Skiing in Les Carroz, France, this week with a group of travel industry veterans reminded me how pointless some of the technology barriers holiday makers face are.

The ski resort is a convenient 55-minute transfer from Geneva, allowing a late Sunday arrival before three days of intensive skiing, and a 19:50 return flight that enables you to ski until 3pm on the final day. However, the compromise is a short bus transfer each morning from our apartments to the ski lift to the slopes of Flaine.

No problem, because having stayed in the resort before, I knew that there were conveniently located lockers underneath the Gondola station; however, when we approached the well-signed and manned booth to pay for our lockers, we were abruptly informed by a staff member that all lockers needed to be booked online by scanning a QR code and could only be reserved at 4.30 pm, rather than at the counter as I had done just a few months earlier.

When I asked why we could no longer simply book a locker on demand, I received only the French Gallic shrug and the phrase “techno logistic”. However, after four industry veterans tried to use the app for 25 minutes, we were then told by a more helpful lady that the app rarely worked, and she could use her personal account if we paid her cash. So, full circle, apart from the requirement for a tip.

However, we then realised that the only way to open the lockers was with a code, and we had to find the machine where you entered it. How bloody pointless, what was wrong with keys?

We also observed the usual case of online booking for Ski higher with large franchises like Skiset, which do not sync with the systems of individual shops. Although they can retrieve booking details from the vouchers’ QR codes, we still had to enter our names and contact details into their systems before we could proceed to ski fitting. Not a big issue if there weren’t 20 other people queuing to do the same.

Although, on the other hand, the online check-in system for Pierre Vacance meant that when we arrived 15 minutes after reception closed at 8.15, we simply collected our apartment keys and check-in packets from the night lock box, which was accessed using a simple 4-digit code automatically emailed to me when we had not arrived on time. Admittedly, it was lucky that I had seen the email, so WhatsApp might be a better approach, given that they also have my phone number.

However, like most people, my biggest bugbear is the new electronic immigration systems installed across Europe, which have left the English Brexiters waiting in ridiculously long immigration queues.

I have now registered and used the electronic machines on six separate occasions, so why do I still need to go through this process and queue again to see an immigration officer just so they can stamp my passport? What does this actually achieve?

Fortunately, because of pressure from airports and immigration services, this process will be phased out from 10th April 2026, so there isn’t much longer to endure.

However, it’s not doom and gloom for all travel technology.

My veteran travel colleagues were actually impressed by a quick demo of Travel Voices AI Holiday Rep, which could review all the local bars and restaurants around our apartment’s location, providing recommendations and directions. Yes, all this can be done by holidaymakers scrolling endlessly through Google, but it’s twenty times faster to have a complex conversation about your needs with an AI Rep who can then send directions via WhatsApp and make bookings on your behalf.

They were, however, less enthusiastic about my suggestion to create a holiday book documenting the trip using my new Travel Reviews tool, as they felt it would be a very bad idea to reveal who in the travel industry made it onto the top 10 dickheads of the century awards, which was just one of the topics dominating conversations.

Overall, the Travel Industry is very tech-savvy, but in a world increasingly dominated by AI Search and purpose, I think it’s a good reminder of the power of human-to-human service.

Not everything improves simply by throwing pointless technology at it, as the Les Carroz locker service might want to consider in future.

All in all, it was a fantastic trip with lifelong industry friends that we plan to make an annual event while our bodies can still handle hiking and drink litres and litres of wine and beer each night.

As they say, “One more year”!

Last week, a reader of my Jet2 Holidays blog commented: “No airline ever makes money in the long run because of fuel prices!” On Friday, I called him a pessimist when I should have complimented him on his crystal ball skills, as we then woke up on Saturday to the disastrous news of a US-Israeli war on Iran.

How many times have we been here? Just as things are going well for the UK outbound Travel industry, ash clouds, wars and Covid-19 jump out of nowhere to rip up our plans and force an emergency meeting to look at how we get our customers out of danger, whilst insurance companies run for the hills and deny all liabilities.

Personally, I am hoping that the worst of the war will be over within a month, and the skies around vital long-haul transport hubs of the Middle East will open again, but my fear is that the new age of drones and terrorism may cause major disruption for years to come.

We saw how one drone managed to close Gatwick airport for 33 hours in Dec 2018, so it’s not hard to imagine ongoing disruption to aviation long after the US has bombed Iran’s missile launching capabilities into the dust.

However, let’s look at some positives.

Although aviation fuel prices have surged 50%, rising from $2.50 to $3.95 per gallon, airlines like Jet2 and Easyjet have already secured most of their 2026 fuel requirements through hedging, which shields them in the short term from these price increases. These spikes are likely to subside once Iran’s ability to restrict the use of the Strait of Hormuz diminishes

Also, it’s important to remember that long-haul holidays of over 6 hours account for only 20% of all ATOL-bonded holidays departing the UK. Although this is devastating for long-haul specialists, most travel businesses can shift their resources to selling short-haul holidays, which we have already seen are still booming despite conflicts in regions like Ukraine.

Yes, we are likely to see substantial price rises next year due to higher fuel prices, but again, we have seen after COVID-19 how resilient the beach market is to price increases, with average prices increasing 30% compared to pre-COVID levels. The bottom line is that people value their time away with their families, and wars in faraway places are not going to put them off.

However, I am afraid that terrorism will, and we simply do not know whether the war with Iran will translate into more terrorist activity, but as ever, tourism remains a high-profile target, and this is the long-term disrupter I fear the most.  However, this is a fear we have all been living with for a long time, so is it really a new factor? Probably not.

In the short term, watch out for new “Temporary” hubs with safer skies to be created by Emirates, Qatar Airways, and Etihad, as these airlines are not going to leave their aircraft sitting on the ground for long.

These hubs will swiftly reconnect stranded customers with their home countries, and I anticipate a surge of low-cost long-haul holidays entering the market as these airlines strive to rekindle demand and utilise their spare capacity.

Personally, I have no issue with heading for a value winter sun break to Dubai this winter as soon as regular scheduled services re-appear and as a board member of the ITT, I will be pushing for the conference to return to the Middle East as a clear demonstration of our support for the region as a growing leisure destination because unlike our Prime Minister, I know who our long term partners are.

We know we live in a volatile world, but let’s not all sink into doom and gloom when history shows that, as a resilient industry, we are capable of absorbing hits like the Iran War.

Onwards and upwards!