TORONTO — The industry has to stop categorizing travellers in the same old way, “because the categories we used to have are breaking down,” says David Goldstein, President and CEO of Destination Canada.
Speaking at the 11th Annual Leisure Travel Summit in Toronto yesterday, hosted by Best Western Hotels & Resorts, Goldstein was commenting on the popularity of ‘bleisure’ travel – that is, the growing trend of business travellers tacking a couple of days onto their business trip for some vacation time, or adding in some leisure pursuits while on their corporate trip.
Just as business and leisure travel metrics are mixing more than ever before, so too are other markets. “VFR travellers are behaving a little more like FIT travellers. Group travel is also changing,” said Goldstein.
Tony Pollard, President, Hotel Association of Canada (HAC), said that in 2015, 40% of corporate hotel guests added a leisure component to their trip. In 2016 that number was up to 49%.
The personalization of travel is clearly here to stay, a sentiment echoed by the entire Leisure Travel Summit panel, including Goldstein and Pollard as well as Dorothy Dowling, Senior VP and Chief Marketing Officer, Best Western Hotels & Resorts, Brian Payea, Head of Industry Relations for TripAdvisor and Charlotte Bell, President and CEO, Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC).
Best Western guests can personalize their booking with new 360° virtual reality tours of some 2,100 of its properties. The new VR capability launches this summer, says Dowling. “This will allow travellers to have an experience of the product before they get there,” she said.
Much of the discussion at yesterday’s Leisure Travel Summit focused on inbound travel. After a challenging 10 years or so when Canada “kind of lost a decade”, the country is surging in popularity with U.S. and international travellers, not just for summer travel but in winter and the shoulder seasons too. “We’re regaining growth,” said Goldstein. Between 2002 and 2012, on an annualized basis, Canada lost almost four million U.S. travellers, he added. “Now we’re regaining growth.” Destination Canada’s ’20-20-20’ goal is 20 million visitors spending $20 billion by 2020.
Inbound or outbound, the travel industry is undergoing yet another sea change lately, with everything from mobile bookings to Airbnb and the sharing economy. The consensus of the panel? Keep your head up “and don’t get preoccupied with every little new thing,” said Pollard. “If we focus on the things people want, then business is good.”
And here’s some good news, courtesy of TripAdvisor’s Payea: according to TripAdvisor’s stats, one-third of users said they plan to spend more on their summer vacation this year.
