If I didn't know better, I would think it was February and I was living in the movie Ground Hogs Day. Let's look at the industry headlines this week:
- American and US Air announce their global sales organizations.
- United announces some staff cuts on both the sales and the crew sides.
- Open bookings is in the news. (The one difference, this time for legal and liability concerns.)
- Big data is still a buzz word and companies like ARC are coming up with options. (Cool tool by the way if you haven't seen it!)
- Hotels ADR is increasing.
I am reminded of a GBTA convention a few years back when Jim Davidson, President of FareLogix, gave his, "I'm old and crabby" speech. Anyone that was there still refers to it as that. He talked about how long he had been in the industry and we are still talking about the same things. While I consider Jim a frienemy and hate to say he is right....he's right. We can look back at almost anytime in the last 5 years and these same points are out there somewhere. (Maybe its not an airline merger, but an agency merger, hotel company buy out etc.)
In my peer discussions, we are always talking about what is the next big thing?! What will change the industry? What does our future hold?
If I had to guess, in three years, all these things will still be in the headlines. Will mergers happen differently? Yes. Will companies have a better grasp of things like Open bookings and big data? Yes. Does that mean our industry is stagnant? No...it means that when we uncover something, we keep pulling back the blankets and finding more to deal with and maybe, just maybe, that's okay.
- American and US Air announce their global sales organizations.
- United announces some staff cuts on both the sales and the crew sides.
- Open bookings is in the news. (The one difference, this time for legal and liability concerns.)
- Big data is still a buzz word and companies like ARC are coming up with options. (Cool tool by the way if you haven't seen it!)
- Hotels ADR is increasing.
I am reminded of a GBTA convention a few years back when Jim Davidson, President of FareLogix, gave his, "I'm old and crabby" speech. Anyone that was there still refers to it as that. He talked about how long he had been in the industry and we are still talking about the same things. While I consider Jim a frienemy and hate to say he is right....he's right. We can look back at almost anytime in the last 5 years and these same points are out there somewhere. (Maybe its not an airline merger, but an agency merger, hotel company buy out etc.)
In my peer discussions, we are always talking about what is the next big thing?! What will change the industry? What does our future hold?
If I had to guess, in three years, all these things will still be in the headlines. Will mergers happen differently? Yes. Will companies have a better grasp of things like Open bookings and big data? Yes. Does that mean our industry is stagnant? No...it means that when we uncover something, we keep pulling back the blankets and finding more to deal with and maybe, just maybe, that's okay.
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