INTERNATIONAL. US PR and marketing consultancy Parker Sanpei has released The Future of Travel & Hospitality: Post-Pandemic and Beyond, a report created via data generated from experienced travellers using a “swarm intelligence” platform. It suggests that travellers are taking a brighter view of the future of air travel than many sector experts.
The study comprises 24 predictions about travel timing, distance and accommodation features that will attract travellers, and the kinds of branding, marketing and messaging that will most resonate with them.
The research began with an advanced strategy session with industry professionals to learn what they needed to know about how the pandemic may have changed their future operations.
Parker Sanpei then led participating travellers through a one-hour swarm intelligence session. Swarm intelligence sessions are conducted with a web-based platform similar to an online game, moderated by artificial intelligence. As participants work together through groupthink to deliberate over the best answers to strategic questions, measurements are captured four times a second, providing knowledge of their decision-making process.
“Travellers were far more optimistic and specific about their wants and needs than our experts expected,” said Parker Sanpei President and CEO Linda Sanpei.
Questions are constructed to get the swarm to think about people like them. Parker Sanpei claims that, in combination with the jury-like process and artificial intelligence helping the group collaborate on a single best answer, it only takes only 25 to 50 people to represent the decision-making of thousands.
In less than eight seconds, 92% of the swarm agreed that travellers will head to international sites once the world is safe.
Throughout the study, the swarm consistently placed enhanced safety and cleanliness protocols toward the bottom of their criteria.
There was no preference between vacation rentals and hotels/resorts and, by the end of a 14-second deliberation that started with ‘packages and promotions’ being most important to return travellers, the swarm overwhelmingly agreed that ‘upgrades on check-in’ were better for increasing loyalty.
Marketing and advertising that will work with travellers presented the most unexpected predictions, according to Parker Sanpei. The focus was on brand building, packages and imagery over traditional tactics such as print and digital ads (with a 92% negative rating) and travel planning sites (with a 60% negative rating).
The full report can be accessed as a free pdf download here.
