We know we live in interesting times, and it appears that we will continue to do so. After scanning the headlines the other day, we were struck with the realization that what's about to happen seems even more interesting that what's been happening.
Partly this is human nature, for there is no sweeter spice than anticipation. But partly it's the cyclical nature of news, business, travel and news about the business of travel.
What it comes down to is that we're soon going to be witness to some interesting stuff, such as:
• A new way of advertising and displaying airline fares. New rules from the Department of Transportation, unless overturned in court, will require airlines, agents and travel websites to advertise and display airfares with all taxes and mandatory fees included, beginning Jan. 24.
That will be a big change for the industry, but Lufthansa is giving us a taste of the future by volunteering to be an early adopter. The airline said that beginning in November, it will include all taxes and fees in its advertised prices in the U.S., believing that this is what the public wants.
Given that the fees and taxes on international flights can add up to a significant amount, Lufthansa's new strategy could put it at a competitive disadvantage among comparison shoppers who don't read all the fine print. In Lufthansa's favor: It's not an airline that traditionally competes on price as much as some others we could name. Still, it's going to be apples vs. oranges for a while.
• A new corporate travel behemoth. The recent buyout of Directravel by a private equity group has been described by the buyers as the first step in a roll-up operation that will seek to acquire other "middle-market corporate travel companies" and build a mega-agency by consolidation.
Roll-ups have a checkered history in travel, as evidenced by the unhappy endings of Travel Services International and Far and Wide Travel during a particularly active time for consolidation that began in the late 1990s. Navigant, a collection of corporate agencies, fared better, breaking into the top five of Travel Weekly's annual Power List before it was acquired by Carlson Wagonlit in 2006. It helps Directravel's credibility that its CEO is Navigant founder Ed Adams, who now knows what to look for in a minefield.
• A new way of selling America. The Corporation for Travel Promotion has the mandate and the means to cover the globe with information and marketing messages to bring more foreign visitors to the U.S. All it needs now is the method, and it will unveil that key ingredient when it introduces the new branding platform at the World Travel Market in London next month.
We're hoping for a cool logo and a catchy slogan, but even if we fall back on "Discover America," it will be worth the wait. The U.S. has never had a federally sponsored global travel marketing campaign of this magnitude.
• And there's more. Boeing's 787 Dreamliner will soon be flying in U.S. airspace. Ancillary airline services will, eventually, find their way into agency GDSs. American passenger trains outside the Northeast Corridor will eventually go faster than 79 mph, and cruise ships will somehow get bigger, more exotic, more something. And just as surely, there will be more bankruptcies, mergers, more disruptive technology, more fads and foibles. You know it's coming. All of it.