DestinaXtion 2021 - Equipping Destinations for Post-Covid Tourism
Greetings from the City of Arts and Sciences, in Valencia. My name is Juan Gomez Insights Expert at ForwardKeys. It is a pleasure to join you today – even if virtually – to share our vision on the future of tourism in the post-Covid era, how to equip destinations for this new paradigm and the important role of big data in all this. Tourism is one
of the main drivers for the Spanish economy, but it is also an unequal phenomenon. While some destinations have taken advantage of tourism, even receiving even receiving too many tourists on certain occasions, other destinations have not been able to take advantage of it. Needless to say the pandemic has been a hard blow to our sector... and although there are already some signs of recovery, these are very mild and uneven around the world and in Spain in particular. The current situation pushes us to ask ourselves two key questions: First of all, how can we attract the few travellers who are still traveling today so that the economic impact of this situation is as small as possible? And, 2. What can destinations do to prevent poor quality tourism, and develop a more sustainable model? During my presentation I will try to answer these two questions.
I will start with the first: How can we attract the few travellers who are still traveling today so that the economic impact of this situation is as small as possible? To answer this Question let me look back a few months While Europe and America reached While Europe and The Americas reached this summer, on average, approximately 40% of the volume of normal travellers in a pre-pandemic summer in Asia, international arrivals were still 93% below Normal values in the months of July and August. Travelers want to keep discovering new Destinations. They need to get out of their routines and travel but travel restrictions make this a Difficult task Within Europe the differences between some destinations and others have also been very Large, despite the good rhythm and development of vaccination campaigns and campaigns for example Such as the Covid passport of the European union among other measures, the final results have been Somewhat bittersweet It seems that the season could have been much better if the Lessons of the summer of 2020 had been learned. And I mean two things in particular in the first place one
Early communication from destinations about restrictions this summer so travellers Could plan ahead and secondly stability during summer with respect to them We saw very little of both, which meant that international travel to and within Europe continued to be a bit risky, and most people decided to stay close From home which boosted domestic travel and to neighbouring countries. Consequently, destinations such as Greece, which communicated clearly and early about its intention to remain open to vaccinated visitors reached figures almost pre-pandemic figures, with a drop in international travellers of only 17% compared to the months of July and August in 2019. Meanwhile, countries such as Portugal or Spain, on the other hand, reached approximately 50% Of international travellers at the same time in 2019. Here not only a later communication
Regarding the reopening of destinations to vaccinated travellers played against but also the great dependence Of destinations such as Spain or Portugal in markets such as the British meant the lack of many tourists this year United Kingdom, as a destination, lost 87% of the usual visitors of a normal summer, falling far behind on this path of recovery... or rather reactivation. In this Situation, data, as I say, has become more relevant than ever. It is key to predict the impact of future travellers in our destinations. And for this, the data we need is real-time Data Who has booked to travel where and when? If I am a destination, I have to keep an eye on which markets are open to me and see what kind of effort I can make to communicate about my destination. The frustrated demand, especially in northern European markets, is clear We have seen it reactivate every time an announcement was made in the right direction For example to travel between the the United Kingdom and Spain And, we see, as I say, how well Greece has done which has had visitor numbers very close to normal. It is clear that few things can
come between a British or a Dutch and their desire to have a few days of sunshine and good temperatures a year Analysing data exhaustively is key to making forecasts today but it is necessary to go further with tools that adapt to current market volatility before continuing with the second question, let me make a brief stop Who are we in ForwardKeys ? for those who do not know us we are a Spanish company based in Valencia leaders global in the tourism intelligence sector and traveller data We work hand in hand with organizations such as the UNWTO, WTTC and IATA, and our clients include DMOs of different sizes from ministries of tourism to regional and local organizations, airports duty frees, major brands, hotel chains and groups investors, In short all kinds of organizations and businesses with an interest in the travel industry and tourism For the past 12 years, ForwardKeys has helped and continues to help destinations predict traveller´s impact the most appropriate tourism metrics for each case and collaborating with some of our solutions to democratize data within their organizations We are aware that not all companies are lucky enough to have a data engineer among their employees and that in many cases the person in charge of analysing this data has other responsibilities that prevent you from dedicating too much time to these types of exercises Tools as Destination Gateway help to analyse the data in a simpler way by putting the making conclusions available to our customers quickly Right now, ForwardKeys is using more data sets than ever to understand the traveler behavior : Flight Searches, Air Seat Capacity and the Bookings that are made a daily basis in direct and indirect channels Our data covers all aspects of the trip from the moment that a potential traveller looks for his flight passing to the air capacity that airlines supply ending in reservations. This allow us to share with our clients and partners a exhaustive database that allows not only to analyse past trends but anticipate the future which as I said in a current situation, is of vital importance What do I mean with all this, let me mention some of the data that our clients use to better understand demand, compare themselves with their competitors and map out their market strategies Actual Air Reservations contains global booking data aggregated and processed daily, generated by Amadeus, Sabre, Travelport, TravelSky... and some of the benefits of Air reservations for destination are : - the ability to monitor source markets - understand more than 20 different characteristics of reservations or tickets such as overnight stays anticipation of the reservation, size of travel group, profile of the traveller, connecting airport other places visited - anticipate volumes and understand the demand for the next few months with the capacity to focus on those characteristics that optimize the destination strategy - Be able to meet and negotiate with potential airlines that can offer better services and connections and of course all these previous metrics can be compared to competing destinations on the other hand, the air capacity and flight scheduling data helps destinations to - analyze the supply of airlines that connect destinations with markets of origin - and offer data that helps attract airlines to destinations Search data allows destinations to - measure the interest of future travelers in selected destinations - measure the performance of communication and marketing efforts - and in the air sector allow to identify if the location of the traveler and the destination are well connected opening opportunities to open new routes Based on the above, in ForwardKeys we also have our own models of estimation of travellers : through Total Air Market ForwardKeys estimates daily global volumes of air travelers including airlines that do not their data The benefits of Total Air Market are : - global measurement of visitors with all the level of detail - ability to segment the most attractive visitors for the destination and, - ability to compare with competing destinations with the same level of detail And finally our Forecasts offers an estimate of the volumes of travelers in the coming months In addition to all this we continue to work to expand the number of use cases, for which we research, ingest, and improve different alternative databases. we evaluate the probability of cancellation of flights, we study data on spending by travelers abroad, we work with geolocated data that help us answer related questions with surface mobility, pollution data of air and water that help monitor the environmental impact of tourism in destination Sociodemographic data to help DMOs segment and encourage the tourist groups that bring the most value to their destinations, evaluation of social networks. And as I said at the beginning
we collaborate side by side with tourist destinations around the world to improve every day in our knowledge and the relevant questions that we can answer and this brings me to the second question, what kind of tourists do we want attract in the future and how we can attract them ? What can destinations do to prevent low-quality tourism, and develop a more sustainable model ? Spain has had great success in tourism becoming one of the most visited countries globally but in some cases it has been too successful and not all destinations as I said at the beginning have benefited equally. Also, tourism has generated tensions and dependencies with great economic and social implications - touristification and overtourism - seasonality - vacation rentals - Mass tourism -Scarcity of resources -Pollution So far we only talk about how Spain and the different destinations can attract more tourists. But the question in the medium and long term will be: How can we attract the tourist we need most, and how can we distribute them better ensuring that society benefits as a whole while minimizing the impacts It is time to reflect on how We can use this impasse of tourism to decide what kind of tourists we want to attract and how can we attract them in the future The population, the destinations before the pandemic already they no longer wanted just any type of tourist, they did not want the kind of tourists famous for balconing, drunken tourists who cause discomfort difficult to justify by the economic benefits they generate, while governments increasingly try to tackle increases in rental prices and other negative consequences for the receiving population. The pandemic has stopped all this all at once... but it is a momentary pause. This pause on the road, the pandemic, represents, as I say, a great opportunity to rethink the tourism model we want and DMOs have to evolve from mere agents promoting to managers of the impact of tourism in destination. Growth in domestic tourism internal also creates challenges in many destinations. Returning to this summer's figures, Spain managed
to recover of the volume of international travelers prior to the pandemic, 49.4% less than in 2019 Despite this, three cities, three Spanish cities snuck into the list of the 10 most resilient European cities this summer in terms of international arrivals: Ibiza, Palma and Malaga. On the other hand, domestic tourism reached almost pre-pandemic levels... but did it cover even in part, the loss of international visitors? Balearic Islands proved to be a trendy destination this summer, for both domestic and international travellers. But
the archipelago is very dependent on international tourists. The most resilient regions for the domestic air market were the Canary Islands with +24.4% more than in 2019 and the Balearic Islands with +5.5% this summer. The island of La Palma, now in the focus of all, experienced
a huge growth in year-on-year variation, with 112% more national arrivals than in 2019 Let me stop here again... in some places of both archipelagos the management of mass tourism was before the pandemic already an important topic to be addressed. Pressure on the environment, roads on the way to beaches and coves totally collapsed for months, waste management shortage of housing for teachers on islands such as Formentera, etc. Logically we count these
figures as a positive fact in a very delicate situation, but surely, with the recovery of the sector, they will bring consequences that will have to be managed. And summer has been a simple mirage The data we handle for the rest of the year is similar: the tickets confirmed to travel to Spain from abroad, from October to December, are already at 54% of what had traditionally been booked at this time. In the case of the Canary Islands, which face their traditional high season for the international market, reservations are only 16% below the values at the same time in 2019, while for the Balearic Islands, reservations are only 4% below The domestic market shows even more robust results: air bookings for the month of October are 30% below the values of 2019 on average, and both the Canary Islands only -2% below and the Balearic Islands 8% below, expect to receive a number of domestic travellers similar to that of a normal year like 2019 Considering how short booking windows have become, it wouldn't be surprising to see many visitors book last-minute getaways in Spain this fall, Which would considerably increase the results Other destinations, such as Barcelona, barely have 30% of the volume of confirmed reservations in the same moment two years ago as they see the recovery is being very uneven Although we observe and celebrate the relative improvement in the sector, the real question for 2023 or 2024 is not how many tourists will arrive but how destinations are going to handle the situation so that the arrival of tourists remains comfortable both for visitors and locals On one hand it is increasingly important for visitors to feel safe : we want to limit COVID as much as possible. And both the destinations businesses in the sector have done a lot about it. On the other hand, we want welcoming societies to suffer as few negative effects of tourism as possible, while also fulfilling the "destination experience" that visitors expect. We have seen such different examples of management as Benidorm, where the relative lack of tourists has been taken advantage of to design strategies to manage the influx on its beaches or as neighbors of Quintueles, in Asturias they designed a campaign to urge visitors to accept the sounds of the countryside such as the singing of the roosters. If anything becomes evident here, it is the
need to also involve host societies in the decision-making process and in tourism management It is clear that it is no longer enough for a destination to only measure the number of incoming visitors, whatever method of transport they choose. hat's why many like ForwardKeys are working with all the data at our fingertips, to answer these new questions that destinations have to answer: Where in my destination are visitors headed ? How can I make sure that not everyone stays in the same areas ? How can I limit the negative side effects of community visitors ? Let me show you some of the studies we have underway: Returning to Ibiza and Mallorca, which are recovering very quickly reaching levels of almost pre-pandemic visitors How do you manage to distribute visitors on the islands? In this case, we have analysed both German and English visitors. Something that is evident at first glance, using data from geolocation apps, is how the British focus on the main party and beach areas of Ibiza, while the Germans are interested in making the day trip to Formentara and visiting quieter parts of the island. How can this help us? What activities to offer to which client of visitors and, gives us clues about which market of origin to focus on, looking for the right balance of visitors. In addition, promote and launch marketing campaigns in the right direction to be able to distribute these visitors in the most uniform and sustainable way. It is also possible to do this by measuring your purchasing power. Are Russian travellers spending more money in Marbella
or Corfu? In other words, the future of destination management organizations lies in better understanding the characteristics of demand and understanding its interests. The challenge will be to organize marketing campaigns in such a way that they are able to attract a balanced group of visitors, who are not only in a single season and not everyone wants to perform the same activities This will help sustainable tourism growth with the least "nuisances" for the local population. ForwardKeys believes that tourism management should also include the measurement of the environmental impact on the territory. We receive daily satellite information
that allows us to correlate sectors or temporary periods of more or less tourist activity with pollution levels directly related to transport. This allows governments of all sizes to make decisions that alleviate these impacts. Our sector has suffered from a chronic deficit in technologies. The pandemic is an opportunity to reflect, to think about what tourism we have, how it is articulated, why we have it and to what level we want it. At ForwardKeys we believe that it is time to join in this technological revolution and take advantage of all the capabilities that data gives us. For example, European Next Generation are going to help in many of these aspects. They will help build what we think
will be necessary to maximize the positive effects of tourism for the population and for the economy, ensuring an economic but also social and emotional contribution. Spanish destinations are in this line and we at ForwardKeys try to put the maximum of our We are constantly working to facilitate decision-making in this complex context. Is your destination prepared for the future? It was pleasure, from Valencia, Juan Gomez
2021-10-08 18:01
