Suresh Subudhi

I have been researching the travel industry for last 20 years and my two research subjects, the residents and the traveler are on a collision course like never before.

We have a travel crisis.

The travel industry employs about 300 million people globally and it's going to be a 15 trillion dollar industry by 2040.

too large, too many livelihoods at stake for us to ignore this crisis.

But let me pause and ask you a question.

Why do we travel?

We travel for joy.

Joy by experiencing the diversity this world has to offer.

Joy by experiencing different lives.

Joy through a shared connection.

My daughter, son and wife are here and I want them to experience the same joy I experienced in my Roman dream.

I want all of you to experience the same joy.

We need to bring joy back in travel.

But it's a complex problem.

We have millions of tourists getting inspired by social media and planning the travel destinations and planning the travel itineraries.

We have the travel industry, which is looking for short-term profits.

And we have cities who don't know how to manage the tourism flow.

There is a path forward though.

With the use of technology like AI and simple behavior changes, we could bring joy back in travel.

Now imagine if we were to make the entire travel industry's objective, the airlines, the hotel, the travel tour operators, to bring joy to both residents as well as the travelers, and they have everything at their disposal, from technology to people to skilling, they will rise to the occasion.