Jack W. Plunkett, CEO of Plunkett Research, Ltd, highlights several e-commerce trends that are transforming retail, travel, entertainment, and communication.

The travel industry is undergoing tremendous change. Social media is opening up new creative ways for travel companies to market to consumers and broaden their reach. At the same time, mobile shopping is skyrocketing, forcing industry players to adapt quickly in order to capture the sales of on-the-go shoppers.

Perhaps most importantly, the sharing economy is now a multibillion dollar market and one of the fastest growing segments of the travel industry. Some analysts speculate that disruption is the “new normal” in the travel industry. To learn more about these shifts, read the blog post below.

Thanksgiving Day includes many different traditions for families all over America. From cooking extravagant dinners to traveling to visit friends and famly, the options for celebrating the holiday are truly endless. But there is one common factor that affects families during Thanksgiving weekend each year: high spending.

Thanksgiving weekend is one of the most expensive of the year, and that’s not just because of the amount of turkey being purchased. Food, travel costs, and shopping on Black Friday are all contributors to high spending during the five-day span. In this blog post, we will look at some of the main factors that influence consumer spending patterns during Thanksgiving.

What links such diverse travel marketers, like airlines, hotels, cruise lines, rental car agencies, travel agencies, tour operators, and travel media outlets, in their pursuit of sales, growth and profits? Those marketers that win and beat their direct competition will be the ones that understand the needs, wants and desires of the best potential customers and put insights into action with marketing strategies, tactics and guest services that really matter. 

When it comes down to the best potential customers for any travel marketer, it is the affluent consumer, people with plenty of disposable income to spend and an appetite for new, exotic, out-of-the-ordinary experiences.

Is Bali really the best-kept secret of the global FinTech community?

Bali is known for its pristine beauty and its outstanding hospitality. In Part-1 of this two-part series, we showed that behind the scenes there is a vibrant and colorful international FinTech and Startup community evolving on the island. We also explored why Bali is so attractive for FinTech activities and listed "The 10 Magnetic Powers of Bali." Now, let's take a look at the leaders in Bali's FinTech community.

Is Bali really the best-kept secret of the global FinTech community?

Among FinTech enthusiasts there is a rumor that Bali is a thriving hub for innovative thinking, startups, BitCoin and financial technology in particular. The problem is that we rarely hear specifics about it, and there is no good source compiling and overviewing FinTech activity in Bali. Writing this blog post, we at Banking Reports, a leading source of FinTech market intelligence, can verify that, yes, Bali is really a hotspot for FinTech and BitCoin. In our research we have found something even broader: Bali is a paradise for startups in general from all industries, sizes and shapes.

As summer draws to an end and kids across the country pout as they head back to school, parents planned their final weekend getaways during the last three-day weekend of the warm months. Since the economic recession, the number of families traveling during Labor Day Weekend has dropped significantly. But, in 2013, 34.1 million Americans traveled during the holiday, the highest number recorded since 2009.

Social games are one of the fastest growing segments of the online gaming industry. According to the industry body, Entertainment Software Association, social games increased in popularity by over 50% last year. Together with casual games, social games account for the largest share of online games played most often, with their share being even higher among the games frequently played on mobile. Social games are popular not only among the tech-savvy youth, but also adults. The International Social Games Association reports that the average age of a social game player is as much as 40 years. Overall, close to half of gamers engage in social games.

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