Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer, Cummins&Partners’ Adam Ferrier has told a theatre full of travel trade professionals in Sydney this morning.
Speaking at the Travel Daze conference, organised by The Misfits Media Company (owner of B&T), Ferrier said the travel industry had succumbed to its fears rather than embracing its unique qualities and positioning within people’s lives.
Using Batman as an example, who Ferrier said was unique among super heroes in that he harnessed his greatest fear – bats – as his inner strength, the travel undustry should not be afraid of digital disruption, but rather embrace it.
“If you embrace your weaknesses and fossick around down there, you’re going to find all sort of good ideas,” he said.
For instance, Ferrier said that every hotel room in the world showed a picture of the beach it was near or the bed in its hotel room, which was so generic it was amazing.
“Beaches are everywhere and all hotel rooms have nice-looking beds . . . what they don’t all have is a plug next to the bed to connect your phone to,” he said. Quipping that if hotels all embraced those sort of simple weaknesses as their point of differentiation sales would surely spike.
He also added that using a rational form of messaging was a mistake for travel industry participants, suggesting instead using emotion, status and aspiration is a far more powerful strategy.
“People selling washing powder use the chance to win five nights in Fiji as a way of generating excitement; you are five nights in Fiji.”
