Sounding Off: Rules are there to be broken

Each Friday, PhocusWire dissects and debates an industry trend or new development covered on our site that week.

In the midst of some fairly dark times for the industry and the people that work in it, there are some hints as to how things might be in the future.

Governments are imposing strict guidelines as to what their citizens can and cannot do as countries put in place various tactics to combat the spread of coronavirus.

Such rules, it is hoped, will put society back on track over the course of the weeks and months ahead.

What is becoming apparent, as our initial interview with Giancarlo Carniani (and follow-up chat for the InPhocus podcast) showed, some people in the industry are using their lockdown-imposed free time to consider how things might be different in the future.

Carniani's particular situation surrounds the relationship (it, frankly, doesn't feel like much of a "partnership" to him) between hoteliers and online travel agencies.

How that might evolve to something that is more human, less caring about the bottom line, as someone put it to us this week, will be interesting to watch.

Things will certainly be different in the travel industry, as it gets back on its feet. Perhaps brands that survive will dust off their old business models and consider how they could or should be part of a wider effort to do the right thing, rather than the easy thing, or the thing that just lines the coffers of shareholders.

People will undoubtedly stick to the rules being put on them by their governments, for the sake of their own health and the recovery of their countries.

But it wouldn't be at all surprising if there is a movement that eventually emerges which proposes tearing up the industry's old rule books and demands that business is carried out in a more caring way.