Visitors, Technology And Industry Trends Mean Big Changes Coming For Tourism

Emerging technologies and changing visitor demographics will likely change how people plan, book and engage on their holiday in coming years, Tourism Industry Aotearoa (TIA) says.

TIA has today released a white paper on Visitor Experience in a Changing World. Industry leaders are also meeting today at the Cordis in Auckland to explore these themes in depth and from a variety of perspectives at Tourism Summit Aotearoa.

Widely regarded as tourism’s must-attend thought leadership forum, Tourism Summit Aotearoa is a key event on the annual tourism calendar, bringing together more than 300 business and industry leaders from around the country.

The summit features talks from industry experts, panel discussions, and focused sessions taking deeper dives into key topics like driving growth and resilience through strong governance, visitor experience design, and gathering data and insights. 

TIA Chief Executive Rebecca Ingram says in just five years, the experience for visitors in Aotearoa New Zealand could be quite different from what they are today. 

“The future visitor experience will continue to be grounded on Aotearoa New Zealand’s landscape and people. However, this will be enriched by a wide range of technologies making travel easier, more informed and more connected. These changes can deepen the experience in ways adding value for our visitors and the industry itself,” Ms Ingram says.

The white paper explores changing visitor demographics, with a future driven by younger people who are more digitally aware, along with new markets from the emerging global middle class. It also scopes potential impacts of emerging technologies, likely to change nearly everything in terms of how tourism works.

“All indications are for the role of technology in tourism to accelerate – and this will create so much opportunity for some truly remarkable experiences – as well as industry productivity.”

“However, Aotearoa New Zealand must be competitive in a global context. Tourism is a key economic pillar for many countries, so to be successful, we must provide a complete experience for visitors, while ensuring access to markets and air connectivity to enable people to get here. How we turn up in the world matters,” Ms Ingram concludes.

The full whitepaper, Visitor Experience in a Changing World, is downloadable, for free, from the TIA website here: Visitor-Experience-in-a-Changing-World_TIA.pdf

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