More Than Just a Hotel: How Tourism Architecture Has Changed

How Modern Travelers Relax

Today's tourist differs significantly in needs and capabilities from travelers even 20 years ago. But here, everything is quite clear (though by no means simple): modern hospitality infrastructure must be inclusive, eco-friendly, and self-sufficient. On the other hand, most modern tourists are metropolis residents whose lives are overflowing with vast amounts of information and external stimuli. They crave new experiences—and that's the real challenge. We explore how to impress a city dweller and what architecture has to do with it.

To understand how to build a profitable hotel, you need to look at the user and determine their needs and values. Several tourism trends relevant to hotel design can be identified.

Digital detox—this trend emerged several years ago and has only continued to grow since. Boutique hotels far from civilization offer metropolis residents, exhausted by their iPhones, an opportunity to rest and recharge in seclusion.

The "Path to Oneself": 46% of tourists today tend to choose wellness hotels. At the same time, there is also a growing interest among travelers in unusual types of recreation—such as meditations by a waterfall and "forest baths." Statistics show that the demand for recreation in natural locations grew by 40% in 2023.

Conscious tourism: awareness of "green" initiatives is growing among travelers. In 2023, 90% of consumers sought to choose a more eco-friendly option for their trip. And 39% of tourists are willing to pay more for such travel options.

Trend №1: Unity with Nature and New Experiences

Extreme hotels are located in hard-to-reach, wild places: deep in the taiga forests, at the foot of a volcano, on a mountain top, or on a deserted island. The main activities in such locations are extreme sports, helicopter flights, rafting, fishing. In this case, the hotel blends into the landscape and creates a feeling of unity with the nature surrounding the guest.

"Experience working on tourist facilities in the most remote and extreme corners of the planet has shown that the modern generation of travelers wants not just good service, but vivid, lifelong impressions. Traveling to such lands is akin to flying to another planet, so the architecture cannot be ordinary either: building typical log guest houses in such an impressive and powerful context would be wrong. Hotel architecture today is part of the experience; it must become one with nature, the surrounding context, harmoniously reflect and integrate into the local landscape. This way, the tourist continues to feel the emotions of exploring mountains, volcanoes, and the ocean even on the terrace of their hotel room, from where all of nature is visible like on the palm of their hand," says Anna Kulikova, Partner at FANTALIS Architects.

Source: https://prorus.ru/interviews/bolshe-chem-prosto-otel-kak-izmenilas-arhitektura-turizma/