Hospitality & Tourism

Every year, I enjoy diving into our Marriott Bonvoy’s Ticket to Travel research report—our annual snapshot of how people across EMEA are planning their holidays and full of insights that help us understand what travellers are looking for.    The latest edition, launched today, draws on Mortar research from over 22,000 travellers across 11 markets in EMEA. And the message is clear: consumers across the region consistently regard travel as an important means of spending their leisure time and discretionary income. 79% of travellers say they’ll take the same or more holidays in 2026 than they did in 2025 and people are planning five trips a year on average for next year.    Several compelling trends stand out from this year’s findings: AI is increasingly shaping how travelers plan their trips, passion-led travel is becoming more common and ‘lux-scaping’ is a new way of travelling for people to gain access to luxury experiences.    2026 is shaping up to be a year of innovation, opportunity and deeper connection—with our guests, our partners and the industry. I can’t wait to see how the year unfolds.    Click to read the full report: https://lnkd.in/dV_mGBUB

Mass Tourism is dead. Hilton 2026 trend report says what's next for the industry. For decades, the tourism industry was built on volume. Crowded resorts. All-inclusive packages. Selfie sticks and bucket lists made on Instagram. But that era is fading fast. The next wave of travel isn’t about where people go, it’s about why. According to Hilton’s new 2026 Trends Report, travellers around the world are making a radical shift: from mass tourism to meaningful tourism seeking connection, calm, and authenticity instead of crowds and checklists. Here are the key trends reshaping the future of travel: 1. “Hushpitality”: Seeking Silence and Stillness In an overstimulated world, travellers crave peace. Hilton found that almost half of travellers now add extra days to disconnect before or after family trips and many are choosing destinations where they can simply breathe. Wellness, mental clarity, and calm have become new luxury. 2. Home Comforts Are the New Carry-On The modern traveller wants familiarity. From favourite streaming shows to pet-friendly rooms, people are bringing their routines with them. Even abroad, 77% of travellers enjoy browsing grocery stores, proof that comfort and local discovery can coexist beautifully. This is also why long-stay travel and remote-work destinations are booming: people want a “home away from home” they can trust. 3. Generation Remix - Families Are Redefining Travel Family vacations aren’t what they used to be. Children help plan itineraries. Grandparents take grandkids on “skip-gen” trips. Families are seeking shared play, not screens. Travel is becoming a tool for bonding and shared growth across generations. 4. Inheritourism: Travel With Legacy and Meaning People no longer travel to escape their lives, they travel to understand them. More than half of families now plan trips to connect with their roots and local traditions. “Cultural immersion” isn’t a buzzword anymore — it’s a priority. 5. Purposeful Journeys: The Rise of the “Whycation” The biggest transformation is philosophical Travellers are asking why they travel. To rest. To reconnect. To grow. This emotional motivation — rather than location — is now the foundation of modern tourism. And This Is Why We’re Transforming Roatán At the Roatán Tourism Bureau, we see these shifts as a once-in-a-generation opportunity. We’re helping local businesses evolve from mass tourism to meaningful tourism, from quick visits on cruiseships to long-term value. That means: - Supporting hotels and hosts to create spaces that feel like home. - Training local operators to attract digital nomads and wellness travellers. - Promoting authentic cultural experiences that connect visitors with the island’s people and traditions. - Partnering with communities to ensure growth benefits everyone. Travel is changing — fast. And Roatán is getting ready to lead this new chapter: quieter, deeper, and more intentional.

How the Humble American Diner Became the Stage for Brand Storytelling.... When we think of a diner, we think nostalgia. Neon lights, checkered floors, milkshakes, and the smell of fries drifting through the air. But today, brands aren’t just serving nostalgia, they’re serving story, theatre, and tangible brand experiences that make people stop, engage, and remember. Take Tesla’s Cybertruck “Tesla Diner & Drive-In.” It’s not just about the Superchargers. It’s about a retro-futuristic diner and drive-in theatre that transforms a functional stop into a multi-sensory moment. The diner becomes the stage where Tesla’s narrative, 'innovation meets Americana' comes alive. It’s tactile, it’s playful, and it’s a perfect example of a brand turning necessity into experience. Luxury and lifestyle brands are doing the same. CHANEL, SKIMS, and Jellycat have used pop-up diners to reinforce their brand DNA while giving consumers a physical, sensory connection. Think soft tactile displays, curated menus, neon signs echoing campaign aesthetics, and social moments built into every corner. The diner becomes a theatrical playground: consumers don’t just buy a product, they inhabit it. They sip, they snap, they share. So why does this work so well? It taps into the experience economy and Gen-Z’s appetite for moments that feel real, tangible, and shareable. A diner is both familiar and fantastical, it’s something people already know how to navigate, yet it can be transformed into a brand’s universe. Retro cues spark nostalgia, playful design encourages interaction, and the combination of taste, touch, and sight delivers multi-sensory engagement that static campaigns can’t match. They also offer collaboration potential; menus, merch, even limited-edition treats become vehicles for storytelling and co-creation. Social content writes itself: photo-booths, milkshake moments, and a drool inducing aesthetic, all make for irresistible feed fodder. And because diners are inherently communal, they naturally create micro-communities around the brand experience. For me, the power of the pop-up diner is that it’s more than just activation, it’s a physical manifesto of a brand’s values and aesthetics, inviting consumers to live the story, not just consume it. It’s theatre, tactility, and sensory engagement all rolled into one. Brands today aren’t just launching products, they’re designing worlds. So, are you still marketing products, or are you serving experiences with a side of storytelling? ________________ *Hi, I am Tim Nash. I help global brands build connected campaigns that resonate across every touchpoint. 🚀 #BrandExperience #ExperientialMarketing #RetailInnovation #GenZTrends #StorytellingInRetail #CulturalStrategy #BrandActivations #ExperienceEconomy Pictures courtesy of Glossier, Inc. / Skims / Chanel / Tesla / Benefit Cosmetics

👩🦰 Persona Spectrum For Inclusive Design (Figma Kit) (https://lnkd.in/eGD38hs4), a wonderful little accessibility tool for designers to include permanent, temporary and situational contexts in design decisions. Open sources, with all illustrations and assets for presentations and print. By 🐝 Mahana Delacour. --- 🔶 1. Accessibility ≠ Compliance We should never rely on automated accessibility testing alone to “ensure” accessibility. Compliance means that a user can use your product, but it doesn’t mean that it’s a great user experience. Manual testing makes sure that your users actually can meet their goals in their own context. It often feels daunting to get started, but small first steps are a great beginning. First, gather people interested in accessibility. Document what research was done, where the gaps are. And then try to include 5–12 users with disabilities in a dedicated accessibility testing. One way to find participants is to reach out to local chapters, local training centers, non-profits and public communities of users with disabilities in your country. You might want to add extra $25–$50 depending on disability transportation. Once you have access to users, run a small accessibility initiative around key flows in your products. Tap into critical touch points and research them. Eventually extend to components, patterns, flows, service design. A good target is to incorporate inclusive sampling into all research projects — at least 15% of usability testers should have a permanent, temporary or situational disability. --- 🔹 2. Building Accessibility Research From Scratch If you’d like to get started, I highly recommend to check “How We’ve Built Accessibility Research at Booking.com” (https://lnkd.in/eq_3zSPJ), a fantastic case study by Maya Alvarado on how to build accessibility practices and inclusive design into UX research from scratch. Maya highlights the idea of extending Microsoft's Inclusive Design Toolkit (https://lnkd.in/eN5J7EkJ) to meet specific user needs of a product. It adds a different dimension to disability considerations which might be less abstract and much easier to relate for the entire organization. And as Maya noted, inclusive design is about building a door that can be opened by anyone and lets everyone in. Accessibility isn’t a checklist — it’s a practice that goes way beyond compliance. A practice that involves actual people with actual disabilities throughout all UX research activities. More resources in the comments ↓

Would you fly in glass-bottom planes? The real revolution in flying is way smarter than that. Airplanes are quietly becoming digital platforms. Here’s what’s actually changing the passenger experience: 🔹 Windowless concepts (yes, really) Not glass floors — digital walls. Future cabins may replace windows with ultra-high-resolution screens streaming live exterior views, data overlays, or even calming environments. 🔹 Big screens > tiny seatbacks 4K displays, projection-based entertainment, and BYOD (bring-your-own-device) systems reduce weight while improving personalization. 🔹 Cabin pressure & humidity upgrades New aircraft (787, A350) keep cabins closer to ground conditions → less fatigue, fewer headaches, better sleep. 🔹 Mood lighting driven by circadian science LED lighting synced with your destination’s time zone to fight jet lag. 🔹 Fast satellite Wi-Fi Streaming, video calls, real productivity — the cabin is becoming a flying workspace. 🔹 AI-powered personalization Entertainment, food, lighting, and services adapting to you, not the seat number. 🚫 What’s NOT happening (yet): Glass floors, gimmicks, sci-fi stunts. ✅ What IS happening: Aircraft evolving from transportation machines into experience platforms. The future of aviation isn’t about looking down through the floor — it’s about redesigning everything around the human sitting in the seat. #Aviation #FutureOfTravel #Aerospace via @bedorafizz #CustomerExperience #AI #Innovation #Boeing #Airlines #TechTrends

I once lived at distributor’s home in a small town because I had no choice... When Marico Limited was nascent, Bombay Oil Industries was still the family’s backbone. In those early days, I wanted our business to transform from a commodity trade into a branded consumer company. To do that, I had to understand the ground truth. There were no fancy hotels in the towns we visited. I stayed in dusty and small guest rooms. I sat with distributors over chai and samosas. I watched how coconut oil was stored, how shopkeepers priced it, how packaging changed hands. One day, a retailer told me matter-of-factly: “You always sell big tins. When people come back to buy, they carry a few kilos. If your packet is small, they will pick your brand at convenience.” That simple insight was a turning point. It nudged us to expand SKU ranges, introduce smaller packs, and think about how to become a “grab-and-go” brand, rather than just a bulk commodity supplier. If you ask me where innovation begins, it begins in the least glamorous places. In the musty shelves of neighbourhood stores, in conversations that feel insignificant, in paying attention to what people don’t say aloud. Takeaway for entrepreneurs: Your real research lab isn’t spreadsheets or agencies. It’s the ground. If you go build empathy for your customer at the shelf level, the brand strategy almost builds itself. #entrepreneurship #business #resilience #mindset #growth

💥 Tourism’s Breaking Point: A Wake‑Up Call for Hotels 💥 Yesterday, cities across Southern Europe hit a boiling point. From Barcelona to Lisbon, Venice to Palma de Mallorca, residents took to the streets with water pistols, banners, and smoke bombs — a dramatic cry for help. The target? A tourism model that no longer works. ⸻ This isn’t about hating tourists. It’s about resisting a system that floods cities, chokes infrastructure, prices out locals — and burns out hospitality professionals in the process. 📈 Exploding volumes: Spain welcomed 94 million international visitors in 2024, aiming for 100 million this year. 🏘️ Housing crisis: Barcelona rents are up 68% in a decade. The city will ban all short-term rentals by 2028. 🏨 Hotel pressure: In EU urban centers, hotels represent 63–80% of overnight stays — and now face growing backlash alongside platforms like Airbnb. ⸻ 🔍 Why this matters for hotels: 1. Local frustration is real — and increasingly visible. 2. We’re no longer outside the conversation. We are the conversation. 3. Solutions are demanded—and fast: • smarter tourism management • yield-over-occupancy strategies • deeper local integration 4. This is a leadership moment. Support policies that serve both your hotel and the community that surrounds it. ⸻ As hoteliers, we must ask ourselves: • Are we growing demand or managing it? • Are we delivering value or fueling volume? • Are we building a long-term ecosystem, or just chasing short-term gains? ⸻ Across the continent, cities are responding: 🔒 Airbnb bans (Barcelona) 💸 Visitor fees (Venice, Trevi Fountain) 🚫 Overnight stay caps (Lofoten, Portofino) 📈 Tourist tax hikes (Balearics, Italy, Norway) It’s time we stop blaming OTAs and cruise ships and start stepping into the solution: ✅ Better yield, not just occupancy ✅ More local integration, less commodification ✅ Smarter pricing, smarter planning ⸻ 👉 Call to action: We can no longer afford to be passive players. This is about stewardship, community investment, and responsible growth. Let’s lead the shift toward measured hospitality — before the backlash defines us instead. #Hoteliers #Overtourism #HospitalityLeadership #UrbanTourism #SustainableTravel #HotelStrategy #RevenueManagement #TravelTrends #Barcelona #Venice #Lisbon #MeasuredHospitality #RegenerativeTourism

Forget assumptions about what a 'high-value visitor' looks like. The new part luxury, part basic traveler is a real contrast: - They might book a Contiki trip but with business-class flights. - Or want remote camping but arrive via helicopter. - Road-tripping in a campervan but dining at the best restaurants? - A off grid wellness retreat but with their own villa and private pool. These are some of the demands coming from "non millionaire travellers" who now account for more than a 1/3 of the luxury tourism market (Mckinsey: Now boarding: Faces, places, and trends shaping tourism in 2024). They're younger (under 40), aspirational, and are unlikely to own their own home. Ultimately, they’re redefining lux as value driven, experiential, and memorable (not just expensive). To keep up, tourism businesses can give options that try and meet the requirements of being both simple and aspirational. Partnerships (eg high end business with low price operator) would be a great way to ensure you can capture some of this growing market.

Why Corporates Still Depend on Travel Agents—Even in the Age of Online Tools In today’s digital-first world, corporates have access to countless online booking tools, airline apps, hotel portals, and expense platforms. 1. Technology Can Book. Humans Can Think. Online tools work perfectly—until something goes wrong. Flight cancellations, last-minute visa issues, overbooked hotels, medical emergencies, strikes, weather disruptions—these aren’t exceptions in corporate travel; they’re realities. When such situations arise, corporates don’t need a chatbot. They need a human who understands urgency, hierarchy, and business impact. A travel agent doesn’t just rebook a flight—they: Protect meeting schedules Minimise downtime Offer alternatives instantly Take ownership until the problem is solved 2. Cost Control Is More Than Cheapest Price Online tools often show the lowest visible fare. Travel agents focus on the lowest total cost. They help corporates by: Negotiating corporate fares and hotel rates Advising on flexible tickets that reduce cancellation losses Avoiding hidden costs and last-minute surges Recommending routes and airlines that save time and productivity For a corporate, one missed meeting can cost more than a “cheap ticket.” 3. Policy Compliance Without Policing Corporates have travel policies, but enforcing them internally is time-consuming. Travel agents: Embed company travel policies into bookings Prevent unauthorised upgrades or deviations Ensure approval workflows are followed Maintain audit-ready records This means employees travel smoothly, while management stays compliant—without micromanagement. 4. Duty of Care Is a Corporate Responsibility When an employee is travelling, the company is responsible for their safety. Travel agents play a critical role by: Tracking travellers in real time Providing emergency support Advising on safe hotels, routes, and destinations Assisting during geopolitical, health, or climate disruptions Online tools don’t call you at midnight to check if your employee is safe. Travel agents do. 5. Time Is a Senior Executive’s Biggest Asset CXOs and senior managers cannot afford to compare fares, read cancellation rules, or chase refunds. Travel agents: Handle end-to-end planning Manage changes and refunds Coordinate complex multi-city travel Act as a single point of contact The result? Executives focus on business, not bookings. 6. Data, Reporting & Insights That Actually Matter Modern travel agents don’t just book—they analyse. They provide: Spend analysis by department or project Travel pattern insights Budget forecasting Vendor performance reviews This helps corporates make smarter, data-backed decisions, not just reactive bookings. 7. Trust, Accountability & Long-Term Partnership Unlike anonymous platforms, a travel agent: Knows your business Understands your priorities Corporate travel is built on trust, and trust is In corporate travel, convenience books trips—but expertise ensures success.

When Horst Schulze joined The Ritz‑Carlton, he gave every employee a budget of $2,000 to spend on their guests. His belief was that “luxury isn’t marble floors, it’s how people feel” - he wanted to build a culture where people always felt seen, comfortable and safe. He knew that for the customers to feel that way, the employees had to feel that way too. 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 #𝟏: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐮𝐞 A guest left his laptop behind after checkout and was travelling to Hawaii. A housekeeper found the device and instead of waiting for standard escalation, she boarded the next flight to Hawaii to hand-deliver the laptop before the guest’s meeting. 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 #𝟐: 𝐖𝐞𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐑𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 A couple on their honeymoon had lost a wedding ring in the sand so after closing hours, the Ritz staff bought 4 metal detectors and spent the night looking for it. The couple then woke up to their ring presented to them at breakfast. 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 #𝟑: $𝟔𝟎𝟎 𝐃𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫 A server at the Ritz restaurant overheard two executives planning a conference at a competitor’s hotel. He decided to make conversation and slip in some information about holding the conference at the Ritz instead, then quietly paid their $600 dinner tab. That company then moved their event to the Ritz, making them a lot more than $600. Interestingly, very few employees (if any) actually spent the full $2,000 budget. Most of the interventions were small gestures, but Schulze noted that the real power was in having the permission and autonomy over the decision-making. So this experiment was more to do with trust than money - because when you trust your employees to do the right thing and give them the means to do it, they take ownership of their work and tend to go above and beyond.