The fine weather is here. People go out more. And they are looking for new proposals. What novelties do consumers expect from the away-from-home experience in 2024? And what answers are operators offering?

If there is one word of the year (actually, two) it is with no doubt artificial intelligence. Even in hospitality, novelties could only begin with AI. Here, it is at the service of a demand that has been constantly growing in recent years: hyper-personalisation. Thanks to AI, it will be possible to fine-tune services and products ever more precisely to the needs of the individual customer, but also simplify many services, for everyone: for instance by automating check-ins. However, support for personalisation concerns virtually all digital solutions, which are increasingly shared (big data via the web and on the cloud) to better profile customers and their expectations.

Paradoxically, the goal of the cold algorithms will be to produce experiences that are more emotional, because they are in line with the consumers’ lifestyle. In bars and restaurants, experiential design will also increasingly contribute, as it enhances the tasting moment in a multi-sensory environment that triggers all senses.

Today, such a multi-sensorial concept enhances the pleasure of the eyes even at the bar: as at the restaurant, the experience of drinks, in particular of the cafeteria, must above all be ‘Instagrammable’. As far as tastes are concerned, 2024 is the year of mocktails: ‘mock’ cocktails because they are non-alcoholic, yet they still reproduce the exaltation of flavours of an alcoholic mix, often using the intense flavour of coffee, preferably a speciality coffee.

Also gone are the days of the simple wine list and of international beer and spirits brands. Bars and restaurants are specialising with a beer list dedicated to local craft beers, wines from specific vintages and terroirs supported by a narrative, eclectic collections of spirits (after whisky and gin, look out for rum in the coming years) and fresh, zero-mile fruit juices.

To learn more about these and other industry trends, do not miss the dates of Host 2025, at fieramilano in Milan-Rho from 17 to 21 October 2025.