In The Media
The BehaviorSMART In the media space includes media articles and resources where our team was quoted and that provide coverage to activities with our involvement. Articles, which are available online are linked and accessible below.
Afar
Are Travelers Ruining Travel?
Sep, 2023
Behavioral scientist Milena Nikolova, the CEO and founder of BehaviorSMART, works with destinations and travel companies to apply insights about human behavior to support more sustainable and responsible travel. In large part, Nikolova says, this rise in bad behavior can be attributed to the sheer volume of travel now.
“Travel has become easier to attain and is more accessible. The moment that something is easy, you appreciate it less, and you value it less,” Nikolova says. She also points to what she calls the rise of “fast-food culture”: “Travelers are sliding on the surface of the experience; they are not immersing themselves, not mindfully connecting to the place.” The 24/7 media churn has only amplified the bad behavior, she notes, turning stories that would have been of local nature into international headlines.
Rooted
How the Tourism Industry Can Close the Knowledge-Action Gap
Sept, 2022
Change is hard. Habits are habits for a reason, and it takes a concerted, intentional, and repeated effort to actually alter behaviors and turn actions into new routines. People want to make changes. It’s up to the tourism industry to step up and make that easier by closing the knowledge-action gap.
My brilliant friend and colleague Milena Nikolova is the founder of BehaviorSmart, which helps tourism businesses design optimal and effective operational models around the ways people actually behave. I highly recommend checking out the company’s resources and services. This isn’t in any way a sponsored endorsement. Milena truly is the best in the business when it comes to closing this gap.
CANVAS8
How ‘local insiders’ are changing the travel landscape
Aug, 2022
Peddling a recommendation straight from a ‘local’ perspective to offer an ‘authentic’ experience carries weight. “It’s a bit like the perception that’s formed by seeing a description of a product as ‘natural’,” says Dr. Milena S. Nikolova, an expert in applying behavioural insights to travel. “You perceive it as healthier and of higher quality than others.”
CANVAS8
How are Britons navigating travel disruption?
Jul, 2022
Now liberated from the travel restrictions enforced during lockdowns, it’s unsurprising that they’ve been returning to the skies in their droves, intent on escaping to sunnier climes. “The fact is that travel demand returned fast and at the volume that maybe people in the industry didn’t even expect or hope for,” says Milena Nikolova, founder of boutique consultancy BehaviorSMART. “Especially in the UK and Europe, where we’re seeing an amplified example of this, because it’s relatively easy to travel within the continent and there are diverse opportunities to do so.”
Adventure Travel News
Lugano, Switzerland Announced as 2022 Adventure Travel World Summit Host Destination
July, 2021
…”In addition to this, Ticino’s Sustainability manager, Veronica Lafranchi commented: “By seeing where the world is going and by getting inspiration at ATWS in Goteborg and Milena Nikolova’s session on Behaviour-Smart Thinking, we at Ticino Tourism Board also decided to propose that this 2022 ATWS is an entirely vegetarian summit, with the aim of showing that changes are possible. It’s just a matter of will and breaking old habits.””…
BBC
The creative experiences indulging our nostalgia for planes
April, 2021
…”Milena Nikolova, author of Behavioural Economics for Tourism, sees these new experiences as a clever way to keep brands alive and top of mind. “A crisis is actually a good time to be super smart about your marketing and maintain visibility,” she says. “By finding a creative way to adapt, these airlines can work on their brand identity, which is going to be important when the market recovers because the competition will be fierce.”…
Adventure Travel News
AdventureELEVATE in Europe Brought the Adventure Community Together for Inspiration & Business Resilience
April, 2021
…”The close was delivered by Milena Nikolova who talked about spendshift and talked about cost flipping — a behavioral strategy involving the repurposing of funds from handling undesired costs to preventing undesired behaviors altogether.”…
Rooted
Connecting With Casual Travelers: Out-of-the-Box Collaborations the Tourism Industry Must Consider
March, 2021
…”Second, we know that people don’t act in logical ways. BehaviorSMART founder Milena Nikolova, an expert in behavioral economics in tourism contexts, has made it clear that people don’t necessarily think, act, or make decisions the way they say they will or that we think they will. Knowing this, we can not simply suggest to people that they act in a more responsible way and expect it to happen.”…
City Nation Place
Four big challenges we face in 2021 to Build Back Better
March, 2021
We’d also like to thank the five Roots to Recovery external advisors who donated their time and considerable expertise to support the project:
- Milena Nikolova, Behavioral Expert and Founder, BehaviourSMART
- Talia Salem, Principal, The Urban Nomad
- Anna Barrera, Sustainable Tourism & Hospitality Consultant, A2B Consulting
- Julie Klein, Principal, Confluence Sustainability
- Natasha Martin, Founder, Good Tourism
ITB Berlin (ITB NOW)
Recovery through Happiness. Can a Human-Centred Approach Reinvent Travel on its Way to Recovery
March 2021
This talk will engage the audience in exploring how behavior-smart thinking can help tourism businesses accelerate recovery and adopt a new mission – making people and societies healthier and happier. Hands-on examples will demonstrate that while this is a big idea, every business can contribute through easy-to-apply solutions that make them more human happiness-centred than ever before.
Canvas8
How will High-net-worth individuals (HNWIS) travel post-pandemic?
August, 2020
…”Travel consumer behaviour expert Milena Nikolova makes a similar point about the need for hygiene, but suggests that if “it’s too obvious or in their face, it’s going to have a negative impact. There are going to be some smart, innovative techniques to find the balance, and this is even more crucial for HNWIs.” .. “We are going to see a rise of experiences that are luxury in their essence but also in their very nature,” explains Nikolova”….
Event Point International
Interview: Destinations Which React The Fastest Will Be Stronger After The Crisis
June-Nov, 2020
…”Traveler behavior will be impacted significantly. Obviously, different segments will respond differently and will change in different ways but there are a few characteristics of the post-COVID-19 traveller that we can expect will apply to the majority of the consumers.”….
Adventure Travel News
Behavior Smart: Understanding How People Think — and Applying It to Adventure Travel
October, 2019
“The human brain is never more surprising than when making a decision. It often makes choices that run counter to what seems like “good ideas.” It’s influenced by biases deep below the surface, biases that remain dormant until context or circumstances wake them up. Not necessarily the agent of free will we tend to believe it is, the brain can be nudged in invisible ways to make irrational moves — or brilliant ones. This was the backdrop to the fascinating presentation at Adventure Travel World Summit 2019 by behavioral researcher and the Adventure Travel Trade Association’s (ATTA) director of knowledge and AdventureEDU, Milena Nikolova. “….