Trends 2019: this is how travelers want to travel this year
HUMAN SUSTAINABILITY
The eco awareness has managed to get the entire sector to look for ways to reduce the environmental impact. But what about the coexistence between tourists and local communities?
In the great Western destinations, this relationship is being regulated by force of taxes, visitor limitations and fines against incivility.
In natural paradises, the actions are aimed at sustaining, vindicating and involving the autochthonous indigenous cultures in the business.
SHHHHILENCE
The challenge is not so much the digital disconnection, but the reconnection with oneself and with the environment through auditory peace. Hence, Finland or Taiwan structure their nature tourism offer based on this incentive or that the retreats are less mystical and more medical.
One step further is the one who made the shipping company Ponant with its underwater lounge with total acoustic insulation or that of hotels such as Fogo Island Inn , in Canada , whose remote location has only one (great) attraction: nothingness.
Here the attraction is NOTHING
UNDERGROUND ART
The search for guggenheim effect in the age of Instagram it is leading the art world to make somewhat histrionic decisions. One of the most notable currents is the proliferation of galleries and museums built underground that seek to create unusual spaces.
A concept that began to explore the Pritzker Prize Balkrishna Doshi at the **Amdavad ni Gufa gallery in Ahmedabad (India) ** decades ago and has returned to the fore thanks to the Amox Rex Museum in Helsinki and to the ** UCCA Dune Art Museum of Qinhuangdao (China) **.
THE BIOMETRIC BOOM
Traveling without documents is going to stop being a romantic and poppy concept. The facial recognition , pupils and fingertips has come to stay and to make any transfer and any check-in more bearable.
Airports such as Atlanta already have this technology, while Marriott is testing its hotels in China to install it in each room a camera that recognizes the guest and directly opens the door.
UCCA Dune Art Museum.
LANDED
It's been 50 years since that “great leap for humanity” by Neil Armstrong, an anniversary that has become a global and multidisciplinary event.
In the USA, the exhibition curated by the Smithsonian Destination Moon will stop in Pittsburgh and Seattle.
The impact of the moon landing on applied arts will be shown at the Design Museum in Zurich, while artist Luke Jerram's installation ** Museum of the Moon ** will travel to the UK, California and Australia.
TECHNOCULTURE
15 years ago, UNESCO developed the network of creative cities in the world in order to foster ties between them through seven categories. The most striking? Multimedia art, a classification that was born somewhat timid but with one goal: to promote the relationship between culture, technology and the city.
With 14 members, this network is showing that the forefront of formats has a great future and is very attractive, making cities like Austin, Braga or Sapporo strive to show that bits are canvases for new generations, also travelers.
The Moon shows its face –it also hides it–
NEW PILGRIMS
Already in the Middle Ages, a fever was unleashed to create sanctuaries that inspired godly journeys and that, incidentally, they encouraged the economy and culture in their path. At present this current has awakened at the same time that the interest of travelers for less crowded pilgrimages that allow a Active turism.
The Kumano path in Japan, the Saint Olav path in Norway or the Ignatian path in Spain are three examples of how pious routes have been transformed into tourist resources for travelers who don't have to be pious.
DAYHETING
This anglicism could be translated as the taking advantage of certain dates to promote the appearance of a city or a region.
A strategy that is inspired by trending topics and that is proving very useful for destinations such as Canary Islands , which during the last year has taken advantage of appointments such as Earth Day or Happiness Day to show itself as a varied destination. Another example is the conversion of days like the Oceans into global festivals with a message.
Disconnect from the world? Mozaga is your destiny
ARTISANS UNITED
The slow travel has come to design to revalue those artisans who transform the landscape or the city into an object. To make themselves known in a more effective way, these creators are associating with each other, allowing the traveler to enjoy shops, markets and associations that synthesize the creative panorama of the destination.
Spaces like ** Cows Lane Designer Studio ,** in Dublin, the ** Manchester Craft & Designer Center ** and Tout un Art, in Toulouse , are an example of it.
JETS PER HOURS OR PER MONTHS
Parallel to the decline in the sale of private planes, other businesses are dominating charter aviation, offering a similar service at a lower cost. VistaJet has revolutionized the sector and has entered strongly in Spain thanks to its hourly rental rate with which to save some variables business 'trap' , such as the cost of the plane transfer.
In U.S.A., SurfAir It is consolidating as the Uber of the air with its monthly rates (from $1,950) and its options to share a ride with other users of the company.
craftsmen united
DRONES, YES OR NO?
It is very unlikely that in 2019 it will be resolved how to regulate and, above all, control the use of these aerial devices. What is clear is that the dreamers and pioneers they are already rubbing their hands with the possible uses applied to tourism.
in the past Amsterdam Drone Week Some very striking ones were outlined, such as the use of this invention as buttons in hotels, as a means of transporting people on short journeys, as an ambulance in disasters and as a possible aerial security guard in the hunting grounds of pickpockets.
NECROTURISM
It is not possible to speak of this trend as a global current, since visiting cemeteries and gloomy places is a well-established custom in cities like Paris or Warsaw.
However, in Spain all its possibilities had not yet been explored. For this reason, the Association of Funeral Homes and Municipal Cemeteries launched the Living Cemeteries initiative a couple of years ago, with which they promote the uniqueness and creativity that characterize the most spectacular cemeteries in the country.
Saint Paul de Vence Cemetery
YOU ALONE
solo travel it has ceased to be a brave decision to become a reality. Different online portals encrypt the growth of reservations above 200% year-on-year, while hotels and shipping companies are beginning to offer individual rooms without penalty.
This boom is explained by global internet connectivity, by a new generation of millennial tourists that they are born travelers and because experience makes circumstantial companions improvise at each stage.
THE JOURNEY OF THE #METOO
If 2018 was the year of women and their social achievements, 2019 will be a key period in the transformation of the movement into realities . And tourism is no stranger to this situation and faces it in various ways.
On the one hand, there is the transformation of the solo trip as an empowerment exercise. On the other, the proliferation of agencies such as Women's Expedition, from Intrepid, or the Spanish Focus on Women, which design itineraries by and for women and starring pioneers that are changing the different destinations.
Vera Hedges Butler, the first woman to pass a driving license in the UK
GOOD MORNING, ARTIST!
The idea of these hotels is very clear: to offer rooms in which to experience art from its conception to its exhibition.
How? Hosting an artist's studio in their facilities or, directly, hosting consolidated promises so that talks in the lobby have a special aura. Examples of this are the **Uxua Casa Hotel & Spa,** in Trancoso, Brazil, and the Claridge's London , where David Downtown spends his days photographing his most illustrious guests.
APPREN-TRIP
A study recently published by the Booking platform ensures that the 56%of travelers want to learn something new on their vacation . A scenario that is justified by the need to submit to non-virtual and cathartic experiences , leaving aside the Youtube tutorials to live with all the senses.
In practice, this translates into the rise of cultural exchanges, cooking or craft classes at the destination and coexistence with remote civilizations.
Uxua House, Brazil
SCREENS THAT INSPIRE
According to a study presented by TCI Research, 80 million travelers a year choose their holiday destination after seeing it in a series or in a movie . This reality is what has motivated the creation for this 2019 of FITUR Screen , a monograph on how to make the most of the numerous shoots that take place in one place.
Because the challenge is no longer so much to seduce HBO and company, but to know how to make the most of the minutes of footage through thematic routes, apps with augmented reality and of experiences inspired by fiction.
DRAWN BY THE LIGHT
Does it make sense to see a Van Gogh exhibition without any real painting of the genius? The success of the Van Gogh Alive multimedia experience in various cities is a resounding yes.
The future of artistic exhibitions is also to become a show for the visitor-spectator, which is why technology has succeeded in projecting Brueghel in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels or the exhibitions of the collective teamLab are expected as a tour of Lady Gaga.
Can you imagine getting into 'The Starry Night'?
NEIGHBORHOODS OR CITIES?
Two factors have allowed some cities to bet on turning some of their neighborhoods into claims.
The first is the **boom in getaways**, the format that is unseating long vacations both in terms of price and theme.
The second is the creative and coexistence microclimates generated in districts such as **Sankt Pauli (Hamburg), Brooklyn (New York) or 798 (Beijing) **, in which it is shown that a monument will never be the synecdoche of a metropolis.
***** _This report was published in **number 125 of Condé Nast Traveler Magazine (February)**. Subscribe to the printed edition (11 printed issues and a digital version for €24.75, by calling 902 53 55 57 or from our website). The February issue of Condé Nast Traveler is available in its digital version to enjoy on your preferred device. _