ITB Report Predicts Technology Boom in Hotel Industry
According to the ITB World Travel Trends Report, technological advances are expected to produce far-reaching changes in the hotel trade over the next 10 years. The report projects that hotel rooms will be decorated to meet guests’ particular tastes and technology will continue to change the booking process.
The Fraunhofer Institute believes that technological advances with be among the most important forces driving the hotel industry, leading to some major changes over the next 10 years. Guests will be checked in by robots, which will also provide a range of services for the duration of their stay. Automated “smart” rooms will be fully equipped to meet the needs of guests. Guests will have their own profiles, which they can either enter via a PIN on a smartphone or which are transmitted by means of biometric authentification. This data can then be used to individually adapt the lighting, air conditioning and even the color of the room. In the hotel rooms of the future, the entire infrastructure will be designed to aid relaxation -- gentle curves instead of sharp edges, smart “energy beds,” and wall displays with giant screens serving as an interactive interface to all the different communication channels and providing a workspace for business travelers. However, technological innovation is not the only topic under consideration in planning the hotels of the future, as ecological aspects will play an increasingly important role in meeting the needs of guests.
“Growing environmental awareness, global trends such as demographic changes, increased mobility and multi-cultural developments will all help to alter the profile of guests. In the future, the different requirements of specific types of guests will determine what is on offer. This presents some serious challenges to the hotel industry, but also provides an opportunity to attract new types of guests,” said Dr. Martin Buck, director of the Competence Centre Travel and Logistics at Messe Berlin.
In the age of Web 2.0, innovative hotel operators are already engaging in a dialogue with their customers. The experts are forecasting that future communities will form “hotel families.” Like-minded people will initially make contact interactively, compare interests and exchange recommendations, eventually meeting in a hotel that is specially tailored to enable them to undertake joint activities. This is one example of how social networks could lead people to form social communities. At the same time, hotel operators could use the profiles of these “hotel families” and the feedback that they generate to adapt their products and services to meet the needs of their clients even more effectively, and to be able to offer them services that accurately meet these requirements.
The report was prepared using estimates by 50 travel trade professionals from 30 countries, an analysis of trends carried out by IPK on the main markets from which tourists originate, and basic data provided by the World Travel Monitor, which is regarded as the largest ongoing study of global travel behavior in some 60 countries. These findings reveal tendencies which became apparent during the first eight months of 2010. The end-of-year results, including current prospects for 2011, will be presented in March at the ITB Future Day during the Convention. The ITB World Travel Trends Report 2010/2011 is available at www.itb-berlin.com.
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