Over the course of 31 episodes of InPhocus during 2020 we've spoken to a wide array of leaders from across the industry.

Many of the discussions have focused on the efforts being taken to get through the coronavirus pandemic, while others have dealt with a big news item of a particular week.

To mark our 32nd and last episode of the year, we've trawled through the archives and selected three of our favorite interviews on the podcast.

This episode of InPhocus is produced in association with Allianz Partners and hosted by PhocusWire's Kevin May.

It features our interviews with Jim Davidson (a few days after the collapse of the Sabre-Farelogix acquisition), destination management expert Doug Lanksy and Journera CEO Jeff Katz.

InPhocus will return in 2021. In the meantime, enjoy this collection and best wishes for the New Year.

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For the 31st episode of InPhocus we finally get to sit down with Geoff Ryskamp.

As travel brands examine their options to capture what most hope will be a return to some form of normality in 2021, Ryskamp is a good source of expertise to discuss how the world of guest and customer engagement can play an important role.

We discuss everything from voice tech and social media to that stalwart of communications in the shape of email and how brands have figured out what "signals" to listen to.

Ryskamp is global head of hospitality, travel and leisure at Medallia.  

The latest episode of InPhocus is produced in association with Allianz Partners and hosted by PhocusWire's Kevin May.

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The short answer is: Tripkicks.

The U.S.-based company integrates with corporate online booking tools, so travelers can see real-time insights and alerts about their travel while booking their trip.

It was recently named one of PhocusWire's Hot 25 Startups 2021 and was selected to pitch at The Phocuswright Conference 2020 in November.

But its story is an interesting one given the state of the business travel - a sector that has been decimated by the coronavirus pandemic and one that, arguably, faces an uncertain future.

Phocuswright managing director Pete Comeau caught up with the company's CEO Jeff Berk for this week's interview on the InPhocus podcast.

The latest episode of InPhocus is produced in association with Allianz Partners and hosted by PhocusWire's Kevin May.

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Phocuswright's State of Startups Report is an annual bellwether of investment trends and acquisitions in the travel, tourism and hospitality sector.

The 2020 edition is out now and while there is an inevitable hit on the market activity due to the coronavirus pandemic, some of the details indicate that there has been a perhaps surprising amount of movement in the market.

PhocusWire's coverage is here.

To talk through the results in detail, PhocusWire spoke to Mike Coletta, Phocuswright's manager for research and innovation who also oversees the State Of Startups report each year.

The latest episode of InPhocus is produced in association with Allianz Partners and is hosted by PhocusWire's Kevin May.

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Travel insurance is one of those things that quietly rumbles along in the background of the trip - there to protect people when things go wrong.

Well, early-2020 was one of those periods when lots of things went wrong for traveler, be it canceled flights, hospitalizations, refunds, etc.

The travel insurance sector has been at the sharp end of that ever since - figuring out new policy strategies and attempting to ensure that when travelers get on the road that they're protected in the COVID-19 world that the industry operates in.

For the latest episode of InPhocus we speak to chief marketing officer of Allianz Partners, Joe Mason.

In a wide-ranging discussion, he explains how the insurance sector has adapted this year, how travel operators are putting insurance products front and center of a trip and how the core product might evolve in the future.

This episode is hosted by PhocusWire's Kevin May.

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Duffel, at least for those of us in the press, was a fairly annoying new startup on the scene in 2017.

Why? It had raised a lot of money and did everything behind the scenes (stealth mode, as the startup jargon goes), giving very few interviews along the way.

When the U.K.-based company finally started talking openly about its product (a platform, with its NDC at its core), skepticism about what it was doing started to dissipate, especially as some commentators were citing the company as one of the ones to watch in an airline sector seemingly desperate to get up to speed with new ways to sell tickets.

The relative cloak of anonymity has now gone and, perhaps unusually for any travel brand in 2020, Duffel is in expansion mode.

The company is launching in the U.S. (spearheaded by former-Uber employee Tyler Trerotola) and CEO Steven Domin is extremely bullish about its prospects there.

In this episode of InPhocus, we speak to both about the stealth era for Duffel, why heading across the Atlantic is the right thing to do and lots more.    

This episode hosted by PhocusWire's Kevin May.

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The pandemic has given all sorts of headaches for travel brands, as we know.

But it has also inspired some new ideas that were probably never on the agenda for companies at the turn of 2020.

One such trend being explored by some is trying to tap into the shift away from corporate workspaces to providing a place to both work and play, as it were.

Oasis Collections is testing the idea out with the launch of the Oasis Passport - a program whereby members can "benefit from ultimate flexibility, with the ability to move freely and effortlessly between different properties, cities and countries with a fixed monthly cost."

That's the official line from Oasis, of course. But there's a lot more to it than that.

We spoke to founder and CEO Parker Stanberry about how the idea came about and why it could be a longer-term trend, rather than something that is exclusive to this mid-pandemic period.

The interview was recorded for the latest episode of the InPhocus podcast, hosted by PhocusWire's Kevin May.

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This year probably feels like it has taken 25 years to pass for many brands in the travel industry. 

Vrbo is no exception to this, other than 2020 was going to be the year when it marked a quarter of a century in operation.

Celebrations might a little muted than perhaps planned, for obvious reasons, but its president Jeff Hurst (who also serves as president an co-lead of marketing at the Expedia Group mothership) is happy to talk about the milestone and where the business finds itself mid-pandemic.

Hurst acknowledges that private accommodation is serving as a beneficial driver of recovery in the wider portfolio of brands at Expedia Group.

But he also concedes that there is work to do to instil trust in travelers again, not due to the brand itself but the worries that many have over COVID-related world that accommodation now finds itself in.

In an interview with PhocusWire this week, Hurst talks about the key moments in the Vrbo story (IPO in 2011, sale to Expedia Group in 2015 and the switch from a subscription-based service to individual bookings shortly after) and the impact that the arrival of Airbnb had on the marketplace.

Here's the full interview by PhocusWire's Kevin May with Hurst, recorded for the latest episode of the InPhocus podcast.  

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Imagine you're the founder of a travel startup, say around September 2019, with a big idea that sits on the correct side of the sustainability narrative.

Things are going fairly smoothly and then, at the turn of the year, you hire your first chief technology officer.

But then, almost immediately, China goes into lockdown, quickly followed suit within a few weeks by other countries in Asia, then Europe, etc.

This is the story of TripDoodler, a Danish travel startup fronted by a former-CWT director, Josephine Piplits.

Nine months on from the outbreak and the company is taking its first tentative steps back to normality - attempting to capture some of the smalls signs of travel recovery for leisure travelers around Europe and, of equal importance, hoping that the awareness around sustainability from last year will continue.

In this week's episode of InPhocus, host Kevin May talks to Piplits about the last 12 months as a travel startup founder, her thoughts on sustainability as an important part of the recovery agenda and why the company is going down the crowdfunding route to raise capital.

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Cory Garner left American Airlines a few months ago - ending a 22-year career at the carrier where he was perhaps best known as the champion of the direct connect model in distribution.

He's now joined Journera as an advisor, where he'll be working alongside CEO Jeff Katz to push the real-time data exchange platform to a wider audience and, well, light a few more fires around the industry.

Katz has plenty to say about his new comrade but, as many will know, the Orbitz founder and former-airline exec (he was also at American Airlines for 16 years) always has a range of views on many other aspects of the industry.

He's our latest guest on InPhocus, chatting (almost co-hosting) with Kevin May on this episode.

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