Gen Z goes traveling, ChatGPT arrives at booking & Demographics vs Culture

Week 26 - Gen Z travel statistics are starting to show trends, while the rest of the world is doing its own thing

TLDR: To Long Didn’t Read

The Sources Newsletter for Week 26 covers various topics related to the hospitality industry. Some highlights include the importance of TikTok for reaching Gen Z, the rise of "Native explorers" in the Asia Pacific who seek local experiences, and Spain's achievement of 2% inflation. Additionally, there is a study on the potential impact of VR implementation in the hospitality sector, and Equinox Hotels' success in generating revenue by selling beauty products in their minibars.

1. Main Hospitality News

Core news related to the industry

GenZ is on TikTok, you should be too…

How to reach Gen Z? According to this, via TikTok. Simply put, Gen Z is mostly TikTok based on their social media consumption. They travel more than other generations and are mostly the same as millennials, even though their disposable income isn’t as high yet. How? Offer content relevant to that target group. Secret gems, hidden locations, USPs of your hotel (and don’t forget to keep it authentic, whatever that means!)

Asia Pacific Gen Z mostly wants to travel “locally”

Thanks to a recent survey a new type of traveller has been identified. The “Native explorer”. Gen Z mostly who have already travelled well across several continents, but now want to explore locally. 52% of Gen Z in Japan is categorized as such, after that comes South Korea (42%) and New Zealand. Additionally, their most sought out topics are experiences. Whether it’s concerts or even culinary workshops. The experience economy is truly strong with these.

Tourism leaders meet and celebrate success

A recent summit in Brussels of hospitality leaders has mostly discussed how the industry has bounced back and will “stay that way” and how important sustainability is. Hence, all the hot topics are currently discussed everywhere else. Let’s see how insightful this turns out.

Interview with Airbnb's head of marketing & where is most traffic going to

Another Airbnb interview enlightens whoever will listen on how Airbnb is keeping its marketing costs low. Their recent invention of categories is the new future of travel & how it will tackle regulation. If you are interested check it out here. Interestingly enough a recent study showed that Airbnb accounts for the little amount of bookings in major cities, while most traffic is funnelled away from busy cities into experience-rich destinations. (contrary to the common belief that Airbnb is stealing rentals from residents)

AI Chatbot turns travel agent (on Booking)

Booking.com has continued to release the first AI chats that will help you book your trip where ever. Interestingly enough, Priceline Group owns Kayak, booking.com & rental cars. Covering most of the travel needs across the board. The chat bot on the other hand will respond to queries and forward you to correct links after you presented your needs. In the future, you will likely be able to book the whole experience without even leaving the chat. The AI tool used here is ChatGPT, nonetheless, Priceline mentioned potentially working with others in the future as well.

Indian ADR increases, but occupancy drops

We at Leportee believe that China is not the only market one should follow, since India is most certainly on the rise. As part of the belief, we try to help you follow the news from the mysterious region, to make it less mysterious indeed. Last week's quarterly results showed an increase in ADR across almost all Indian states, yet occupancy dropped. Why? Unfortunately data doesn’t answer that, yet it is an interesting painting that data is painting for us, perhaps with time more insight will show.

2. Externalities

Econimics, finance, geopolitics. All have an impact on the hospitality sector.

While most of Western world struggles, Spains reaches a target of 2% inflation

While most of the EU and the US are still struggling to slow the inflation down, Spain reported a mere 2% inflation as of late. Why? Falling fuel price in Spain, decrease in food costs & stabilization of travel pricing. It doesn’t give us an in-depth review of the reasons, however, is a crucial trend to follow, since Germany (the number 1 economy in the EU) is still struggling at 7%. The article mentioned how this might be temporary, since the factors above might go back up, after the summer.

Asia’s demographic crisis is much worse

Asia or East Asia is in trouble demographically and it’s much more complicated than in the Western world. While most Asian countries like China, Korea & Taiwan, have reached a developed stage with it came the demographic change. People no longer want to have kids and rather even stay “single”. So what do you say, we have the same? Well, Asia is a bit worse. The cultural norms are still heavily in place. For one, having kids outside of wedlock is frowned upon. While immigration is mostly forbidden, unlike in the EU. Hence, while you don’t want to have kids, the government doesn’t want to invite others to replace the depleading population & even if you do you better marry. Overall this will can likely cause a long-term demographic collapse, of a kind not seen before. Hence, if you are counting on that part of the world in 20 years, you maybe should reconsider.

3. Academia

Scientific papers related to the topics above. For those who want to know for sure ;)

VR implementation in hospitality

While not a very representative study (with mere 29 respondents) it’s one of the first in the industry. The potential impact of VR implementations in the hospitality sector. Results? It can cause higher booking rates & an increased guest satisfaction but is costly. For more details read here.

4. Readables

Books, podcasts & the big stuff.

In the spirit of our industri’s most loved sector, wine production, this week we recommend the book “The History of Wine in 100 Bottles” by Oz Clarke. A great way to better understand what wine is and where it comes from is 100 real wine bottles, some of which you can try.

5. Tips & Tricks Tools & SaaS

Any new software you can use? Industry tricks you missed?

Revenue management & competitor pricing (how to?)

Yet another sponsored post made by a revenue management software company to explain how revenue management should be done is available here. This time the topic is pricing based on competitors. Click at your own peril, for sponsoring isn’t always great.

Selling beauty products in the mini-fridge!

An interesting new option to generate revenue has been implemented by equinox hotels. They started selling beauty products in their minifridges. The revenue from selling this is on equal levels to the F&B of the hotel, which in many ways is phenomenal. Hence, for those of you in doubt about how to generate extra cash for guests that are already staying with you, just consider offering anything out of the ordinary. More details here.