Towards a more digital and secure tourism

The tourism sector is already warming up its engines for the post-pandemic era, and everything indicates that the trend will be for customers, especially hotel guests, to be more digital and more demanding in terms of safety and quality. At least, that's what Federico J. González, global president of Radisson Hotel Group, one of the leading chains, with 14,500 hotels totaling 228,000 rooms spread across the globe, predicts. González participated last Tuesday in a webinar organized by the Dircom association.

The Radisson executive has been promoting the modernization of the hotel sector for years, considering it key to the recovery of one of the activities most affected by the coronavirus crisis. For González, chains that have committed to change and adaptation to new times will have an easier time than those who have not addressed this aspect, as they will continue to face the same structural problems as before COVID.

González anticipates that the first post-pandemic months will be a period of liberation, during which people will travel again almost out of psychological necessity. However, once this initial period of relief and distortion passes, he is convinced that customers will value aspects that until now might have been acceptable, such as safety and hygienic conditions. Nevertheless, this demand will also be accompanied by a willingness to pay more.

People will travel again almost out of psychological necessity, but after this period, customers will value aspects that until now might have been acceptable, such as safety and hygienic conditions.

In this new paradigm, customers will require more personalization, which will necessitate offering a wider range of experiences. Consequently,the sector must prepare for an increase in customer segmentation to satisfy their needs, which will also lead to greater price segmentation. The digitalization of the sector will be important. Rooms intended for business tourism must now be equipped with technology that allows optimal connection capabilities for videoconferences and telemeetings. All of this will force hotel chains to invest in technology in their establishments.

Federico J. González's webinar took place in a week where movements aimed at facing the next summer season have begun to be noticed. Thus, Barcelona is preparing to compete with other tourist cities with a campaign aimed at attracting national public given the uncertainty, still, about the restrictions that each country will impose. According to the latest data, 47% of visitors come to Barcelona from Catalonia; 36% from the rest of the peninsula; 15% come from Europe, and only 1.7% from the rest of the world.

The sector believes that the recovery of tourism will be faster than expected. And it probably will be. Nothing suggests that Barcelona will cease to be an attractive destination with a very powerful cultural, gastronomic, sports, and shopping offer. Now other characteristics, less taken into account until now, will have to be added, such as that it is a sanitarily safe, sustainable, and digital city.

Nothing suggests that Barcelona will cease to be an attractive destination with a very powerful cultural, gastronomic, sports, and shopping offer

The third contribution to this week of tourism has come from the Barcelona Provincial Council, which has released a study on the intention of Catalans to travel this summer. The report predicts that slightly less than half of the citizens of Catalonia, 45.2%, intend to do so. Of these, 47.6% will do so to the rest of Spain, while 19.7% will move within the autonomous community. Slightly more than a quarter, 27.2%, will travel abroad. The preferred communities for Catalans will be Andalusia and the Balearic Islands. Those who do not leave Catalonia, the Pyrenees, the Costa Brava, and the Costa Daurada will be the most popular destinations, while those who travel abroad will do so mostly, 42.8%, to European Union countries.

The weight of tourism in our economy will be decisive in the economic reactivation after covid. The first impact, although in the business tourism sector, we will experience it at the end of June, when the Mobile World Congress (MWC) opens its doors. The return of the great global mobile telephony event will have much that is symbolic. The cancellation in 2020 was the first major consequence of the pandemic. With Mobile, the crisis began and now it will mark the beginning of the recovery.