eDreams shames airlines. AI trips gain traction. Euro’s sizzling startup cities.
And Europe’s top city for start-ups is…
The numbers have been crunched…London leads the latest annual ranking of Europe’s biggest start-up hubs.
EU-Startups has been tracking the top cities linked to this year’s visits on EU-Startups.com – and the associated number of unique visitors [...]
Latin America’s superapp Rappi sticks to its bet on travel
Travel and loyalty are good for stickiness: Guido Becher
It’s interesting to note that while some superapps in Asia such as Grab and Gojek have pulled back from travel, Latin America’s Rappi remains committed to the travel vertical despite the challenging pandemic years.
In fact, Rappi cou [...]
Blogxiety is real. NFTs keep Bali’s culture. Traxo tracks NDC, more.
NFTs help to preserve Bali’s culture and artisans
Craftsmen in Bali are among 11 artisans from Indonesia who are helping to protect the country's heritage and culture by placing their work on Web3, a web feature that includes blockchain technology.
A BBC report reveals the artisans have joi [...]
Trials & Tribulations of Nigeria: Not for the faint-hearted but vast potential
Travelstart builds new tech to fuel new dreams on back of recovery
You couldn’t pick a more challenging market than Nigeria to build an online travel business – poor economy for starters, 1.6% credit card penetration for another, currency issues etc, etc, – but therein lies the opportunity [...]
utu tackles tax-free shopping with US$33 million deal, acquires fintech startup CardsPal
According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, the travel industry is projected to reach US$9.5 trillion in 2023, representing 95% of the pre-pandemic peak in 2019. Despite this rebound, McKinsey reports that only about 1% of venture funding over the past 15 years has been allocated to the trave [...]
Building Meili and Manna: How Bobby Healy wants to end “fiasco of car hire brokering” and change the world of delivery
The one thing you can count on when you speak to Bobby Healy is, he’s a straight shooter. When you ask him why he founded Meili Travel Technology, his new car rental business in direct competition with CarTrawler, the company he helped build over 15 years, his answer, “It was the right thing to [...]
Technekai Global Hospitality Tech Fund sets up in Asia
“Y Combinator of Hospitality” plans $100m fund
Technekai, a global hospitality tech fund based out of Silicon Valley, has set up office in Singapore and is looking to raise $100 million of funding to invest in and accelerate hospitality tech startups in Asia Pacific.
Heading the Technekai [...]
Bye TikTok, Hello AI. Easier payments. Qatar’s try-before-fly.
AI, it’s the only way to plan travel.
A survey of US travellers has found more than one third — 36% —said they are likely to use AI to research or plan travel within the next 12 months.
The survey was conducted by travel publisher Matador Network, which recently launched the personal AI tr [...]
Velocity Ventures launches “heartware” initiative targeting various sectors in travel
Corporate Partners Program aims to support the ecosystem by helping startups access industry and innovation professionals.
Velocity Ventures, a prominent investor in travel and hospitality tech in Southeast Asia, is spearheading an initiative to address the challenges faced by the various s [...]
Mapping cherry blossoms in Japan. Airbus helps elephants. Hopper’s risky business, more
Flickr’s role in cherry blossom research
Research by Monash University experts has tracked Japanese hanami (flower viewing) via social media images, producing a remarkable map of cherry blossoms across Japan to document their annual bloom and calculate its peak in major cities.
The study gathe [...]
