What I learned in Davos about managing the new complexity of travel

Take and change

I have spent the last six years of my career focused on ‘travel’, which is how we all experience the travel experience, managing solutions to the requirements in front of us. Today, however, our constructions are only at the starting point to guide the growing global journeys of tomorrow.

Jeff Katz

As the leader of the organization’s “Technology Pioneer” companies, I had the opportunity to attend this year’s World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos. For the uninitiated, Davos is incomparably global and diverse in composition, topics and attendees.

When I say the forum is diverse, I mean that the city has become a special issue village of corporate and government titans, academic and scientific leaders, startup entrepreneurs from every continent, and even a group called “Global Shapers.” Like climate, women’s rights or labour. Every age group, race, gender identity and dress code is displayed.

Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum, opened the meeting and set the tone for the forum by calling the global situation a “messy patchwork”. Dr. Schwab is addressing the mind-numbing complexity of leadership challenges, issues, and agendas facing world leaders.

Not surprisingly, much of the Davos meeting was devoted to meaningful discussion about how leaders can manage this increasingly complex environment in which we all operate. For the travel industry, that area includes significant international commitments to combat climate change. It includes tourism’s real threat to damaged ecosystems, wildlife and local communities. It involves transforming the energy economy and integrating new energy sources, supply chains and technologies. It includes challenges to various travel regulations, systems and technologies globally. And on and on.

Despite the worrisome economic headwinds, several initiatives and massive financial commitments to climate and energy transitions were happening before our eyes in Davos. Trillions of dollars have been committed by the US and the EU to promote climate change. Each sector engaged in problem-solving, commitment and collaboration to bring about progress. The travel industry, which produces 8 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases, also has huge startups.

For related reading, see our Skift 2023 Megatrend “Travelers Learn to Live with Permanence.”

However, Davos emphasized the global and systemic nature of the challenge. Solutions go deep into industries and their supply systems, but also expand into neighboring technologies and ecosystems more broadly. That is becoming increasingly clear, and the construction of global carbon markets or investments in global forest health are two examples of deep mobilization within the WEF. The initiative and action on climate change is real, but the complexity of the topic is huge.

“Junk” perfectly captures the complexity associated with traveling today. My Davos attendees, some with executive support and business class (or better) seats, commented on the difficulties they faced in getting from their hometowns to the center of Europe’s most advanced country. I, on the other hand, used two airlines, two resorts, two hotels (owned by the same family), two trains and a transfer van to get to my destination.

Once safely ensconced in the bubble of the sophisticated Davos convention complex, I plunged into a situation akin to managing a Disney World tour. The forum has a great app called TopLink to help you manage your participation. It works great for organizing your calendar at the conference, connecting with other attendees, booking your seat on the most sought-after panels, and reading key communications like session findings and announcements. But unlike Disney, WEF-world is completely disconnected from the rest of the travel universe and serves as a reminder of how complicated travel is today.

We see such a complex journey at high double-digit growth rates in the next decade. Although many of today’s best industry programs are impressive and improving, this type of travel is clearly beyond the reach of today’s tools. Beyond partnerships, partnerships, loyalty networks, airport and immigration system interfaces, and language/cultural personalization capabilities. And, understandably, today’s travel apps rarely attempt to cross their natural “boundaries.”

I have spent the last six years of my career focused on “travel”, which is how we all experience the travel experience, managing solutions to the requirements in front of us. Today, however, our constructions are only at the starting point to guide the growing global journeys of tomorrow. Today’s travel leaders face an intriguing set of priorities related to workforce, resilience, digital transformation, increasing customer loyalty, rebuilding balance and disruptive competitive forces. That’s a lot and only a partial list. Despite these challenges, we still need to focus on the critical foundation needed for the future of travel.

The theme of this year’s Davos conference was “Cooperation in a Fractured World”. It may be the best way to address the pitfalls that Dr. Schwab so well observed in this proposal. The complexity in the world and in travel is increasing rapidly, and the speed is not regretted. The reward for collaborating and working strategically on the new travel framework is a rational system that translates into customer satisfaction, profitability and a sustainable world. Is it time to rethink? we will see.

Jeff Katz is the founder and CEO of Journey, a travel technology company named a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum. He was previously the founding CEO of Orbits International, CEO of Swiss Air and CEO of Saber and American Airlines. This it was Katz’s first visit to Davos since the late 1990s.

Video of the “Journey Again” panel from Davos.

https://www.weforum.org/events/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2023/sessions/traveling-again-differently