance to fix problems and an instant - possibly enduring - relationship with customers," said Du Toit-Helmbold.
"Hot on their heels comes Generation Z, the 13-17 year old digital natives that are driving decision making in the home through their mastery of technology and their unswaying pragmatic view of marketing. Authenticity is everything to this future-traveller – worth paying attention to right now."
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She said technology continues to transform the travel experience, making it richer and more enjoyable on the basis of travellers’ personal preferences.
"Customers now expect companies to know them better than their neighbours would and to engage with them in a very personalised way," explained Du Toit-Helmbold.
Thanks to mobile technology and big data analytics, travel companies can suggest interesting things for travellers to do at their location. Suggestions will become increasingly personalised with online inventories of local travel services and activities helping to cross-check data on consumers’ preferences and their current location.
"It can’t be an automated message - it has to be about each customer in a way that really counts," cautioned Du Toit-Helmbold.
