"New pricing models for travel and tourism brands" is identified as the key UK trend in the WTM Global Trends Report 2008.
In other words - free, or at least customers paying what they want to.
We've heard this before - Chris Anderson's long-awaited follow-up to The Long Tail is Free - Why $0.00 is the Future of Business.
There was a collective scratching of heads at Travolution Towers about how free travel would work, and the WTM report does little to help us out.
The full report talks about Ryanair's "free" flights but then points out that its load factor for the months when it was running the promotion was lower than easyJet's which wasn't offering seats for nothing, trips for free.
Leading this trend towards free in the UK is "Generation Y" - by 2012 there will be 7.5 million Brits aged between 18-26, with an average income of £23K, who are going expect that part of their travel experience will be free of charge. At best, they will want to pay what they want not what they've been told to pay.
[Good luck in advance to yield and revenue managers]
If the economy is going to be so bleak for the next year or so, why don't UK travel suppliers try to get on the right side of Gen Y now by trying this "free" model.
Maybe Anderson's book will offer some hints on how to make this work for travel.
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