Travel shows are absolutely the equivalent of video stores. They are high-cost, inefficient, analogue rituals in a low-cost, hyper-efficient digital world.
The insistence on their relevance is born from nostalgia and legacy business models not a rational look at how connections are made today. The trust and handshakes argument that defenders use is the same one Blockbuster executives made about in-store discovery and customer service a romantic justification for a model that has been technologically and economically bulldozed. Heres the contrary view, grounded in the reality of the new digital travel economy.
The primary defence for conventions is that African travel especially luxury and safari is a high-trust, high-value product that cant be sold digitally. This is a myth. What is trust in B2B travel? Its risk mitigation. An international agent is asking: If I send you US50 000 for a booking, will you deliver a safe, high-quality experience?
