I read an article earlier this month about the EU implementing lie detectors using Artificial Intelligence (AI) on certain borders with non-EU nations. Apparently, travelers will be grouped into categories and subjected to interviews by a video terminal that will analyze their speech, facial movements, and mannerisms to determine if additional security is needed. Wow, how frightening. And I hope the TSA doesn’t get any more bright ideas and think about bringing this to America.

To be clear, this is only a test program in the EU and only at specific locations, but the specter of this becoming widespread is fraught with problems.

First off, a computer cannot replace a human. Period. A computer can certainly assist in gathering the information needed, but to have a…

JOHN FEENAGHTY was appointed to the position of Chief Operating Officer in early 2018.

Feenaghty is a travel industry professional, with 25 years’ experience across a variety of industry fields. John’s most recent tenure has been with the Flight Centre Travel Group in Australia where he held a number of senior roles over his 14 years with the publicly listed company. His broad experience covers retail, wholesale, product, e-commerce, operations and marketing.

Starting out in the RAAF as a flight steward nearly 30 years ago, John moved from hospitality to travel, with a career at the Queensland Government Travel Centre in Brisbane. A few years followed with Thomas Cook retail, Sunlover Holidays, and a short stint in the USA with an Australian travel specialist. In 2003,…

Already those of you working on business plans are deep into 2019. It's time to get moving. Every reader of my travel marketing column knows I think written business plans are important. Organization is essential. Clarity of expression and correctly assessing markets are requirements. But not a one of these is worth anything without ACTION. Along with every Marketing Plan (what to do) you need to write an Action Plan (how and when). Too many times we over-plan and over-perfect and in the process lose valuable opportunities to others who are quicker to act. It's time to take another look at our marketing calendar.

Advice like this can be easily misunderstood. Certain essentials have to be in place prior to marketing. Don’t throw out your business plans…

When you first decided to enter the whacky world of travel, it probably was because you had a passion for the industry. You truly believed you could help people enjoy their time off while maximizing the experience. You only had good intentions…back then. And then, like a un-forecasted hurricane, reality entered the picture and started screwing things up.

If this wasn’t bad enough, you started to slow down and your future started to be questioned. In short, you lost your mojo.

“People perform at their best when contributing their talents to something they believe…