Disruption in the accommodation industry – the lines blur

It is always easy to tell that 'disruption' has turned into normality when organisations start to legislate for it.

The travel and transport industries are full of such disruption at the moment: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (inadequate response); self-connection (left to a few large airports, most do not formally cater for it); the sharing economy; (and the daddy of them all) the environment (uncoordinated, ineffectual response to protests).

The UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) has recently published a report - 'New Business Models in the Accommodation Industry' - which provides a systematic overview of the ways that both national governments and local authorities are "addressing" and managing new business models in the accommodation industry.

The UN is doing this just as a new variation on disruption shifts into gear - with accommodation sharing agencies such as Airbnb entering the hotel sector and some hotel groups targeting the sharing sector.