Expert Charuta Fadnis provides insights into market research findings and technological trends at the ITB Berlin NOW Convention.
When can the tourism sector be expected to recover? In their investigations into this question, the market researchers from Phocuswright have produced some findings that differ widely from one country and region to another. In her report to the ITB Berlin NOW Convention on Thursday, Charuta Fadnis, Senior Vice President, Research and Product Strategy at the Phocuswright market research institute, forecast a robust recovery in China. The pre-pandemic level is likely to be reached again there by 2023. However, the recovery in Japan will be slower, and in Germany too. “Germany has a very strong MICE market, which will take longer to return“, explained Fadnis. Although the United Kingdom should initially recover faster due to the progress made with vaccinations, it is still unlikely that the 2019 level will be reached again before 2025.
Along with up-to-date market forecasts Charuta Fadnis also provided some insights into technological and social trends that will impact tourism in the future. These include largely contactless travel, made possible by biometric identification and digital identities, and the trend for more apps and technologies in the field of security. There is also a demand for smart connections linking personal services and artificial intelligence, as well as aspects such as the blockchain and decentralised computing. “This is a technology with the potential to solve many of the problems faced by travellers, for example regarding security, proof of identity, payment transactions and data protection”, said Fadnis, pointing out that there is a vast potential for using blockchain technology (DeFi) and decentrally organised apps (dApps) to expand decentralised financial services.
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