Beam Me Up Scotty...

The universal verdict on the future of travel has been delivered by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC): Whatever be the scenario, it can't be stopped. Travel will continue to grow and this rate of growth will only increase in the near future. Be it the Iraq war, SARS, Madrid bombings or worldwide terrorist warnings, travel will still take place and reliable statistics reveal that the future is rather bright! No shock to anyone who has been monitoring the Indian travel industry closely, especially the business travel segment. Contrary to expectations, the sophistication of technology has provided a further boost to travel, and this is both an Indian and global phenomenon.

I was recently in Doha, Qatar, to attend the WTTC Global Summit on tourism - an august gathering of head honchos from the travel, tourism, aviation and hospitality sectors worldwide. The Summit also had its fair share of big-wigs from the research, technology and global media business, all of whom shared a common view on the future of travel - business travel will sustain a steady growth, leisure will see an explosion of sorts both domestically and internationally, and a significant amount of business travel will be combined with leisure. With companies like McKinsey, Deloitte and Accenture sharing their research on this subject, along with the WTTC statistical analysis of the world travel market, there can be no mistaking the fact that countries like India, Turkey, China, etc are the travel markets to watch out for.

The onus is now on the service providers - hotels, airlines, surface transport, communication, etc - to gear up for this worldwide demand. We can't be far away from a revolution of sorts in this industry which will dramatically alter the service standards and the products on offer. Far superior products for a far more discerning clientele is the order of the day. Comfort and convenience will be the buzzwords. What then is in store for travellers who traverse the globe for business or leisure?

This issue of feBusiness Traveller focuses on one such aspect in our cover story titled “Aviation Next”. Hopefully airline companies will continue in their endeavour to make our travel around the globe even quicker and more hassle-free till we reach the stage when that famous phrase from Star Trek, “beam me up Scotty” becomes a reality. Until then...

Sheldon Santwan
EDITOR, feBusiness Traveller

Sheldon can be reached at editor@businesstravellerindia.com