Old System
12 Jul
2022

Why Tech Projects Go Wrong

I have been involved in a lot of tech projects across the years. I take a rigorous approach to projects that involve introducing new technology to a business. The idea is to reduce the inherent risk and this has worked well.
Monarch
25 Sep
2019

Thomas Cook and Butterflies

It’s about two years ago that my Monarch Airlines tickets became worthless when the Monarch Travel Group collapsed. I wasn’t too badly off.
Smart Tourism
17 Apr
2018

Smart Tourism 2020

One of the seminar sessions I am running at this year’s Arabian Travel Market is called Smart Tourism 2020.
Package Holidays
22 Jan
2018

The Package Holiday is Alive and Well

Expedia has carried out a research study in partnership with The Center for Generational Kinetics. The study is called “Generations on the Move - A deep dive into multi-generational travel trends and how their habits will impact the future of the industry.” It is a U.S. centric study, interviewing 1,000 adults age 18 to 65 but I do think that the results have global applicability.
Sell By
11 Sep
2017

Service beyond the Sell By Date

A recent study by Carlson Wagonlit Travel has discovered that business travellers tend to take four technology devices with them on trips. The survey of more than 1,900 business travellers found that, on average, they carry four different types of technology (mobile phone, tablet, laptop, etc.), with the smartphone being the one “travel tool they can’t live without.”
Beachholiday
20 Apr
2017

Does Price Differentiation Discriminate Against Families?

A headline news story in the UK media a couple of weeks ago was: Term-time holidays: Supreme Court rules father must pay fine for taking daughter out of school.
The Tourist
13 Mar
2017

DMOs vs Tour Operators

In the heady young days of the Internet, we were making predictions about how the web would change the face of travel. A popular prediction amongst ‘thought leaders’ was that the web would catalyse the death of the travel agent. Quite a few did die but quite a few remained. Another sector of the industry was also predicted to undergo a transformation. This was tourism.
Am
03 Sep
2015

Is Your Data Secure?

Did you read the latest Ashley Madison byline? Before the data breach it was “Life is short. Have an affair.” I think it now reads, “Life is going to be shorter when your partner finds out!” Ashley Madison has highlighted just how easily data can be hacked.
Demand
07 Oct
2013

The Principal View

I organised September’s Travel Technology Initiative conference. It was called Intermediary Futures and was all about what the next few years hold for travel industry players such as tour operators, online and high street travel agents, bedbanks, etc. You can download some of the speakers’ presentations from this page. Intermediaries are middle-men.