Representative Image: Couple enjoy travel through Southeast Asia contemplating the views of Mua Cave, VietnamScott Wegener, Head of Asia Pacific at Tripadvisor shares four key takeaways for Travel Advisors to tackle the changing travel trends. He shared these while addressing the audience during the opening keynote at ITB India 2025.
1) Curate: Firstly, curate, don't just offer, build travel packages rooted in storytelling, local engagement and wellness.
2) Design offerings for the younger, rising middle class, not only for the more elderly urban elites.
Gen Z and millennials are the fastest growing middle-class segment driven by urbanisation, higher education and think digital roots and digital connectivity, they will constitute 60% of South Asia's travel spend.
3) Partner with your local communities. Invest in authentic, sustainable and ethical travel.
It is super important in this world of AI , where one is trying to work out what's authentic and what's not authentic.
4) Leverage, User Generated Content Leverage, real travel stories. Encourage it in your businesses, because it's going to help bring your destination or your business to life.
Those who move beyond conventional tourism to deliver genuinely meaningful experiences will not only capture the hearts, minds and wallets of South Asia travellers, but you're also going to help shape the future of global travel itself.
Sharing a couple of examples of where these trends are already being put into action by certain organisations and businesses, he further stated
The first one is Hong Kong Tourism Board, who have recently launched their ‘Tourism is Everywhere’ campaign that showcases city-wide living culture and people first exploration beyond just the famous landmarks, which is exactly what that nano neighborhoods trend stands for.
For example, the Uttar Pradesh government in India has implemented QR audio portals at 100 plus attractions. So again, you're not just going to the attraction and having a look. They've got these portals there that allow you to have an immersive, enabled journey through the rich history, culture and natural beauty of that attraction that you're visiting.
There's a collection of properties called the Sharjah Collection in the UAE that's just launched a new property called ‘Nomad’. It's an off-grid trailer experience in the mountain valleys of Cal bar that emphasizes digital detox and nature immersion.
Grocery store tourism is being integrated into tour operator and hotel offerings right now, it's seen as both a cultural adventure and an authentic way to experience daily life in the city that you're in, also experiencing the local flavours, the snacks, the different ingredients, and experiencing the culinary habits in a city that you are not familiar with. It's a great way to learn more about the food culture in a city. I was in Tokyo recently, and I saw it all around me, people tourists that were going into the seven elevens, the food parks and buying up on snacks and various things. You've got to be careful about what you can take back to the country. I understand, but still, it's very, very popular.
He left the audience with a quote from the late Anthony Bourdain that he wrote back in 2007 “Travel isn't always pretty, it isn't always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that's okay.
The Journey changes you. It should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart and on your body. If you take something with you, hopefully you leave something good behind. I think this perfectly sums up the movement in travel that's happening right now.”
