One common prediction is the world will not end on December 21, and we still be around to do business in the new year.

Michael Issenberg, Chairman, Accor Asia Pacific

•  First there is a 2013 as the world doesn’t end on 21/12/12.

•  Online everything – reservations, reviews, sharing, etc – continues to accelerate.

•  Semester 2 hotel performance will be better than semester 1.

Glenn D. Fogel, Head of Worldwide Strategy and Planning & Executive Vice President – Corporate Development, Priceline Group

• The mobile travel booking channel continues to grow rapidly and people who use Apple’s passbook or the Android equivalent boarding pass think kiosk-issued boarding passes are as quaint as e-ticket holders used to think about paper/red-carbon air tickets.

• On demand private driver services and mobile hailed taxis such as Uber, Hailo, etc. engage in a two-front war:  against each other to achieve market dominance in individual cities around the world, and against incumbent government and taxi ownership alliances that try to maintain the status quo.  Sometime during the year, politicians who have been beholden to the taxi ownership groups realise that siding with the taxi owners is a losing proposition as avalanches of emails and text messages make it obvious that there are a lot more voters among the people who want mobile-enabled car services than taxi owners.

• I finally find a hotel that lets me check in from my mobile device, and I am able to use my phone as a room key so I don’t have to wait 15 minutes to check in at the reception desk after a 15-hour flight.

Patrick Imbardelli, CEO, Pan Pacific Hotels Group

• Less traditional destinations will continue to get more popular. Generation X and Y especially want to discover more exotic, less-known places. They are looking for experiences that are less mainstream because they are really discoverers. Social media and consumer generated content has  made information on ‘remote’ destinations accessible and ubiquitous.

• Destinations that are not as environmentally-conscious as they should be will lose out. When people – especially Generation X and Y – see disregard for the environment they will talk about it straightaway and those places are not going to get as many new visitors. Environmental awareness is growing and is especially prevalent in French Polynesia, the Maldives, Seychelles where you are so close to the environment and it’s so visible ,and the people who actually go there are people who want a type of environmentally-conscious experience.

• Consumers will continue to want to be as efficient in their decision making when they travel. There’s less and less ego tied to what airline you fly when you go on holiday so are becoming more price sensitive to airlines.  Consumers want the most value out of their holiday budget – and can and will choose to fly cheaper to get more out of their holiday. Travel is becoming more experiential than ego-driven.

Fritz Demopoulos, CEO, Queen’s Road Capital

• Beyond Chindia the 100 million plus consumer markets will get much more attention, ie Indonesia, Japan, Pakistan, Brazil, Nigeria and Russia.

• Social features and pure plays will finally gain traction and become meaningful as both a user acquisition platform and a user product.

• Facebook’s new ad platform will provide Google a significant challenge from a scale and ROI point of view.

Brett Henry, Vice President Commercial and Marketing, Abacus International

• Indonesia OTA space takes off and winners are all local.

• LCCs continue to grow at rates that far outpace the market. Japan is a hot spot.

Peter Harbison, Executive Chairman, Centre for Aviation (CAPA)

• India will sort out its aviation problems (not)

• LCCs in North Asia will really become a force to be reckoned with

Elizabeth Rich, Managing Director, Agenda

• We will survive Mayan domesday on December 21 (although I think I’ll have a party that

• New Chinese leadership will do something, which will surprise us all

• Myanmar will announce building a convention centre