The changes are intense. The stakes are high. Thankfully, Routes World returns on the 9th-10th of October 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Many top decision-makers from the global route development community have attended the annual forum for many years. They are eager to return to consider the world’s aviation services.
This article will discuss trends in the aviation and travel industry and tradeshow tactics to help you optimize your impact at the event.
Travel Trends to Think Through
The first trend to think through is the recovery period. International inbound travel continues to struggle, while domestic leisure travel is set to exceed pre-pandemic levels in the United States. According to U.S. Travel Association, international inbound travel may not rise to pre-pandemic levels until 2024, highlighting the lopsided recovery for the commercial airline industry. Despite this unfortunate forecast, there are opportunities for business available, which leads to the second trend.
During the World Routes 2021 in Milan, Italy, it was shown that investors are eagerly searching for new projects to fund even in this sluggish recovery period. In an interview with aviation online, Rob McKinney discusses the launch of his project, Pacific Airways, a cost-effective carrier that connects destinations between the U.S. and Asia with a hub in Alaska. Pacific Airways is a spin-off of the RAVN Alaska airline that went bankrupt during the pandemic. At the time of the interview, the CEO already had a third of his estimated costs funded by investors.
Finally, in an important article written by multiple authors, McKinsey and Company report five fundamental shifts in the aviation industry and make suggestions along the way. One of which is the call to use the slow recovery to restructure internal operations within the airline companies. “Before the pandemic, airlines spent 5 percent of their revenue on IT. This is relatively low compared with other sectors,” The article’s author writes, “By means of comparison, the retail industry spends around 6 percent on average and financial services 10 percent.”
Here’s a summary outline of the trends above:
- International inbound travel is not expected to reach a full recovery until 2024
- Investors are using this transitionary period to look for opportunities and emerging travel demographics
- There is a general push to use this period to optimize internal operations
Tradeshow Tactics
Suppose you have a solution to an industry problem. In that case, you must find the right investors, VPs of carriers, and other senior-level decision-makers to connect with your business. You’ll need lights, a camera, and action. Not the kind of action that draws blood, but the kind of action that says, “it’s showtime!” Here are two essential tradeshow tactics to boost your performance and make a big splash.
Experiential Exhibits
The basic idea of an “experiential” exhibit isn’t what you might think first. It doesn’t necessarily involve VR, Augmented Reality, or robotic sculptures. In this kind of setting, it’s simply about putting the product or service in the hand of those you connect with. It is meant to be immersive as possible to show your company’s vision, solution, or product. This can include scalable models of massive products, live demonstrations, and even video projection. An experiential exhibit should be as immersive as you can make it.
Making a visual impact on supporting the numerical value of your business projections will enhance your performance and improve brand awareness. To get a glimpse at the impact a well-designed booth can have, sample the work of The Trade Group here and here.
Other, more simple, ideas for adding an experiential element at your booth, if the budget is tight, is providing free coffee or some other marketing collateral.
Effectively Measure ROI
Making progress and measuring progress are two different things. The reason for measuring progress is to optimize performance and therefore make more progress. However, none of this makes any sense without clearly defined goals. Here are the simple keys to effectively measuring ROI for your show.
- Write specific, quantifiable goals (e.g., Goal: Increase number of prospective investors)
- Use Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to monitor the effectiveness (e.g., How many A prospects make it to the proposal stage? EXAMPLE: 50%. How many proposals will that take? EXAMPLE: 29)
- Track other insights, such as social media engagement during the event and immediately after (How many people viewed your website during the show and a couple of days following?)
There are many things to consider when designing a captivating, draw-dropping display at your tradeshow, as well as measuring your performance on the showroom floor. If you have further questions about strategizing for your show, contact us for help.
The Trade Group designs custom trade show displays that boost your brand’s trade show performance and provides full turn-key solutions to your event needs. Discover what we can do for your next event at Routes World 2022 by contacting us here or giving The Trade Group a call at (800) 343-2005.
