The evolving demographic and needs of the modern traveller (encapsulated in the concept of the Gen-Y consumer) keeps many a travel exec awake at night.
So it is no surprise that a story explaining one element of it all - affecting hotels - proved to be our most popular tale of 2013.
Here, in our final round-up of the year (after the reporterpicksfrom theteam), are the most popular articles on Tnooz during the year.
Your 13 from 2013, in reverse order:
13. Japan brings its people to the fore in hit web promo to tourists [VIDEO]
- Many tourism boards choose to focus on the locations and things to do rather than its habitants as a method of enticing visitors to a country.....
12. Not dead yet: Why the old school travel agent isn't going anywhere- If you’ve spent any time looking to plan or purchase travel online you probably know what a noisy place it’s all become.
11. Expedia admits that TripAdvisor and Booking.com are hurting it hard- CEO Dara Khosrowshahi was somewhat on the defensive today in answering investor questions on a call for second quarter 2013 for Expedia, the world's largest online travel agency.
10. Holland reminds everyone how cool it is, scores massive hit on YouTube [VIDEO]- Tourism bosses in Holland are celebrating after capturing nearly three quarters of a million hits in less than a week for a YouTube clip to promote the country's apparent coolness.
9. Kayak adds price forecasts to US and UK fare search, saying it's better than Bing Travel- Today US metasearch site Kayak is introducing a price forecast tool for its US and UK users.
8. Introducing the largest travel metasearch engine in the world: Google- Did you notice? Google recently indicated exactly what it is aiming to ultimately become in the travel industry.....
7. Dark days for online travel agencies- The days are getting darker for the mass-market online travel agencies (OTAs). The fundamentals of their business are weakening amid intense pressure up and down the value chain, especially in the mature US market.....
6. Hotel sues guest for posting review on TripAdvisor about bed bugs- Canada-based Hotel Quebec is suing a former guest for $95,000. The reason? The guest wrote a negative review on TripAdvisor exposing the bed bugs in his room and refused to remove the review.....
5. Stats on TripAdvisor's integration with Facebook Login and OpenGraph- Facebook has featured TripAdvisor in their latest case study, which demonstrates how a well-integrated OpenGraph application can deliver solid social results: in this case, a 27% increase in engagement for Facebook users on TripAdvisor itself.....
4. Google tightens grip on future of the travel industry – also puts startups in a tough spot- As entrepreneurs tasked with delivering the future, we need a simple model that we can use to evaluate opportunities and determine where we should be building technologies and functionality.....
3. The state of some travel startups and why some are missing the (pain) point2. TripAdvisor tests hotel metasearch service – now the fun really begins- User review giant TripAdvisor is finally doing what pretty much everyone involved in the hotel sector expected it to do years ago - consumer metasearch for its vast portfolio of properties.....
A white paper, Who’s Sleeping with You: A Detailed Look at the US Online Hotel Guest, produced in partnership with Hudson Crossing, took a 3-month sample of the billion monthly travel transactions processed each month from Adara.
The key finding is surprising: 4 out of 10 hotel guests are between the ages of 18 and 36. This provides a solid counterpoint to the prevailing trend of targeting hotels towards Baby Boomers.
The rise of the boutique hotels and larger design-focused properties is most certainly at play here, as the younger generation of Millenials both begin to travel more for business and seek exceptionally unique experiences as they travel..... and here for the rest of the story.
NB: Don't forget our Predictions 2014!
NB2: Crowd image via Shutterstock.