The 12 Biggest Travel Trends Skift Tracked in Its First Year
Samantha Shankman
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Skift celebrated its one-year anniversary yesterday and we celebrated by looking back at the 12 biggest travel stories of the year. But Skift is about more than breaking news. We are connecting the dots across all global trends and using the knowledge about where travel has been to highlight where it is headed.
Each week we show our readers how smaller stories fit into the bigger picture and now we're looking beyond a year of headlines to show you the trends at play in our first year of covering travel news.
If you prefer or need these trends in a presentation format, we've made one for you, on Slideshare. Or the full story below that:
The 12 Biggest Travel Trends Skift Tracked in Its First Year from Skift Inc
Airline Profits Improve, Best Dividends in 10 Years
Airlines have suddenly become an attractive investment after more than a decade of being considered a risky and foolish bet. Planes are flying fuller (83 percent average in 2012), fares are increasing, and industry consolidation has weeded out the most unprofitable routes. Airlines are also introducing new ancillary fees to create a direct source of unprecedented revenue and they show no signs of stopping the fee frenzy.
Top 4 posts to read more on this trend:
Investors take a second look at airlines as 2013 returns climb
22.6 billion reasons why airlines can’t wean themselves off fees
Behind the fee hikes that drove stellar profits for U.S. airlines in 2012
The 10 global airlines making most dollars per passenger in extra fees
Tourism Boards Get Savvier Marketing Schemes
Let's start this off by saying that tourism marketing organizations, as a whole, have yet to embrace the power of social media, digital advertising, and custom content in ways that will rocket their reach and influence. We have, however, seen smart campaigns, Twitter accounts, and content tie-ups start to peek through and are looking forward to what the next year will bring. Social media will be paramount in their evolution and checking out our competitive intelligence platform SkiftSocial is good place to start.
Tourism Australia, Visit Philly, NYC & Company, and Discover Los Angeles are a few of the notable DMOs already exercising initiatives that will bring the industry's outdated marketing model into the 21st century.
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