Understanding the customer and what they want is key to a positive customer experience and this is not limited to only the airport. As the world’s leading travel trend forecasting agency, Globetrender is known for its skill in predicting the changing ways people are exploring the world, and the forces of influence that are determining their decisions, it has partnered with Amadeus in producing a 2025 Travel Trends report to help businesses successfully anticipate the need and demands of tomorrow’s travellers.
The previous year was a year of elections across the globe. One trend that has been pinpointed is the desire for simpler, happier times of the past. What stands out in the new travel trend is that a new wave of nostalgia is reported to be inspiring people to replay the vacations of their youth; revisiting places connected to defining milestone experiences such as honeymoons and gap years; and even finding ways to evoke the gilded aesthetics of the Roaring Twenties, reveals the Travel Trend.
So, there is a powerful surge of nostalgia shaping how people choose their destinations. Travellers, it says, are seeking to recapture the joy of their milestone vacations; from the places they first fell in love to the experiences that defined their youth.
This is good news for a continent like Africa which has a relatively young population. This points to a market for low-cost carriers and smaller planes that will keep the young and energetic youth moving and harnessing opportunities across the continent.
Personalised flying is another travel trend which has strategic implications for all in the airport community. Personalised travel experiences should start long before a passenger steps foot in an airport or boards a flight. In 2025, says Travel Trend, the future of in-flight entertainment (IFE) will lie in creating a highly personalised, connected, and immersive experience for passengers.
With advancements in AI, Wi-Fi and 5G, and virtual reality, airlines while being poised to offer a more engaging and enriching journey, will also appreciate the fact that the data and insights gained from their interaction with customers will be useful for collaborative decision making on how the airport community can deliver personalised travel experiences. The airport, the concessionaire and all other businesses will gain from such an insight.
These days, Travel Trend points out, travellers are increasingly seeking hotels with a sense of place and a unique identity, and in many cases these properties are putting destinations on the map. Observed is that today’s guests are not just looking for a place to stay, but for an experience that resonates with the local culture and offers a unique narrative.
One can imagine what a customer experience centre themed around the local community would look like around an airport. Imagine thatched roofs, mud walls and local dishes that tell the story of the continent while passengers await their flights. Perhaps this could unlock passenger spend that can lead to increase in non-aeronautical revenue streams.
In 2025, inbound and outbound travel to and from Asia (and most significantly, China) is finally expected to reach pre-2019 levels and will fully open this market to the world, says the Travel Trend. To entice foreign visitors, China has extended visa-free inbound travel until the end of 2025 for numerous countries (including Australia, New Zealand, Poland and France), and new luxury hotels will provide a magnet for curious Sinophiles. Also, according to the American credit rating agency Fitch Ratings, Asia tourism will likely return to pre-Covid levels during the first half of 2025 thanks in part to weaker currencies that make it more affordable for overseas visitors.
As airlines in Africa think of their internationalisation strategy in the face of foreign exchange challenges and a cost-of-living crisis, a move towards the market in Asia may not be out of place for airlines in Africa. China plays a key role in Africa and offers extensive travel opportunities that create a market that Africa should not ignore.
All around the world, Travel Trend reports, people are falling out of love with online dating, and looking for new, spontaneous ways to make connections In Real Life (IRL). It states further that travel has always been a good way to meet people but with dating apps having been the dominant means of doing this for the last ten years, traditional methods have been cast aside. Amadeus data shows the number of solo leisure travellers increased by 15.6 percent in 2023 over the previous full year. And the trend continues in 2024, with a year-on-year increase to date of 9.2 percent. Consequently, in 2025, Travel Trend predicts that increasing numbers of singletons will be taking a chance on new people and places by booking travel to make “Connections IRL” (in real life). This is not new to us in Africa. We are outdoor people with our type of weather and climate.
Travel trend in the year 2025 provides opportunities for the airport community in Africa to craft strategies to capture the market as they open up to the world.
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