We wish we’d come up with this catchy trend description ourselves, but the honor goes to Fitch, a global design and business consultancy, who coined TRANSUMER to describe consumers in transition at airports. Fitch are experts in making TRANSUMERS depart with their money while at airport cities, especially during so called ‘happy hour’: the, on average, 15 to 60 minutes travelers spend indulging themselves while in transit.

TRENDWATCHING.COM would like to expand the concept of transumers beyond air travel though: consumers travel around the world for business and leisure more than ever before, by ship, plane, car, bus or train; they stay at a variety of accommodations; and connect to their new environments and to the home front by laptop, tri-band cell phones, and WiFi-on-the-go, opening up more transumer e-commerce opportunities as well.

TRENDWATCHING.COM recommends Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk forging partnerships with large hotel chains in those countries, making it easy for TRANSUMERS to order much sought after English paperbacks from an Amazon.com website while in the UK or US, and have the merchandise delivered to their rooms within 24 hours. And we also wouldn’t disapprove of Fitch applying its insights to train stations, cruise ships and bus terminals ;-). We’ll be watching this trend closely. More ideas and examples in upcoming issues! >> Email this trend to a friend.


AUGUST 2003 | TRANSUMERS at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport (already one of the leading 'Airport Cities' on this globe), can now enjoy fine art in the world's first departure-hall based museum. Operated by the Dutch National Museum of Art (Rijksmuseum), it offers passengers a selection of ten works from famous masters from the Dutch Golden Age, such as Jacob van Ruisdael, Pieter de Hooch, and Jan Steen. The 160 square meter (1,722 square feet) museum also features a Rembrandt; a portrait of the artist's wife, Saskia van Uylenburgh. Admission is free, but the goodies in the 'Rijksmuseum Shop' aren't. TRANSUMERS can purchase everthing from unique replicas of 17th century glassware and silver and high quality productions of paintings to Delft Blue vases and plates especially made for the Rijksmuseum.


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Meanwhile, French Cinétrain, another posterchild for TRANSUMERISM, is still expanding. Cinétrain, which lets train passengers rent a mini-DVD player and a movie of choice on departure, and drop them off at the kiosk at their train station of arrival, has added Gare Montparnasse in Paris, bringing the number of outlets across France to eight.

With museums finding TRANSUMERS instead of the other way around, and innovative rental companies bringing transumers the comfort and choice they enjoy at home, there will be an ongoing blurring between consumerism and transumerism. Which, in our dictionary, spells 'OPPORTUNITY'! >> Email this trend to a friend.

Other trends and new business ideas that are connected to TRANSUMERISM:

1. Cinetrain and InMotion Pictures
2. Expedia Café