The future of travel: eight things you need to know | Marketing Magazine | AnimalConservation |

Futurist Dr Graeme Codrington claims the key word for the travel industry today is "uncertainty", and that no one knows what is going to happen next.

Speaking at the ABTA travel convention, Codrington said that businesses must get their heads around the upcoming trends and the causes of disruptive change happening to consumers across the globe, or they will become extinct.

1. Everything you do is replaceable

"There is more computing power in your smartphone than NASA used to get Neil Armstrong to the moon. If your business is going to be successful in the next five years you need to focus your energy on what smart devices are doing to our world. If your business is not getting more digital more mobile, more connected, more networked; if you're not always on and if you're not using big data to become more intelligent, then you are falling behind. This is your only possible future, everything else you do is replaceable."

2. You can no longer compete based on your product

"Every institution, from the Roman Catholic church to Manchester United, all the way down to the definition of family, is changing. Regulators, having seen what happened in the financial services industry and having seen the devestation caused by the economic recession, are now looking at all industries that deal with people's money.

"Regulators want push more transparency and even without them, [the need for] transparency is there. You can no longer compete with [other businesses in your sector] based on your product, because your customers can check, in an instant, everything that everyone else is saying about your business - and they will be less likely to trust you rather than anybody else in their network."


Find the rest of the 'Things you need to know' here:


Via Tourism Australia