Traveling Blog: Boomer Travel Boom + Airplane Booze Sales Add Up + Hotelbeds Navigates Online Booking Battles

June 28, 2018

Note From the Editor

Nobody likes to witness those cringe-worthy incidents when passengers act out on your plane, but the reality is that you're probably always going to have to deal with the occasional sloppy drunk on your flight.

As you will read in our story below, the economics of selling alcohol on planes is just too attractive for airlines. They pull in, by some estimates, about $130 million in booze sales a year, yet another nice ancillary for the top line. The problem is clearly how much passengers drink in increasingly nicer establishments in airport terminals before they even step onto the plane. So what's the solution? Teaching bartenders not to over-serve waiting flyers? Or maybe it's simply making the entire flight experience a little less stressful.

— Tom Lowry, Managing Editor

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Airlines Need to Look to Tech and Data to Become Better Retailers

Despite some well-publicized incidents involving drunk passengers, U.S. airlines aren't about to fly dry. The revenue is just too big. But flight attendants say drunk passengers are the top source of harassment and want airline staff to keep them off planes.

Travel Industry Feeling Spry as More of the World Goes Gray

Instead of doing nothing when they retire, older people increasingly want to travel more. This is good news for the travel industry but it needs to work out better ways to target the baby boomer generation.

Priority Pass Shifts to Restaurants and Airport Suites as Demographics Change

A curious number of airport restaurants have started partnering with Priority Pass in the last two years. More options are a good thing.

Video: Hotelbeds Executive Chairman on Fallout From the Online Booking Battleground

Do hotels really need to be flagged under a big brand if online travel agencies are most effective at selling rooms? Hotelbeds' Joan Vila thinks hotel chains may be forced to wind down some brands that aren't succeeding in the marketplace.

Meeting Planners Still Struggle To Prove Return on Investment

Proving return on investment in the meetings and events space is not for the faint-hearted. It's a difficult challenge, providing metrics for a host of areas from net revenue to attendee satisfaction. Yet planners are under growing pressure to meet the challenge.

Many travelers are glued to their phones, so why not put them to even greater use? That's what London tourism officials are hoping to do but whether this will actually help disperse tourism throughout the city rather than generate revenue for already crowded attractions remains to be seen.

Trump Border Policies Are Bad for Business Travel, Survey Finds

The initial travel ban caused widespread chaos and confusion, and uncertainty has remained amid court challenges. Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the ban, will business travel suffer as this survey suggests?

Inside the Rise of Solo Luxury Adventure Tourism

Forget millennials. It's their parents who have the money and time to sign up for luxury experiences around the globe. With the aid of digital communications, going alone no longer feels like tragedy but an asset.

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