Aishwarya Agarwal

Gen Z is poised to become the future of travel. So it's time to separate the hype from the reality. It's also time for hoteliers to level up their design and marketing games.

This year will be one of action for the travel industry on the climate. But don’t expect radical changes, rather incremental steps and greater alignment as the industry attempts to shake off its negative image.

Banks such as JPMorgan Chase, Capital One, and Citi already have the customer base to appeal to travelers with attractive booking offers, cash back, and points, without having to ante up big for marketing like online travel agencies and hotels. The prospects for banks, with a history of clunky travel portals, will hinge on value proposition, user experience and execution.

The oft-heard rhetoric that India is the next China may finally hold true for travel’s outbound industry as Chinese look at international travel more skeptically.

While emotion has always been a part of marketing, appealing to people's feelings has become more central because factors such as changing guest expectations and the rise of new technologies have undermined hotels' customary approach to branding.

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.