As travel companies work towards formulating new strategies and recovery, many have an eye on working to a better future.
Smart Travel Lab believes "conscious travel" will be a significant trend for innovation as the industry starts “building back better and stronger.”
The organization says travelers now have a heightened sense of wanting to do better and travel more sustainably.
It has identified seven areas for innovation that fall within conscious travel:
- Climate positivity - not just where organizations go beyond achieving net zero carbon emissions but also about a change in mindset in terms of actively finding ways to reduce footprint.
- Circular (r)evolution - finding ways of breaking the current production and consumption linear way of doing things to a more circular economy.
- Small scale - the idea that mass destinations will not fully recover and tourism organizations need to focus on out of city locations.
- Domestic rediscovery - as many travelers turned to local trips during Summer 2020, the report highlights domestic rediscovery as a trend going forward. Smart Travel Lab sees huge opportunity for companies to be innovative around devising local pop-up concepts during the tourism season as well as new experiences that will attract locals.
- Loc ALL - following on from domestic rediscovery, the report identifies a focus on all things local from construction to sourcing food and beverage. It also sees the potential for community-based ownership models to spring up and gain traction.
- Regenerative tourism - thinking beyond just sustainable travel to positive impact more widely. Areas such as sustainable hotel design and how communities can be involved in shaping the offer.
- Add‐on altruism - the idea of packing up common traveler behaviors with altruistic initiatives to create a positive impact as well as more meaningful experiences.
The conscious travel report echoes many of the themes Smart Travel Lab alluded to back in April when it published scenarios for what the industry might be dealing with after the pandemic.
* The full report can be downloaded here.