Trend 1: Increasing inbound tourism
Foreign tourists increasingly know how to find Holland. Various reports (Rabobank, ABN AMRO Insight and Trendrapport Vrije Tijd en Toerisme) show that this share of visitors, mainly from our neighboring countries Germany and Belgium, is rising sharply. Partly because of this, the pressure on Amsterdam is increasing. NBTC Holland Marketing has been working on a Holland City Marketing project for some time, with which they want to shift the focus from Amsterdam to the rest of Holland. Booking.com is also responding to this by profiling itself with their Booking Home strategy, which Tess Schram of Booking.com discussed in more detail during our Knowledge Event last January. Accommodations that are not traditionally definable as hotels are becoming increasingly important. It is important for recreational accommodations to be visible, for example through different tour operators in order to reach international guests.
Is your website well and correctly translated? Does the international guest understand your content? Make sure your website content has been translated by professional translators. By doing so, you will not only communicate to your guest with correct grammar and spelling, but you will be able to convey the right feeling.
Trend 2: Less and less staff, automation is a must
The increase in visitors from abroad is of course a great opportunity, but the rapid growth also threatens a shortage of recreation personnel. Automation may have seemed like a choice before, but today it is a must. During the Knowledge Event, Rutger van de Maat of ZKA Leisure Consultants indicated this with the categorization: "order winning factors" and "qualifying factors. Where automation used to be an order winning factor, it is now a qualifying factor. In other words, without proper application of automation, you won't be found by today's consumers. How is your recreation business doing? Have you already taken the automation plunge and translated it to the shop floor?
Trend 3: Flexibility in offers
It used to be the most normal thing in the world that you could only book a week, midweek or a weekend. Nowadays, guests no longer want to be tied to fixed arrival and departure days and times. This may seem detrimental to the industry, but in our opinion it actually offers opportunities. It spreads the pressure on operational services such as cleaning, allowing companies to offer better quality. The spread of occupancy also provides an opportunity for keeping the hospitality industry open throughout the year. You also meet the demands of the modern consumer, which is perhaps most important. This trend requires a critical look at your pricing policy and related choices, for example, offering nightly rates, dynamic pricing and price differentiation for longer stays.
Trend 4: Merging of lodging and day recreation
The lodging and day recreation sectors are two completely different disciplines, yet they are inseparable. In recent years, I have personally gained experience in both sectors and experienced the fusion first-hand. More and more day recreation companies are looking for opportunities to offer lodging, the Safari Resort at the Beekse Bergen developed in 2018 is a good example. In addition, lodging recreation companies are increasingly offering day recreation such as bicycle and boat rentals, bowling alleys, restaurants and catering, swimming pools and indoor play parks. Combining the two is not essential, but it does broaden the offer.
Trend 5: Know your guest
Did you know that Belgian guests mainly book on Sundays? 🧑🏻 And that German guests are very critical of online payments? 👱🏻♂️ Just two examples that are important when setting up your website. But how do you find out what a guest wants and how do you align your website with that? You can of course decide not to focus on foreign guests, but as mentioned, you will miss out on enormous opportunities, which is of course a shame. Our advice is to gather experts around you. Experts who know what the leisure world is all about, what a visitor wants on a website and more importantly, what they don't want on a website. The online world is becoming increasingly complex; in fact, it is often compared to a new science. Make sure you get the most out of it!
Would you like to know more about certain developments and how you can capitalize on them? Or are you missing certain trends that are not listed here? Send your message to wietze@bookingexperts.nl and I will gladly talk to you!
Nikki
Tim
