1. Digital Identity: The integration of biometrics and digital identities is set to streamline the entire travel process.
2. AI and Automation: Airports and airlines will increasingly rely on AI and automation to optimize operations and enhance efficiency.
3. Urban Air Mobility (UAM): The emergence of UAM as a new transport mode, particularly in congested urban areas, is expected to revolutionize short-distance travel.
4. Sustainability: The industry’s commitment to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 will be fueled by data analytics and more sustainable operations.
5. Multimodal Travel: A seamless, integrated travel experience across multiple transport modes will become the norm.
6. Digital Travel: The digital transformation of travel will continue, with mobile commerce and innovative payment systems leading the way.
7. Workforce Dynamics: Automation will change workforce dynamics, requiring a more agile, service-oriented approach.
8. Supply Chain Transformation: Blockchain and other technologies will enhance the efficiency and transparency of the aviation supply chain.
9. Passenger Experience Personalization: Data-driven insights will allow for a more personalized passenger experience.
10. Flattened Business Structures: Airports will adopt flatter organizational structures to improve communication and decision-making.
11. Resilience and Adaptability: Building resilience against future challenges, such as pandemics, will be critical.
12. Collaborative Innovation: Collaboration between airlines, airports, and governments will be essential to drive innovation.

As these trends take shape, the travel industry will face challenging obstacles, particularly in sustainability and technological adoption. However, the role of human resources will be crucial in ensuring that companies and projects not only meet these challenges but also achieve success through innovation and adaptability.

Click here to download the full report 

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L'articolo 12 Key Travel Industry Trends for 2024: Insights from SITA Megatrends Report proviene da Twissen.

Project funding is based on six pillars:  

The allocation of resources depends on results. That is, regular payments will be released when targets are reached.
The Scoardboard provides an update on the progress of the Programme in the various countries, while RECOVER is the task force set up to support activities.  

Whether or not the Programme has a direct impact on the tourism sector depends on the National Recovery and Resilience Plan drawn up by the country itself. The European Commission recommends intervention in four key areas, which are also functional for tourism development:  

-Innovation
-Reskill and upskill
-Modernisation
-Recharge and refuel  

At Twissen, we consider goal setting to be a key step in securing funding for the project and ensuring long-term prospects. Targets should be realistic, measurable and shared among the partners.  

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L'articolo Recovery and Resilience Facility: responding to the pandemic with tourism proviene da Twissen.

In the Travel & Tourism industry, as we have highlighted in our previous articles, tourism destinations and hotels will be able to manage the relationship with the customer-tourist in new ways, opening up to new interactions before, during and after the journey, exploring new opportunities for monetisation and value creation.  

To achieve this, a change of paradigm will be necessary. Starting with entrepreneurs, managers or hoteliers, key people in the industry will have to turn into meta-entrepreneurs, a neologism first coined by Twissen in relation to the topic.  

A new generation of business leaders will be able to innovate and, while continuing to develop business in the ‘real’ world, leverage the technologies offered by the metaverse with new revenue and value creation opportunities for their stakeholders.  

Meta-entrepreneurs will have to equip their companies from the outset with a meta-strategy accompanied by a precise business model, dosing their resources well at each stage of receiving this new wave from the market.  

Technology, all of which already exists, will be the defining element. Graphics, fluidity and security, for example, will position the business project in the metaverse. 

Finally, training will be a strategic element since, although there will always be, fortunately, operators who welcome tourists in the real world, and they will need lifelong training, there will be a new class of employees who will operate in the virtual world and who will have to learn, for example, specific hospitality techniques.  

We at Twissen have observed that, although it still takes time for the market to be fully receptive, there are several activities that can be completed in the virtual platform, such as business meetings, training or previews of hotel rooms. It is highly recommended to approach this trend already now in order not to be caught off guard when the market is ready and receptive.  

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L'articolo The time has come for meta-entrepreneurs, even in tourism proviene da Twissen.

Sweden, with a remarkable performance in the environmental sustainability pillar, ranks first. This country offers many green and eco-chic travel experiences with Nature’s Best certified tour operators.

Source: Euromonitor International’s Sustainable Travel Index of 2021

In order to mitigate the impact of climate change, there is the urgence to focus on mobility and transport, accounting for 25% of the EU’s total emissions. The aim would be lowering emissions by 90% by 2050.
Digitalisation, improved ticketing options, cross-border and long-distance rail, and waterway infrastructure are among the key proposals to reach the aim.

As for Italy, the country ranks 27th in the Sustainable Travel Index, while it is not even present within the first 15 positions of the Sustainable Transport Ranking, a clear sign that there is much more work to be done to improve travel and transport conditions in the country. 

At Twissen we observe that Europe dominates the framework of sustainable travel. However, it is now fundamental to implement and adopt strategies and policies that lower carbon emissions, not only in the Old Continent but also in the rest of the world. The ultimate goal would be to make tourism a less polluting and more “responsible” industry, since sustainability is now becoming the fundamental prerequisite for the future development of the sector. 

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L'articolo An insight on Euromonitor International Sustainable Travel Index proviene da Twissen.

Figure 1: Business confidence indicator of the industrial ecosystem (Tourism sector in red) Fonte: https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/404a8144-8892-11ec-8c40-01aa75ed71a1   

The three pillars (eco-sustainability, digitisation and resilience) are supported by 27 interrelated actions. The measures focus mainly on the following topics: 

• Investing in circularity to reduce pollution, energy use, waste generation, water wastage and, at the same time, to better meet the growing demand for sustainable tourism;  
• Improve data sharing practices to enable new innovative tourism services and improve sustainable destination management;  
• Investing in skills to ensure the availability of a skilled workforce and attractive careers in the tourism ecosystem.  

At Twissen note the central role assigned to collaboration in this project. Indeed, the Commission is currently promoting an online survey, in which it invites the EU tourism community to work together for the implementation of the project. The Commission will work with stakeholders to guide, support and monitor the progress of the transition process.   

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L'articolo Transition Pathways For Tourism: 27 actions for a long-term transition proviene da Twissen.

1. Health & hygiene are the new normal

The pandemic has completely changed the way the world considers health & hygiene. As we have already reported, travellers are putting health and safety first. 

2. Sustainability is our collective responsibility

To face climate change and revive the sector with a long-term strategy, sustainability and inclusion must be the prerequisites for the future development of Travel & Tourism, as reported also by the UNWTO in the document “Global Guidelines to Restart Tourism”. 

3. Large-scale digitalisation is possible 

The acceleration towards digital transformation due to the pandemic has highlighted the opportunity to adopt technology on a large scale in the tourism industry in order to make travel and tourist’s experience safer and seamless, also through new hybrid-based business models.

At Twissen we have observed how, with the pandemic, these elements – collaboration and co-ordination, human-centric approach, health & hygiene, sustainability and digitalisation – have become the prerequisites for stakeholders and tourism professionals to restart the sector and develop a more resilient approach to any eventual crisis.

Download the full WTTC report here.

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L'articolo 3 things we learnt from the pandemic – WTTC Lessons Learnt proviene da Twissen.

The pandemic has accelerated the digital transition, and the European Union plans to allocate €7.6 billion for the following areas of interest: supercomputing (€2.2 billion), artificial intelligence (€2.1 billion), cybersecurity (€1.6 billion), advanced digital skills (€580 million), widespread use of digital technologies (€1.1 billion). 

The tourism sector is highly considered in two specific Actions such as the “European Common Data Space for Cultural Heritage“, which concerns the digital transition of the cultural sector, and the “Mobility“, which focuses on a key aspect for the advancement of the sector. 

Furthermore, the transversality of tourism allows SMEs to benefit from additional support services offered by the European Digital Innovation Hubs. These are business support centres offering services, e.g.: business/production improvement through digitisation, training, financial advice, etc. 

The call for projects “Preparatory Actions for Data Spaces” is open until February the 22nd 2022; the third priority is “Preparatory Actions for Data Space in Tourism”, with a budget of 1 million euros. The final objective is the creation of a secure Data Space to improve the economic and environmental performances of tourism, as well as to enable the sharing, processing and analysis of sector data. The preparatory actions are aimed at creating the ideal conditions for the functioning of the Data Space, investing in a governance mechanism for data sharing, leading to the creation of sustainable business models and systems that incentivate data sharing. The consortium of stakeholders must demonstrate an international dimension and has to show solid experience in tourism management and data analytics.  

At Twissen, we observe that digitalisation is fundamental to the development of a more flexible, resilient and, above all, interconnected tourism. These characteristics are essential for recovery within the current context, which is particularly dynamic and full of challenges. 

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L'articolo Digital Europe: digital transition for tourism in the 2021-2027 budgetary period proviene da Twissen.

Figure 1.  ETC’s Vision and Framework for Action for Europe’s NTOs, 2021-2030 

Figure 1 shows “The ETC Vision for Europe’s NTOs” , followed by a related set of strategic objectives which contribute to most of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
NTOs, whose role as leaders and coordinators of the tourism sector is strongly highlighted in the report, have to focus their vision for the 2020s on three key aspects: 

• sustainability in the long-term
• strong destination management processes and practices
• digital transformation

This last point, reported also as “smart tourism”, involves the implementation of new digital applications to improve efficiency, sustainability, and integration within the whole sector. The benefits of technological improvements are multiple: improved intelligence for destination management’s policy and planning, more efficient use of resources, more efficient in-destination transports, better marketing and sales operations, enhanced visitor experience.
The first step to smart tourism, according to the ETC, should be the creation and implementation of a detailed plan for digital transformation, in collaboration with government departments and agencies and consistently with other sectors. Of course, the NTO itself has to go through the process of digital transformation to show its leadership and inspire other players of the tourism sector.
Tourism organisations at national, regional and local level should cooperate to establish a common platform for tourism applications, as well as a common data hub to collect data from multiple sources. 

At Twissen, we observed that the creation of new partnerships between public and private stakeholders as well as among destinations, together with data collection, are critical for those NTOs and DMOs who want to quickly recover and build a long-term sustainable strategy. Moreover, as we already reported, now more than ever, the digital transformation process in the tourism sector requires reskilling and upskilling programmes engaging education and training institutions. 

Download the full ETC report here.

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L'articolo ETC’s Recommendations for NTOs in the name of Sustainability and Digital Transformation proviene da Twissen.

The general objective of this Call is to boost tourism SMEs’ uptake of digitalisation and innovation through transnational cooperation and capacity building, while the specific objective is to develop and put in place transnational and cross-ecosystem support schemes to build capacity for digital transformation, innovation and smart tourism solutions by SMEs in the tourism ecosystem. 

Eligible proposals must be presented by consortia gathering from 5 to 10 partners of various nature and located in a minimum of 5 different eligible Countries, including at least one and no more than two public authorities and bodies and at least one business supporting organization. Each consortium/network will directly support (including financial support) a minimum of 60 tourism SMEs in total, from a minimum of three eligible Countries. 

A transnational consortium/network of public and private stakeholders will act as an intermediary organising specific activities for tourism SMEs in different Countries. The consortium will organise and provide direct support to companies in order to build their capacities in developing and implementing new, innovative services and operations with the help of digital technologies. Furthermore, it will also facilitate cross-border/transnational cooperation to foster peer to peer learning as well as to share knowledge and good practices in boosting the uptake of digitalisation, innovation and new technologies in tourism. 

EASME – Executive Agency for SMEs is delegated for the implementation of the call. It foresees to finance 8 to 11 projects which have to last 25-36 months. Every project can be granted with up to 75% co-financing of eligible costs, up to € 1.000.000 funding, and the total budget is € 8 million. 

Competitive proposals will be evaluated according to the relevance and the quality of the proposed activities, along with their impact and cost-effectiveness. 

At Twissen we observed that, in order to face challenges posed by the pandemic, digitalization skills are necessary. Proposals must address the needs of the SMEs, that are protagonists of this call as they represent the backbone of the travel and tourism industry. This action will surely contribute to a faster recovery of the sector. 

Francesco Redi

President and founder at Twissen. Manager in Local Development, Tourism Policies,  EU Funds. He cooperates with several European universities, public bodies, development agencies, DMOs and enterprises.

L'articolo EU Call Invests 8 Million For Innovation And Digitalization In The Tourism Sector proviene da Twissen.

At a continental level, ECF supports a network called Eurovelo, which coordinates the development of 15 cycling-tourism itineraries, even if it plans to complete the network within 2020.

In Germany, the government renewed the plan called “Nationalen Radverkehrsplan” for the 2013-2020 period, which aims to promote the mobility by bicycle, with a section dedicated to the development of cycling tourism.

According to Enit, the National Agency for Tourism, in Italy the economic return deriving from cycling tourism is about 3,2 billion euros each year. The National Strategic Plan for Tourism, which has just been approved, includes the national cycle paths in the strategic projects for mobility with tourism purposes.

In Spain, the Mancomunidad Occidental de la Costa del Sol is planning to implement the project called “Bicyle Sleep”, which aims to promote Costa del Sol as an active tourism destination, and to deseasonalise the tourism demand.

Last December, the Chinese government announced an investment plan in the tourism sector, which will be worth about 272.000 million euros, to be realised within 2020. The plan is expected to bring a +10% to Chinese economy each year. Infrastructures and new services, in addition to attracting tourism flows, are expected to help the birth of a new enterpreneurship. A special attention is dedicated to “health-promoting”, which includes new itineraries for cycling tourism.

The digital component is fundamental for cycling tourism. Many apps and web portals are being developed to offer information and services to tourists. Strava, MotionX and TrackMyTour are just some of the mobile apps which have been created. Moreover, social marketplace platforms are being created, such as BikeNBike, a network which gathers all the bicycle-lovers along with tour operators and associations which operate in this sector. In China thanks to the support of investment funds, bike sharing companies such as Ofo are developing mobile apps for using their bicycles. Mobike has recently raised a 200 million euros Series D funding round, to which also took part the giant Ctrip, which firmly believes in bike rental. Youbai, the Shanghai based startup, raised more than 20 million euros of investments.

At Twissen we observed how the cycling tourism supply at destination is more and more crowded and characterised by a fierce competition, even if itineraries often link destinations in one or more countries. During the trip, a cycling tourist looks for interaction with the locals, with the nature, and is attracted by the attractions of a destination. In fact, the experiential component is what makes the difference, even through the use of technology, which has become essential both to complement infrastructures and to complete the tourists’ equipment.

Francesco Redi

President and founder at Twissen. Manager in Local Development, Tourism Policies,  EU Funds. He cooperates with several European universities, public bodies, development agencies, DMOs and enterprises.

L'articolo Cycling tourism in Europe facing technology proviene da Twissen.