2023 Archives

TikTok is chipping away at Google's travel dominance one 30-second dance at a time. Travel marketers eager to bypass search engines have an opportunity to do so with this new social media platform.

It will be easy for airlines to make money in 2023, but if they can’t get costs under control it could set the tone for the future.

The labor vulnerabilities in travel that emerged from the shadows of the pandemic, from pilot shortages, to travel agents aging out, to low-earning wage workers choosing to opt out, have given rise to new strategies to fill the void.

Travel processing delays will stifle and restrict the international growth and connection ambitions of destinations, tour operators, event planners and other travel practitioners. They will have to adapt to the protracted loss of many markets in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Tour operators have long been slow in making technology advances. But the pandemic finally drove them to quickly adopt the platforms necessary to ensure their survival coming out of a crisis that crippled their businesses.

As we look to the future, planning event experiences is not enough. The next iteration of creating events is considering people’s desire for self-improvement and transformation.

Skift coined the term "permanxiety" in 2017 to describe how social, political, and climate turmoil is coloring consumer expectations, including for travel. Permanxiety has only been compounded since on the heels of war and a pandemic. Travel companies need to make sure newly upbeat services and messages aren't out of sync with the gloomy mood music in many travelers' heads.

Like it or not, automation via artificial intelligence is coming to the creative side of the travel industry, first marketing and graphic design. Adapting to the inevitable change is key.

Whatever you call it — travel insurance, fintech, trip protection, peace of mind — the past several years have shown travelers the importance of having a safety net. That shift has led to new opportunities for travel brands to use insurance products to improve their technology, increase loyalty, build lifetime customer value, and drive revenue.

Millennials now surpass Boomers as the largest sector of the U.S. population, giving rise to a new class of “anywhere travelers.” This group has a strong passion for experiences that taking them to less obvious destinations. These habits, in their own way a new form of balancing overtourism, will put new destinations in focus.