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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Restaurants are inherently direct-to-consumer and heavily service oriented. In an age when every industry is moving increasingly in that direction, we can look to the culinary industry to for a sneak peek at the trends we might all be adopting in the near future. In this article, we detail where the nation’s most successful restauranteurs are spending their working capital, and what we can all learn from their smart moves.

The major trends culinary industry investment have included a push towards highly individualized business concepts, high end at low prices, catering to mobility (pun intended) and loads of new technology adoption.

Highly individualized business concepts in the restaurant industry mean local flare, unique experiences, and overall just something different that speaks of the region or city they call home. We live in a customizable society and enjoy finding the unique and sharing it with everyone we know.

Meanwhile, a clash of economic hardship and consumer craving has produced a new trend in the restaurant industry of high end dishes for low prices. With an increasingly mobile clientele, the restaurant industry has responded with an increasing number of concepts that cater to the mobile customer. Understanding that their customers are business professionals, and always working, Ruth’s Hospitality Group went the route of technology adoption by installing video teleconferencing capabilities at over 100 of their Ruth’s Chris Steak House and Mitchell’s Fish Market locations.

To turn these trends into an advantage, consider the following steps. First, when developing new business concepts, make every effort to ensure they are unique in every aspect. If possible, offer a version of your higher end products and services at lower prices. Find a way to address the mobile nature of your customers. Lastly, technology often works well as a differentiator for your products or services. Don’t be shy to comb other industries and unlikely places to find a technology that will work best to help bridge the gap between you and your customers.

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Technology (specifically online booking and online information explosion) has led to more travel booked online by the travelers and businesses themselves. To date, 86% of all travel is booked online.

The internet is fast and plentiful information. The impact of fast and plentiful information is trust. Travelers are turning to the internet for information. However, do not confuse information with service. Information is not service. That is so important that it bears repeating…say it with me now…information is not service. That fact of humanity is at the core of major trends in the travel industry right now.

To understand why the travel industry is reacting in the way that it is, you need to get inside the customer mind.The agencies that service both the corporate and leisure travel markets have responded by going online themselves; and by either consolidating or evolving towards niche marketing. As an agent or vendor in the travel industry, where are you going to find your advantage? Travelers no longer need you for information. They barely need you for booking, but information does not equal service. The one thing that technology can never replace is that person-to-person, human connection that says I care about what you need and I care about your experience. For small to medium sized agents and vendors, that connection and service are the key to turning these trends into an advantage.

That level of service takes time and effort forcing agents and vendors alike towards niche market concentration. This comes in two forms: niche marketing by niche ventures, and niche marketing by mass ventures.

Turn these trends into your advantage by identifying your best route – consolidation or niche marketing. Consider a market survey. Surveys of all kinds are an effective, fast and inexpensive way to define your niches. Your clients will not be shy to tell you what they want so do not be shy to listen! Do not hold yourself to one niche. In fact, market as many as you have time and money. Target them in a personal and detailed way. Offer a unique level or type of service that they cannot find anywhere else. The payoff will be your share of the market even in a recession.

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Link: http://www.events.dramyvanderbilt.com

Members of the global travel industry have used SMS technology since 2002. Among the first notable examples that year was Gulf Air who started using Sabre’s SMS travel notification service for real time alerting to travelers. The development and widespread use of SMS technology in the travel industry follow one particularly notable trend: they did not take place in the United States. That late adopter mentality has its pros and cons.

Given past trends, I predict that the future of SMS for travel will include more robust reminders, and simplified processes through the entire travel life-cycle. From approvals to planning, booking and expense reporting, SMS will become a player in improving the accuracy and speed of these processes to the benefit of the bottom line.

Other future trends will include increased use of GPS-based SMS services also known as social travel media. Speaking more to your travel budget, we will see an increased use of SMS for reporting and tracking functions. Imagine that you are checking out of your hotel after a productive set of meetings. Your itemized expenses are sent by SMS to the automated back office at your organization. Out-of-policy expenses are flagged in real time and your are notified by SMS that a particular expense on your bill might better be paid on your personal account.

SMS applications overall are useful for improving speed, accuracy, timing, ease of use, and overall cost savings. How can it do all of that? Information is transmitted instantly. Information reported as it happens is more accurate than information reported a week later. Information arrives when you are in the right location and have an opportunity to act. Texting is fast and easy; especially for generation X and beyond. Lastly, better decisions, more accurate reporting and time saved all translate to cost savings.

SMS as a technology has come of age. This versatile tool for fast and simple reporting and notification enables a myriad of possible applications for marketing and internal advantages. Considering now how these trends will translate into advantages for organizations in the future; you must first identify where organizations will need which type of advantage. Then tailor applications of SMS to meet their particular goal.

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Link: http://www.dramyvanderbilt.com

Technology is coming to the travel world in a big way. I will be analyzing how various social media age technologies are affecting the travel industry and how to use them to make your travel dollar go farther and your organization more agile. While on travel, there will be a number of great food trends to keep your eye on. I will be reporting on various up and coming cities in the food world and on the young chefs that are making their mark and bringing true art to American cuisine.

Get extended Trend Watch List articles with all the data and analysis for your Kindle, iPhone or iPod Touch at Amazon!

Link: http://www.events.dramyvanderbilt.com

The travel industry is affected by a complicated landscape of technological and economic trends.

In this highly interactive session, Dr. Amy Vanderbilt will walk participants through technology trends affecting the travel industry from booking to communications and economic trends affecting the travel industry including the recent downturn. We will look deeply at how these trends affect personal and business travel and in turn affect the meetings industry. Some of these trends bolster attendance at your meetings, and some seem to deter it.

Dr. Vanderbilt will offer a holistic view of how these trends interact to produce a total effect on your meeting and how to use them to your advantage. Participants will gain insight into how these trends will evolve over the coming years; how that evolution will affect how business travel is booked, and when it is NOT booked; why these technologies will not decrease business travel, but are actually likely to increase it; and how businesses can take advantage of these trends to survive the current economic conditions and prosper!

Participants will tailor techniques to their own events and specialties using handouts and worksheets.

Learner Outcomes

• Techniques For Surviving And Prospering In The Current Economic Conditions By Taking Advantage Of Technological And Economic Trends In The Travel Industry
• A Plan For Implementing Strategies Within Your Own Events And Specialties