How Our 2023 Megatrends Are Playing Out

22.12.2023 - 00:39 / skift.com / Dennis Schaal / Peden Doma Bhutia / Andrew Nocella / Morgan Chase

What is the future of travel? Answering that is Skift’s editorial mission, and the release of our annual Megatrends is core to that mission.

Our reporters spend months each year surfacing, discussing, debating and writing the top Megatrends we’ve identified, and we publish and present them in early January. This will be our 11th edition.

Skift’s 2024 Megatrends events – taking place in New York City and online on January 9 and in London on January 11 – will gather travel industry leaders and creative types to hear and discuss these trends.

We have a good record of pinpointing the emerging Megatrends that the travel industry needs to reckon with.

Here, we look at how the 2023 Megatrends are playing out.

We’ve been talking about blended travel since 2013. In the early days, road warriors were tired of the clunky corporate booking tools, and demanded easy platforms on par with Expedia or Travelocity.

Absent those more modern tools, employees were making unsanctioned business reservations outside of corporate booking websites on sites or apps such as Airbnb or HotelTonight, and they often tacked on a long weekend.

The Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting remote working trend fueled blended travel’s coming of age.

In April, American Express Global Business Travel cited a survey where 80% of respondents in the U.S. indicated they were inclined to travel while working remotely.

Andrew Nocella, chief commercial officer at United Airlines, told analysts in October that many of the airline’s business travel customers were leisure ones, as well.

And U.S. News & World Report noted that remote workers expanded the Thanksgiving holiday period in the U.S. by working away from the office in their travel destinations.

India broke through as the largest source of Asia travel in 2022 for the first time, surpassing the number of trips that Chinese, South Korean and Japanese travelers made, according to IPK International.

Skift Asia Editor Peden Doma Bhutia this week pointed to a flurry of Asian countries seeking to make it easier to being in more Indian travelers. Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Thailand have announced visa-free trips for Indians, and Vietnam is mulling a similar scheme.

Meanwhile, the number of international travelers visiting India or traveling outbound reached 31.4 million in the April to September period of 2023, just eclipsing the same six months in during pre-Covid 2019.

Don’t count Chinese travelers out, however. The Chinese government removed many Covid-era travel restriction early this year, and Asian countries outside of China have traditionally been favored destinations among these travelers.

While still in its initial stages, generative AI is indeed transforming travel marketing — and