October has been very interesting. Google buying YouTube for an extraordinary US $1.65Billion in stock this month was definitely big news. It may have been one of the reasons why people in the travel and tourism industry were continuing their talks around customers’ online habits and the need to understand and use online technologies more effectively.

The other big news was and still is “global warming”. Greenhouse gas emissions have many industries under the microscope including the travel industry. Slogans like “Save the Planet Don’t See The World” and “High cost of cheap flights” have helped fuel a debate in the UK on the impact of air travel on the environment, highlighting the increase in the numbers of travellers and tourists around the world thanks to low cost short-haul and long-haul flights. While some say the answer is higher taxes, others oppose the idea and see it as a way of making flights available only to the elite.

The upside to all this debating is that climate change and global warming have got the whole world talking and walking.

Here are a few quotes from around the world for October.

United Kingdom - Nicholas Crane, Journalist Telegraph Travel (Telegraph.co.uk)
“Modern society needs to be aiming for far fewer carbon dioxide emissions. We can either cut back now or pay an enormous price in the future. No one becomes destitute by not flying; it is not a crisis. Climate change is a crisis”

David Soskin Cheapflights.co.uk (Telegraph.co.uk)
“It will make flying elitist, because only the well-off will be able to go, and do enormous damage to poor countries which rely on tourism,” he said. “In addition airlines’ profits will go down, so they won’t be able to develop ever more fuel-efficient aircraft.”

India - Dhruv Shringi, Executive Director, Yatra.com (Eyefortravel.com)
There is a huge challenge for us ahead both in terms of macro and micro factors. Firstly, for more people to log on to OTA’s there requires an education phase on the value that we offer to them, presently only four-five percent of the population are using such services, the rest still are a huge potential market.

Secondly, we as Indians need to feel the value of something even before we have consumed it, be it a good or a service, which is why we still go to the corner travel agent though we get limited choices or wait in queues to book tickets. We need to set aside such myths, people who have used our services will continue to do so, however, to get new users to use such services is the key challenge.

Scotland - Celia Stevenson Scottish Screen (News.scotsman.com)
“We fully appreciate that Peter Jackson may want to film a lot of it in his native New Zealand, but we will be fighting our corner to be involved in what would be an incredible project for Scotland.”

Tanzania - Saleh Pamba, Ministry of Natural Resources & Tourism (voanews.com)
“The modern trend is ecotourism, and we have devoted almost 28% of our land as conservation areas. These are ideal for ecotourism because they are well protected. We have beautiful islands and marine parks (that also have) big potential for ecotourism. All sorts of activities can be done here in Tanzania; fishing is one of them, (so is) scuba diving; we have two marine parks with a lot of interesting underwater resources.”

Australia - David May, Jetstar’s General Manager of Marketing and PR (eTravelBlackboard.com)
“We believe – and our customers are now telling us in great numbers that they would rather have the choice of what they pay for than us telling them what we’ll give them. It’s a new model that our customers are really responding to positively.”

USA - Geoffrey Kent, Founder Abercrombie & Kent (intellisearchnow.com)
“The big trend is going to be luxury small river ships: here you have a perfect holiday. You can unpack, not move hotels every day, but have as many landings as you like before getting back on the boat and having a massage.'’

New Zealand - Fiona Luhrs, Tourism Industry Association (intellisearchnow.com)
“Technology is increasingly shaping the way we travel and the way we gather information about our travel. Nearly 70% of US travellers now research their holiday online and more than 36% of all travel in the US is booked online. Websites are a crucial marketing tool, while travellers’ chat rooms instantly spread reviews and opinions with thousands of people all over the world. Word-of-mouth is no
longer limited to family and friends on returning home,”

Australia - Adrian Caruso, TA Fastrack CEO (TravelMole.com)
“Travel agents need to keep re-inventing the way they do business with their customers and be able to respond to consumer trends. And this includes providing an on-line channel for customers who prefer to book in this way and being in consumers faces more than ever.”

Graham Turner, Managing director Flight Centre (TravelWeekly.com)
“The reality is that most people want more than one channel to deal with. It’s not about competing with competitors but about keeping your customers happy. We have to offer what they want.”

Jenny Hutson, chairwoman S8 (TravelWeekly.com)
“In every industry we’re challenged to deliver the same thing as we delivered yesterday with greater productivity and, particularly for commodities, for a lower price.”

Cayman Islands
Mr Clifford, Tourism Minister (Caymannet.news)
“We have to do what is right because change will be necessary - change has started. There will be some people who will accept that and there will be some people who will resist change and that’s understandable and that’s human.”