Travel marketers told to rethink families, women and cyborgs
Travel marketers need to examine how they think about and target families and women if they’re going to succeed in the modern market, Carolyn Childs, co-founder of MyTravelResearch.com.au has foreshadowed.
She also predicted that the #metoo movement would transition to #meonly as women get more economic power and expect more personalisation.
Childs: We are entering the age of the cyborg
“We’re going to have to start thinking beyond Janet and John families – I’m showing my UK origins, that’s the book I learned to read with – mum, dad, boy, girl,” she said. “Families are single parents, they are blended families, they are all sorts of different family structures, and that’s going to keep powering the circumstances that are driving multi-generational travel. [They] are not going anywhere, so that will continue.”
She also predicted that in the era of #metoo – a movement dedicated to exposing the widespread mistreatment of women, particularly in relation to sexual assault and harassment – would instead become an economic movement which will be accompanied by expectations of personalisation.
“Me Too is increasingly going to be hashtag me only – economic empowerment of women. Women in Saudi Arabia own a third of the wealth there. So even in countries we don’t think of as being pioneers of women’s rights, that’s happening,” she said.
The intersection of humans and travel will also evolve as we enter “the age of the cyborg”, she said, which will forever change how travel experiences are delivered.
“I believe we’re entering the age of the cyborg, where we’re going to be enhancing our reality of what we do,” she said, noting it would be a positive, rather than a negative for the travel marketing industry.
“I think the initial gain will be to us in our customer service environment. So Air New Zealand trialling hololens, the next generation of kind of an augmented reality. Facial recognition means that every customer can walk into your restaurant, your shops, your hotel and be recognised – even if you’ve got a backpacker on a working holiday visa working for you, they can deliver a personalised service.”
