Neophiliacs in travel

Satirical magazine Private Eye, in its Neophiliacs column, regularly pokes fun at those who like to predict what the Next Big Thing might be.

The latest, collected from various UK publications, are hilarious: “Heists are the new rock and roll” from the Daily Star; “Is Wayne Rooney the new Queen Victoria?” from The Independent; and, most bizarrely, “Is the breast pump the new Blackberry?” from Slate.com. [Discuss!]

But after few a months on the scene, Travolution has discovered the travel industry is equally obsessed/guilty when it comes to its forecasts.

There are the obvious ones: “Muscat is the new Mauritius”; “Angkor is the new Valley of the Kings”; or “Earth orbit is the new skydiving”.

And from the business side there is also an impressive range of prophecies. So here are Travolution’s favourites for the first half of 2006:

“Meta search is the new search”
“Geo-targeting is the new branding”
“Click-to-book is the new unique users”
“Hotels are the new airlines” [in terms of web strategy!]
“Travel agents are the new tour operators”
“Tour operators are the new travel agents”
“Troogle will be the new Lastminute.com/Expedia”

A prize of instant gratification through publication is available for any more emailed entries.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution