Being everything to everyone isn’t always possible, but you can get pretty close. The more you’re able to diversify the amenities and activities at your resort, the more you’ll be able to attract and cater to a myriad of different travelers.
However, to know which amenities and services to add you first need to understand what travelers are currently looking for when booking their next vacation.
To help you get started and attract nearly every type of traveler, we share the biggest draws and incentives travelers seek out when deciding where to book their trip.
Appealing to Multiple Generations
Multi-generational travel is on the rise which means families will be seeking out resorts and destinations offering something for everyone — grandparents, teens, tweens, family members without kids and with little ones.
Catering to multi-generations can be tricky. The older generation may not have the ability or the desire to go trekking all day just as trying new food experiences might be a literal nightmare for anyone under the age of six.
Activities & Amenities for the Whole Family
Offering beautiful beach or pool lounging spaces, spa services, boating activities, pickleball, bocci ball, golf, and gentle walking paths are the types of activities and amenities all members of the family can partake in.
Providing city tours, onsite restaurants, complimentary books, board games, and movies with free popcorn can be enjoyed by the whole family. And after a day spent with the entire family, providing in-room bar carts or cocktail stations could be a unique and welcoming offering for the grown ups in the group.
Activities for Kids
Along the same lines, offering a kids camp and other supervised kids activities can be a big incentive for parents or grandparents who would like the opportunity to sneak off for a few hours to enjoy time to themselves.
Pet-friendly
Accommodating furry family members is another consideration when offering amenities and activities. Pet-friendly activities and rooms can relieve a lot of stress for families who don’t want to leave their pets behind.
Experiences and Local Culture
Experiences and authentic adventures still provide the biggest pull for younger generations. Millennials and Gen Z actively seek trips that allow them to immerse themselves in the local culture and experience new things away from cliched tourist traps, whether it’s food, a festival, or a stunning backdrop.
Partnering with the local community to create one-of-a-kind experiences could be the deciding factor between your resort and another. For example, offer cooking classes with local chefs where guests can learn to make the favorite local dish.
‘Bleisure’’
The bleisure group (business + leisure) is rapidly growing as people have more opportunities and freedom to work remotely. What attracts the digital nomad or convinces the traditional business traveler to extend their stay are amenities that make the working part easy and flexible.
Fast and reliable internet, charging stations, 24-hour services, and workspaces (ideally with a view that will make their coworkers jealous) are appealing for those who need to split their time between work and play.
‘Flashpacking’
The other growing traveler trend is flashpacking which is essentially fancy backpacking. Similar to the glamping concept, flashpacking allows travelers the backpacking life filled with adventure and authentic encounters all while enjoying creature comforts like air conditioning, private rooms, a workspace, and restaurant meals.
Resorts are primed to offer a combination of luxury and original experiences. For example, resorts can offer several unique lodging options away from the main resort such as yurts for the glampers or cozy cabins near the water where travelers can have an immersive experience but still head back to the resort for dinner and spa services.
Attention to the Little Things
The biggest draws can be in the tiniest details. Travelers are seeking curated, memorable, and perhaps more than anything, share-worthy experiences.
While you might be tired of hearing whether something is “Insta-worthy,” if you offer a location, architecture, or unique experiences that can be shared, more travelers will flock to you.
Banana Quotes
For instance, one hotel created an unusual and memorable breakfast experience by writing motivational quotes on the bananas. Simple, different, and yes, picture-worthy.
Plant Pop-up Hotel
The Kimpton Gray in Chicago also put together a unique, share-worthy experience partnering with the city’s conservatory to create a “plant pop-up hotel”.
For a limited time, guests could stay in rooms filled with plants, a feature millennials have been craving as an Orbitz survey revealed the main missing amenity is plants and greenery in their rooms.
Sharing Travel Experiences on Social Media
With 97 percent of millennials sharing travel experiences on social media and two-thirds posting at least once a day, creating even small experiences like the banana quotes can have a big impact.
Younger travelers also don’t typically go the traditional travel agent route but instead turn to social media for inspiration and guidance.
Social media holds sway when it comes to booking decisions, with 87 percent of millennials stating Facebook influenced their booking choice and over 50 percent indicating Pinterest or Twitter motivated their choice.
When contemplating what you want to offer, you might want to consider if it will look great through a smart phone’s camera lens.
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