Thanks to everyone who’s been supporting my newsletter so far. It’s because of you that I still keep going every week. Although from now on, I’m making a slight change - you’ll receive my posts every other Sunday or 2x a month. I want to have more time to think about the content I will write and give you even more value because of that. And perhaps, for a healthier relationship, it will also be better to hear from me less :)
But if you’re too attached and want to hear from me and you happen to be in Slovenia, you can join me in Ljubljana for the long-awaited Slovenian Travel Massive meetup. We’ll meet in a pub in Ljubljana on 26 October to have a chill networking evening for travel professional, digital nomads and other curious individuals. RSVP here.
I’ll also be in Seville at TIS2023 - if you plan to be there, let’s meet up!
Recently I’ve been slow on reading and researching. I’ve been totally in deep work mode. To be more productive and focused, I’ve deleted Instagram and TikTok more than a month ago (just the apps on my phone). A big step for me in being more mindful in the activities I do. This includes travel.
Now when I travel or simply hang out with friends, I’m more inclined to fully listen and be 100% in that moment. I know, a big revelation that existed for thousands of years! We’re not inventing anything, just returning back to the old ways. It’s very odd to “travel and tell no one”. A feeling we’re not used to currently as every single one of our followers needs to know where we are and what we’re eating.
Only if we are fully in the moment, we can do great things. And a Japanese chef is doing exactly that.
High-end $10 ramen
A chef from Japan is serving top-quality ramen to only 70 customers per day for $10.
What he’s doing is very contrary to what we’re used to currently. Everything has to be scalable, fast, and with the highest margins possible.
His business is boutique and he serves as many customers as he can. Brilliant.
I found it interesting and it may be an inspiration to some and a message that things don’t need to scale infinitely.
Apart from restaurants, there’s one segment that hasn’t been scaled yet, but it seems it’s going to be, soon.
Digital nomads are spending $$$
A 2023 study led by travel journalist Carlos Grider estimates that digital nomads inject $787 billion into the global economy each year.
We know from existing research that the segment is rising and more people want to work remotely and travel the world. A trend that is highly evident in the US.
Slowly, services that cater to this mobile workforce are on the rise (e.g. SafetyWing, Flatio, etc.,). We can expect even more personalization and businesses focusing explicitly on digital nomads in the next years.
The market is only in its infancy, and there is extensive opportunity for many, many entrepreneurs - Rowena Hennigan
Maybe, hotels can finally tap into this market and compete with Airbnb.
Will hotels finally cater to digital nomads?
The war between Airbnb and hotels dates to the very beginnings of Airbnb when they disrupted the hospitality industry and threatened the business model of hotels.
Since then, hotels weren’t very successful in attracting guests who were looking for alternative stays. It seems that hotels still have a lot of work to do in rebranding for people to realize they offer a plethora of options.
One of this options are long-term stays, currently dominated by Airbnb.
But maybe now, because the market is still in its infancy, hotels have the potential to take a piece of it.
Dogs are taking over
Something that the travel industry can also take a big piece of, is the trend of owning dogs.
If you didn’t know, and I think it’s a very important information, “there are more dogs in the United States (76M) than children under 18 (73M)”.
Considering this stat, there should be more dog-friendly travel businesses than family-friendly businesses. Already in the house that we rent out to travelers, we noticed a lot of dog-owners. They told us they are not allowed to take their (big) dog into most hotels and have thus opted for our house in the nature where we are pet-friendly.
A market to be explored …
New research for travel in the age of AI
Another thing in it’s infancy as far as mainstream usage goes, is AI in travel. McKinsey did another research on the promise of travel in the age of AI from a top-down perspective. Here are my key points.
AI and machine learning are driving a new era of digitally enabled travel, reshaping how travel companies interact with customers.
Hyper-segmentation and hyper-personalization, facilitated by AI, are emerging as strategies for tailoring services to individual customer needs.
Generative AI has the potential to augment customer interactions, offering personalized recommendations and aiding in real-time problem resolution while traveling.
The adoption of AI is essential for companies to meet the rising customer expectations and to improve the overall travel experience.
And with this, I will finish this edition. Although I wasn’t keen on reading so much recently, there were still a couple of things that caught my eye and made me see how many different societal changes are influencing the travel industry.
From digital nomads to pets and AI, the future of travel bounds to be exciting to follow. See you in two weeks! Feel free to reach out if you want to discuss any of these topics with me.