An emerging trend in the hospitality business is “vengeance travel.” After being unable to travel for two years or more because of the pandemic, many people are eager to make up for lost time. This rather straightforward concept has had a substantial impact on the market. As a form of “retaliation” against the epidemic, many people are planning large-scale excursions. The current boom in the hotel business may be largely attributed to this pattern.
During the course of the pandemic, many activities, including travel, were postponed or cancelled. Weddings, birthday parties, family reunions, work-related conferences, conferences, and exhibits, and other similar occasions left our social and professional calendars noticeably bare of group activities for a long length of time. Following the pandemic, we have seen an increase in both “vengeance travel” and “vengeance occasions.”Everyone, once again, longs for genuine human connection.
Hospitality companies and event planners may take a deep sigh of relief when warmer weather finally arrives. But at the same time, we need to acknowledge (and extensively explore) this new territory.
1. Bullish Forecasts
According to Knowland, the meetings and conventions sector will bounce back to 106.4% of 2019 levels by 2023. Meanwhile, Amadeus expects that 64.0% of event pros report price increases this year. According to Knowland, the number of conferences nearly reached pre-pandemic levels in September. There will be more conferences than in 2019 by mid-2023, according to the report. These numbers suggest that the market has bounced back (and that suppressed need is having an effect), with face-to-face transactions between buyers and sellers once again being in high demand.
American Express Meetings & Events is extremely confident in its long-term success, as seen by their worldwide outlook for 2023. “There’s a remarkable understanding of the value of having in-person conferences,” stated Gerardo Tejado, senior vice president of global worth growth and basic supervisor of conferences and events at American Express GBT. The importance of holding internal conferences has been reevaluated as businesses seek to revitalise their cultures and foster more intergroup understanding and unity via a common shared experience.
Supply chain management is becoming increasingly important for the hospitality industry and event venues. Just how does it appear? Is there a sector that isn’t being employed as effectively as it could be? If you were a visitor, where in the room would you put your money on winning the lottery? By stressing flexibility in the face of these promising market projections, brands may strengthen their positions. Hotels that treat their guests like genuine, resourceful partners in the planning and booking process have a better chance of succeeding as a brand.
2. Economic Headwinds
The recent downward trend in numerous financial markets may appear at odds with these hopeful projections. Companies that operate as buyers’ agents have to juggle a multitude of resources as the “R” word is constantly bandied about and spending plans are scaled back across industries in anticipation of greater volatility. Businesses and event organisers are increasingly adopting techniques similar to what we are doing in the hotel sector as a result of growing prices and inflationary conditions.
Demand has been steadily rising, but it’s crucial to keep in mind that customers may become dissatisfied with recent rate and price hikes. In order to give the idea that customers are getting their money’s worth, the events sector must carefully manage its price and value offer. Businesses like hotels that rely on their physical location need to further segment their customer bases in order to find the customer segments that are least impacted by the present economic slump. Don’t be afraid to go really specific and hunt for the high-performing nooks and crannies that the events industry sometimes overlooks.
Possibile competitive advantages for various locations abound as well. It’s likely that a glut of the market has prompted prices to level down in states like Florida and Arizona. Potential beneficiaries of the consequent shift in service provision include emerging regional areas, which may highlight their own competitive advantages.
3. Much Shorter Booking Windows
The convention and meeting space has always been heavily utilised. Event planners, however, are finding that the process now takes only a fraction of the time it did even a decade ago. Research shows that 53% of coordinators are planning or sourcing events less than a year in advance because to the necessity to rebook the backlog of cancelled events and conferences brought on by the epidemic.
We anticipate this development will cause an increase in RFPs, some of which will undoubtedly be of low quality. Therefore, brands in the hospitality and location industries must make use of innovation to keep up with the pace of development necessary to retain their competitive edge. Speed and service are typically prioritised over cost. The speech in which hotels and other venues acknowledge RFPs and develop connections with new clients should be prioritised. I believe that sales teams shouldn’t be scared to call potential clients to introduce themselves, build rapport, and set expectations at the outset of a relationship.
4. Smaller sized Meetings
Since the pandemic shifted people’s perspective on huge celebrations, there has been a growth in smaller, more intimate celebrations. Planners anticipate that the share of companies holding small in-person conferences (those with 50 or fewer people) will return to pre-pandemic levels at 52%.
The events sector may take advantage of this trend by reorienting its efforts towards intimate gatherings of a select group of people. Hotels and other event spaces may profit from this shift towards smaller, more regular gatherings by adopting a group scheduling engine optimised for smaller spaces. This can improve efficiency, boost customer service through automation, and better accommodate guests.
5. Increasing Costs
The growing expenses of holding events in modern times is a major concern for event organisers. According to a CWT forecast for 2022, this would result in a cost per attendance that is 25% more than in 2019, with a further 7% increase anticipated this year. If they want their events to be available to a large audience without breaking the bank for attendees, event planners will need to be smart and innovative in their approach to prices.
Data on lost business is particularly important for hotel and tourist destination brands to understand where and why they are losing consumers. Where are your clients going, exactly? By zeroing in on the weaknesses of both traditional and nontraditional rivals, you may typically gain a significant advantage.
6. Sustainability
Sustainability is quickly becoming a crucial focus in business, as evidenced by the fact that 70% of organisations already incorporate sustainability factors in their proposal criteria. Regarding the RFP procedure, 41% of respondents claimed their organisation provides hotels with green accreditations “some choice” or “a great deal of choice.”
Eighty-nine per cent of respondents recognised sustainability as a problem, with sustainable supply chains and communities being the top two areas where green initiatives were desired.
As a result of this movement, the events sector may start using more eco-friendly methods. This involves measures to lessen the impact that events and conferences have on the environment, such as recycling more and using less energy. Adopting sustainability efforts into practises and as a significant component of brand values in 2023 may help hotels and other venues differentiate themselves from competitors, attract environmentally concerned consumers, and contribute to a more sustainable future.
7. More information and innovation
The events business is one that has benefited digitally from the pandemic. Hotels increasingly rely on data and technology for everything from automating routine chores to increasing income and identifying unrealized business prospects to reducing the yearly 23% decline in data quality and maximising the effectiveness of group sales. Technology has become increasingly important for event organisers since virtual and hybrid events have become more popular since the epidemic.
In particular, data analytics is playing a bigger role in the preparation and execution of events. The availability of more data than ever before raises the question of whether or not this is a net positive. How can businesses like hotels and restaurants know their information is correct? What should their plan of action be? To better evaluate demand and investigate subtleties across various groups, how can businesses construct the necessary data infrastructure? Traditional sales and catering systems have concentrated on the bottom of the sales funnel and relied almost exclusively on an incoming RFP pipeline rather than trying to develop a fully data-driven strategy. Thanks to developments in automation, new platforms are rapidly sanitising data and locating possibilities.
By studying and acting on enormous volumes of data, event organisers may get insight into attendees’ tastes and behaviours, improve their marketing efforts, and give a better overall experience. The Demand Engine was created by Parclane to add artificial intelligence (AI) automation to current sales and catering systems. Our system seeks to liberate the potential in S&C data so that additional group revenue, new degrees of customization, automated prospecting, faster sales cycles, improved conversion rates, and most significantly, happy coordinators may be realised.
Hotels and event spaces are adapting to satisfy the growing demand for live events despite the difficulties they’ve encountered in the expanding sector. In order to meet the needs of their clients in the future, hospitality businesses and event planners will need to be open to new ideas, perspectives, and simple marketing automation systems like Parclane.