In Phocus

Internet boom. 9/11. The financial crisis. The COVID pandemic. ChatGPT. The list goes on.

The last 30 years have been full of course-changing events and technological innovations since Philip Wolf founded Phocuswright in 1994. The world has become digitalized with travel shifting largely online and expected to account for nearly 65% of all bookings by 2026, according to Phocuswright's Global Travel Market report.

And some industry leaders have had a front row seat to those changes while pushing travel towards the future.

Bob Diener, president and co-founder of the Travel Funders Network and co-founder of Hotels.com, is among that group, as is Melissa Maher, founder and CEO of the Pinnacle Enterprises Group and a former Expedia Group executive and Rod Cuthbert, founder of Viator, who was inducted into the Phocuswright Hall of Fame last month.

As Phocuswright celebrates its 30-year anniversary, the trio took some time to look back and look ahead at the world of travel in a discussion with senior reporter Morgan Hines in the PhocusWire studio at The Phocuswright Conference.

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Artificial intelligence is touching every segment of the travel industry with destination marketing being no exception.

Tourist boards are exploring how AI and other emerging technologies such as virtual and augmented reality can improve destination search and booking as well as the in-destination experience.

During an interview in the PhocusWire studio at The Phocuswright Conference 2024, Gregory Yap, vice president of the Singapore Exhibition & Conventions Bureau (SECB), discussed the rapid pace of change in the travel industry and the convergence of technology. 

He shared examples such as a partnership with Google Maps to bring augmented reality experiences in Singapore to maps. Yap also touched on how Singapore's tourism organization and SECB think about innovation.

Yap was joined by Jared Alster, co-founder and chief strategy officer of marketing agency Dune7, who said that while AI is so widely talked about currently, AR and virtual reality continue to show promise for destination marketing.

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Acai Travel, a startup using artificial intelligence to drive efficiency for agency and call center environments, has signed Hopper as its latest partner. The deal sees Acai, a PhocusWire Hot 25 Startup for 2024, use its technology to support Hopper's human agents. The startup, which recently landed seed funding of $4 million, already counts companies including Globespan Travel Management among its customers.

During an interview in the PhocusWire studio at The Phocuswright Conference 2024, Riky Vittoria, CEO of Acai, shared details of the deal alongside Jo Lai, vice president of customer experience at Hopper.

The pair discussed the potential efficiency gains associated with implementing the technology as well as how the partnership might develop going forward.

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PhocusWire's executive editor Linda Fox conducts an interview with Skyscanner CEO John Mangelaars at WiT Singapore. 

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The fact that many hoteliers have an ambivalent relationship with online travel agencies is nothing new. The push and pull of appreciating the OTAs for their ability to capture bookings while also begrudging the fact they control access to those guests’ data and also may employ tactics that inhibit the hotels’ commercial efforts are ongoing sources of frustration. 

News out of Spain in August put a spotlight on these issues when a regulatory agency there imposed a more than €413 million fine on Booking.com for actions it said have imposed “unfair commercial conditions” on hotels in that country.

But today hoteliers have a myriad of options for their distribution strategies, and by effectively using technology to capture, connect and analyze guest data they can take action to create a great experience for guests and more revenue for their properties. 

That was one of the key messages in a discussion with Cloudbeds vice president of strategic partnerships Sebastien Leitner and Javier Delgado, managing partner and EMEA CEO at Mirai, in the PhocusWire studio at the Phocuswright Europe event in June.

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The growing importance of experiences in the travel industry has been an ongoing discussion since the fallout from COVID-19. And while there have been no signs of travelers’ appetite for experiences slowing down, at what point does it peak?

That was a question kicked around by experts in the field during the Phocuswright Europe event in Barcelona this summer. Sarah Dines, chief commercial officer at Viator, referred to projections that the segment would be worth $350 billion by the end of 2028, about a hundred billion more than it is today.

“I think there probably is a ceiling at some point, someday, but we’re very, very, far from that at this point,” Dines said. “What we see in our own business is an increasing number of activities being done by travelers while they’re on one trip. The number of things that people are doing , and the amount of money they’re spending on experiences is continuing to grow.”

Dines was joined during an interview in the Phocuswright Studio by Laurens Leurink, the CEO at Tiqets, and Travis Pittman, CEO of TourRadar. They echoed her viewpoint.

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The CEO of Yanolja Cloud joins Mitra Sorrells to talk about the opportunities in growing the cloud business, how additional acquisitions can boost future growth in global business and how consolidation can be an additional engine for growth. 

Yanolja takes a three pronged approach to global reach and creating solutions for customers, which include subscriptions in cloud software, transactions through the API business and data solutions backed by AI. 

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Steve Singh wears many hats. He was announced as CEO of Spotnana in June, adding to his existing roles of executive chairman of Direct Travel, Troop, Spotnana and Center as well as other technology companies. He is also managing director at Madrona Venture Group, which has invested in Direct Travel, Spotnana and Troop. 

Singh continues to pursue his vision of a "Perfect Trip," something he has talked about since his Concur days. His most recent investment, through Madrona, is in business travel AI assistant, Otto.

In a recent interview with PhocusWire, Singh discussed the significance of the investment as well as whether he still sees opportunities for startups in the corporate travel world.

He touched on wider market dynamics, including the travel distribution landscape, the various approaches from carriers and what he might do if he was an airline CEO.

Singh also spoke about why he has remained in travel, what experience he gained from running Concur for about a decade that he might apply to Direct Travel and Spotnana and whether there are any bets he might have missed out on.

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The hospitality industry is in the midst of a transition from legacy, on-property technology to cloud-based solutions that drive efficiency and personalization at scale. 

Founded in 2012, San Francisco-based Duetto provides hotels and resorts with cloud-based software to optimize and automate pricing, forecasting and group business products to drive revenue, demand and guest experience.

The company said more than 6,000 properties in more than 60 countries use its applications, including GameChanger for pricing, ScoreBoard for intelligent reporting, BlockBuster for contracted-business optimization and OpenSpace (formerly MiceRate) for revenue management of meeting and event spaces.

In June, private equity firm GrowthCurve Capital acquired Duetto for an undisclosed amount from affiliates of Warbug Pincus and other shareholders. 

In a wide-ranging interview with PhocusWire editor in chief Mitra Sorrells, Duetto CEO David Woolenberg discussed the acquisition and how it is helping to accelerate Duetto’s investments in innovation and specifically its use of artificial intelligence.

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It’s been nearly a year since Latin America super app Rappi kicked off its partnership with Marriott in Mexico, enabling loyalty members of both brands to link their accounts to earn and burn points for purchases through either brand.

The integration has since extended to Rappi users in Colombia, Chile, Peru, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, and Rappi global head of travel, Guido Becher, said they are learning quite a bit about user behavior and fine-tuning their messaging to personalize the offering.

“We thought at the beginning … we had a clear audience of the Bonvoy members and the Rappi Pro users, but we identified very interesting cohorts within. The younger generations are more into points and more price sensitive, and the older generation or those with other interests, the perks and other benefits were more important to them.”

As the company continues to develop its work with Marriott, it is also developing loyalty partnerships with airlines such as LATAM and banks in the region, to bring those users into its travel vertical and also to generate business across Rappi’s other products and services.

In the discussion in the PhocusWire studio at Phocuswright Europe, Becher also discussed the company’s growth plans, how it vast repository of customer data – many that use the app multiple times each week – is helping it provide inspiration and personalization, and why Latin America is similar to Asia when it comes to customer behavior. 

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