Tourism in 2021 will surely bring new concepts, profiles and trends which will most probably replace all those other ones that cannot apply anymore due to mobility restrictions caused by Covid-19. In reality, many of them already started to manifest themselves some time ago, but the pandemic emergency is giving birth to even more.

We think the main concepts, profiles and trends for 2021 are going to be the following:

1. Staycation (local tourism)

The term Staycation comes from the combination of the word stay and vacation. This concept recognizes a new traveller profile that enjoys vacations not too far from where they reside. We cannot predict what other restrictions are going to be imposed by governments, but we know restrictions will not begin to ease anytime soon so 2021 will most probably see local tourism have a major impact compared to previous years.

2. Workation

This other concept merges the smartworking and vacation phenomenons as many employees will be able to seize the opportunity to transfer anywhere in the world to discover new destinations without interrupting their working activity. This new trend will result in longer stays, whether these are going to be in a second residence or directly in a tourist destination. The fusion of such opposing concepts may surprise at first, but it may potentially become the most interesting opportunity to reverse the negative trend and support the entire tourist field.

3. Longer stays

Aside from those profiles arising from the previously mentioned concepts of Staycation and Workation, which by definition will support longer stays themselves, there are also other aspects to keep in consideration. One of these may be the substitution of the FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) concept with JOMO (Joy Of Missing Out) one. We believe we will soon witness a reverse in trends which will push travellers to enjoy the moment and therefore nearby destinations resulting in a general deceleration of tourist rhythms and remarkable reduction of the voracity in consumption of experiences. One other side effect may be a general increase of the attention to quality rather than quantity.

4. Last minute reservations

Before the arrival of the Coronavirus one of the most common traveller profiles depicted a traveller that planned the entire trip in advance, sometimes reaching smaller details. Instead, with the virus in circulation, today most travellers are forced to plan their trip with very little advance. This forced evolution in the planification of trips, despite it all, does propose new opportunities to explore such as new cancellation policies and marketing strategies, but also new specific products that best respond to the current needs.