A 2009 Crystal Ball on Travel
I was intrigued to read through this year’s traditional ‘travel prediction’ posts scattered about on the blogosphere. First of all, let me give you the opinion from fellow bloggers then I’ll wax philosophic about my own thoughts.
eturbonews reports that the global recession will bring affordable travel. Let’s hope people can spare the money to enjoy those deals.
Travolution has spoke with the experts (and yes, almost all of them – except for me!) and there are a lot of mixed messages. I think the points of consensus are a continued push towards online channels and further consolidation within the industry (and by consolidation I also mean survival of the fittest).
NileGuide mentions Americans headed to Latin America, an improvement on technology, and a rise in green travel.
My Thoughts
Well, there is an awful lot of noise in the air, with the sensational headlines about global instability and economic doom all over the news. Scary, eh? Thus it is difficult to make predictions, but if I have to (and I know you’re dying to know my opinion), I think that we’ll see:
- Travel Bloggers continuing to play into the travel planning space, with free sites like WikiTravel taking top marks.
- Airline Consolidation will continue. Lufthansa has just taken over BMI, who’s next?
- Traditional Destinations that have a lot of good press will make a resurgence. People will return to places like London and New York to escape the harsh economic reality. Since they will already kind of know these places, consumers will have good ideas on how to get a good deal.
- Some people will just travel anyhow. I know a lot of folk who have their sights set on far-and-away destinations and even though they work in unstable industries (think financial services) they are pushing ahead with plans. I’m certainly going ahead with my 2009 travel plans.What are your 2009 travel predictions? Are you changing your plans due to the economic situation, either for the better or worse?
Image Courtesy of squidish
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December 30th, 2008 at 9:57 am
Hey Andy – LOVE the new site! Your photographs are amazing and I’m so looking forward to your future posts. This one seem to hit the nail on the head for me, I want to do a lot of traveling in 2009, but not sure where….getting the time (and money) is a big issue, but I don’t intend to let that get in my way, so, I guess I fall into the people who will ‘just travel anyhow’ category.
December 30th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Hi Zoe -
Thanks, glad you like the new site
I certainly hope you do find the time and cash to go somewhere nice – that’s what a flexible working life is all about, isn’t it?
January 1st, 2010 at 3:02 pm
[...] of year. But I’m never one to shy away from tradition (you can see for yourself how many of my 2009 predictions came true – several!), and there’s quite a few of you out there that love when I riff [...]