The Future of Travel Retailing

As modern retailers, some people view the travel industry as a laggard, relatively unchanged over the past decade while other mass consumer industries such as video, music, telecom and media have been completely transformed, primarily by technology. The travel industry, however, has not been stagnant and is slowly responding to the consumer pressures and expectations that are forcing innovation. This report - created in cooperation with Sabre - seeks to highlight the opportunities and challenges within the industry, and how technological innovations can help drive collaboration to break down barriers and bring about transformation. To gain perspective on the current and future state of travel retailing, Phocuswright conducted in-depth interviews with more than a dozen senior executives representing various industry segments including airlines, hotels, leisure and travel management company agencies, and online travel agencies. These industry leaders discussed the developments and innovations they saw in travel retailing, the technological solutions enabling these developments, how data and its application factor into these solutions, how travel industry retailing compares to other industries' retailing innovations and solutions, and the challenges and opportunities travel-specific solutions present.