What will be the travel trends for 2021?
How can location-based solutions best fit into travel companies?
Many have been the conversations around the travel sector these past months. Now facing 2021, the year in which it is hoped and trusted that all the sectors that have been affected this past 2020 will be reactivated, many companies are beginning to have ideas for relaunching travel and leisure.
During this past 2020, the intentions of the users have been compiled in relation to how they would face the way of doing tourism as soon as the restrictions would allow it.
Domestic travel, workations, sustainable and wellness travel are a few of the travel trends that we have found. We have outlined each trend and added some examples of how location-based services can be implemented.
Stay local
(staycations)
Once in a lifetime experiences
Workations
Wellness tourism
Sustainable travel
Staycations
ABTA (Association of British Travel Agents) has identified two different types of travellers for 2021: the ones who want to return to enjoy those places that they already knew but weren’t able to visit during 2020, and the ones looking for adventures and luxury experiences.
To the prominent tendency of this past 2020 of trips near home, it is added now the preference to return to enjoy those places that we already know but that we have not been able to visit this past year due to the closure of borders. From the latest ABTA’s research, Spain, France, the USA, Italy and Greece are the top 5 destinations where UK users want to travel again in 2021.
These results match what is predicted by Euronews: this past summer, nine out of ten Europeans chose a continental destination, the most demanded being outdoor activities closer to nature, beaches and resorts; and 2021 will likely be similar.
Once-in-a-lifetime experiences
Although, there are more and more people who want to seize and explore faraway places once the situation calms down. Travel companies have caught on to this trend and are already creating specialized wilderness adventure packages or luxury experiences.
As an example, G Adventures, the travel tours and experiences site, has seen an increase in people’s interest in their active experiences such as Peru, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Kilimanjaro or the Everest. People want to get their freedom back embarking on a “once-in-a-lifetime” trip that lets them experience other cultures and natural environments.
Workations
This concept has become quite viral since the end of the year and is definitely a trend for 2021. Remote working has come to stay in many companies. And that makes us realise that as long as we can have a good internet connection that allows us to be in contact with our colleagues, we can work from almost anywhere.
And this is how the term workation came about, which means combining work and vacations. This can be linked to the trend we mentioned earlier of having longer holiday periods, as the worker does not need to physically return to an office.
In 2021 we will see many companies adapting to this travel trend and providing special tours and packages that offer experiences and cover the basics so that the user can work.
Wellness tourism
The months of coronavirus confinement have had a negative effect on most of society. If we talk about mental health, many people have experienced anxiety and stress during this time of restrictions and sanitary crisis, not being able to get out of the house and see friends and family.
That is why wellness tourism will become increasingly popular. People are looking now for longer periods of holidays that will enable them to disconnect from work and the current situation in order to connect with themselves and nature. Also, slow travel: less frenetic activities and more connection with the destination and its local experiences.
Sustainable travel
All these aforementioned trends have a positive impact on the environment and sustainability. More people are becoming aware of the environment and looking for solutions on how to positively impact it. Especially after this past year, in which many sectors of the population have been negatively affected.
Many travel companies are adding this concept to their strategies, combining leisure travel with local experiences that help communities recover from the economic impact of Covid-19, as well as the premise of reducing carbon emissions, offering other options to air travel, and also creating packages focused on Slow Travel.
How does location fit with these travel trends?
Location-based services are a powerful tool for travel companies to showcase their solutions in a visual way as well as to help the user better understand where their points of interest are. Here’s a few examples how digital mapping could be used in relation with the travel trends stated below:
