The world of travel and tourism is witnessing a revolution where more emphasis is placed on personalisation. With the current state of globalisation and international relations, it is understood that there are no more mundane, hot, and ill spaces that can be travelled in the world. Starting from personalised travel plans to hand-picked restaurants and activities, travel and its very idea have been reinvented in a way that everyone has boundaries beyond which they will never travel.
Individual Journey
The central concept behind this reengineering is that every traveller is an individual, and they deserve an individual journey. For instance, several high-end hotels and resorts today provide a range of arbitrary facilities, from room settings—adjusting temperature, lighting, or types of pillows—to planning trips according to the guests’ preferences. Quite a lot of this is powered by artificial intelligence and data analytics, which help travel providers to guess what a guest will be asking for even before he or she asks it. Be it a special welcome in the guest room, a tailored spa service, or even a selected itinerary of attractions; the aim is to ensure that each guest is treated like an esteemed individual and made to appreciate their unique experience.
The Game-Changer
Customisation is proving to be a game-changer in the hospitality industry especially in the areas of food and dining. For a long time, Gourmet Traveller magazine has established itself in the region of culinary tourism encouraging readers to travel in a quest for new food trends, unique dining experiences, and fine cuisines. However, in the recent past, the publication has also observed a change, specifically that there is a growing trend towards travellers who want to eat—or rather, looking for food experiences where it is way more than just sitting in a restaurant—actively engaging with the local culture.
Flexibility Is Necessary
In the present day, gastronomy has evolved into more than a complementary element of travel, it rather takes the whole attention. The range of services available at hotels extends from private activities involving the guests and top-class chefs to unique oenological adventures. These cater-for-guest culinary journeys give the tourists a chance to immerse themselves in the food culture offered by the region where the place is situated. For example, a tourist in Italy may be indulged in a custom-made private truffle hunting adventure and a cooking class thereafter with an Italian chef. Such flexibility allows guests to experience the place and its food much closer than would have been possible otherwise.
Ultimately, there is a paradigm shift in the hospitality sector and its market focus as there has been a move from mass tourism to individual-based service. The view of hospitality as an industry portrays a future where every trip will be different from the rest, as every traveller is different, thanks to the increase in technology and data as well as an astute traveller audience. Personal travel is perhaps at its most buoyant ever—for travellers who demand genuine enrichment, whether through food, wellness, culture, or adventure.
