EDITOR’S LETTER
I’M SORRY, but how is 2024 over already? At this rate, I’ll be retiring in half an hour. I hope it’s been a good year for everyone. It’s certainly been a good year for travel – record-breaking, in fact, with the industry offcially beating pre-pandemic levels. According to WTTC, travel was on track to contribute a whopping US$11.1 trillion to the global economy this year (up from the 2019 peak of US$10.3 trillion), while IATA declared the airline industry has fully recovered and surpassed 2019 levels. Exciting new cabins took to the skies – turn to page 75 for our review of the new Emirates Boeing 777 business cabin – and there’s been some major developments in tech: our feature on page 56 looks at how Starlink is set to revolutionise infight wif. Hotels also continue to multiply at dazzling rates – Marriott opened it’s 9,000th (!)
property this year (the St. Regis Longboat Key in Florida). The wellness juggernaut marched on (we’ve got foating saunas in the UK now – see page 32); sustainability is morphing from corporate buzzword to action (updates on page 22); and luxury moves ever closer to meaningful experiences (on page 39, the CEO of Minor Hotels explains why ‘slow travel’ is on everyone’s lips). Speaking of winning trends, as you’ll have possibly gathered from our Oscars-
worthy cover, this issue we reveal who Business Traveller readers have crowned as the best in travel for 2024. Turn to page 48 to view the results. And what about the coming year? Well, if I could predict the future, I’d defnitely retire in half an hour. What I can tell you is where our global team of editors have their eyes on. Turn to page 62 to fnd out which destinations are on our team’s travel wish lists for 2025 – and why they should be on yours, too.
Tamsin Cocks Editor
C O NTR I B UT O R S
CHRIS CHAMBERLIN
Chris is an editor for Points Hacks in Australia and an award-winning journalist with a penchant for business travel (he’s flown over
two million kilometres to almost 50 countries). This issue, he reveals why free inflight wifi for all could soon become the reality. Turn to page 56.
04 BUSINESS TRAVELLER
DAVID PHELAN David has written about travel and
technology for almost three decades, for publications including Time Out, The Independent,
Forbes.com and Monocle. He is also an actor, most
recently appearing in Accolade at the Theatre Royal Windsor. On page 20, he rounds up global business news.
NATHALIE LEES
Nathalie is a London-based freelance illustrator, who has been published in The Economist, TIME, Le Monde, Die Zeit and The New Y
ork Times. Her
work aims to distil complex themes and communicate ideas through the
use of simple forms and bold colours. Discover her talent on page 56.
DECEMBER 2024/JANUARY 2025
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