How travel is changing: 'It's all about personalisation'
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How travel is changing: 'It'southward all nearly personalisation'
With travel becoming more than affordable and accessible, what do Singaporeans look for when they proceed holidays now?
Hiking at Gunung Batu in Lembang. (Photo: Corine Tiah)
thirty Sep 2022 06:34AM (Updated: 04 Jul 2022 06:22AM)
SINGAPORE: A week after my 25th altogether, I received a mysterious package at my door. "Open up simply at the airport" was stamped on the envelope.
It contained the details of my holiday - a trip I was taking the post-obit week and had no idea where and how. The night before, I packed as suggested by a "teaser electronic mail", which included hints of the weather, list of activities I can await and the exact time I was supposed to arrive at the airport.
On Aug 4, 8.23am, I walked through the doors of Last four, found a seat, sabbatum down and and so carefully opened the envelope. The destinations: Lembang and Sukabumi, two places I have not heard of. I later found out that they are two towns in Indonesia.
RISING Demand FOR CURATED AND UNIQUE TRAVEL EXPERIENCES
When asked for their travel plans in 2019, 82 per cent said they were planning to visit a new destination for the first time this year, citing off-the-beaten-rails destinations similar Ethiopia, Guatemala, Islamic republic of iran and Republic of yemen, to proper name a few.
Fifty-fifty the 18 per cent who planned to revisit a destination said they would experience it differently, including doing a route trip to explore parts of the country unknown to them.
READ: One in two Singaporeans are adventurous travellers, according to survey
They want a unique travel experience.
"It really sets the base of like wanting to venture out alone and also to less crowded places where yous tin can really experience the local culture and be yourself," said Ting Xuan, a 25-twelvemonth-onetime counsellor.
"Every time I travel, I will try to make information technology less touristy as possible. For me, I prefer to go to places where there are very little tourists and it is not very well-explored. When I travel, I ever look out for hidden gems and my itinerary is very flexible so I don't take a fixed plan and itinerary of where I want to go and what I desire to do."
She has now taken around 20 solo trips, every bit they made her feel "dauntless and strong" and counts a month-long trip to Indonesia as the almost memorable.
"I went to climb Mount Bromo. It is very touristy and it is easy to have a tour merely I desire to do information technology myself," said Ting Xuan. "So I took a 17-hour bus ride there and along the way, a lot of people will try to scam you considering obviously you're a tourist so I need to learn how not to get scammed."
NOT JUST THE Immature
Even her parents, who used to appoint bout agencies, are changing their means of travelling. Ting Xuan said that, to her surprise, her father has started planning and going on i-month backpacking trips on his own.
This is also reflected in Anywhr's irresolute demographic. While the company saw more young female solo travellers using their services at the beginning, their traveller base of operations has increased to the likes of families with children as young equally four months, and newly-weds going on their honeymoon.
Their oldest client was a homo in his 60s, who engaged them to plan his solo trip, so he could tick off an item on his bucket listing.
"He said that he wanted something that he didn't become to practise when he was young, and then he used this trip as an opportunity to cease what he didn't manage to do when he was young. He wanted somewhere more adventurous and rural to experience all of that," said Anywhr trip curator Lian Hui Ee.
Dr Wong King Yin, digital and tourism marketing lecturer at Nanyang Business concern School, said the increased affordability and accessibility of travel was a factor.
"When you call up nigh our grandparents' generation, maybe they will only have their kickoff overseas trip at 40 to l years old. For my generation, mayhap 20 years old is the norm for people to go on their first overseas trip. Present I heard that some kindergartens, they are going overseas for their graduation trips," said Dr Wong
In the by, people have the mindset of, I have some checkpoints at a travel destination, and I just need to go through these places to make me feel satisfied during the trip. But now information technology has become something that people don't feel satisfied with anymore because when they go to those places, a lot of people have been there.
She said when and so many people are able to travel, pop tourist spots have go crowded, which ruin the experience for some travellers.
"And so all these cause the preference of consumers to change and they will look for a more than personalised feel, rather than just a checklist or a checkpoint kind of travel feel," she added.
GOODBYE COOKIE-CUTTER TRAVEL PACKAGES
Tour agencies that offer a "checklist" travel experience are taking a hit.
Hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers were stranded on Sep 23 by the plummet of the world's oldest travel firm Thomas Melt, sparking the largest peacetime repatriation effort in British history.
The liquidation marks the end of a British company that started in 1841 running local rail excursions and grew to pioneer the family package holiday across Europe, America, Africa and the Heart East.
READ: Hundreds of thousands stranded after British travel firm Thomas Cook collapses
Hither, the Singapore Tourism Lath'due south (STB) Travel Related Users' System (Trust) figures show that 103 agencies airtight in 2013, 116 in 2014, and 119 in 2015. The number shot up to 149 closures in 2016.
"The rate of voluntary licence cessations has remained fairly consistent," said director of travel agents and tourist guides Kenneth Lim. "An average of 120 to 140 travel agents cease their travel agent licence voluntarily every yr for various reasons such as modify in business focus and retirement."
There were 267 more than closures in the final two years, said STB.
READ: Brick-and-mortar travel agencies in Singapore working hard to remain relevant
Dr Wong said the closures are to be expected if bout agencies do not go along upwards with the times.
"In the past where you joined a tour with a travel agency, they will bring you lot to purchase souvenirs and they would basically but waste a lot of your time. If they don't pay attention to the tendency and what customers really desire, then they volition definitely shut down," she said.
Chan Brothers Travel, which has been in the market for 54 years, said that they are using technology to be "fifty-fifty more interactive, personable and relevant" in a time where consumers have more options in planning their holidays.
"Compared to other online booking platforms which may non take the advantage of having a face up-to-confront relationship with their customers, we thrive on said human relationship and are deepening this further in all aspects of our business," said the company's marketing communications executive Victoria Chong.
For instance, it launched an eTravel Advisor app in 2016, which offers prospective travellers tour data and other functions, including pre-divergence briefings and post-tour feedback. In early on 2017, they added a Webchat system and a WhatsApp hotline to reply prospective customers' questions immediately.
Ms Chong added that they have modified their travel packages to run into Singaporeans' growing appetites for new travel experiences. Offbeat destinations such as Africa, Central Asia, Latin America have been added and for classic choices like Europe, they are also exploring "unassuming gems" along the lines of the Caucasus and North Macedonia.
For Anywhr, a personality quiz was their answer to standing out. The quiz, which travellers complete earlier confirming their trip, was a new improver to the website.
"If you expect at our website now, nowhere says 'surprise'. Now it'southward all well-nigh personalisation, like you take a quiz, you do your personality test, and and so we take a trip curator planning a trip just for yous," said Ms Leong.
"So the 'surprise' used to outshine all the other factors, and now we don't mention that at all considering we realised that the travellers mainly use us for the planning and our expertise of less travelled destinations."
More than PERSONALISATION
Every bit the travel manufacture continues to evolve, this may mean that even innovative companies would take to constantly tweak their offerings to remain competitive.
"At to the lowest degree they tin survive for a few years considering of the novelty, which a lot of young people volition definitely want to try at to the lowest degree once, but after that, I think they definitely need to evolve to provide even amend services," said Dr Wong.
"We can look if people encounter that, okay, this is the blazon of travel agency tin can survive and can make some profit, a lot of new trends will come up into identify to compete with them. And that is the fourth dimension when everyone wants to differentiate from each other."
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