While luxury brands move away from the ‘stuffy’ traditions, a new breed of hotels that spans the entire price spectrum is competing to meet the needs of the digitally dependent Millennials. But how is such a long-standing industry redefining itself to meet the needs of Gen Y?

After becoming the world’s largest bloc of outbound travellers in 2012, 97% of wealthy Chinese people intend to go shopping when they travel. And 90% of them carry out extensive amounts of research on what and where to purchase before they’ve even left home.

Chinese tourists are expected to make over 200 million trips by 2020; three times more than tourists from the US. But how are Chinese tastes affecting the world’s most expensive hotel rooms? What can hotels do to make these tourists feel welcome on their first trips abroad?

Last-minute holidays account for around £26 billion annually, while one in three in the UK thinks they have a “spontaneous personality”. Can Flight Tonight, an app that offers the cheapest flights departing at nearby airports in just a few hours, cater to these risky travellers?

Impersonal, generic guidebooks are a thing of the past. Four Seasons is curating unique, personalised travel recommendations on Pinterest, extending its culture far beyond its physical walls.

Dutch airline KLM are engaging intimately with customers at a scale never before possible, spearheading social media not just as a marketing tool, but as a tool that improves what they do for an increasingly connected traveller.

Luxury French travel service Au Fur et à Mesure is rethinking the answer to ‘where should I go on holiday this year?’ with a visual and emotional approach that's tailored to specific demographics, life events, and emotional goals – but is it a success?

The stereotypical image of a holiday masks a much larger variety of desires and options, connected to states of mind, emotions, personal interests and idea of leisure and enjoyment. How much do we still identify with white sands and blue sea?