2021, catastrophic holidays for Italian tourism: not only the holidays of 19 million people, but also thousands of jobs are at risk. The increase in infections and the restrictions associated with the pandemic could cost the tourism sector over two billion euros in reduced consumption in the winter holiday season alone, according to Confesercenti. The downturn is affecting tourism and also has an impact on catering, accommodation and travel agencies.
A “devastating” situation, a “tragedy”, a “debacle” are the terms trade associations are using to describe the state of the sector, which has been struggling with Covid for the past two years as the Omicron variant rages on. Sector operators have no choice but to ask for help: from expanding the CIG for workers to the spending review of the Pnrr, which allocates €1.8 billion to tourism, a figure seen as largely insufficient, to revive the fortunes of the sector.
When the pandemic brings technology to the hotel
However, Covid confronted us with it technological realities and future scenarios It will be about the world of hospitality, where machines and artificial intelligence will manage much of the operations that have little to do with customer well-being. And also in the world of tourism, there is a growing awareness that the changes that have just begun are developing continuously and at a very high speed. Let’s jump to the year 2050.
“Technology gives, technology takes away. And at a historic moment when Indian Space Research’s mission to Mars cost less than a Hollywood movie about a space mission (the Mars Orbiter mission cost $74 million versus $108 million for the movie The Martian), the big one came Introduction “Technology isn’t even a topic of discussion anymore, but it definitely needs to be calibrated to personal and business needs, values and inclinations,” says Simone Puorto, a travel tech journalist who likes to define herself.Renaissance Futurist“, author of Hotel Distribution 2050 – (pre)visions for the future of hotel marketing and hotel distribution, will be published soon.
“When it comes to travel and especially hospitality, we find ourselves in this limbo Techno-illiteracy“Change is coming, but we don’t (yet) have the intellectual means to accept and embrace it,” says Puorto. Still, with Covid 19, “even the most tech-shy people have had to grapple with technology through the endless months of quarantine in 2020.”
To cite just one example, in hotel construction “there was an increase.”Software and hardware implementation contactless, such as self-check-in machines or room access technologies without physical keys, not to mention virtual reality,” emphasizes the futurologist. “If there is one positive effect of the 2020 pandemic, it is certainly the acceleration of technology adoption across the board. The coronavirus has created a real quantum leap of at least ten years forward, if not in terms of the quality of the technology then in terms of its acceptance and adoption by Luddites, tech skeptics and tech pessimists.”
Topics such as artificial intelligence, attribute-based selling, blockchain distribution, augmented and virtual reality, the metaverse, space tourism, Web3 and transhumanism, Puorto further observes, often leave those working in the travel industry confused, albeit necessary to understand the current travel situation and interact with future technologies to manage and support change.
Neuroscience and “data-driven” bookings
The tourism of the future will not only consist of software and hardware, but can even resort to neuromarketing to break new ground and understand the needs of the customer in real time, with an approach that will be defined as scientific and scientific data driven.
It has been known for many years that booking a trip – be it for business or pleasure – is an action that is mainly carried out online, thanks to the many dedicated portals and websites that allow us to choose the type, time and place of our Travel to choose yourself sitting in front of the computer or via smartphone.
“Any tourism website can be optimized by combining psychology, neuroscience and user experience,” explains Luca Vescovi, CEO of Neuro Web Design, a Veneto-based online tourism strategy company. “In contrast to traditional marketing tools, this is neuromarketing It allows you to understand and make truly predictable the emotions, motivations and psychological variables at play in tourists’ decision-making processes, with the aim of creating an exceptional customer experience.”
Vescovi, along with Stefano Civiero and Nicola Trentin, is the author of “Neuromarketing for Online Tourism” (Dario Flaccovio editor), a discipline that “studies the brain to predict, support and inspire consumer behavior and their decision-making process” as also known as Consumer Neuroscience (in the foreword by Andrea Saletti, consultant and trainer for digital strategies). As the result of a study carried out on over 1000 people of different European nationalities, the guide to neuromarketing in tourism does not aim to “manipulate the will of the user”, emphasizes Vescovi, but rather to motivate him to buy and to offer exactly that what he wants meets your expectations”.
Any proceeds from the sale will be deducted transfer at the Smile rehabilitation intervention laboratory (Stella Maris Infant Lab for Early Intervention) in Pisa, which investigates how the newborn develops the ability to process and interact with the environment and also encourages the search for innovative, evidence-based early interventions for children with brain damage or neurodevelopmental disorders.