The World Travel Market, UK and International travel trade show, took place at London’s ExCel last week. The four day event brought together worldwide buyers and sellers from every sector of the travel industry, for a series of exhibitions, discussions, conferences and presentations, with the aim of forming new relationships, and strengthening old ones, and getting an idea of what the future holds for the global travel market.

One of the products of WTM is the publication of the WTM Global Trends Report, which is produced together in association with international market intelligence firm, Euromonitor International. The report identifies seven key travel trends for 2010:

1) Funemployment (North America)

As unemployment rates continue to rise, many of North America’s jobless under 35’s are taking advantage of the situation by using their new-found free time, alongside money awarded through redundancy settlements, to take extended holidays to long haul destinations like the UK, Europe and Australia, and on world cruises. These longer stays are helping resorts generate more money in out-of-season periods.

2) Pop-up hotels (UK)

“Pop-up” hotels are pre-built units that are incorporated into a steel frame, which can be erected and demolished in half the time of traditional methods. Travelodge opened it’s first one in 2008, and plans to open another 20 by 2020. The aim is to provide affordable yet quality accommodation, on a temporary basis, when and wherever needed.

World Travel Market chairman Fiona Jeffery said: “Pop-up hotels are a great concept. In such uncertain financial times, managing the overheads of a fixed place hotel can be difficult. However, pop-up hotels only have to fill the bedrooms for a set period of time. The buzz created by a pop-up hotel leads to positive online PR and word-of-mouth marketing.”

This kind of word-of-mouth marketing could easily spread via social media networks and provide great online PR for hoteliers and travel firms.

3) Concierge travel (Europe)

Concierge travel, which is essentially holidays which are customized to the taste of the individual traveler, have generally always been targeted at the richest end of the market. In Europe, travel companies are planning to offer this level of service to a much wider audience, as more and more people are demanding more personalized services. This will enable companies to differentiate between each other based on the tailor-made options they offer, in turn offering more choice to the traveler.

4) Female-only accommodation (Middle East)

As Middle Eastern culture has evolved, more women have now become interested in travel, presenting a new opportunity to the industry. In some Muslim countries this is frowned upon by Arab society, and so the development of female-only accommodation, like the Luthan Hotel & Spa in Saudi Arabia, means women will be able to travel alone, without a male escort. This will also benefit Western women wishing to travel to the Middle East who may have been deterred in the past.

5) Obama effect/roots tourism (Africa)

Many African Americans are now interested in visiting Africa to explore their ancestral roots in what is described as “roots tourism”. President Obama’s recent visit to Ghana has contributed to this. According to America’s ITA, office of travel and tourism industries, US air traffic to Africa increased 34.1% in 2009. This is also reflected in Google search trends, seeing sharp increases in American searches for “Africa holidays” and “Africa vacations” from September onwards.

6) Golf tourism (Asia)

China now boasts fifth spot in the World for golf with over 300 golf courses to date and more in the pipeline. This passion for the sport has increased the demand for golfing holidays and led golf resorts to look for new ways to attract regional and international high-spenders. Chinese Google searches for “golf” have been steadily increasing throughout the year, according to Google trends.

7) The new luxury destination (Latin America)

A new buzz word “eco-luxe” has emerged for holidays which combine “natural” with “luxury” and with huge natural parks and a wide range of wildlife, Latin America offers a great opportunity for travel companies to cash-in. The region has seen large investment in luxury infrastructure and the smallest slump in wealth in 2008, offering huge potential to the market.

Awareness of these latest travel trends such as “eco-luxe” will help travel firms decide how and where to direct their online media budgets and find new sources of revenue in difficult times.

Most popular channels for online travel agents already include SEO, PPC, online lead generation, social media and display advertising with many ecommerce companies employing a specialist digital agency such as Status Media to manage their online marketing strategy.

Gary Collins, CEO at Status Media, a UK based digital advertising agency, added, “Natural search is proving to be one of the most cost effective media channels for online travel agents. Many travel companies are using our unique link building solution to drive high ranking Google search results which is resulting in major cost savings and increased bookings. I would also expect to see a rise in CPA driven marketing activity during 2010 and more travel companies investing in social media, online PR and improving on-site conversions whilst improving user experience with companies such as Thomas Cook, LetsGo2 and Travelsphere leading the way.”

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