Neverending tourism and how it can drive recovery

Innovation often comes out of the most difficult moments and helps companies to recover from a negative situation. 

During the pandemic new ways of experiencing travel have emerged. One of the most relevant is “neverending tourism.” According to the Observatory on Digital Innovation in Tourism of Politecnico di Milano, this concept identifies the extension of the travel experience in time and space, made possible by digital solutions. It enables the opportunity for tourism companies to arrange products and processes designed to propose an experience that is not limited to the time of the visit in destination but is, in fact, neverending.

What are the main features of the concept of neverending tourism? And how can it be used to innovate the value propositions of the travel actors?

Customers: a new way of experiencing travel

The starting point to understand the opportunities of neverending tourism is to pay attention to the needs and behaviors of the customer, which have been accelerated by the pandemic.

People have always expressed the need for a continuative tourist experience, as witnessed by the use of magazines and documentaries to reach new places or by the purchase of typical products (regional foods, local craftworks, fashion objects, souvenirs) as a way to maintain their relationship with the destination also at a distance, before or after the trip.

Digital innovation has contributed to boost the possibilities of expanding the experience. Data from the Digital Innovation in Tourism Observatory show that the number of tourists buying typical products of the visited destinations via e-commerce has increased constantly since 2016 (+30% in 2019 with respect to 2018), demonstrating the growing potential for this market.

With the pandemic other trends have strengthened. The time spent on the internet enjoying digital content has grown dramatically. In Italy, according to the Digital Content Observatory of Politecnico di Milano, during the first lockdown 40% of Italian internet users spent more time on podcasts, video games, music and news. The same has happened with digital services such as banking, e-shopping, food delivery and payments. 

This has influenced the tourist experience as well. The internet has strengthened its role not only as a source of inspiration but also as a direct channel of the tourist experience, a way to perform, virtually, activities with a strong physical connotation such as visits to museums, cycling, regattas, etc.

During the pandemic, searches on booking engines related to words such as “virtual museums” and “online museums” increased sharply. This has led to the emergence of a market for tourist and cultural digital experiences and contents which complement the traditional physical experience. Digital experiences can represent a standalone product, but they are used also as a driver of attraction and inspiration for a following vacation in the pre-visit phase or as a way to continue, post-vacation, the relationship with the tourist. 

A second trend reinforced by the pandemic is the recourse to smart and remote working, which in many cases has become “holiday working.” In 2020, for instance, 26% of Italians booked a house to work from a holiday destination, and in 2021 this trend is continuing to impact significantly. This phenomenon allows to expand the occasions of travel experiences beyond the traditional periods devoted to vacations.

The tourism supply chain: examples of neverending services and benefits for the stakeholders

By analyzing the response of the supply to the request of a neverending experience, it is possible to identify interesting attempts throughout the whole tourism industry. Some destinations, such as Discover Puerto Rico, during the pandemic have offered virtual appointments to share local traditions dedicated to remote workers. The trend has been caught by Italian accommodation facilities, as well: in 2020 42% of lodging structures offered their customers the possibility to purchase local products (online or in the facility) and 39% hosted customers in remote working. 

According to the findings of the Digital Innovation in Heritage & Culture Observatory, 80% of Italian museums, monuments and archaeological sites in 2020 proposed online content (such as educational laboratories, guided tours, workshops, etc.) in order to build loyalty and keep the relationship with visitors alive. 

Startups are particularly proactive on neverending tourism. Two examples are Divinea and Ventuno, which offer, respectively, "Smart Tastings" (namely online tasting experiences from wineries), or "Experience Boxes" (a package containing local products enriched with virtual content about a specific destination).

The valuation from the perspective of neverending experience does not pass only through e-commerce and digital contents. For example, a tour operator and an Italian airport recently launched a service that allows customers to book duty-free items online at a discount rate before departure, collect the order just before boarding or use the “click & collect” service, but also to book online a personal shopper who offers advice and makes pre-orders in the airport stores. This allows an extension of the tourist experience to enjoy also the time of the physical movement, which is often thought of as a burden. It constitutes also a way to foster additional expenses and to differentiate revenue streams for travel companies.

Therefore, a well-designed neverending offering enables different benefits: the generation of incremental revenue streams, the possibility to reduce costs (for instance in marketing) and the establishment of a long-term, trusted and experiential relationships with the customer. 

Moreover, neverending tourism can have a positive impact on sustainability. Holiday working, for example, allows the reduction of seasonality issues for some destinations and can help the resurgence of minor locations out of the beaten track. The value of less reachable and minor touristic territories and their products (food, handcrafts, etc.) is an element of extension of the offer and generates positive impacts on the whole economy of the destination. 

Neverending-based innovation is therefore a path to offer lifeblood to the entire supply chain and the travel ecosystem for a new experience of tourism.