by wsaiclWe’re now in the 2020s.
We’ve left behind traditional mediums of standardized experience. As customers, we now exercise choices more than we ever did before—as customers, we customize experiences to our minutest preferences. It is the Experience Economy at play.
Fixed-schedule television is dead, music is mobile, and the tourism and travel industry no longer must conform to outdated modes of hospitality.
How has the Experience Economy Influenced the Travel Industry?
We’ve now learned that there is no “proper” way of handling and organizing a hotel’s spaces—fitting some age-old, cloistered model. Hotels now serve the new Experience Economy, always going out of their way to organize their spaces, at the behest of the customer.
These untapped spaces can and should be customized with a range of activities and functions. They can be made formal, informal, celebratory, and more. Are there more specific concepts though? We, at Arihant, have a few small-scale ideas, but we will come to that in a bit. First, we must understand the current context of the pandemic vis-a-vis the travel industry.
How has the COVID-19 Pandemic Influenced the Travel Industry?
The travel industry is the biggest beneficiary of the new Experience Economy. But the pandemic changed travel dynamics within the last year, diminishing the influx of customers and their options. However, it did result in one positive effect.
In the last year, there have been more people traveling locally and domestically. They are doing this to cut down on health risks and to avoid getting stuck in nations where public health mandates suddenly ban travel and where governments increase reservations on public activity.
As a result, domestic tourism has gotten a boost.
How can Domestic Tourism be Improved Further?
- Families are now looking for hotels where each member of the family can enjoy themselves in a collective experience. As such, hotels need spaces that cater to all age groups, from 5 to 65.
- Families also need to secure these experiences within healthy mandates for the pandemic’s range. Therefore, they might need to restrict their activities to the vicinity of the hotel itself.
These are all good reasons as to why water play structures can serve a large part of the target audience of hotels.
Arihant Water Slides has enabled this in several hotels around the globe, with unsurprisingly successful results. These interactive products liven up a hotel’s spaces, permitting guests the leeway to indulge their more playful whims. Water play structures work for kids, work for adults—they work for everyone.
How Water Play Structures in Hotels Are Changing Public Perception
Hotel guests are loving these progressive ideas.
Paul W, from Middlesbrough, United Kingdom, was impressed with the Arihant Water Slide facilities at the Jupiter Albuferia Hotel: “The water slides went down great with the kids and the pool was excellent. I wouldn’t hesitate to return again. The bar staff were so friendly and always smiling, a great 11-night stay.”
Jennifer, also from the United Kingdom, was quite flattering about the same, “The ambience of the hotel is nice and calm. Good facilities for children especially the water slides; my daughter loved it!”
Arihant has supplied its versatile product range all over the world. They come with an impressive breadth of engineering creativity, in scaled-up and scaled-down capacities. We also have injected adrenaline into the AquaShow Park Hotel, Quarteria, Portugal, with an adjacent water park chock-full with slides and Water Play Structures.
Of this hotel, one Ndael wrote,”The water park being just next door was brilliant. It was great having a few hours around the hotel pools then being able to ‘pop’ over to the water park for a couple of hours every day was brilliant.”
Tracy was also enamored with the idea of a water park accompanying a hotel: “The water park, which is very impressive, is right next door. It involves a short walk to get in but that is purely to do with the size of it. And once inside it wasn’t busy, but I believe in June, July, and August, it can be very busy—so remember this.”
Given the changing scene of the travel industry and the higher occupancy during shoulder seasons, hotels, and resorts all over the world might need to look into the potential of this flowing Imaginarium of fun and laughs.