Conde Nast Traveller, the UK edition of the perennial travel magazine, recently released its list of the top trends in travel for 2015 in the February issue. Successfully positioning our clients as trendsetting in an ever-evolving industry, our travel PR agency was able to secure placements for two clients, Casa Bonita Tropical Lodge and Casas del XVI, in the feature.
Making it a priority to track trends as they are released during the first quarter of the year is essential to understanding the interests of both the media and the consumer. For instance, understanding the current emphasis on preserving coral reefs and travelers’ interest in witnessing them, will lead our creative team to brainstorm story angles for such hotels as Belize’s Las Terrazas Resort and Honduras’ The Lodge at Pico Bonito.
Below are our top three picks for trends for 2015 from Conde Nast Traveller’s, “What’s Hot for 2015”:
“The beach fix: Dominican Republic
The original globetrotter Christopher Columbus called this Caribbean country ‘the most beautiful land eyes have ever seen’. But more recently it became better known for the faux-old-world resorts lining Punta Cana. Now it has new travel cred, chalked up largely thanks to the kitesurfers coming to the north coast. Urban-chic hotel group Gansevoort has been paying attention and just opened the Gansevoort Playa Imbert in Sosúa, pictured, with wraparound terraces looking onto sensational beaches and a chef who worked at El Bulli. A 30-room Aman Resort is also in the works at Playa Grande. New roads have slashed travel time around the country too. In the south, the colonial charm of the capital, Santo Domingo, got a boost with the arrival of Casas del XVI hotel last March. But the best-kept secret is Barahona, where there are unspoilt seaside villages and wonderful little places to stay, including rainforest hideaway Rancho Platón and eco-lodge Casa Bonita looking out to the Caribbean Sea.
By Karen Burshtein
The cause: coral reefs
Octobubble, staghorn, club finger, massive starlet: snorkelling over these kooky living artworks is mesmerising. Coral reefs not only make spectacularly strange gardens but are also vital to the survival of all life in the ocean. A splashy exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London this March highlights the increasing threat of extinction for these complex ecosystems. As well as installing an aquarium with live sea coral, firework-bright fish and a virtual dive site, the museum is displaying treasures from its archive of fossils and specimens collected by Charles Darwin. Also concerned about the health of our reefs, big-name projects such as Blue Marine Foundation (whose partners include Selfridges) have focused on conserving ocean life and reducing overfishing. Do your bit on your next trip with dive operator Original Diving, which is working with the Coral Restoration Foundation on Danjugan, a private island in the Philippines where a handful of beach huts will open this year. Even Barack Obama is on board, announcing plans to create the world’s largest marine reserve in the Pacific.
By Hazel Lubbock
The future: how tech will change travel
A stellar round-up of the technology that could transform your next trip by Wired.co.uk‘s editor Nate Lanxon
Real-time mobile translation
This year, language barriers will be chipped away at harder than ever – and Google wants to be the pickaxe. Its acquisition of the Word Lens mobile app means deciphering menus and street signs will be as easy as holding up your phone and reading the translation on-screen.
Virtual reality
It may seem daft, but virtual-reality headsets could change the way you fly. Case in point: Airbus. Last year it filed a patent to use them on its planes to give passengers a feeling of physically being somewhere other than 40,000 feet over the Atlantic – already at their destination or perhaps just sitting up in first class. On top of that, Facebook now owns Oculus, the leading maker of the headsets. It’s fair to assume Mark Zuckerberg has big plans.
3D-printed stays
In 2014 a Chinese company called WinSun used a 32-metre printer to produce 10 houses in one day, each made from blocks formed by printing layers of cement-glass mix. In the USA this year architect Adam Kushner aims to build the world’s first 3D-printed estate, and a canal house has been created in Amsterdam. It won’t be long before such buildings appear as holiday rentals and on festival campsites.
The death of roaming
‘Bill shock’, the term applied to the horror of returning from holiday to discover you owe a mobile network thousands of pounds, will be no more. A European parliamentary decision in 2015 is likely to end all roaming charges in the EU member states. Cue WhatsApp from the beach and a flood of holiday selfies.”
What trends have you identified that are influencing your business?