The Greatest Challenges
to the Travel Industry:
Seizing the Opportunities of Today
We recently ran a global survey to uncover how cruise lines and tour operators are tackling the four biggest challenges facing travel today. The results? Clear priorities – and one standout concern.
For cruise lines, it was a dead heat: 50% named delivering real sustainability impact, and 50% chose meeting rising customer expectations.
Tour operators showed a similar trend, with 55% also putting sustainability at the top. The rest were split – 33% cited workforce and talent shortages, while 12% focused on customer expectations.
Across both groups, sustainability isn’t just a buzzword – it’s the leading business imperative.
This article dives into the top three challenges, what’s driving them, and how they can be tackled. It also takes a closer look at a fourth, often overlooked threat: how the rising cost of living is starting to squeeze customer spend.
Challenge 1: Turning sustainability policy into real impact
It’s no surprise sustainability is in the spotlight – today’s travellers don’t just care about it, they’re letting it guide their choices.
The vast majority say sustainable travel matters, and more than half want to leave destinations better than they found them.
The time between booking and departure is a golden opportunity. It’s a chance to engage customers, elevate their trip, and shape more responsible behaviours – before the journey even begins.
By weaving destination-specific sustainability insights into pre-travel communications, brands can educate, inspire, and influence. Go further by showing how travellers can make a real impact – like reducing their carbon footprint or supporting local businesses – and you transform awareness into action.
Challenge 2: Winning in a talent-short market
Staff shortages are crippling the industry’s ability to deliver the service customers expect – there simply aren’t enough skilled people to fill the gaps.
Many workers took extended breaks, retired early, or shifted to better-paying jobs or their own ventures. Travel has been hit harder than most and still faces a tough road rebuilding a skilled, diverse workforce – across frontline and back-office roles alike.
While digital transformation has accelerated, most investments focus on automating transactions and customer processes – not the human-heavy, knowledge-driven tasks that still rely on people.
The answer? A unified, cross-department platform that connects back-office systems and streamlines workflows – helping travel companies overcome staffing challenges and win the talent battle.
Challenge 3: Meeting the rising bar of customer demand
Recent UK and US Customer Satisfaction Indexes reveal a clear trend – service quality is slipping, and more customers are facing issues.
At the same time, expectations are soaring. Travellers spending big on holidays won’t tolerate unanswered questions or slow responses. Fixing this can’t wait – it must be eliminated altogether.
The travel industry has a unique advantage: the length of its customer journey offers multiple touchpoints to connect, engage, and build loyalty.
Automating timely, relevant communication is critical. Even more important is capturing real-time customer sentiment and feedback at every stage – giving companies the insight to anticipate needs, act proactively, and reclaim control of the experience.
Challenge 4: Keeping customers spending amid a cost-of-living crisis
Rising inflation, energy bills, and living costs are squeezing disposable income. While holiday bookings continue, concerns about the future are growing.
Flight prices have surged, and limited availability means prices may climb further. Instead of competing on price alone, travel companies are standing out by showing they genuinely care for their customers.
Tracking customer sentiment throughout the journey – and responding with empathy in real time – is key to keeping satisfaction high. Using Customer Service Questionnaires (CSQs) and Net Promoter Scores amplifies this impact.
Bringing operations, customer service, marketing, and sales together on a unified platform lets companies harness feedback to turn enquiries into bookings – and boost repeat business and referrals.
The bottom line
Overcoming today’s challenges demands fresh thinking and bold action. To discover how to deliver on sustainability, tackle workforce gaps, meet rising customer expectations, and keep revenue flowing, contact our team for a free, tailored demo – designed just for your business.
Ready to start delivering a superior customer experience?
Let us demonstrate a free demo tailored and branded for your business.