? Top Ten Tourism Topics of 2019
Another year has flown by and with the holidays approaching very soon, the Next Tourism Generation Alliance had a look at the most-read blog articles on the website. With the main focus on digital, social and green skills in five different sub-sectors in tourism and hospitality, many case studies, events and expert interviews were highlighted in the blog section. In the coming year, many more hot topics will be discussed on the website and shared on our social media channels.
Before we head off to 2020, letās have a look at the top ten tourism topics of 2019. Enjoy!
By Lobke Elbers | skills in F&B
Digitalization is everywhere, but not every tourism experience can be digitalized. The tourism industry has one sub-sector that remains at its best when it comes to offering un-digitalized services: the food & beverages sub-sector. In this blog, the trends of Food Tourism and its impact on the tourism industry will be discussed.
By People 1st | digital skills in tourismĀ
Tourism arrivals worldwide are expected to increase by 3.35 per cent each year until 2030 (UNWTO, 2011). But with technological innovations set to continue to change jobs and digital skills becoming ever more essential, how will the industry prepare its future workforce to capitalise on the opportunities this presents? We speak to the Executive Director, Jane Rexworthy, of People 1st International to find out.
3. Sustainability and āgreenā skills in hospitality ā how to make a sexy concept work?
By Varna University of Management | green skills in hospitality
Sustainable practices and activities are well known, as is their positive impact on the overall hotel performance. However, there is one question, which is rarely asked: what competencies and skills do hospitality employees (including managers) need, in order to properly apply the relevant āsustainableā actions? In order to answer the above question, letās first have a look at the particular environmentally friendly practices applied by hotels. The required knowledge and competencies, necessary to implement those practices will then lead us to the specific skills, named āgreenā.
4. Ultimate transformation: How will robots, artificial intelligence and service automation disrupt the tourism and hospitality industries?
By Varna University of Management | digital skills in tourism and hospitality
At the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century, the GDSs (Global Distribution Systems), Internet, social media, websites and mobile applications, made the world smaller and changed the rules of the business and competition among travel, tourism and hospitality companies. Now the tourism industry is facing a new revolution, one more powerful, transformative and with longer-term implications than the previous changes. Tourism is entering the robotics era. Stanislav Ivanov from NTG key partner Varna University of Management wrote an interesting blog on this matter.
5. Access City Award 2019: Quick wins from Breda, the Netherlands
By Lorainne van Liere | social skills in tourism
In this blog, Wouter Schelvis accessibility and mobility advisor at ZET (the link between inclusion, participation and social innovation) shares the story behind the race towards the Access City Award and how he thinks that Accessibility is the new item on a destinationās checklist. The purpose of this award is to support and inspire cities in Europe, which may face challenges when it comes to being accessible for all types of tourists, and promote best practices across Europe. It recognizes and celebrates a cityās willingness, ability and efforts to become more accessible in order to
6. How Transformative Travel can make lives better
By Lorainne van Liere | green skills in tourism
The first edition of the Travel Congress began with an impressive keynote from Jeremy Smith, author of the book āTransformative Travelā. During his keynote, Jeremy took us through the transformation of various sub-sectors in the tourism industry. The Next Tourism Generation aims to create transformative cooperation in five key tourism sub-sectors: hospitality, food and beverage operations, travel agencies and tour operators, visitor attractions and destination management. The keynote of Jeremy reflects upon many of those sub-sectors and led to many interesting insights and are helpful for the progress of the Sectoral Skills Development of NTG.
7. Customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator by 2030
By People 1st | social skills in tourism and hospitality
Providing outstanding customer service is a sure way of building brand loyalty and repeat custom. Seven out of 10 people will spend more money to do business with a company that provides great customer service and its importance is set to increase. The forecast for 2030 suggests a more personalised service with human interaction will be the key to repeat business, also shown in the Next Tourism Generation research outcomes. Moreover, with customer acquisition costing up to 25 times more than retention, businesses must embrace this strengthening direction and focus more on their employees and their interaction with the customer.
8. NTG: social skills for future tourism – growing numbers of tourists from Asia
By Breda University of Applied Sciences | social skills in tourism
The first ā desk research ā phase of the Next Tourism Generation (NTG) Alliance project came to an end in October 2018 with a report composed under the supervision of Breda University of Applied Sciences. This report reviews the current skills situations in the partner countries involved and analyses some trends that will impact future skills for tourism. In this blog, we will take a closer look at one of these trends: growing numbers of tourists from China.
9. Interview with Dr. Angela Kalisch: Gender Equality in Tourism
By Cardiff MET | social skills in tourism
Dr. Angela Kalisch has seen many professional sides of the tourism industry, from working in the tour operator sector in sustainable tourism, academic to now being a Chair for the charity Equality in Tourism International. She has researched, taught and worked within the industry to echo what movements she believes are important in the industry, particularly gender equality in tourism. One of the main social skills that the Next Tourism Generation (NTG) wants to bring to the attention of its audience, isĀ gender equality in tourism. This interview will highlight several interesting insights regarding this matter by Dr. Angela Kalisch.
10. Professional training in Augmented Reality (AR) for the tourism sector
By Eurogites | digital skills in tourism
When we are faced with new technological advances, in the first instance we may consider them as a field of science fiction. It is only when we consider the advantages from the practical point of view that we recognize how technology can serve as a useful tool for service and management procedures in tourism. Key partner Eurogites from the Next Tourism Generation Alliance (NTG)Ā highlights the importance and relevance of Augmented Reality (AR) in the tourism sector.
These were our top ten tourism topics of 2019, a variety of digital, green and social skills topics with case studies from all over Europe. Do you have any interesting topics that you would like to see back in our top ten tourism topics of 2020? Let us know in the comments!
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