Mobility and hospitality startups, MOVV and DOWHAT, win at K-Travel Tech Summit
MOVV (Moving Mobilities), which offers global travel mobility software as a service, and DOWHAT, a smart hotel platform for guests, staff and management, won the Showcase at the K-Travel Tech Summit held in Seoul this week.
Hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and organized by t [...]
Rise in direct sales and low cost carriers are keeping intermediaries on their toes
The airline industry is undergoing a significant shift as major airlines ramp up their efforts to sell directly to travellers, in an attempt to bypass intermediaries like online travel agencies (OTAs) and Global Distribution Systems (GDS).
At the same time, low cost carriers (LCCs) are expanding [...]
Too much data? Agoda’s approach to learning, making mistakes and creativity
How much time does a tech company allocate for learning and experimentation in an age of rapid tech advancement? This is a question Agoda addresses every day, according to its Chief Technology Officer, Idan Zalzberg. In the WiT Studio, Zalzberg shared how Agoda is shifting its view on customer exper [...]
With APAC leading in air travel, Digital Identity is key to managing growth
Benefits are clear, but so are challenges of inter-operability and scalability
As passenger numbers soar globally, especially across Asia Pacific, the travel industry is looking to technology to make the airport experience faster, smoother, and less frustrating. Central to this vision is digital id [...]
Letter from Phoenix: Of bomb cyclones, flight disruptions and super agents
On the day I was to fly out from Phoenix to San Francisco came news of the “bomb cyclone” that battered the Pacific Northwest and Northern California, causing power outages, downing trees and power lines, and tragically killing two people in Washington State.
It resulted in flight cancell [...]
All-in-one: justfly.com reveals the tech, market gaps and challenges of building a one-stop travel shop
It’s no secret that the demand for seamless travel, or the ‘connected trip’, is rising exponentially. There are two important factors to note here: One, more and more people are relying purely on digital platforms to plan, book and fulfill their travel needs. And two, the growing number of app [...]
Tech debt in the travel industry: Why airlines are still trying to fly with fossils
Welcome to the airline industry’s secret shame: Tech Debt. Decades of patchwork systems, outdated booking platforms, and clunky old databases that might as well be fossilized – if these systems were any older, archaeologists would be studying them. Airlines have essentially been strapping roller [...]
Virtuoso’s Upchurch talks tech enhancement, longevity revolution and diversity of luxury travel
It’s a question he gets all the time, will technology replace the travel agent, and probably more so now with the acceleration of Generative AI and its implications on the full travel value chain. But Matthew Upchurch, CEO of Virtuoso, the world’s leading global network of agencies specialising [...]
Traveloka vs scammers. Looking for loyalty in Saudi. Tourism operators seek best in class. More.
Saudi hotels turn to tech for loyalty
Global hotel technology specialist SHR has teamed up with Saudico Electronic Systems, one of Saudi Arabia’s top Oracle Hospitality providers, to elevate customer loyalty programmes across the kingdom's hotel sector, where hotel loyalty programmes are not wide [...]
OTAs have to stay agile amid breakneck pace of change
Adrienne Enggist: “We’re constantly riding this edge of risk, protecting customers takes the number one priority”
With things “moving at such an enormously breakneck pace”, OTAs, big and small, have to stay agile, leveraging advances in processing power and AI to keep up with customer exp [...]
