Andrew Sheivachman

We'd be interested in seeing where the remaining travel agents are concentrated and which specialties may be growing while others continue their decline.

More Chinese travelers than ever before are traveling to the U.S. and Alitrip is looking to provide custom, mobile-booked itineraries through its relationship with North American hotels, airlines and tour operators. It helps that its parent company is the preeminent Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, giving them near-unlimited resources to compete in a crowded Chinese travel market.

Travel agencies need to get younger, and more creative, if they're going to survive. For what it's worth, some agencies are doing what it takes protect themselves from the travel companies that want agents sliced out of the industry.

Now it's only a matter of time until airlines raise airfare prices once again, despite their huge push for revenue through ancillaries and fees.

Flight Centre Travel Group's global scale and multitude of brands have made it easier to experiment on the longevity of its Liberty Travel leisure agency locations in big cities.

Hoteliers know that both travelers and locals alike are tired of stuffy dining rooms and interminable multi-course meals. They're bringing in a wider swath of customers through experimentation and partnerships with skilled restauranteurs.

As another U.S. election season heats up in 2016, it's important to mark the ways in which travel industry money will affect both election outcomes and future regulation.

Travel agents showed some resiliency in 2015. They need to work on becoming a whole lot more visible, and useful, to consumers in 2016.

Cruise lines make money when every cabin is occupied. They still have a lot of work to do in order to fill their new ships with higher-spending passengers.

More Chinese vacationers are cruising than ever before. But the cruise industry still faces challenges, particularly in educating Chinese consumers about cruises and developing an efficient distribution network in China.