Rumours.

Planes used to be intrinsic in the spread of rumours. In the days before Apple (DBA) it was necessary to have fast communication for rumours to spread. What quicker way than a transcontinental (remember how jet setting that sounded) flight for Chinese Whispers to spread.

The entertainment industry was always the best example and relied on rumours for business, for marketing and for the spread of general knowledge. Who hasn’t heard that so and so was gay before they came out of the closet? Who didn’t suspect the myriad of affaires before they got to the tabloids?

Entertainment industry aside, the Travel industry comes in a close second when it comes to working the rumour mill. Guess we had the planes all along, so the advantage was always going to be ours. Rumours unite and excite. They can often bring together disparate groups wanting the same result from a speck of truth, turning into a giant rumour.

Nowadays rumours travel instantaneous, via 140 characters or emailed mobile phone photos and planes are no longer required. With our thirst for instant gratification, we now embrace new technologies to turn those Chinese Whispers into cyclones.

New CEOs at rival airlines, consolidations, tour company collapses, takeovers, mergers and acquisitions occupy our phones, emails and news wires. From week to week they morph and reappear in different guises to titillate and excite us about new beginnings and endings. How many eventuate is hard to figure, as rumours divide and fragment according to the teller and it’s very hard to work out if it was one rumour in the beginning or ten.

Where they start and where they end is uncertain but they occupy an inordinate amount of our time.

How many travel groups will survive the current landscape? Doing the rounds now.

How many Arab carriers can occupy the same space before consolidation? What does Abu Dhabi have in mind?

How many is too many, when it comes to the number of travel agents in Australia? Always a perennial dinner discussion.

What are the airlines planning in regard to B2C technology and cutting out the agency network? Scary rumours are the worst.

How many more internet competitors will pop up before they reach a plateau of consumer apathy? Are we there yet?

All legitimate questions that will be answered with rumours long before they are settled in the boardrooms of power.

Rumour has it I won the lotto. Too farfetched? True, but the call from Richard Branson asking for my advice on running his empire is due any day now.