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 according to Google Analytics.
It has also been looking at the number of start-ups that were founded/registered in European cities within the past three years with additional data from Crunchbase, Dealroom and from the EU-Startups database.
“Finally, we had a close look at the funding activity (rounds / round sizes) we tracked for those hubs within the past 12 months,” said Thomas Ohr, editor in chief of EU-Startups.com.
“Afterwards, we gave each of these factors specific weightings to get the right ratio – the same algorithm as in past years.”
London remains the undisputed No 1 in the 2023 rankings. “Despite Brexit, the capital of the UK is still clearly leading when it comes to the number of new/active start-ups and the number and size of funding rounds, and we don’t expect this to change within the near future,” Ohr says.
In second spot, Paris replaced Berlin, which slipped to third place, ahead of Amsterdam, which is described “as a real magnet for start-ups”.
Stockholm moved up the rankings from eighth to fifth, followed by Barcelona, Madrid, Zurich – up from 13th position – Milan and Helsinki, which is home to Slush, one of the world’s leading start-up events.
Hamburg came in at No 12, ahead of Tallin, whose start-up success owes a lot to Estonian government initiatives like e-Residency, which enables digital entrepreneurs to start and manage an EU-based company online.
Dublin (14th) dropped five places while Copenhagen made up the top 15 rankings.
As Europe sizzles, is it northern France’s time in the sun?
Sizzling temperatures and wildfires across many parts of southern Europe have restarted the conversation around global warming and whether weather patterns will change the times and the places that people choose to travel.
While some travel industry experts say it’s too early to make firm predictions, they anticipate that change is on the way and Spanish beaches and Greek islands may be less popular for peak-time northern summer holidays.
Martin Eade, from booking engine technology provider Vibe, believes travellers could visit physically cooler places during the summer months or they could start changing when they visit, “for example coming earlier or much later in the season”.
“Sellers with products in the cooler places should be thinking about pushing their marketing hard when heatwaves are occurring,” he says.
Gareth Matthews, chief marketing officer at global hotel bedbank Didatravel suggests the sizzling heat in southern Europe could mean that people book more northern France or northern Spain – “both reasonably and reliably warm in the summer – so in the medium to long term, the industry may begin to increase their focus on these regions”.
Hotel and resorts might also have to give greater focus to facilities such as swimming pools , covered public spaces and air conditioning, and possibly rearrage F&B to either start earlier in the day or later at night, according to Sebastien Leitner, VP of Partnerships from Cloudbeds, a provider of technology to independent hotels:
“Features like these can make your property stand out in a crowded market and we would encourage hoteliers to promote those features on their website and OTA listings,” Leitner said.
Douglas Quinby, from in-destination event and research company Arival, said from a tech perspective search filters on travel websites could have an ‘average temperature’ option or feature weather advice functionality to guide people as to what to expect where and when.
AI trip planning gathers more followers
The latest Longwoods International tracking study of American travellers indicates 14% of them have already used Chat GPT, the artificial intelligence chatbot tool, for trip planning. Another 32% reported that they planned to use Chat GPT for trip planning in the next six months.
“The travel industry has always been an early adopter when it comes to technology and innovation,” said Amir Eylon, president and CEO of Longwoods International.
“That was true with the early adoption of computers for reservation systems, as well as providing travel information and bookings from the beginning days of the internet and later social media.”
This week Trip.com Group launched a series of AI-enhanced curated lists, which include Trip.Trends, Trip.Best, and Trip.Deals, the latter designed for budget-conscious users who are looking for the best deals on flights, accommodation, and travel destinations.
Eurostar on track with new tech
Heading to Europe from London any time soon? The formalities at London St Pancras railway station have become smoother with the Eurostar Group’s new contactless fast-track facial biometric check-in system supplied by iProov, a global provider of biometric solutions.
SmartCheck enables Eurostar’s Business Premier and Carte Blanche passengers to avoid queues for ticket and UK exit checks by Eurostar staff in the station, by securely enrolling their ticket, passport and face before they travel, using their mobile devices whenever convenient.
A passport check at French border control remains in place.
eDreams calls out tardy airlines
Online travel agent eDreams has stopped selling flights with 15 airlines for “systematically failing” to comply with consumer refund regulations.
The company has not disclosed which airlines are on the blacklist but says it “may revisit this decision if the carriers continue to withhold customer refunds”.
In other words, if airlines don’t cough up the refund cash they will be named and shamed by eDreams.
Chief executive Dana Dunne said, “As advocates for our customers, we recognise the crucial role that online travel agencies like eDreams ODIGEO play in representing consumers’ interests before key industry stakeholders.
“As the world’s largest flight retailer outside of China, we will continue leveraging our position to drive further significant advancements for consumers in our industry.”
