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Forbes
01-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
How Gen Alpha Will Travel: New Report Says AI And Entertainment Can Reshape Trip Planning
Social media and entertainment channels will become a primary pathway to book travel, reducing the planning process. getty Get ready for an entirely new way to travel in as soon as a decade. According to a recently released travel report from Omio, a travel app and website that combines bus, train, ferry and air booking into one convenient resource. Omio's first Future Journeys Report, produced in partnership with The Future Laboratory, surprises with radically new ways that we might be thinking about and reserving travel as soon as 2035. 'Instead of just getting from A to B, it's about how the entire journey feels and adapts along the way,' says Martin Raymond, co-founder, The Future Laboratory, about potential changes in how people plan their trips in a decade. American Airlines planes waiting for passengers at Miami International Airport getty By 2035, the World Travel & Tourism Council says that travel and tourism will contribute more than $17 trillion to the global economy. Travel platforms won't be just transactional, but also transformational by incorporating your personal emotions and needs into a trip. The growth of Omio has been impressive in the past year with 30% year-over-year growth, now selling 80,000 tickets per day. Its own search data reports that it attracts 900 million visitors to its website leading to one billion travel searches. Ryanair Boeing 737-800 takes off from Santander, Spain getty This success, says Steve Kuo, senior managing director and technology group head of Hercules Capital, which has pumped $120 million into the platform, is the result of the scaling up of its platform. This year, it launched ticket sales in Southeast Asia and has also added low-cost brands like Flix Bus and Ryanair as well as ferry services to its booking engine (services not always found via other online travel agencies). For this recent travel report, Omio tapped into knowledge from various industry experts and studied the latest travel trends to explain how we might plan our trips in the future, especially as the industry looks towards Generation Alpha (those born between 2010 and 2024). They will view travel planning differently having grown up using mobile devices from a young age. From their perspective, the world is increasingly more connected and closer than ever. Book as you 'binge' Taormina, Sicily saw a tourism boom following the HBO series The White Lotus filmed there. getty This trend has already begun and highlights how travelers are influenced by Hollywood films and TV programs in the places they want to visit. From HBO's The White Lotus leading us to Maui, Sicily and Thailand in droves following its first three seasons to social media influencers sharing their favorite places as we swipe through our phones, these can influence where and how we travel. And it works. For example, the growing demand for travel to southern Italy has led airlines like Delta and United to launch new flights to Sicily (Catania and Palermo, respectively). Together with American, the three U.S. international airlines all have added a bevy of new, nonstop flights to Naples in southern Italy, too. Booking an impromptu trip can be as simple as a swipe and click while watching your favorite entertainment. getty Omio predicts that travel platforms will begin to integrate themselves within entertainment content so that if you like what you're watching, you can easily swipe directly into a booking engine to reserve a trip. People won't plan travel far in advance, but book on the spot while enjoying travel content. These trip itineraries can also be saved to your account to book later or become easily shareable with friends. YouTube's head of culture and trends for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Roya Zeitoune, says that YouTube is already the second biggest online search engine when it comes to things like travel. Zeitoune also points out that people tend to trust raw and real content over something that is more polished. Travelers won't waste time planning their travel, but instead might just 'stumble' upon trip ideas that match their interests during their daily life. Artificial intelligence takes control Artificial intelligence can help curate itineraries based on price, personal interests and even current mood. getty Using AI-powered tools, the way in which we interact with travel messaging via social media and booking platforms will match our personal interests and emotions. At the same time, AI will also power the tools we use for customer support, and that may not be good news for everyone. Bots don't always know the answers, and an increasing number of travel brands are sending their customer service paths either overseas or to automated conversations. But, artificial intelligence can be positive, too. It can help curate itineraries and suggestions based on your budget, habits and favorite activities rather than what is most popular at the moment with other travelers. A beach in Ao Nang, Thailand, one of the regions of the world that has seen popularity following HBO's The White Lotus. getty Where you go should be places that resonate with you emotionally, not only the cheapest or most beautiful. AI can even integrate preferences like where you like to sit on the plane or train, the types of food you like to eat and your preferred loyalty programs (and the earning and redemption habits you have). What Hilton's 2025 Trend Report shows is that 78% of travelers want to book all of their travel online without interacting with someone. And a similar number of people want to use their mobile device to help manage their travel (and any potential disruption along the way). Omio's report continues this theme with data from Euromonitor International, saying that by 2029, 73% of travel sales will be conducted online. For example, should a weather disruption, traffic congestion or local strike affect a particular trip, AI can quickly help reroute a complicated journey based on price and personal mood. Intermodal travel grows Mobile devices can help travelers adjust their travel plans while enroute. Omio's app aggregates all of your tickets and reservations into one place. getty Intermodal travel refers to the concept of using two or more modes of transportation on the same journey. This could also include using what the report calls 'micromobility,' referring to electric bikes and scooters. While taking a rideshare or bus to the airport, flying to a destination via plane and then hopping a train to your hotel is nothing new, booking it all in one place is still not an easy practice. Omio's system does this already and sends emails or texts before, during and after the journey to provide updates and assistance. It also emails you the tickets or boarding documents you need for travel on non-air tickets so that no additional check in is needed. You simply print or save the boarding pass to your phone, which is something that most other travel platforms have yet to integrate into their offering. It is all digitally synced into one place. Instead of carrying extra bags, Omio's report suggests more people will use services that have curated bundles of clothes and other items needed for a trip waiting for you at the destination. getty Another travel simplification noted within the report predicts that people will travel lighter, often with just a carry-on, to make intermodal transport easier. For smaller budgets, AI can help suggest an entire start-to-finish itinerary with more trains or public transport options than flights. It also highlights Japan Airlines' existing Any Wear, Anywhere program as the way of the future, suggesting that travelers could even be able to pre-book curated bundles of clothes and accessories waiting for them at their destination. This can help reduce what you carry as well as carbon emissions when we travel. From clothes to baby strollers, the possibilities can radically help to improve the logistics of intermodal travel. Recent protests have pushed back against tourists visiting some of Europe's most popular capitals like Barcelona. Here, crowds of tourists walk alone La Rambla, a street infamous for crowds (and pickpockets). getty McKinsey & Co. data within Omio's report also underlines the problem of overtourism. As many as 80% of travelers only visit 10% of the world's tourist destinations. These are the kinds of targets that AI can help to address by shifting attention to other destinations or promoting off-season travel to popular tourist spots. Artificial intelligence and travel can intersect to improve the journey along every step of the way, and booking platforms that integrate it will be especially appealing to Gen Alpha travelers.
Business Times
30-05-2025
- Health
- Business Times
How ‘longevity' became the new buzzword in health
AT A time when many of us might feel powerless to influence world events, perhaps it's not surprising that our society is trying ever harder to exercise the ultimate form of personal control: over our own mortality. The desire for a long – even eternal – life is nothing new (China's first emperor and creator of the Terracotta Army, Qin Shi Huang, ordered subjects to search for the elixir of everlasting life). Now, however, this impulse is coalescing around one particular buzzword: longevity. It's a timely topic, given that between 2015 and 2050, the proportion of the world's population over 60 years will nearly double from 12 per cent to 22 per cent, according to the World Health Organization. But beyond its most basic definition, the word 'longevity' has acquired myriad new associations. Now, established ways to improve your chances of living longer – such as giving up smoking, exercising more, not getting lonely – aren't as attention-grabbing as commercialised, often competitive, approaches to extending your life. Many approaches are constructive, such as that of Andrew J Scott, professor of economics at London Business School and author of The Longevity Imperative, who focuses on 'healthy longevity', and posits that there are other markers of ageing beyond chronological age. But increasingly, the term is cropping up in marketing speak and in the luxury and lifestyle worlds. We now have hotels such as the Longevity Health and Wellness Hotel in the Algarve; a Longevity Lounge at wellness clinic Cloud Twelve in London, with biohacking gadgets such as a space-age-looking red light therapy helmet designed to promote hair growth and reduce brain fog. And then there's the Corinthia hotel's partnership with the London Regenerative Institute, offering everything from epigenetic testing aimed at determining how fast you are ageing, to hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Dior's L'Or de Vie La Creme (£1,400, or S$2,400, for 50ml) contains 'Golden Drop Life Technology', a 'longevity elixir'; while this month, Swiss 'longevity brand' Loya launched moisturisers and serums that it says will bring 'a completely new category of wellness to the UK market'. Apparently, 'proprietary HappyFeelBoost technology' will rejuvenate skin and lift your mood. Any resemblance to the 'hypnopaedic' slogans in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World is purely coincidental. This year, Alex Hawkins, director of strategic foresight at The Future Laboratory, co-authored a report produced by The Future Laboratory in partnership with Together Group, about how luxury is embracing longevity. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Friday, 2 pm Lifestyle Our picks of the latest dining, travel and leisure options to treat yourself. Sign Up Sign Up Hawkins tells me that a key character in taking the concept mainstream is super-rich biohacker Bryan Johnson, the subject of the Netflix documentary Don't Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever, and whose bid to reverse ageing has involved futuristic and dystopian strategies such as receiving blood transfusions from his teenage son. Then there's the research around Blue Zones – global communities with a high concentration of people living to an advanced age, the subject of another Netflix documentary released in 2023. Biohacker Bryan Johnson's bid to reverse ageing has involved futuristic and dystopian strategies such as receiving blood transfusions from his teenage son. PHOTO: BLOOMBERG Hawkins says: 'Those two things open up an interesting split in the longevity conversation. On the one hand you have this high-tech, science-driven approach where someone is actively throwing quite a lot of money and technology at understanding and optimising their own ageing process; and on the other, with the Blue Zones, it's a radically back-to-basics approach to health. A lot of the reasons that we see people living longer in Blue Zones are really foundational things, like having strong community ties and eating relatively unprocessed diets.' However, Johnson's Rejuvenation Olympics – a competition that encourages participants to measure their 'biological age' and upload it to a public leaderboard – demonstrates a competitive element to longevity pursuits. They have become a fitness flex, just like posting Insta pictures of yourself doing burpees as part of a Hyrox race. Where once people would brag about being 'crazy busy' or pulling an all-nighter at work, now, logging eight hours of sleep on your Oura ring score carries more cachet. There's been such a culture shift that it seems extraordinary now that live fast, die young was ever considered a cool rock'n'roll mantra. Hawkins says the Future Laboratory report was exploring 'this idea that you and your quality of life are ultimately your greatest investment. It's definitely a status symbol in that way. Perhaps in the future it won't be so much about the designer handbag, it's more what treatments you have access to, what means you have to take control over your ageing.' As consumers prioritise experiences over products, high-end fashion and beauty brands are following suit, aiming to offer what The Future Laboratory calls 'a new paradigm of transformational luxury'. Often, that might seem as much about looking younger for longer, as much as the prospect of actually living longer. Not that it's limited to the highest end of the market. According to McKinsey's latest 2025 Future of Wellness Report, up to 60 per cent of consumers report that healthy ageing is a 'top' or 'very important' priority'. It notes that 'products and services have emerged to address these needs, including skincare products targeting long-term skin health and wrinkle prevention, supplements that claim to slow cellular ageing, epigenetic age-testing kits, virtual physical therapy solutions, and more'. But is the word longevity really set to stay in the conversation? Or like the increasingly woolly 'wellness', will its meaning be diluted until it's used to describe random products in the outer reaches of Amazon? Anyone for a pair of marshmallow-pink-coloured Warmies, described as heatable wellness boots, scented with French lavender? In other words, does longevity have longevity? Anna Pione, a partner at McKinsey in New York, says: 'Where I think there is risk of a fad is in specific applications of what longevity means. Right now, like wellness, it's an extremely broad term... Do I think it will have the same prevalence in marketing language a few years from now? That's open for debate. It depends on whether some of these products and services really take hold and if consumers continue to see the value, as to whether you might see more of it.' While longevity is predicted to be a growth area in hospitality, plenty of the major players seem measured in their use of the tag. Perhaps wanting to tap into its zeitgeisty vibes without overcommitting, should it become supplanted by another new term. The Soho Health Club, part of the Soho House Group, states on its website that facilities are 'designed to encourage performance and promote holistic wellness and longevity', via treatments such as contrast therapy (ice baths, infrared sauna) and IV drips including NAD+ (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, a molecule favoured by various celebrities for anti-ageing). However, Thiago Alves, Soho Health Club's UK manager, says: 'I don't necessarily have any member coming to me asking for longevity treatments. I think members are more curious about health optimisation, they want to live longer, they want to live better. They want to have a good time with us... we use quite a few words, but we don't necessarily use the word longevity so explicitly.' The Dorchester Collection has revamped its spa at Coworth Park. Teresa O'Farrell, its global head of wellness and spa, who was part of the process, is also measured in her approach to namechecking longevity. 'It is something we talk about but we're not using it as a buzzword.' In fact she still talks about 'wellness' because it's 'the journey to longevity'. 'There are lots of extreme therapies, but Coworth Park is a countryside estate and we know that being in nature is good for physical and mental wellness, so that is part of longevity,' she says. 'You hear the birds, smell the fresh air the, trees, the grass, the flowers. As people walk up the path to the spa they are already reducing their stress.' McKinsey's Anna Pione also emphasises that consumers will need to feel short-term benefits from products that promote longevity. Not everyone wants to wait half a century or more to find out if those supplements do what they say on the tin. FINANCIAL TIMES
