Sabre Corporation released a study today exploring how certain emerging behavioural trends among Asia Pacific consumers can present opportunities for hotels this year.
Sabre Corporation released a study today exploring how certain emerging behavioural trends among Asia Pacific consumers can present opportunities for hotels this year.
“Competition amongst hotels is high in many Asia Pacific markets, despite a positive outlook into 2017 and beyond… One key way to maintain an edge in a fiercely competitive industry is to identify emerging consumer behaviours that present new opportunities to differentiate the travel ‘experience’,” noted Sarah Kennedy Ellis, vice president of marketing and strategic development for Sabre Hospitality Solutions.
In collaboration with TrendWatching, the study highlighted three aspects: ‘Betterment’, a growing consumer desire for self-improvement; ‘Local Love’, embracing local products and services; and ‘Infolust’, the appetite for timely and relevant information that aids better purchase decisions.
Consumers are increasingly striving to improve their lifestyle, whether it is living more healthily, recycling more or simply doing good.
BETTERMENT: According to Sabre, the lure of deals or rewards can be the catalyst required to incentivise action. For instance, discounted rates for guests that support a hotel’s chosen local community programme or dining vouchers at a local health food restaurant for guests who use the spa. Travel brands like Qantas have already jumped onto the ‘health’ bandwagon with a health insurance and well programme it launched last year.
LOCAL LOVE: More Asian consumers are taking pride in locality as they reinvent the celebration of tradition by embracing local offerings. Hotels can take advantage of this trend by creating authentic experiences. Said Ellis, “Through local partnerships they can extend and enhance the guest experience, increasing customer loyalty or room rates, while driving new revenue streams back into the development of ‘localness’ – further fuelling regional economic growth.”
INFOLUST: Consumers are increasingly open to sharing information in exchange for more relevant, personalised and timely recommendations and services. With the advent of messaging apps like WeChat and Line, hotels can make use of these channels to push information, “from shopping options to mid-trip services, and engage consumers at every stage of the journey in a virtual channel they’re already in, via the two-way conversation they’re seeking,” said Ellis.
For more details, access the full report here.