Bleisure Travel Recharges Hospitality & Tourism Industry

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March of 2020, where were you when the pandemic shut down the world? 

The pandemic was a pivotal moment that changed the travel and hospitality industry. With more than 7.7 million workers such as chefs, servers, casino workers, and hotel and resort workers, to name a few, making up close to 48% of all positions losing employment with one swift wave like a tsunami. For the last 2.5 years until the present day, the travel industry has been in a reboot mode. It doesn’t matter if you visit Seattle, Washington, in the U.S.A., or Phnom Penh; Cambodia has the same stories of isolation, layoffs, and personal struggles during the past three years.

Focusing on the Reopening, Recovery, and Continued Resilience of the reboot of the hospitality industry, the future forecast is looking bright. By the end of 2031, the global hotel and resort industry market estimates that there will be a growth of 8.1% and, in the U.S., reaching 1.2 trillion. Worldwide more than 2,934 hotels are expected to open in 2023 compared to 2,246 in 2021 (statists) 

Bleisure Travel is trending High

One of the new travel trends is bleisure travel- business + leisure. Bleisure travel is sighted to take over traditional business travel now; many workers have the flexibility to work remotely, taking their friends and family along. According to the 2023 Traveler Value Index, about 32% of consumers plan a business trip in the next 12 months, including the ever-increasing 62% of remote workers—the increase from the spring of 2022, when only 16% of travelers were traveling for business. 

The increase in bleisure travel has increased from 60% in 2018 to over 80% in 2023. The future forecast looks bright, with nearly 5 billion dollars being infused into the hospitality industry and supporting business. 

Bleisure travelers often book longer stays throughout weekends, staying in the exact location during their free time—accommodations with updated workspaces with inviting places to take breaks and chill out during the work day are increasing in demand. 

Healthy fresh food adapting to all dietary needs is essential to work-life balance, workout stations support a healthy routine, and team members assist with services by arranging excursions and daily tasks such as laundry pick-ups during bleisure travelers’ stay. 

Delivering full-throttle Internet connection affects how these bleisure travelers choose their accommodations. Integration of these tailored services is vital to the new hospitality growth landscape.

Eco-Friendly Experiences

Additionally, the hospitality industry has implemented more changes as the world becomes increasingly aware of our environmental needs. We are moving forward to furnish a more eco-friendly experience in all venues of the hospitality arena.

It will continue on a much larger scale. Challenges the industry faces during this pivotal time are increasing competition, rising labor costs, and the more requested personalized service.

Traveler preferences and the additional technology required to support guests’ experiences, such as future mirrors with integrated screens, water reduction showers, eco-sustainable food waste disposal, and reduced plastics, continue challenging the industry. 

Major global hospitality players, including hotel chains, restaurants, airlines, cruise lines, travel agencies, and online travel booking sites, are implementing eco-tourism and new technology choices. With the emergence of Airbnb and food delivery services, the global hospitality industry has new technology to provide personalized services and focus on sustainability simultaneously. 

Balancing both Eco-tourism and new technology while transitioning customers to new practices of service experiences will take time. 

With the cooperation of companies and clients alike, the new landscape of sustainable travel will continue to gain momentum and become the industry’s new norm.

Hospitality and Staffing

 My most cherished moments are connecting with the hospitality team members and staffing when I stay at a property, large or intimate. My travels take me to many places where I am privileged to meet fantastic hospitality team members. I enjoy connecting with them and learning about their culture, personal gifts, and talents outside their employment. Pre-pandemic, I would often see the same smiles as I visited my favorite places. As the world was placed on hold for almost three years, many faces have gone and been replaced with new eager faces willing to satisfy their guest. Many of these people are currently in training, having just been hired within the last few months as properties and restaurants have opened up. They bring a new sense of energy to the old ways and will push the industry forward, improving it for the better. 

The learning curve is tough! 

95% of the people checking you in have been there less than six months. Most hospitality workers, from the front desk and concierge to housekeeping, are learning their jobs or transferring their knowledge from other hospitality industry sectors.

 There is a lack of applicants, and they are still short-staffed. While training and serving their guest’s needs.

Appreciate the person in front of you

Do you remember your first day on the job? How excited you were, simultaneously terrified you would screw things up!

Realize that so many people left the hospitality industry due to the instability presented to its former workers when the pandemic put the entire world in time out. These new individuals choose to enter this field, and many have been to university to study how to provide the best experience possible for you and your family. Higher pay is improving the recruiting process. These hard-working hospitality workers are still vastly underpaid, and many without the essential benefits most of us take for granted. It can be a thankless job, and they ask for nothing in return except bringing you a lovely holiday or bleisure stay. Staff members often put themselves between you and unpleasant situations to protect your peace by going over and beyond their duties. 

They have been through as much as all of us. Consider forgiveness and appreciation to be given if they should fall short, realizing their daily goal is to indulge their guests. 

Leave the past behind

Embracing new practices and environmentally friendly solutions in the hospitality and service industry will allow the growth of new and expanding services with the mastery of both tailor-made technologies to streamline the bleisure traveler while benefiting eco-travelers and our planet. It is normal to have hesitation regarding changing routine and familiarity. We are moving into new territory. It is essential to remember that with change comes growth; sometimes inconvenient, it propels us forward.

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” – Charles Darwin

Shelly

The Food Scholar