A four-day 60th birthday party (yes, there was a large birthday cake) in Downtown Las Vegas…. sounds like a good time doesn’t it? Of course, Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) conventions are always fun and entertaining; catching up with old contacts, colleagues, and friends and meeting new ones, usually on location in a destination few attendees have previously visited – what’s not to enjoy?
This year’s event was no exception on the fun front, but with the Society celebrating a significant anniversary and milestone of successfully making it to 60 years, the unique chance that the conference offers to make meaningful industry connections in a media market more cluttered than ever, seemed especially poignant. Furthermore, the theme of “reinvention”; fitting for both the Downtown Vegas location (more on this later) and SATW’s ambition and efforts to evolve and continue to be at the forefront of travel and media trends and opportunities for its members, provided a new and interesting lens through which to view and experience the Convention.
The topic of reinvention carried through the professional development sessions and messages from keynote speakers. Here are some of the highlights and top takeaways:
Roger Dow on Reinventing Travel
As president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association (USTA), the national trade association representing all segments of America’s $2.1 trillion travel industry, Dow is certainly qualified to talk about the rapidly changing travel landscape as well as USTA’s own transformation. Over the past 10 years, Dow has lead the charge in changing a formerly fragmented organization into a united advocacy force now recognized as one of the U.S.’s most effective industry associations. Dow’s overview and argument for the Open Skies agreement, along with general pro-competition, pro-traveler and pro-growth-and-change attitude, was inevitably well-received and overridingly a case of preaching to the already converted.
Dow’s biggest hit with the audience, however, was the promotion of Project Time Off (PTO); the campaign for encouraging Americans to take more vacations and to shift culture so that personal time off is not considered frivolous but essential for a number of reasons, highlighted in a video on “the upside of downtime.” Sadly, in recent years Americans have been taking fewer vacations instead of more, with a decline from an average of 20 down to 16 days. PTO is designed to stress the importance of taking time off to recharge and connect with whatever matters most; be it family, friends, nature, and ideally exploring new or revisiting favorite places. Not only does taking time off work deliver personal gain, it provides a proven return on investment for companies benefiting from increased productivity and new perspective from refreshed employees, as well as being good for the overall economy. Some staggering stats:
- Last year U.S. workers left 429 million paid vacation days unused
- 2 million jobs would result if people took their vacations
- That vacation you don’t take takes $160 billion from the U.S. economy
Likely you don’t need convincing of the huge value of PTO, but to eradicate any doubts whatsoever check out MasterCard’s “one more day is priceless” ad…. and sold!
The Art of Reinvention
An interesting panel discussion with examples including the Las Vegas Downtown Project, Portland Development and Austin Revitalization. These dynamic cities showcased urban renewal as a viable travel story and how urban development relates and contributes to the special story and history of a place. A useful reminder on how revitalization translates to a great experience for travelers to a city, making it a more compelling place to visit and write about.
In summary, any destination earning the reputation as a desirable place to live will naturally (and enhanced through our PR efforts) translate as a prime place to visit. Kudos to our Toronto client for making it to the top of Metropolis magazine’s recent list of the world’s most livable cities; the city’s reputation for offering high quality of life certainly aids our ability to tell the story of Toronto as an equally awesome place to visit.
What's the Trend?
In a world increasingly obsessed with the next big thing, travel trends are a fast-moving target and something PR professionals need to constantly stay on top of in order to be experts to our clients. Presented by experts from Travelocity, Trivago and AAA, here are some of the 2015 trends you may have missed and 2016 trends on the horizon:
- Conspicuous leisure: Today’s most coveted luxuries are technology, and travel and leisure. Social media has imparted “currency” to the sharing of travel experiences and redefined our sense of wealth to experiences rather than “stuff.”
- Local experiences: the desire for local, authentic, and the more unique and different the better as a way to break through the clutter. The more socially viable and shareable the experience, the more “valuable.” This presents a unique opportunity for booming second tier cities to capitalize on promoting local experiences as more and more people are traveling and seeking something out of the obvious and norm.
- Social media driving travel trends: from athletic events, adventure travel and engaging with nature, to frontierism; experiencing rare landscapes and the road less traveled, today everyone is a journalist telling their own story and trying to stand out. For U.S. travelers, Cuba is the pinnacle representation of frontierism, hence its current hefty share of voice in both social and traditional media. As noted by AAA, African safaris are on the rise in Botswana and Namibia, instead of typically Kenya or South Africa, and AAA Mystery Tours, (where both destination and itinerary are unknown) are gaining in popularity, as travelers are becoming more daring in their destination choices.
- Impact of sharing culture for travel brands: the effectiveness of traditional information sources is mixed. Personal recommendations by friends and family are among the most powerful and social media has significant influence. 42 percent of all stories on Facebook are travel related and the trend is changing from traditional, iconic experiences to less explored adventures and vistas.
- Authentic food: the demand to eat like a local, with the rise of apps like Bookalokal and EatWith.
- Apps: there are a whopping 3.5 million (and counting!) apps in existence, so if you develop one it must be better than ever to stand out. A few gaining momentum: Hopper, Hotel Tonight, Hellotel.
Pack to the Future
A forward-looking discussion from industry leaders at TripIt, Phocuswright and Tnooz, covering how technology is shaping the way we travel, along with the millennial mindset, which is changing our travel preferences and pioneering new frontiers in the travel space. Based on the trends we’re watching constantly change and develop today, it’s perhaps never been more interesting to consider what the modern traveler may look like in five or 10 years and beyond. Here are some valuable insights:
- As millennials and those with the millennial mindset dedicate more discretional income to travel, the desire is for travel to be a part of life, not something you save and work for.
- Millennials travel more than any other generation, making them extremely savvy and with an innate ability to see through the inauthentic; they want real experiences and won’t tolerate bad content.
- Bucking the booking trend: mobile is likely to surpass desktop and lead times are lessening with 44 percent booking last minute within a week.
- Undoubtedly the future is demanding as much as possible to be personalized and bespoke, constantly looking for efficiencies and time saving solutions. While technology is rising, people don’t want machines and will still value personal human service. (Hello, Audley Travel!)
- For a fun look at the future of travel, imagine an airport you can arrive five minutes before a flight, involving just a quick walk through security where you’re cleared automatically upon entrance thanks to new technology. Airports could be thought of more as destinations, with stellar food options and services, appealing to people who are not even actually flying.
- Apps (again) are changing the rules of travel, like DUFL, which cleverly cleans and stores a traveler’s business clothes in a virtual closet before delivering the luggage for the next trip.
Final Thoughts
The theme of the Convention was reinvention, but “ reimagining” would be just as apt. We’re all authoring our own many channels, with more platforms than ever before, and are fortunate to be able to curate our own travel experiences with record freedom, ability and options. With this in mind, it’s maybe more inspiring to keep remembering to reimagine; to refuse to settle for status quo and to always strive to creatively look how to shape the future of storytelling, for clients and ourselves.
