March 15, 2010Within a recent five-day period, I addressed two industry groups. The first was a sales meeting for a well-known supplier. The second was the steering committee for a major travel agency group. Each seemed very interested in -- and unsure about -- the future of the supplier-agency relationship. March 8, 2010Justin Francis claims to be the first travel agent to offer "more-authentic experiences that are better for destinations and local people." And speaking at the recent European Travel Commission's annual Transatlantic Conference, he all but thumbed his nose at those who are working toward certifying "green" experiences with seals that indicate a hotel, tour or cruise ship has been measured against a specific standard for sustainability and declared compliant. March 1, 2010More hotel rooms came online in 2008 than in any other year in history: 154,667 rooms in 1,345 new hotels. And as bad as 2009 was, economically speaking, there was still a lot of unfinished work in the pipeline, so yet another 146,929 rooms were added in 1,301 new hotels. February 22, 2010Last week, I wrote about Kensington Tours and its work to automate tour packaging in a way that embraces travel agents and enables them to put together an FIT tour and confirm it in real time. February 16, 2010Economic downturns can herald periods of intense entrepreneurial creativity, and in the travel industry, some of that creative thinking is being applied to explore the nexus between travel agents and the Internet. The results might turn out to be very healthy for both agents and suppliers. February 8, 2010John Pritzker and I are about the same age, and we both spent part of our high school years in neighboring townships along Chicago's North Shore. Our high schools were arch-rivals, and when we recently met for breakfast, we spent five minutes trying to determine if we knew anyone in common. February 1, 2010We've all been asked, "What's your favorite place in the world?" "Kathmandu in 1984," is my standard reply. The 1984 part is as important as Kathmandu. For a decade or so after I was there, I would simply reply, "Kathmandu," but somewhere in the mid-'90s, people who had been there more recently than I would arch an eyebrow and respond, "Really?" It turned out that the previously laid-back ambience of Nepal's capital had been altered by the emergence of an army of pesky touts. The city's calm had been replaced with hassle and hustle. January 25, 2010It is rare to hear someone rave about an airline's ancillary fee program, but Rudy Maxa, host of PBS' "Rudy Maxa's World," was enthusiastically telling me about paying (and paying, and paying) to join regional, Minneapolis-based Sun Country Airlines' premium loyalty program, Ufly Plus. January 19, 2010The deep understanding of cultures, history and people that we get when we visit a country bonds us to it in a very personal way, and that bond never breaks. It's one reason why so many of us prefer to spend our money collecting travel experiences rather than consumer goods, which sooner or later break, go out of fashion or become obsolete. January 11, 2010When this economic malaise passes, demand for travel will grow at about 4% per year through the new decade, according to a recent Oxford Economics study commissioned by the World Travel and Tourism Council. January 4, 2010As more and more travel agencies, with varying degrees of enthusiasm and reluctance, give up their physical retail space, the landscape of Main Street USA has changed. You can now drive for miles down some commercial boulevards in America without passing a brick-and-mortar travel agency. December 21, 2009A year can be defined by events, but a decade is defined by trends. Trends don't consult calendars, of course, and sometimes a major societal shift emerges a few years after a decade gets under way. December 14, 2009Why is it that an all-business-class transatlantic service -- as close to the Holy Grail as exists for U.S. and European airlines -- is so difficult to pull off? And why, shortly after putting OpenSkies, its all-premium New York-Paris subsidiary, up for sale did British Airways launch yet another all-business-class service between New York and London? December 6, 2009On the desk of Holland America CEO Stein Kruse sits a crystal prism engraved with the words "Be Here Now." He says it reminds him to stay focused on the tasks at hand and the people he's with, rather than letting his mind race ahead to the next project or appointment. November 30, 2009Technology can set patterns for behavior, and for the past 40-plus years, travel technology has habituated anyone booking a trip to start with the same question: "Where do you want to go?" November 23, 2009An Innovation Summit was held during the PhoCusWright Conference in Orlando last week. Ultimately, the presentations of new travel technology, in aggregate, probably say more about our current economic times than they do about the state of online entrepreneurial creativity. November 16, 2009Ten-and-a-half months, and counting. We're almost there. Yes, the vast majority of us will be glad to see 2009 behind us. But is 2010 going to be any better? I spoke with exhibitors and attendees at the World Travel Market in London last week, and the vast majority were girding to continue life in the doldrums for the next 12 or so months. November 2, 2009Like other GDSs, Sabre Holdings must balance the competing interests of its constituents -- online travel agencies, airlines, home agents, consumers, traditional travel agencies and travel management companies -- with its own interests, which in Sabre's case include a wholly owned online travel agency (Travelocity) and home agent consortium (Nexion). It provides distribution support to air carriers who publicly rail against the costs of distribution support. Sabre and its direct competitors are interdependent and must cooperate with each other at some levels. I discussed this complex corporate environment, and what it means to Travel Weekly readers, with Sabre CEO Sam Gilliland last month at the GDS' headquarters in Southlake, Texas. Here are excerpts: October 26, 2009Long before a children's movie is released, licensing deals are cut in anticipation of all the ancillary money that can be made from the film. Characters might be featured in McDonald's Happy Meals for weeks before the film opens, and related video games, dolls, trading cards and other extensions will already be on store shelves before the premiere. October 19, 2009In college, I read a book for physics class titled "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" by Thomas S. Kuhn (University of Chicago Press). It outlined how science moves forward with revolutionary theories to replace models that look increasingly flawed. October 12, 2009Suppliers, said Vipul Gupta, won't practice what they preach. They tell travel agents to reach out and call clients and prospects and build business by building relationships. But should a travel agent call them with an idea, well, good luck getting through to decision-makers. October 5, 2009Some 10% to 20% of travel agencies will go out of business within nine months, Roger Block, president of Travel Leaders Franchise Group, predicted during a panel discussion I moderated at TheTradeShow in Las Vegas last month. Is he right? September 28, 2009This is the story of a bootmaker interested in bovine digestion and three GDS CEOs. It also involves an upscale consumer travel magazine, a former U.S. president and millions of commercial airline passengers. September 21, 2009Long gone are the rites of fall, when the coming of September meant that 7,000 or so ASTA members might trek halfway around the world to convene. It was a time when presidents -- of airlines, cruise lines, even nations -- felt it was a wise use of their time to address a large chamber full of travel agents. September 14, 2009When I travel, I tend to eat too much. On the road, it seems that I don't have to be hungry to eat -- I'll eat a meal between meals. Eating, I rationalize, is my quickest route to authenticity. During a trip I took to South Africa last month, the vast majority of the people I interacted with handle tourists for a living, and while they were very nice, our relationship was strictly professional. I didn't expect anyone would invite me over for a home-cooked meal, and no one did. |