Trend Watch List

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Wrapping up the year and looking forward, we turn our attention to the trends that will be affecting our favorite precursor industries of travel and food in 2010 and beyond. These trends represent the hospitality industry’s struggle to balance the customer as king with the realities of operating a business to make profit. In 2010 we will explore what micro-purchase strategies are working, what is failing miserably and why. If you have considered micro-purchase strategies for your business, it will pay to take a lesson from the airlines before repeating their mistakes. Vacation rentals are increasing in popularity among consumer travelers but with surprising advantages for the business traveler. We will be innovating practical ways to boost your bottom line with existing and new capabilities. The difference between a win-win situation and a complete disaster when going green is all in the choice of and application of green strategies that are right for your business in your sector, with your specific customer base. Going green is not new but is evolving to develop new industries and advantageous business strategies. Meanwhile, consumers are seeking something from the small and local business - authenticity, agility, responsive service, unique products, local knowledge and more. We will document each and develop practical ways to create these elements within your business and individual teams without significant investment. In line with the paperless office is the cashless operation. In 2010 we will track the evolution of cashless operations within the hospitality industry to innovate new strategies for your own business that may decrease the overall time spent managing contracts and payments, reduce cash flow latency and collection problems and provide a host of other benefits. Stay tuned as we track them all, how they affect each other and how your business can create advantage from each and every one no matter what industry you call home.

Continuing this month’s focus on converging trends, we turn our attention towards trends converging to bring revolutionary change to our favorite precursor industries - Travel and Food. In this article, we cover how global market shifts, evolving tastes, and emerging technologies are converging to affect these industries and how all industries can use the opportunity for advantage. Three major trends are converging to affect the hospitality industry more than most: a global market shift in travel outside of the United States, a globalization of consumer tastes, and emerging technologies used by these increasingly mobile and worldly consumers. In each of Africa, the Middle East and Asia, new ventures are steeped in high levels of service directly to the traveler and a particular focus on the business traveler. Of course you must notice that these regions have little to do with the United States. Travelers are going elsewhere. Going elsewhere is also the theme for restaurant patrons. They are not leaving their favorite restaurants, but they are craving more global fare. A globalization of consumer tastes has accelerated amid an increasingly global economy and increasingly connected world. Technology adoption within the hospitality industry worldwide has focused on catering to the busy and globally savvy business professional. This includes SMS-based interaction and smart phone applications (i.e. mobile apps). Video teleconferencing services in restaurants and hotels, internet access on aircraft, business lounges and more are all increasing as the hospitality industry recognizes that today’s business professional cannot really afford to leave the office, even when they have left the office. The shift outside of the US in travel and increasing globalization of consumer tastes are trends that feed each other as business professionals use mobile and other technologies to act on emerging markets and long for new ideas, more exotic fare and more exotic experiences. It is globalization as modernization and vice versa in the hospitality industry. As your business model within your own industry hangs more and more on service and direct interaction with your customers, a global and/or modern element in your business will be key. Decide what combination of these elements makes the most sense for your brand and organizational culture and enjoy the advantage.

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