The traveller is an odd beast. What we prefer is a downturn. Then prices of hotels, flights and car hire drop. But then in downturns we might also have to trim our spending or, at worst case, face redundancy. But as the market improves and people feel more confident prices rise and the traveller gets hit by increased costs with not necessarily any improvement in income to pay for it. I suspect we are in that cycle now. Air fares have risen and now comes evidence from Trivago’s Hotel Price Index that hotel prices this December are going up as well.