Articles tagged “megatrends 2017”

Airbnb’s entry into the tours and activities market certainly brings the sector to the fore. If Airbnb sticks with a strategy to curate its tours and activities, going with unique and off-the-beaten-path experiences, then that is still important for the sector given Airbnb’s scale, but self-limiting. Competition is certainly a healthy thing and all the players will have to up their games.

Hotel chains have been successful in driving more direct traffic and taking brand share away from the online travel agencies, but 2017 will say a lot about whether their strategies are sustainable. Will lower rates for loyalty program members impact profits? And how can the chains compete long-term with online travel agencies when the latter have much deeper marketing pockets?

Corporate travel is finally starting to learn lessons from the consumer travel space, mostly because business travelers have been trained by their leisure travel to expect robust booking tools and more control over their trips. The travel management companies that focus the most on improving their traveler-facing technology will win this battle, and improve their clients’ travel experience in the process.

Despite being the world’s largest tourism market, there’s a sense that things are changing for Europe. While other regions are catching up, Europe is going through a period of upheaval. The specter of terrorism, the destabilizing Brexit vote, and upcoming elections all mean that 2017 is going to be a pivotal year.

Airlines in Europe and the U.S. may have underestimated the threat posed by short-haul, low-cost operators. There's not much they can do about that anymore. But as more low-cost airlines look to add long-haul flights, expect legacy carriers to respond aggressively.

How social media is mixing up the communication paradigm Making the most of personalization with your brand Inspiring user-generated content with special experiences

In this brief, we’ll explore how the travel industry can transform travelers’ personal experiences into social successes.

Sitting out the race to figure out Snapchat marketing or develop robust partnerships with trusted content providers is a losing proposition for travel companies, regardless of their position in the industry.

A global surge in tourism, driven by the growth of low-cost carriers and middle class families across the world who are beginning to vacation abroad, has had deep ramifications for the world’s most popular destinations. Some have tried to manage tourism by limiting the ability of tourists to stay in cities or pushing less popular areas as bona fide tourist destinations. The jury is still out on whether these destinations will be able to effectively manage tourism, or will continue to struggle in the face of mounting backlash from their citizens.

Conference organizers are developing more multidisciplinary programming that pulls from both the business and creative industries, creating a new convergence of experiences that help brands plug into business events in more ways.