Having been away for a few weeks, I tried to catch up on a few other blogs and I was surprised by just how much travel-bashing there is out there. I’ve read about things people hate about the travel industry and how there’s no innovation in travel.
Part of the problem is that “travel industry” is an easy catch-all term that is lazily used in a lot of cases. If you have the misfortune to eat a bad meal, do you say you hate the food industry? If you listen some music that you don’t like do you blame the music industry?
Yet travel in general seems to get it in the neck whenever anything goes wrong. It’s such a huge, diverse sector, yet it always seem to get lazily bracketed in one generic whole in a way that other sectors don’t. It is always accused of “lagging behind” other industries in surveys and comments, but can you really compare it to other indutries? The product is almost completely unique, so any comparisons don’t really hold.
Saying there is no innovation in travel is a bit like saying there are no good new restaurants in London. It may be true at the moment, but you know another good one will open soon. But it seems so easy to make such generalisations about travel. There are innovative products and sites, it just seems unreasonable to expect a quantum leap every two weeks.
Do we even need a huge amount of innovation in travel? It’s easier than ever to travel where you want to and not everyone who travels wants to spend their time looking at their computer or mobile. I think most people would like more simplicity, trustworthiness and clarity rather than great new innovations. Products such as Layar are cited as the future of travel, but is that really what people want, or what people who write about travel want? It is hugely impressive, but are we really going to be walking around cities like androids staring at our mobiles?
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Simon – totally agree with you. As a (small) part of the travel industry I do resent being constantly told that there is not by there is not enough innovation in the industry. You innovate then, is my general feeling. Find the margins in doing that (which I’m missing) and do it…
Surely giving the client what they want and providing a good service is the important thing here (wherever you come from with the industry) and with a couple of important exceptions, money made from the travel industry is based on doing just that – and in essense has changed little in 100 years.