Rafat Ali

Lots of macro issues at work here, as airline and hotel companies rethink their travel loyalty programs. Understand the changes, get our report.

At what point does the point of these safety videos fade into obscurity as everyone searches for a viral hit? At what point does stretching the boundaries for a creative hit mean these videos become parody of themselves? Next up: some airline should do a parody safety video around new genre of safety videos.

2014 will be an interesting year to watch from traffic perspective. While Priceline Group has a huge lead, Expedia and Tripadvisor family will continue to duke it out.

As extreme weather patterns become more and more common across the globe every year, tourism organizations, both the governments and DMOs, will have to respond and create better resources for tourism businesses. Kudos to VisitEngland for creating this resource for its local stakeholders.

Priceline should be proud, and Emirates is still killing it when it comes to its brand value. Meanwhile, American Airlines, fresh off the merger, is a lot bigger brand now.

Accommodating the needs of the fastest growing business traveler segment makes complete economic sense for the companies operating the lounges, and for airlines it means building long-term loyalty relationships with a big spending group.

For being one of the biggest source markets of travelers for the rest of the world, Europe still has a long way to go to build up travel startups into larger, long-lasting and successful companies. The biggest successes may end up coming out of Russia rather than the rest of Europe.

The global travel industry is going through a lot of disruption, and the biggest sectors include the sharing economy and ground transportation, as well as one large potential winner in the hotel booking sector.

The human part of the travel service economy may become less and less important. What does that mean for the industry and how can it respond using data?

The generation that came of age indebted may aspire to ownership, but it is willing to settle for access to such things instead.