After reading the first chapter of the book “Marketing for Tourism and Hospitality”, watched
the videos linked and by my own researches, you will find my answer to the question:
“Why did the experience economy come about and what do you think the next economy is
likely to be and with what implications for tourism and hospitality?”
As Joe Pine said, nowadays commodities, goods and even services became ordinary and
brands has had to find a new way to difference their products or services from their
competitors.
In fact, in today’s society where a well–known expression reigns “time is money”, people
(brands customers) are really looking for the most effective way to get their time well spent
and to not waste it especially when it is about to spend their money on either goods or
services.
There is no such a big diversity of products or services in today’s economy, this is why brands
has had to develop a new way to make themselves special compare to their competitors.
This is how the experience economy were born by providing to the customer more than a
product (get a coffee at MacDonald’s) or a service (spend a night at the hotel).
As we can see, some brands have developed this “experience” factor through the
personalization of their product/service as we can see with Starbucks (ask the customer his
name so it is a differentiation between each customer with a little personalization touch of
the brand to its customer.
Moreover, in the hospitality industry, The Ritz Carlton’s hotels with their employees are able
to provide a very personalized experience to their customers through some special
attentions with employee attitudes and processes for serving guests.
This new “experience” economy is for me the presages of the next upcoming economy, the
“personalized” economy. Where each customer and guest will have the opportunity to live a
whole different experience than another person consuming the same product or service
regarding their needs and wishes.
I believe this will be possible because with all the data we collect about people with social
medias brands will be capable to provide the most appropriate experience to each and every
of their guests. This is even more true with hotels because make their guests feel unique is a