Innovating in experiences

# tags: Boost , Conferences

Joe Pine, the author of the famous theory of the experience economy, was in Portugal and explained how experience should be at the centre of tourism strategies.

Experience was the word most often uttered by Joe Pine, author of the book "The Experience Economy", during his presentation at Boost - Building a Better Future, a Nest event held in January in Porto. For the speaker, tourism has to innovate in the experiences it offers because it is competing for attention - and here the smartphone is the main competition - for money, but above all for people's time. And for Joe Pine, time is the most precious resource, today's greatest luxury.

Destinations, companies and events from all over the world are now competing for the consumer's attention and, according to Joe Pine, we need to "embrace the future of tourism" and this has a few prerequisites: charging admission (products, experiences, everything must have a value to be paid), combining the real and the virtual and massively customising or personalising the offer. On this last point, the speaker gave the example of the Ritz Carlton, which records all guests' preferences, creating a kind of profile of each one. When the guest returns to the hotel, it already knows their needs and acts accordingly. Individualisation and personalisation are one of the main trends in communication today.

According to the author, we need to innovate in the experiences we give the tourist, the participant. "People want meaningful experiences" and this is "the future of tourism", they want transformative and aspirational journeys, which is why after the current "experience economy" will come the "transformative economy". People will no longer care whether their time was well spent on what they value, but whether their time was well invested.

Unique experiences

Quim Martínez, vice-president of Mastercard's Tourism Innovation Hub, analysed the trends that will mark 2024, dividing them into three main blocks: tourists, the market and technology.

Tourist

- Is looking for unique experiences;

- Want to be as autonomous as possible and have everything under control on their smartphone;

- They value value for money, because budgets will be tighter;

- Values sustainability and travelling with purpose:

- Values bleisure (business+leisure).

Markets

- New source markets: China and India;

- Major impact of geopolitical crises and conflicts;

- Rising energy and supply chain costs;

- Sustainability regulations;

- Lack of skilled labour with digital skills in tourism.

Technology

- Artificial intelligence;

- Digital identities and tourism super apps

- Common European Data Spaces (a programme being developed by the European Union) which aims to aggregate common data for use by all citizens;

- Ease of payment (tap & go);

- The need for greater cybersecurity.