Nasir Shaikh

Group Ceo- The Lexicon group of Institutes, Educarck & MultiFit.

With rapid and dynamic changes happening in the way we live our lives at home and the workplace, there will be a change how businesses operate a decade from now. The hospitality industry too is bound to be influenced by these changes. Technology like artificial intelligence has already got its foot in the door of most industries. It is to be seen how and where its influences lead us in the coming decade.

Components of Sustainable Tourism in 2030

To balance the volume of visitors at a destination to preserve its environment and its ecology is a challenge even in present times. With larger tourist influx, there needs to be rapid investments in creating infrastructure that remains viable for the future. Expansion of tourist activity cannot be at the cost of interests of the host population and the resources of the region. Government policies will have to consider the attitudes and behaviors of both hosts and tourists before formulating laws.

In a decade, tourism will leave its impact on natural resources and attractions, including man-made. It will also impact the local economy, society and its culture. Though tourism is a glamourized economic activity, left uncontrolled it will lead to telling impacts on the destination.

Tourism preference in 2030

Both Urban and Heritage tourism may stagnate in growth by 2030. The biggest game changer will be adventure tourism which will attract a lion’s share of our domestic market in the 18 – 35 age group. There is a grassroots demand for group tours in unexplored areas and city tours which have a long duration stay in a city compared to whistle stop multiple city tours. These will have larger appeal to the 35 to 55 age group. Another small market segment waiting to explode is the business cum leisure traveler. As travelling businessmen look to create work life balance, the tourist destinations will promote corporate meets and look at providing facilities that will get them business in off season. This sector will get better organized and take away some of the market share from urban areas.

Solo Trips

It is difficult to predict the growth of this market segment as it has always been dynamic. The fact that today we are more comfortable in the company of our mobiles than people, social groups may be formed of complete strangers. This may or may not grow as the culture in our country is deep rooted in social behaviors and the growth avenue will be purely international tourist footfalls. Group tours will always be in demand compared to solo trips.

Look of Travel and Tourism in 2030

With the government focus on clean drinking water (Jal Ministry of GOI), hygienic toilets and swift waste management systems at tourist sites, the tourism stakeholders can look forward to multi fold growth in the coming decade.

Travel logistics will change with availability of long-distance a/c trains, compact smart buses and affordable air travel to far away destinations.

Hotels will have larger use of technology and know more about guest preferences as guest info will be available through internet platforms. Human guest interactions will reduce as AI will play a bigger role in guest experiences. Budget hotels which adopt technology will be beneficiaries as labor costs reduce.

Tourists will look for happenings beyond the destination experiences. Unexplored areas with relative safety will create a niche market. The coming decade is surely an exciting time for the tourism industry.