One of the crucial aspects of hotel marketing is having a deep understanding of your guests and being able to satisfy their needs and desires through appropriate guest segmentation and technology solutions. Recent years have seen significant shifts in consumer behaviours driven by evolving technology and a challenging economic climate. It is crucial to stay ahead of industry trends and advancements to be able to remain competitive and desirable to audiences. Our research is anchored in “Travel Trends for Scotland 2024” by Euromonitor International, supplemented by other relevant reports.
In this blog, you will:
- Uncover trending consumer profiles
- Receive expert strategies for targeting these profiles
- Explore real-life email examples tailored to the trending guest profiles and segments, executed by our brilliant customers
- Gain valuable insights into emerging aspects of the travel and tourism industry.
Ready to discover? Let’s dig in.
1. People with passion
These are people who are searching for true connections, authentic experiences, and personalisation (which has become a norm now) that resonate with their personal values. They expect high-quality experiences, therefore supporting repeat visits and word-of-mouth. These people are willing to spend more on authentic and local experiences and are more likely inclined to longer stays. They also prefer memorable experiences over material possessions. Fostering deep personal and community connections will be mutually beneficial to all parties.
Guest types
Cultural explorer – personal and authentic
They are looking for hyper-personalised messaging and experiences that include culture, local communities, and authenticity.
💡Pro tip: Attract them with the ‘all local’ messaging. Offer authentic dining and entertainment experiences. Let’s take Scotland, for example. Hotels in Scotland can target this audience by offering Scottish-inspired food menus and local whiskey experiences (available to purchase afterwards), accompanied by the sound of bagpipes. The Scottish Golf Open is around the corner. Why not create experiences based on the history of golf? You want to target all the senses for the best result. According to a report by Explodingtopics.com (2024), hotels are now beginning to offer their spaces to locals who require a peaceful work environment. This could be a great option for those working from home who are seeking a change of scenery.
‘’ 69% of travellers are planning a solo trip this year, and 66% of them are planning trips on experiences and treating themselves. (American Express Travel, 2024)’’
Luxury seeker – personal and premium
This audience is all about high-end premium experiences; they will expect advanced personalisation. They are ready to buy unique and upper-scale price-tag possessions (as well as experiences).
💡Pro tip: Make them feel special and that they are receiving ‘top-notch’ service. Think ‘five-star’ for everything you are trying to upsell—spa days and services unique to your hotel, free airport transfers and personal shoppers, and Michelin-level food and drink experiences.
Adventure lover – personal and bold
These guests are seeking exhilarating experiences that will elevate their adrenaline levels. They desire thrills and amusement.
💡Pro tip: Does your hotel sit in a destination offering unique entertainment to do in nature? Inspire them with activities like surfing and mountain biking with an expert instructor, riding with a pack of dogs or bungee jumping. Think about exciting, what would make your blood run faster?
How to attract them?
Create stories, narratives, and characters that will showcase the local culture. Maybe your hotel has a ghost story to tell, which would fit great during the Halloween season. Is your hotel located in an area with a famous historic name? You can create mini-stories and characters that resonate with history buffs and evolve a marketing campaign based on personification (adding a tone of voice and style). Get your staff to know the basics of local history so they can start meaningful conversations with their guests. Don’t forget to leverage technology to push personalised and automated messaging to nurture your audience.
“Members of Boomers and Generation X were 2x more likely to travel domestically (Exploring Topics, 2024) ’’
Email example
Cameron House, a luxurious hotel in Scotland, offering visitors unique experiences such as cinema, jet skiing, speed boat trips, and, of course, exceptional food. We think Cameron House nailed it with its distinctive tone of voice and communication style, as well as the high-quality imagery, which adds a luxury and authentic feel. Guests are recommended to pre-book experiences to make sure they can experience all that Cameron House has on offer. Local residents, not only guests might book spa facilities, therefore taking up available slots.
Other trends to watch out for:
1. Airbnb’s Experiences feature offers travellers the opportunity to engage in unique activities hosted by local experts, providing an authentic and personalised way to experience a new destination. Recently, the company introduced “Icons,” a VIP version of Experiences, which aims to offer an even more exclusive and tailored travel experience for discerning guests.
2. Meetup is a page where locals or tourists can connect with and build communities. Members can join events and gatherings or just meet with people in a selected area. Hoteliers can offer or promote similar solutions for guests who are seeking to connect with locals and experience authenticity.
2. Places and immersive experiences
These guest profiles are seeking hidden gems and unique immersive avenues. They are looking for new, fresh adventures—not your typical ‘tourism’ spots. Maybe they have seen something being promoted on social media and are instantly inspired by it, or perhaps a new sensory-intriguing show is growing in popularity. These guests will expect convenient travel options to these destinations; they value ease and efficiency to maximise their immersive experiences.
Guest types
Cultural explorer – immersive and sensorial
This audience likes to explore all new things local (especially history, art, and food) but prefers less tourist-crowdy areas. They are willing to spend more money on high-quality services and products.
💡Pro tip: Attract this audience by offering out-of-usual-hour services and experiences. For example, you could make a quirky, themed, boozy breakfast or lunch. How about a private drawing masterclass?
Digital traveller – immersive and seamless
This audience is digital natives. They appreciate the ease of digital booking and the use of technology when travelling. They want to experience the best technology as they use it every day and expect it in other locations. They are seeking seamless digital experiences.
💡Pro tip: Implement reliable booking systems, PMS, and CRM within your hotel tech stacks. Delight your guests with fast and modern technology from the moment of booking to post-check-out. Target your visitors with personalised, targeted, and automated messaging that they want to receive.
‘’Data shows that travellers who make bookings through their phone spend 50% more than those who book elsewhere (Rival, 2020).”
Luxury seeker – immersive and relaxed
They are keen to explore cultural immersion but want to spend less time discovering and searching. They are willing to pay for a premium, relaxing experience.
💡Pro tip: Are you a boutique luxury hotel? If so, then this audience is for you. They are looking for niche, truly one-of-a-kind hotels and experiences. You can grab their attention by offering high-end local produce and tasting menus. Every little matters; try impressing them with a unique and pleasant smell in the rooms or some samples of local luxury goodies. You can send them e-mails about suggested activities in the area with booking links to save them time looking for things to do.
‘’Globally, 70% of travellers admit that social media has an influence on how they discover accommodation, while 50% are warming to the idea of using AI to generate accommodation recommendations (Siteminder, 2024). ‘’
How to attract them?
Work with local businesses and communities to create a sense of belonging and authenticity. Engage prospects with storytelling with themes around local history, products, and nature. With the help of your community, you can organise mini markets and events to celebrate the local heritage. Interlink with local businesses by creating suggestions, which could be in digital format, to delight digital natives. Save your guest’s search time by providing information about local transportation, events, activity bookings, etc., on your website and your pre-stay email journey. In For-Sight you can automate the sending of emails for each guest to receive before their arrival, at the time that makes the most sense. When creating your pre-stay emails, think about what you are informing your guests about and when they would most benefit from receiving that type of message. Here are some recommendations:
- If you are encouraging guests to book dining or treatment times in advance to ensure availability, you may want to send a campaign 20 – 25 days before arrival.
- If you are reminding guests of their upcoming stay, you may want to send a campaign 2 – 5 days before arrival.
- If you are providing directions to your property, you may want to send this campaign on the morning of your guest’s arrival date.
Email example
Lough Erne Resort is a five-star hotel, spa, and golf resort in Ireland that combines traditional, national, and luxury. It promotes connections with nature, yourself, and the people who matter the most through exclusive experiences such as water taxis, archery, yoga, and much more. We love that this email addresses many aspects for the ‘places and immersive experiences’ audiences. It features a unique location, immersive and sense-evoking experiences, as well as provides activities, saving guests time on ‘to do’ searches.
Trends to watch out for:
Did you know that people can meet with a local independent guide (free or for a small fee) to explore the location in a very unique way? Some even include food or visitor attraction experiences. Showaround and WithLocals are only a couple of pages available for exploration. This could be an extra income source for people from local communities, supporting their destination and region’s growth.
3. Power to change
A new generation of travellers value sustainability and expect the tourism industry to support it. Visitors want services and products that offer environmental, social, and health benefits. They value accessibility and inclusivity and expect digital transformation to be at the forefront. There is a demand for travel that does not compromise on comfort, convenience, or service quality yet is eco-friendly and sustainable.
Guest types
Adventure lover – eco and diversity
This audience loves exploring nature, respects it, and wants to do as little harm as possible when travelling. They like to give back to the community and environment. In Hawaii, tourists can engage in land clean-ups and environment-saving activities that they are incentivised to participate in. For example, in 2020, Hawaii with Hawaii Tourism USA introduced the concept of the ‘Malama program‘ – caring for the land. This program incentivises tourists to do volunteer clean-ups, physical labour, tree planting and many more for a free night’s stay at a hotel.
” That relationship between people and place grows stronger every time you mālama (give back). When you give back – to the land, the ocean, the wildlife, the forest, the fishpond, the community – you’re part of a virtuous circle that enriches everything and everyone. Including your experience as a visitor (Go Hawaii, 2024). ”
💡Pro tip: Keep ‘eco’ and ‘nature’ in mind, as these are the terms that resonate with this audience. Any activity that aligns with these values will be a hit. For instance, if your premises have a lake or a pond, consider offering wild swimming or wild sauna experiences. When it comes to food, ‘responsible’ and ‘ethically sourced’ are the keywords. The ‘Taste Our Best’ award by Visit Scotland, given to restaurants and cafes following good ethical practices, is a testament to the audience’s virtuous choices. This internationally recognised award is a badge of pride exclusive to Scotland.
‘’High-net-worth consumers are willing to pay up to 40% more for a travel option focused on sustainability. (Simon Kutcher, 2022)’’
Digital traveller – eco and online
This audience is passionate about digital solutions and their role in enhancing sustainability and experience. They crave a seamless digital journey devoid of paper receipts or tickets. Their belief in the power of digital solutions to better the world and environment is unwavering.
💡Pro tip: Ensure that you have integrated technology solutions that will improve the understanding of how your guests experience your hotel and make informed decisions. If you are ready to go the extra mile, consider hosting your website on a sustainable server that gives back to nature. This type of guests want to hear about your good environmental practices, let them know through your website, app, social media and emails. Offer easy-to-book services accessible from an app or website and chatbots to answer any pressing questions.
Email example
We have chosen to highlight The Belfry Hotel and Spa Resort in West Midlands for several reasons. We love that their email communication includes an option for guests to check in prior to arrival, which saves time at the front desk. They also provide a directions map to help guests prepare for their trip, as well as a visitor charter that encourages responsible behaviour during their visit. Additionally, The Belfry has a detailed sustainability statement on its website, demonstrating its commitment to initiatives such as biodiversity preservation and support for local charities, which may appeal to eco-conscious travellers. The hotel has been awarded the prestigious Green Tourism Silver Award and is geo-certified.
Eco adventurer – eco and ethical
They support sustainable practices but are less willing to pay for them. Ethics is what drives them, and they are keen on volunteer activities.
💡Pro tip: You can attract this audience by offering educational workshops on nature preservation. These workshops resonate with their values of sustainability and ethics. You can also suggest volunteering, providing the free, environmentally friendly experiences they seek.
How to attract them?
Is your hotel on a sustainability path? Highlight sustainability in your marketing communications, especially to attract Gen Z and younger millennials. Speak about all the good practices you do; it might be activities such as charity initiatives (food donations, events), working with local communities and suppliers, promoting diversity (also in dietary options) and equality, recycling and energy consumption initiatives. Offer wild, environmentally friendly experiences. You can even offer to offset their carbon footprint at check-out by planting trees for them or something similar or offering an optional (small) charge to tap water as a donation to support local community incentives.
Trends to watch out for:
Local, private property or land owners can list their land as a campground on sites like Outdoorsy. This is suitable for people who are looking for less crowded, unique areas of the world. Another trend arising in Latvia is ‘Home pop-up Cafes’, where local farmers, enthusiasts and small business owners are opening their homes for truly unique gastronomy experiences crafted from only regional ingredients and hosted by the owners.
The era of guest segmentation
The power of segmentation should not be taken for granted. The more specific and detailed the target audience, the more likely you are to see quality results that drive return on investment. Segment not only to target your prospects and customers but also to understand what works for each. For-Sight has over 100 segmentation criteria that hoteliers can apply to create groups of similar guests. The platform also enables hoteliers to connect with Mosaic Segmentation by Experian. Mosaic groups together individuals likely to share similar demographics, lifestyles and behaviours, giving 15 summary groups and 66 detailed types. Connected to For-Sight you can utilise those categories as segmentation criteria. You can view the segments and classifications on their website with detailed explanations. We recommend this integration to customers who want to understand their existing customers better, who are looking to find new guests or improve how they communicate with existing ones.
Conclusion
One of the main conclusions is that personalisation provides better customer outcomes, and guests will be annoyed when it does not happen. They want interactions to be tailored to their specific interests and historical activities. Use first-hand secondary research from reputable sources in combination with the data you collect on your guests. Guest behaviour continually changes, and hotels need to keep up with traveller trends to stay competitive. Guest segmentation and personalisation are easy if you have the right tools that can assist you with that. Imagine, it’s like eating a soup with a fork…it will take a while because you don’t have the right accessory. Use a CRM platform like For-Sight, designed specifically for hotels, to gain a clear picture and a better understanding of how your guests experience your hotel and make informed decisions. Our platform also includes a comprehensive Marketing Hub, powered by Dotdigital, with all you need for targeted, hyper-personalised marketing communications. For-Sight allows you to understand the unique sets of guests that come and stay at your hotel, segment them by relevant group, and target them with the right message (email or SMS) at the right time with automation.
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