The Future of the Travel Industry Is at Stake From This Morning On
Morning in America did happen today. It looked like a morning, but it did not feel like one for lots and lots of us.
Certainly the Skift team -- now 35 of us as of next week -- curious and optimistic about the future of a multicultural America and the promise of travel, is in shock and will be for a while to come.
Every bit of travel news, every trend, every analysis, every product we have put out since we started four and a half years ago, everything speaks to the progressive, interconnected future of the world, it is the reason for our existence, it is the reason for existence of our industry, the world's largest industry.
When we wrote our manifesto that travel -- the literal movement of humans -- is now the geopolitical center of the world, we wrote these lines: "The geopolitical realities of our world are worth embracing by the travel industry, instead of ignoring them or, worse still, wishing them away. And even more so, travelers will reward the industry for it by traveling more, by being more aware of the world and travel’s key place in it, rather than staying in isolationist bubbles for people to indulge in when they need an escape once in a while."
Those of us in the travel industry have to figure out how we move from here, and the biggest role we have is to fight for the right of free movement of people -- ALL of us, every color, every race, every orientation -- in and out of America and beyond, and the future of a connected world outside of the neo-isolationist bubbles.
Travel is the most progressive expression of human curiosity. It behooves us to take on more activist roles on behalf of our right to travel, and the future of the travel.
We at Skift will try and make sense of the epochal changes ahead, for ourselves, for this industry we so dearly love, and for the world curious about the future of travel and our industry.
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Rafat Ali is the CEO and founder of Skift, the NYC-based travel intelligence company focused on global travel industry: News, info, data and analysis on airlines, hotels, tourism, cruises, startups, tech and more. You can follow Skift here on LinkedIn, or Twitter or Facebook.
Previously, he was the founder of paidContent, which he sold to Guardian Media Group in 2008.
Helping companies of all sizes to intelligently manage their business travel, cut costs and keep their travelers safe
7 年Sorry, but I feel you are overreacting. Travel must and will continue to keeps the wheels of commerce turning and to think that a change in the presidency of the U.S. will have much effect on that is simplistic.
Managing Partner
8 年As of today hospitality and transportation services are aggregated by a limited number of channels. The most prominent channel examples are Global Distribution Systems (GDS) and Online Travel Agencies (OTAs). Both groups do not limit themselves to facilitate buyer and seller transactions but actively participate in the channels commercial activity. Most often this takes the form of a transaction fee and in some cases as reseller of the service. GDS aggregate travel agencies which in return aggregate travel buyers. OTAs aggregate travel buyer interest mostly in form of pay-per-click and ‘organic’ search engine marketing and convert it into referrals or sales. In the later scenario they act as reseller and the former as advertiser. Both channels have in common that the majority of revenue to the channel provider is derived from the seller (hotel, airline) not the buyer of travel. As new technologies lowered the barrier to entry for distributors, the role of GDS and OTAs as technology provider to the travel industry mostly shifted to that of an aggregator of buying power – making the travel buyer in essence the product of the channel. This classification is further emphasized by Global Distribution Systems using proprietary product definition by the way of traveler and buyer profiles which must be ‘hard-coded’ into the GDS by a travel agent. I assume so far this is mostly obvious to 'everybody in travel' - although there are a lot more nuances to this specifically within of the GDS channel and interests groups within that channel (i.e. ATPCO) which contribute to the current state of 'distribution'. What is needed is a focus on the buyer of travel. It may surprise most to hear that this function is currently almost exclusively performed by travel agencies and here specifically travel management companies (TMCs). Outside of a limited number of corporations, travel agencies currently define and maintain buyer activity specifically that of corporate buyers. In a narrow sense this includes the traveler profile with its preferences and ‘desires’ and in a wider sense that of the payer which may take the form of travel policy, corporate buyer agreements etc. To enable travel buyers and here specifically travel agencies to take advantage of an open travel market travel agencies first have to control traveler and client data without being limited to one GDS. - And THAT may be the starting point for the future of travel.
Brownfield Technical Assistance; Catalyst Site and Community Redevelopment Strategies
8 年Well said Rafat. Travel shall remain the great educator - with a faculty of billions.
Customer Success Leader
8 年Very well said!