Grumpy group organiser has his say on keeping hospitality human, embracing Halloween and things that annoy travellers.
Halloween resistance is futile
Have I been missing a trick… or treat? I’ve never paid much attention to Halloween, but it’s now so in your face that it’s impossible to ignore. Everywhere I look there’s another pumpkin, skeleton or giant plastic spider, while coffee shops start serving pumpkin lattes the moment summer drifts away.
Halloween has become so lucrative that some attractions reportedly make more from it than Christmas. That’s certainly true for successful farms attracting families to themed events. Note to self: consider a Halloween-themed trip for 2027. There are plenty of spooky castles, prisons and attractions to choose from.
Perhaps it’s time I stopped grumbling and accepted Halloween is here to stay. What I do care about is supporting farms trying something different. Diversification is helping many survive when earning a living solely from the land is harder than ever.
A warm welcome can’t be automated
I recently watched a video and read an article by Irish Independent travel editor Pól Ó Conghaile where he eloquently argued about the danger of technology slowly squeezing the human touch out of hospitality. His example of the contrast between a self-check-in kiosk and a warm welcome from a hotel owner struck a chord.
As a group organiser I have seen this creep in. Operators proudly tell us about apps, QR codes, digital room keys and automated check-in systems. Very impressive. But I’ve never had a group return home raving about a particularly friendly machine.
What they remember is the receptionist who sorted out a room problem, the waiter who helped someone struggling with stairs, or the owner who came out to greet the coach. Pól is right that technology works best when it removes the admin, not the hospitality. If it frees staff to spend more time with guests, brilliant. If it replaces them altogether, we’ve mistaken efficiency for welcome. And that’s a very poor trade.
Habits we secretly hate (and do)
A survey of 16,000 travellers from 17 countries (which was commissioned by travel eSIM app Saily) has confirmed what most of us already knew: other people are the worst part of travelling. Top of the annoyance list are unsupervised children. Not children, note. Children can be delightful (in moderation). It’s the adults who seem to believe that once they enter an airport, aircraft or hotel, their level of responsibility can change.
Brits are also irritated by coughing and sneezing without covering up - and if there’s one souvenir I don’t want to bring back from my travels, it’s somebody else’s germs. But here’s the twist: those surveyed admitted to complaining endlessly about the behaviour of others while confessing their own crimes. Nearly a third of us say we take our shoes off on journeys, while almost a quarter leap to our feet the moment the wheels touch the runway, apparently convinced the aircraft might leave again.
My favourite international finding was that 62% of Swedes admit to removing their shoes while travelling and over half confess to weeing in the sea (when it’s cold, who doesn’t?). Meanwhile, more than half of Japanese travellers would never confront an annoying passenger.
As a Brit, I completely understand. We’ll happily suffer in silence for hours, then spend the entire journey home moaning about it.
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