Travel Industry Megatrends

Travel for business business still not completely restored. 

Steve King Writes in Small Biz Labs 

Skift's Travel Industry Megatrends

Skift is a travel industry analyst firm and one of our favorite sources on travel trends. Much of their content is behind a paywall, but they also produce free content (we subscribe to several of their newsletters).  

We follow travel trends because of our interest in remote work and digital nomads. We're also active travelers, so we like travel trends.  

They recently released their 2023 Travel Megatrends report. It covers 22 travel and travel industry trends.

Two trends jumped out at us. 

Blended Travel Comes of Age covers the growth of travel that includes work and leisure. Key quote:

"The pandemic has led to a permanent change in how we live our lives between work and the personal. No longer just a trite category called "bleisure," the idea of blended traveling is front and center for every major travel company now. How new strategies focused on the blended traveler will emerge more clearly in 2023, as the industry recognizes the whole traveler holistically." 

As the Skift chart below shows (click to enlarge), the share of business travel that includes a weekend has increased substantially since the start of the pandemic.  ... ' 

Travelers Purchase Journey

Journies within Journies.

The Future of travel: New consumer behavior and the technology giving it flight  By Jaclyn Loo

With its early use of online booking, the travel industry stands as one of the first successful adopters of digital marketing. But as tech’s effect on consumer behavior continues to evolve, so must the playbook by which companies operate. For travel companies, that means meeting customers’ rising expectations for assistance at every point of the purchase journey.

Today’s travelers are increasingly impulsive and want information quickly. A recent study that we conducted with Phocuswright suggests that more than 60% of U.S. travelers would consider an impulse trip based on a good hotel or flight deal.1 We see this trend reflected in our search data too. In the U.S., we’ve seen that travel-related searches for “today” and “tonight” on mobile have increased by 150% over the past two years. ... " 

Tracking Flights with Echo

Amazon Echo can now track flights via Kayak in Skills.  I tested in a realistic case.  Quite bumpy ride, you have to be too precise in your language.  Also does not match to what I really needed.  I needed to set up a monitor of a flight where Echo would periodically alert me as changes occur, and then the ability to modify the alert vocally.  Kayak says they will be improving the skill.

Travel by Hyperloop?

In the BBC: Supply chain and travel in a low pressure pipe at up to 1000 Km/Hr?   All it may need is some infrastructure.  In process.

Future of Travel

Friend Dean DeBiase on the future of travel.   " ... At the latest installation of my Reboot Stories, at the ÄKTA Innovation Series in Chicago, I had a chance to conduct another no-holds-barred interview in front of a live audience,with Tom O’Toole, SVP, Chief Marketing Officer and President, MileagePlus. I engaged Tom in a candid conversation about the “Future of Travel,” specifically how United’s mobile strategies will dramatically change customer experience at home or work, on the plane, and at the airport. Here’s a teaser about what we learned from Tom: ... "