Social media, new methods of distribution, search and the use of new devices are probably the main issues keeping travel companies awake at night.
But while it is relatively easy for the final three to demonstrate return-on-investment by way of results and revenue (or not), social media still struggles to present a solid business case to many executives.
Hundreds of DMOs, airlines, hotels, online and offline travel agencies, and tour operators are trying different things when it comes to using social media, some with the blanket method of trying everything, others with a more softy-softly approach by simply creating Facebook pages and Twitter profiles or engaging with consumers in forums and blogs.
So important has social media become to the wider marketing strategy of the travel industry these days that it is quite surprising when a senior executive dismisses the very idea of social media as "gimmicky".
It leads to the obvious question: can social media can be ignored entirely by a modern travel company, brushed aside as an irritating fad that can have no sway over the strategy of a company?
It appears that this is certainly the case of Trailfinders, the long-haul, tailor-made travel specialist with 26 travel agencies around the UK and Ireland, whose managing director Tony Russell dismissed social media outright at a conference in London last week.
He told delegates at the annual Barclays Bank get-together of travel execs that the idea of using services such as Facebook and Twitter is "not for us".
"It’s gimmicky and our product is better put into traditional tried and tested marketing methods."
Inevitably, Russell's comments were met with a mixture of bemusementandoutrage on Twitter, the network's fans invariably reacting strongly to anyone daring to dismiss it and social media so vociferously.
Perhaps see it from Russell's perspective for a moment - the company sells the vast majority of its product offline, in retail shops, or over the phone via call centres.
It is still a reasonably heavy user of newspaper classified ads to peddle latest offers, maybe uses a bit of keyword advertising (haven't found any though).
So in Russell's world, with the business seemingly ticking along nicely (it's been operating since 1970), perhaps there is absolutely no need at all to juggle marketing budgets, re-train staff, build and maintain a social media presence.
But it is such statistics as those in the recent L2 Digital IQ Index for travel report, for example, which must be ringing bells somewhere in the heads of the naysayers.
The study found that social media is a "significant" source of referral traffic to 78% of travel websites. For 90% of those in the study, social media platforms were the top downstream sites for users after they had finished visiting a travel site.
The report is just one of hundreds of surveys and reports kicking about outlining the importance of social media in the research, search and shopping aspects of all travel products.
And as mobile and tablet devices bring the web to travellers in-resort, social media again will become (indeed, probably is already) even more influential.
Armed with such research and the opening up of the web even further into the lives of ALL travellers, regardless of whether they complete the booking element of their trip on or offline, can social media really be ignored and dismissed as gimmicky?