Millennials, Generation Z and the Future of Tourism

The future of tourism is dominated by discussions on sustainability, but the single biggest issue that is largely ignored is demography. As a key driver for future tourism demand, demography needs a strategic planning approach. This article takes a scenario planning perspective and examines the future of tourism in New Zealand and how it will be shaped by demography. This article, as part of a wider study on the future of tourism, focuses on a scenario–sclerosis of demography–where the tourism industry is in a downward spiral of decline with tourists spending less monies year on year because of ageing populations, resulting in falling productivity and less disposable income in future years. This scenario is based upon two key issues. First, as populations age, the pressure on New Zealand’s public purse is contested and second, older consumers extend their healthy years resulting in an ageless society. The scenario raises four key questions for the future. First, what is the role of tourism in an ageing society? Second, if the New Zealand tourism sector fails and as a consequence government is forced to intervene, what does this mean? Third, what is the impact on future immigration policies as a consequence of a decline in traditional labour supplies? Finally, what is the future of youth tourism if future generations are stifled by debt and lack of purchasing power? The article concludes with a conceptual map as a strategic planning device that considers these questions and offers answers around the themes of lifestyle, the role of government, economic aspects, and trends in employment.

This book examines the lifestyles, expectations and plans of Millennials and Generation Z and how they are redefining tourism. It demonstrates that if the tourism industry is to enjoy future growth, it must understand and meet the particular needs of these two generations. The volume explores the present and future challenges faced by the tourism industry as a result of the generational turnover, and seeks to answer the following questions: What contribution can the new generations make to the future of tourism? How are technological advancements and social networks shaping future travel trends? Can a generational perspective be useful to help the tourism industry recover from the COVID-19 crisis? The book will be of interest to researchers and students of sociology and tourism studies, as well as tourism professionals.

Purpose Futurist Jim Dator provides a personal insight of how he “sees” the past, present, and futures of Hawaiian tourism. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach Ian Yeoman interviews one of the world's most prominent and respected futurists, Professor Jim Dator, from the Futures Research Center of the University of Hawaii at Manoa's Political Science Department. Findings Like a climatologist, futurists discuss long‐term futures which are very uncertain, controversial, and often frightening stories. The past tells how the present occurred. Understanding that story is essential before considering the future. The growth of tourism is a fabulous story dependent on many developments whose future is uncertain. The tourism industry may want a “more of the same” trajectory of continued economic growth but a number changes are on the horizon which Dator calls “The Unholy Trinity,” namely the end of cheap and abundant energy; a profoundly unstable environment and a dysfunctional global economic system. Dator concludes that no government now governs satisfactorily, and so the future of tourism is extremely precarious and uncertain. Originality/value The interview provides both insight into how tourism has evolved and foresight of what could occur in the futures. Central to the interview is Dator's identification of the Unholy Trinity, Plus One, that suggests that the future will not neither be like the present nor like the future the tourism industry has hoped for in terms of continued economic growth. The originality and value of Dator's frank views are thought provoking, going beyond present wisdom and comfort.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to portray the future of tourism in New Zealand based upon a philosophy of sustainability and cultural identity as a response to the present 2025 Tourism Strategy. Design/methodology/approach The research deployed a scenario planning methodology resulting in four portraits of the future. Findings Environmental issues and global migration are the key issues that will shape the future of New Zealand tourism. In order to address these issues four scenarios were constructed. New Zealand Wonderland portrays a future based upon a grounded international reputation for environmentalism driven by good governance, climate change targets and ecotourism. Indiana Jones and the Search for Cultural Identity position a future driven by rapid growth and unregulated air travel resulting in environmental degradation. A Peaceful Mixture is a balance of socio‐cultural and environmental dimensions of sustainability at the centre of a tourism product shaped upon Maori culture and economic prosperity. The final scenario, New Zealand in Depression, is the worst possible outcome for New Zealand's tourism industry as the three dimensions of economy, community, and environment are not at equilibrium. New Zealand would be over‐polluted with an uncontrolled number of migrants. Research limitations/implications The research was a social construction of ten experts’ views on the future of sustainable tourism. Originality/value New Zealand's present approach to the future of tourism is shaped by the 2025 Tourism Framework (http://tourism2025.org.nz/). This is derived from a business perspective and a neoliberal political philosophy and it is void of the words ecotourism and sustainability. This paper argues that the present strategy will fail because of community disengagement that proposes a range of alternative directions based upon a political discourse of sustainability and shaped by environmental credentials and cultural identity.

1. Introduction: What Future for Tourism? Part 1: Global Changes and Their Impact on Future Tourism 2. Peak Oil Confronts Society and Tourism: A Futuristic View 3. The Political Economy of Future Tourism Part 2: Political and Social Trends and Future Tourism 4. Security and the Future of Tourism 5. Wellbeing, Equity, Sustainable Development and Social Tourism in Twenty-first Century Europe 6. Shapers and Shifters for the Future of Travel and Tourism 7. Tourism and Quality of Life 8. Through a Glass Darkly: The Future of Tourism is Personal Part 3: Managerial Issues and Future Tourism 9. Tourism in a Technology-Dependent World 10. Human Resource Issues in the New Millennium 11. Sustainability: An Issue for the Tourism Industry in the New Millennium 12. Tomorrow's Tourist and the Case Study of New Zealand Part 4: Concluding Thoughts 13. Future Tourism: Where to Now?

Coronavirus (COVID-19) gained and will continue to gain a lot of global attention over the coming months (and maybe the coming few years). Since its outbreak in Wuhan (China), it has turned into one of the major challenges affecting the whole world. In a comparatively short time, the virus outbreak turned into a pandemic that led to massive negative impacts not only on people health and well-being, but also on the global economy, travel industry, pharmaceutical industry, tourism industry, and many other industries. This research paper aims to investigate the different effects of coronavirus on the global Halal tourism and Halal hospitality industry and whether the coronavirus pandemic is the end of Halal tourism and hospitality as we know it or not. The paper offers an in-depth theoretical examination of the different aspect of the pandemic on Halal tourism and hospitality industry and provides guidance on how to address these different aspects. The current paper is one of very few research papers addressing coronavirus on the tourism and hospitality industry.

Episodic events such as epidemics, natural disasters, civil strife and economic crises may have adverse impacts on tourism development in the short or long term (Zeng et al., Curr Issue Tour 8(4):306–322, 2005). The COVID-19 crisis, which has been on the agenda for the last one and a half year, has seriously affected not only the tourism sector, but all the sectors in the world; and the economic, social, and psychological dimensions of the pandemic have appeared. The starting point of this study is to make predictions regarding what kind of a transformation will be caused, in the future, by the COVID-19 pandemic that we are going through. In the study, changes that may be encountered in the tourism and hospitality industry after COVID-19 are discussed with examples both in a holistic sense and as specific to sub-sectors. In this context, the following issues appear to be important in shaping the future of the industry: post-pandemic sustainability, digitalization and technology in the tourism, hospitality and travel industry, adaptation to the new global economic change, rise in rural/eco-tourism activities, increase in travels to local regions, development of resilience strategies by tourism establishments, the importance and necessity of revenue and yield management for each tourism business, and requirement of digital health and/or vaccine passports for travels.KeywordsPost COVID-19FutureTourismResilienceTransformationTechnology

The tourism industry of the Island economy of Sri Lanka started flourishing in late sixties and has continued amidst extreme ups and downs. Specifically the industry has shown strong resilience and resumed after several calamities in the past few decades. The 30 year civil war which experienced hundreds of bomb blasts around the country and airport attack, devastating Tsunami in 2004, Easter Sunday terrorist attacks in 2019 are few examples from which the tourism industry showed quick come back. The novel Corona pandemic has brought all most all economies into a standstill and tourism industry is one of the critically affected sectors since it was initially identified as one of the key contributor in carrying the virus around the globe. Sri Lanka’s first infected case was a Chinese female tourist from whom later found a local tour guide was infected. Equally, the main mobility hubs of tourism industry or international airports were closed as safety measures to control the rapid outbreak of COVID-19 virus.

Large language models such as the Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) have recently gained attention for their impressive natural language processing capabilities. While their potential to revolutionize various industries is still being explored, the tourism industry stands to benefit significantly from their use. In this study, we conduct an early assessment of the impact potential of GPTs on the tourism industry using a mixed-methods approach. We first analyze the existing literature on the use of GPTs in the tourism industry and identify several potential applications such as personalized travel recommendations, language translation, and chatbots. We then collect data from various stakeholders in the tourism industry through surveys and interviews to understand their current practices and their willingness to adopt GPT-based solutions. Our results indicate that while there is a high level of awareness and interest in GPTs among tourism professionals, the adoption of these technologies is currently limited. The main barriers identified include a lack of technical expertise, concerns around data privacy and security, and the high cost of implementing GPT-based solutions. However, those who have adopted GPTs report significant benefits in terms of increased efficiency and improved customer satisfaction. To further explore the potential of GPTs in the tourism industry, we conduct a pilot study to develop a GPT-based travel recommendation system. The system uses GPT to generate personalized travel itineraries based on user preferences and feedback. Our evaluation of the system indicates that it performs well in terms of accuracy and user satisfaction, demonstrating the potential for GPTs to provide personalized and tailored experiences to travellers. Overall, our study provides an early look at the impact potential of GPTs on the tourism industry and identifies several avenues for future research. We recommend that tourism professionals and researchers collaborate to address the current barriers to adoption and explore the full range of applications for GPTs in the industry.

Tourist activity in the Republic of Croatia is one of the leading and most promising activities. It is our past, present and future. According to the National Bank, the share of revenues from travel - tourism in overall GDP in the first 9 months of 2015 was 22.2%, an increase of 1.2% compared to the same period in 2014. In the third quarter share of revenues from travel - tourism in total GDP amounted to 41.3%, as compared to the same period in 2014, representing a growth of 1.4%. The conclusion is that tourism is one of the leading economic sectors in the Republic of Croatia. Due to realized 78 million and 569,000 overnight stays (6.8% more than in 2014) and more than 8 billion of foreign exchange inflows, the Republic of Croatia on the overall tourism market has been recognized as an important destination whose development potentials have not yet been exhausted. Relevant institutions and predictions underline the fact that tourism is one of the keys for faster integration of Croatia in the entire world economy and the networked society, from which it can be read that Croatia must view this sector in a new way and allow tourism to undergo complete transformation, in order to cope with future competitive challenges more easily. According to estimates by the World Travel & Tourism Council direct and indirect employment in the tourism sector in 2008 was about 300,000 employees, but that number will have increased by additional 100,000 in the next ten years. The Croatian tourism today employs 35-40% of workers. Thus, the tourism industry is a comprehensive and a very important generator of jobs of different profiles - from catering and hotel industry to entertainment and animation. In the light of progress in the development of tourism, and regardless of specific personnel, Croatia still needs a lot of work on the construction of the existing profile of tourism personnel and management and educate the tourist interest in tourism future. In addition, employment in the hospitality and tourism industry has a very high seasonal fluctuation of work, while the proportion of highly educated so-called senior managers is weak due to the contemporary needs of the tourism of the 21st century. The system of education for tourism is not performed well at all levels of education, and the result is inadequate qualifications. On the other hand, salaries of employees in the tourism industry, especially in the hospitality and catering industry, are among the lowest in the Republic of Croatia. With its tourism development strategy, the Republic of Croatia has turned towards building quality destinations (new facilities, renovation of existing and quality services). This paper will analyze how the quality of services, backed by human activity, is the key to the success of any enterprise, with an adopted conclusion about what kind of future we are building in this segment. The research will be carried out through the review and analysis of trends in employment in the tourism industry, the qualifying term structure of employees, their share in the total employees in the Republic of Croatia, the competitiveness in the international labor market for a period of last 5 years.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of internet applications and their effects in the tourism industry of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). As a platform for e-commerce, the internet remains a reliable tool for use in the tourism industry, a conception that continues to win increased acceptance among major players in the industry. Despite evidence of slow rates of internet adoption in the tourism sectors of some nations, the future of tourism seems heavily dependent on this technology. This exploration is conducted based on available theoretical models which have been used on the subject in other countries, with the findings forming the basis in asserting the future of the tourism industry in the GCC. Conservativeness was found to be a major setback to the sustained competitive exploitation of internet value in GCC’s tourism industry. Key Words: e-commerce, internet, GCC, tourism

The article provides insights into information and communication technology (ICT) issues used in the tourism industry. It is argued that information and communication technologies is a driving force behind the tourism industry which contributes to boosting positive effects to a number of internal travel company activities and organizational factors like net cost, market and competition. ICT has become a key impetus to enhance competitiveness of travel companies as well as of tourist destinations, since a wide range of technological advancements has triggered this evolution. Actually, the overall rapid development of information and communication technologies and the Internet, in particular, has dramatically changed the tourism industry making the Internet an effective marketing tool for the entire travel services sector. This tool is of critical significance to both suppliers and consumers in disseminating information, communication and purchasing goods and services online. It has been verified that the major technologies and ICT applications used in tourism are websites; digital marketing; social networks; multimedia; mobile technologies and intelligent environments (IE). A well-designed website proved its effectiveness in promoting customer loyalty to the website and its products. ICTs are changing the way tourism products are sold and apart from that are a powerful tool for marketing research. In tourism, customer reviews and recommendations are of great importance to enhance the travel company attractiveness and promote travel destinations. Apparently, tourist information involves a wide range of graphics and image data representation to ensure positive customer perception to travellers who plan their trip. The evolution of mobile technology and infrastructure is becoming a common attribute of everyday life. In modern market segmentation realia, travel companies need to know how to adapt their market offer at a time of booking and adjust travel services to a great number of customers and market segments. The research results specify that building strong relationships with the external environment will promote better coordination between all the tourism industry stakeholders. The future of tourism is to be focused on customer-centric technologies that will facilitate a more dynamic process of communication between travel companies and their customers.

The tourism industry is considered one of the vital elements of the global economy. The tourism industry supports millions of jobs that are directly and indirectly related to tourism. The tourism industry supports several business disciplines, including sports, education, medical care, and wellness. During the past decade, demand for healthcare and wellness beyond borders has grown exponentially, especially after the stay-at-home era caused by the pandemic. Several studies have discussed the importance of medical and wellness tourism in generating economic and social benefits. One of the growing countries in terms of medical and wellness tourism in Qatar. The country has been heavily investing in state-of-the-art medical and wellness facilities that are recognised on the global level. Therefore, this research is exploring the future of tourism from a medical and wellness perspective in Qatar, and emphasises on how medical and wellness tourism can contribute to the development of the tourism industry specifically.To achieve the aim of this study, this research applied the multi-mixed method research approach, utilising both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods. Interviews were used as part of the qualitative approach. Data collected from the interviews were analysed using the content analysis method. Four interviews were conducted with key agents representing medical and wellness tourism, such as a life coach for wellness tourism, one doctor for medical tourism, and two tourism agents for the overall health tourism sector. As for the quantitative data, a questionnaire was distributed to around 600 targeted respondents from different members of the society in Qatar. A total of 473 responses were selected based on random sampling. Results revealed that Qatar has what it takes to become a health tourism destination and is preparing to develop such an industry in the next few years. Results suggested that health tourism is becoming the future for destinations during and Covid-19 and preparing for the wellness industry will prove to be rewarding to developing destinations such as Qatar as it leads to economic growth. The research concluded that Qatar must improve its health tourism industry and focus on this industry for the benefit of economic reward, and for the well-being of the destination’s citizens.

Tourism industry has been an important industry in Malaysia for a number of years. The industry does not only impact the lives of major community, but also the minor ethnic including the indigenous people. Tourism developers in Malaysia have launched several indigenous community-based tourism programmes in order to encourage more tourism activities and improve the livelihood of the community. Indigenous community participations and supports towards tourism industry are crucial for the success of future sustainable tourism development plan. This study investigates the relationships between perceived impacts of tourism industry, quality of life and support for future tourism development. A total of 234 self-administered questionnaires have been distributed to the Mah Meri peoples within five villages in Carey Island, Malaysia. The findings reveal that the Mah Meri community in Carey Island was affected by tourism industry in term of economy, social, culture and environment. As they perceived that tourism industry enhances their quality of life, they are willing to support future tourism development in Carey Island. The findings also reveal that the Mah Meri community's quality of life mediates the relationships between impacts of tourism and support for future tourism development. Results of this study are consistent with the social exchange theory. The Mah Meri community in Carey Island willing to support future tourism development at their living area, as long as it is sustainable towards their life.

The tourism industry is especially sensitive to a pandemic and other unexpected circumstances as natural disasters, war, terrorist attacks. Different types of crisis bring various consequences. In 2020 the outbreak of the COVID-19 disease and travel restrictions caused bruises to the tourism and hospitality industries. Hotel managers, hotel staff and their guests had to take a series of measures to deal with various challenges and face a new situation. This paper aims to critically examine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the tourism and hotel industries and discuss some possible survival strategies to be implemented in the hotel sector during the pandemic crisis (in the short and long-term perspective). The research was based on an overview of the relevant literature and sanitary rules developed by UN WHO, local governments and the hotel industry. The authors critically investigated some available statistic data to compare room occupancy before the pandemic and during the COVID-19 crisis and hospitality services offered to hotel guests before the pandemic and after its outbreak. The main findings are presented from several dimensions: hotel and health crisis, sanitary restrictions and possible recovery recommendations.