“Data is the new oil,” says Dr. Auliana Poon, the chief strategist at Leve Global, who offered takeaways for tourism, and why destinations need to adapt to the new reality if they want to hold onto the next age of travellers.
Speaking at the Caribbean Tourism Organization’s State of the Industry Conference in Barbados, she dubbed the era ahead of the world as the “sixth wave,” that requires companies, destinations, and people to adapt.
“When you look at the world today,” Poon said, “the only constant is change, and many of these changes appear to be daunting.”
“We have climate change, global warming, coral bleaching, civil unrest. We have wars, conflict, digital disruption, internet explosion, AI is here, deep fakes,” and so much more.
“So, the only constant is change, but the point is that these are not just isolated events and they reflect a fundamental shift in the global economy. This is what we call a paradigm shift, and to understand the shift, in the past, finance was the be all and end all, followed by the economy, society, and planet.”
“And the shift is about planet becoming the centre of our activities, economic and otherwise.”
While we have moved from ages of coal, steel, oil, and technology, Poon says that we’re now in the era of data, where the biggest companies in the world make their income from customer data.
Through those eras, Poon noted that, “some players are winning and others are dying,” and this is where Caribbean tourism can learn: “A room is a room is a room. A hotel is a hotel is a hotel.”
New customers today want something different than yesterday, “From going to a destination and doing things, they want to become something more than what they came with… they want to buy in to your destinations, into your activities… they want to be transformed when they come to a destination; when they take a holiday.”
The biggest takeaway from Poon’s presentation though, was the overlooked connection to locals.
“[Locals are] in charge of the experience and we want exactly what the new travellers want,” she said.
“We want safety and security. We want clean air, fresh water, a pristine environment. We want well-being, fun, and enjoyment, respect for our cultures. It’s the same thing that travellers want. So this is why we have to listen to our local people. We’re not far from the travellers. We know what we want.”
