Travel retailer of the future: creating future travel experiences

New generations want to be informed, inspired by real travel experiences, not by glossy brochures filled with photoshopped imagery that don’t reflect reality.

Most travellers between the age of 20 and 30 have never set foot in a physical travel agency before. And why should they? They were born digital.

Getting digital natives to show up in person rather than online takes some innovative thinking.

Travelers are driving change and forcing providers to transform their strategies and business models.   To help our travel retailer customers define their business for the travelers of the future, we partnered with The Sustainable Design School (The SDS) and embarked on a joint research project. 

We asked The SDS to use scenario planning to map travel trends and devise potential pathways to create a picture tailored to travelers’ evolving needs. The school uses design thinking as a way to approach sustainable innovation.

The objective of our joint research paper is two-fold:

1. Help travel retailers with physical stores attract younger generations to step inside a travel agency store
2. To inspire the travel retail world with innovative ideas and new perspectives

Based on their research, The SDS imagined four innovative concepts that most appeal to Generations Y and Z’s lifestyle:

• A new kind of Travel Agency experience built around the concept store model
• A solar-powered capsule that provides a virtual 360-degree immersive experience
• A mobile app that connects the travel consultant (TOM) to potential travelers
• A bus van people can hop on/off to help them find the type of vacation that best matches their profile

The future is yours to decide, but the best way to predict the future is to create your own.

Research Sources: The Sustainable Design School