Global Hospitality, Travel, and Tourism Trends: A Conversation with Hari Nair MMH '02, Expedia Group
A fireside chat led by Singapore Tourism Distinguished Professor Chekitan Dev
At the opening session of the 2023 Global Hospitality Conclave held at The Oberoi in New Delhi, India, Professor Dev spoke with Hari Nair, senior vice president, lodging partners at Expedia Group, about the ten trends that are changing the world of hospitality, travel, and tourism, including changing customer profiles, shifting consumption patterns, intensifying competition, growing segmentation, dwindling differentiation, diminishing brand loyalty, evolving value orientation, escalating concern for the environment, continuing consolidation, and increasing power of digital.
The New Normal Is “No Normal”
We began the session with a one-minute video prepared by Expedia Group on global travel trends. The text of the video, which reveals some key insights on Expedia’s point of view on the state of travel, is as follows: This year is the year of “no normal”: travelers taking new trips, not relishing memories and not booking holidays they have been used to. People are getting out of the woods and into the biggest culture capitals of the world. Even better, they’re visiting the cities where their favorite shows take place. They’re buckling up for staycations in wide open spaces. They can make new traditions with loved ones and a pizza under the stars. They’re even taking on a new wave of wellness and looking for more unusual places to spend their time and money—immersed in nature, foraging for mushrooms, or finding a little fish exfoliation.
This year is not about making up for lost time; it’s about making up your own time. This is the year of the “no normal.”
Ten Provocations
Chekitan Dev: Welcome to the opening session. I want to thank the organizing committee for giving us the awesome responsibility of being the opening act. I’ll jump right in, but I want to offer just a little bit of background on my “co-conspirator,” Hari Nair. In the 34 years I have served as a professor at Cornell, there is one number I’m proudest of. That number is 15,000. 15,000 represents the number of students I’ve taught and had the pleasure and the honor of working with. These students are now working in over 100 countries. My purpose in highlighting that fact is to introduce one of the best and brightest of my former students among the 15,000. Hari Nair is at the top of the list of people I have worked with over the years as a former star student, as a treasured colleague, and as a dear friend. When I asked Hari if he would jump on a plane in New York to travel halfway around the world and be my partner in this session, he quickly and enthusiastically said yes! I am grateful and pleased to welcome Hari to this conclave.
If I could summarize the proposed takeaway from the next 45 minutes of this session, I’d say it will be collecting the dots and connecting the dots.
From my own world view on the state of global hospitality, travel, and tourism, I have compiled ten trends or themes. These, in my view, are the ten forces that are shaping the current and future of our industry. Provocations, I call them, intended to make you think about your own businesses. These ten trends will serve as the outline for our discussion, and I will ask Hari to share one or two key insights on each one.
Collect the Dots and Connect the Dots
- Changing customer profile. Understand the “new” customers and learn how they are changing in their age, gender, ethnicity, and lifestyle.
- Shifting consumption patterns. Study changes in buyer behavior and how customers are changing the way they live, work, play, and travel.
- Intensifying competition. Develop a better competitor orientation by understanding new competitive approaches and strategies.
- Growing segmentation. Learn how the market is breaking down into smaller and smaller subsegments or “niches” and the products and services needed for each.
- Dwindling differentiation. Become more aware of the inevitable “commoditization” trap and how the best companies can work to avoid it.
- Diminishing brand loyalty. Understand trends in brand loyalty and learn ideas on how to reverse the decline.
- Evolving value orientation. Learn how the definition of value is evolving and how to develop the best package of amenities and services.
- Escalating concern for the environment. Understand the new consumers’ personal, social, and environmental priorities and learn how to deal with them.
- Continuing consolidation. Understand the market consolidation trends and learn how to better compete within a more complicated and consolidated industry.
- Increasing power of digital. Learn how technology is changing the ways in which you connect with your customers, conduct commerce, and create communities.