Digitalization is one of the biggest changes in our fast-moving world. There are a lot of digital innovations in many different industries, which are also affecting the hospitality industry. Taking into consideration that travel and tourism is all about the combination between a wide range of experiences and on-site benefits, the implementation of the digitalization in this industry is completely necessary. As a part of the travel and tourism industry, the luxury hospitality segment is continuing to grow more than what was expected, reaching figures of big spending and revenue regarding luxury hospitality bookings, and it is even expected to grow more than 60% by 2026. Luxury hospitality brands have a lot of upcoming opportunities to generate discussions through digital tools and innovations, not only about bookings, but also covering the whole customer journey.
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As a part of the travel and tourism industry, the luxury hospitality segment is continuing to grow more than what it was expected, reaching figures of big spending and revenue regarding luxury hospitality bookings, and it is even expected to grow more than 60% by 2026. Luxury hospitality brands have a lot of upcoming opportunities to generate discussions through digital tools and innovations, not only about bookings, but also covering the whole customer journey.
We cannot forget how sustainable luxury tourism and hospitality are also linked, improving the already mentioned figures of growing. When sustainability is linked to technology in luxury travel, it explains why consumers might react positively when learning that a luxury hotel is committed to sustainability. Amatulli, C., De Angelis, M., & Stoppani, A. (2021).
It means that luxury hospitality brands can turn into a huge scalability of digital interactions providing maximization of the service with decreasing the cost for all the parts involved in the process.
These procedures accelerate changes in the industry from the current perspectives which were being stablished as for example cooperation or coopetition between luxury hotel groups and online travel agencies or online tour operators and intermediaries, undermining the buying power and the relevance of these intermediaries, avoiding their participation of the intermediaries which are currently taking a big piece of the cake through big commissions during the booking or selling process.
The digital transformation has completely affected the luxury hospitality industry and the challenge that this segment of the hospitality business has to face, is about how skilled will be this industry to transform their current on-site customer service procedures on providing high-level of quality, adapting them to the digital requests of the luxury hospitality client.
To embrace the new digital impulse initiated by the customers of the tourism and hospitality industry, it will be mandatory for the luxury hospitality brands to match these expectations on the digital interactions, which would be switched on increasing brands incomes, Hence, luxury hotel companies are moving to maximize the quality and the content of the digital journey.
Wealth travelers and wealth clients of luxury hospitality brands are always looking for immediate rewards and immediate sense of service quality, so their expectations during the digital interaction with the hospitality brand, are moving forward when it comes to perceiving that hospitality premium experience, no matter the moment of the customer journey the client is feeling: Inspiration, planning, booking, experiencing, or sharing.
Clients are willing to maintain the same rewarding perception all along the customer journey, and the client experience of the digital connections between the clients and the luxury hospitality brands, must be smoothly integrated, providing a seamless service experience.
Some researchers indicate that that optimism and technology innovativeness positively influence luxury hotel customer perceived value, and the customer perceived value when using technology innovations in the luxury hotel experience, positively influences customer satisfaction and customer purchase intention. Pham, L., Williamson, S., Lane, P., Limbu, Y., Nguyen, P. T. H., & Coomer, T. (2020).
Luxury hospitality brands are keen to keep themselves competitive within this industry through the digital channels.
Due to the inception of the democratization of technology, the luxury hotel brands are moving to implement a forward-thinking strategy on how they should approach to their digital clients of the luxury hospitality.
Since many other actors of the travel industry adopted the use of technology prior than luxury hospitality brands, this segment needs to take control of the client’s conversations flow, in order to benefit their loyal clients making it easier for them to perceive the same benefits in values historically perceived from these brands.
When we are talking about clients, we can mention basically families Ann couples of affluent travelers and it is important to consider how the adoption of the technology among the younger generations are coming as novelty to take into consideration.