With Planet Earth in lockdown, our industry at a standstill and many of us in self-isolation or quarantine at home, or grounded, this is our blog for you – it’s a way to share stories within our community, to form solidarity and foster a sense of belonging.
Short essays on what we are each doing, how we are getting through this darkest hour in travel, how are we handling withdrawal symptoms from travel, what we intend to do with this down time, a word we want to focus on, a wish we have or simply, an important topic you want to share with your travel friends at this time.
Travel is both the victim and the crime, and it’s taking us for a ride
Lorraine Sileo, online travel analyst and co-founder of Phocuswright Research, takes time out to reflect on why travel is intoxicating and how it needs to make use of this time to rethink how it uses data to restart customers, when it’s time.
We’re a restless bunch, not meant to be inside for too long. We’re not good at sitting still, much less staying home. We, being those who live, breathe, and feed off the trillion (US) dollar global travel industry. The one in pain.
Thinking back on a 20+ years’ career (and now is a good time to reminisce), I’ve been lucky to fall into travel. After all, I was a business reporter who followed new media, so I just as easily could have stumbled into financial services, education, publishing, and other areas upended by technology. But thanks to a certain friendship, travel sucked me in. Lucky break.
Our industry is intoxicating, and it’s not just the travel part. We’re boosted by the people we meet along the way, including the young, smart, enthusiastic entrepreneurs who built the online travel industry in the first place, many with just the simple idea of creating a better mousetrap.
Fortune and fame followed these risk-takers as we heralded them as heroes – those luminaries who sat in big chairs under bright lights to be grilled by Philip Wolf, Siew Hoon and all of us analysts who came after them. (Speaking of conferences, for anyone on earth who has ever produced, participated in, organised, or created one, there is nothing to compare the camaraderie with your colleagues who sweat in the trenches with you. The rewards are so fulfilling, the stress is quickly forgotten. We miss that now as ballrooms sit empty and badges and lanyards remain sealed in their boxes.)
Ironically the travel industry was in a decent place before Covid-19, and despite the global slowdown always did its part to boost the local economies and, in most cases, rise above GDP. To see it writhe and hurt now is tough for all of us who love it, its people, its potential and the personal and professional gaps it fills. We hurt for those who are impacted and for the vulnerable brands or startups that might cease or are in suspension. We also know there’s another day. We sit and wait … we organise, read old handwritten letters (on paper!), contact everyone we know, and write. Why is travel, with all the good it does, also the weapon – ships and trains in 1918, planes in 9/11, cruise ships and cross-border hops today. Travel is both victim and felon. Sometimes fate will turn on it, on us. But we recover.
There are a lot of ideas percolating right now. There is less to lose, so more risk-taking. The travel industry does not rest on stilts but rather on a solid foundation of technology, brand loyalty, deep pocketed investment, and a doting customer base who misses the intoxication of travel – who will soon be starving for it.
Eventually we’re going to have to come out. Already my young friends can’t contain their kids in isolation. I get it, they’re invincible! The travel industry, on the other hand, is not, but not for lack of trying. Though as old as the wheel, travel has reinvented and repackaged itself, speaking to each generation as if brand new.
What to do? For some businesses it’s a good time to sift through the contents of that old trunk. Remember the hype around Big Data? We all complained of information overload – too much data! Maybe now is a good time to use analytics to better understand preferences, booking patterns, triggers and intent, even make bold predictions.
Maybe now is a good time to learn how data can truly allow businesses to personalise – or at least customise. Surely as we recover that will be more important than ever, as certain groups will come out of hibernation first, before others. Knowing who they are, and how they’ve likely changed over the course of this crisis, will help to jumpstart travel again. When it’s time.
Note: We will be running this blog for as long as we need to, to get us through this. If you wish to contribute, please send your essays to Siew Hoon. Send images too, it’s your story.
• Featured image credit: anyaberkut/Getty Images
