Travel Trends 2017

Now is the time that we start putting 2016 in the rear-view mirror and dream big for the year ahead. The executives at the core of the travel industry are charged with thinking much farther ahead than the next year. Some sectors of the travel and tourism world are better at reflecting and tweaking their business models to evolve with the times. Others, not so much.

Consumers are more stressed than ever. The future is more uncertain than it has been in years, job security is dwindling and the number of used vacation days has dropped off a cliff.

It’s a time when we need travel more than ever, and we need our travel industry leaders to make us want to take those vacation days. With that in mind, we asked our staff to opine on the resolution they hope the travel industry makes for the year ahead.

JANEEN CHRISTOFF, SENIOR EDITOR: “The No. 1 thing that I think that travel industry should resolve to do is fix the in-air experience. The trend toward smaller and smaller seats and the overall attitude of both fliers and airline staff is creating so much tension that 2016 airline coverage was practically dominated by in-air crises. We need to up the ante on the onboard experience and make flying great again.

My second resolution for the travel industry is not to allow phone calls on airplanes. Recently, the Department of Transportation signaled it may be ready to pave the way for in-flight phone calls. If you think your seat is tiny now, just wait until you have a chatty Cathy sitting next to you for an entire flight. Texting, fine. But must we listen to other people’s meaningless conversation while we are desperately trying to squeeze ourselves into a teeny tiny seat and cram our overpacked luggage into the overhead? I don’t think so.”

DONALD WOOD, SENIOR BREAKING NEWS WRITER: “To combat the rise of the ride-hailing service industry, the hope from many business and casual travelers is that car rental companies make their prices cheaper and continue to offer loyalty programs which provide incentives to keep using one brand over another. Renting a car can be a headache, but if the industry works toward simplifying the process, more and more customers will flock back to car rental companies.”

GABE ZALDIVAR, SENIOR WRITER, TECH AND GADGETS: “There has been an amazing and wonderful push for brands to move towards automated hospitality thanks to artificial intelligence integration and apps. Hotels direct guests to its apps for accommodation help and airlines continue to inform across social media. This doesn’t mean any of us should lose sight of the most important facet of the travel experience, and that’s the human touch. Hopefully, 2017 illustrates how powerful the good ol’ fashioned friendly hello can be.”

TIM WOOD, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: “This needs to be the year of the customer for the airlines. The industry truly needs to make a resolution that there be a moratorium on any additional ancillary fees in 2017.

We used to talk about the airlines as bubbling fools for not knowing how to make money. Now, they have become greedy bullies who are too obsessed with constantly getting over on the consumer. It truly has reached a breaking point where there is an overall doom to U.S. air travel now that has completely blurred the magic of flight for the traveler.

I joked to many people toward the end of the year that it seems about the only thing left is to create a No-Potty Fare, much like United’s new Base Economy fare that forbids you from using the overhead bins.

Those industry analysts weren’t laughing. It seems more than a 50-50 shot that one of the airlines will go down that stinky road this year.

Consumers speak with their wallets. The incredible financial excess of the oil companies didn’t subside until we as consumers began choosing alternative energies and oil demand dropped off a cliff. It’s not that simple, of course, but this is about supply and demand.

If we voice enough displeasure by booking with another airline, the airlines will have to react to save their stock price. But what would be excellent is if airlines began to develop other revenue streams rather than sticking it to the consumer.”

PATRICK CLARKE, SENIOR BREAKING NEWS WRITER: “If the travel industry follows through on any resolution in 2017, let it be eliminating resort fees. These pesky charges have been piling up of late and have even caught the eye of the Federal Trade Commission.

Rather than charging hotel and resort guests a fee for various amenities that they may or may not find valuable, the hospitality industry would be wise to ditch the blatant money grab altogether, or at least give guests a choice.

If the industry doesn’t enact change, let’s just say it’s unlikely, we can only hope the U.S. government takes a stand for the consumer.”

MICHAEL SCHOTTEY, SENIOR EDITOR: “Are we lazy or do we like experiences? Do we want good WiFi and a billion chargers or just a barebones roof cause we’re on the go? Do you even bother with coffee, or do you make sure you can compete with the Starbucks run we’d otherwise make? So far, the travel industry treats millennials as a homogenous group and only really knows how to define them by what they don’t do compared to generations before. Yet, as they become more and more of the dominant money-spending segment of the population, the travel industry needs to get this right. First and foremost: Get us away from our desks and taking vacation days.”

BARRY KAUFMAN, MANAGING EDITOR: “It might be time for travel agents to abandon the “you thought the internet killed us? Well, we’re back” narrative. It served its purpose, but right now an entire generation is discovering how much better a vacation can be when they leave it to the pros. And this generation was in diapers when the internet supposedly killed travel agents. It’s time to realize the industry has moved on from that stumbling block and bringing it up only diminishes the cause.”

DAVID COGSWELL, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, TOUR OPERATORS: For me and I’m sure for many people I know in the travel industry, my resolve to travel and try to be a good ambassador for my country abroad, to try to make my tiny contribution to world peace and understanding will be greater than ever in 2017.

There are places I have never been that I would like to finally get to in 2017, and there are places I know and love and want to return to this year. There are places that have suffered some sort of incident that makes people afraid to go there, and I would like to try to visit some of those places to report back what it is really like to travel there.