As we continue catching up with past 30Under30 winners as part of our 30 Days of 30Under30 feature, we decided to take a look at the year ahead. We polled our winners on what they felt would be the top travel industry trends to watch out for- here are their top five picks.
Michael Distler, AuthentEscapes – “Thankfully, the trend I am seeing is big business all around again. We’re at pre-recession levels once again and it’s great (most of the time) to be so busy. I’ve found that with the trip planning process is now leaning back towards the experience instead of a price focus.”
Heather Christopher, Classic Travel at Tackett’s Mill – “The biggest trend I am currently seeing is for 2013 is multi-generation travel! Family reunions are taking place not only on cruise ships but at all-inclusive resorts throughout the Caribbean and Mexico. Other trends include destination weddings, more Hawaii travel from the East Coast and of course, river cruising sells like hotcakes in here!”
Cassandra Bookholder, Camelback Odyssey Travel, A Virtuoso Travel Office – “I have found over the past few months that my clients are beginning to return to more advance planning with longer lead time. The last few years the majority of travel planning time was short 1-6 months in advance, I feel this is now returning to a year if not more.”
Seth Apper, New Act Travel – “I see Safaris picking up big time and a lot of Peru and South America. People have started realizing there’s a lot more to the Southern Hemisphere beyond Australia.”
Leyna Huber, Camelback Odyssey Travel, A Virtuoso Travel Office – “I see the constant expansion of mobile and social travel. For example, Sabre is going to Trip Case instead of Virtually There it provides real time updates to travelers on the go. It also keeps us, their travel consultants, updated on any changes they make so we better prepare for their welcome home as well as future trips. Travelers can book a hotel through Trip Case and we’ll be notified of it. With the boom of Social Media I know I instantly share.”
Rising travel stars under 30 can fill out our application form at
www.travelagentcentral.com/30under30
.