This is Travelabs Insights — a monthly summary of the most important news from the travel tech industry around the globe, picked up for you by the Travelabs team. You can see what happened in travel tech world previously in our Insights Archive, check out upcoming travel tech events and currently open programs in startup accelerators on our website.


Travel Tech Insights from February 2020

In this newsletter, we highlight hate-selling practices described on a couple of posts we have read along last month, starting from the article on Medium What you don't know about TripAdvisor. Travel companies definitely need to profit for growth and survival, but exclusive profit-driven practices affect negatively both travelers and small businesses.

There are many methods travel players use to pressure consumers into buying particular products and packages, the most popular methods are social proof and the dreaded countdown clock. So as misdirections and hidden pricing are among the dirty techniques that compromise the customer experience and push travelers far away from brand loyalty.

As Google has been investing in travel, how will these methods remain? Advertising costs become more expensive as the ads become less effective in grabbing the traveler's attention, at the same time that travelers start their search phase exactly on Google. So travel operators must pick their battles and make sure they have a budget to compete instead of putting their product range only on OTAs.

As any media company, travel platforms tend to project a world where their ads and campaigns are the only things that exist in the world. Paying attention to how media works, we must remember media agencies prefer certain types of ads and content formats since they have to pay for each piece of content they post. And what about SEO, organic traffic, inbound marketing, sharing is caring, etc? Brands spend more on production and less on media, or on the emerging online media.

Beyond hate-selling practices, we list the most important travel tech news from February, divided by the following topics:

• Startups: Partnerships, Marketplace 100 and funding news.
  
  
• Asian Startups: the most important news from the Asian travel startup scene.
  
  
• Events: the 2nd edition of Global Gastronomy Tourism Startup Competition is open for applications until April 6th.
  
  

Startups

February 2020 was intense in the travel startups scene: Plug and Play established a new partnership, Questo partnered with Destination Asia, 14 travel startups in the Marketplace 100 list, and the more important funding news.

While the travel industry is on the verge of significant changes in the coming years, startups must pay attention to the wider market and how it is likely to develop over time.

Venture Capital investment in Travel & Mobility has grown from $1.4 billion in 2013 to $30.3 billion in 2019, and the funding concentrates in the U.S., Asia, and Europe. Important to observe that China ended in 2019 as the largest destination of VC funding.

Plug and Play established a partnership with Hanjin KAL, to begin a work with travel and hospitality startups, spanning across air transportation, hotels & leisure, integrated logistics, and information services.

TripActions secures $500 million credit to support the dispatch of its corporate cards to representatives managing expenses during their business travel.

The Romanian startup Questo has partnered with Destination Asia, starting local experiences in Bangkok.

Dallas-based Flyline launched its mobile app and offers a subscription-based flight booking system from personal to business travelers.

Hotel data startup Impala has raised $20 million to expand its platform, invest in booking tools that will allow personalization for guests booking hotels.

Fourteen travel startups were ranked on the Marketplace 100 list, including the vacation rental Vacasa, the transportation company Gett, the car-sharing marketplace Turo, and the transit app Via.


Asian Startups

Asians adapted quickly to the digital ecosystem and the travel startup scene is growing stronger day by day. In addition to China, South Korea is another vibrant market in Asia.

Amadeus Ventures is in pursuit of investment opportunities in Southeast Asia by expanding its prospects across the Asia Pacific in 2020. Business potential and financial viability are the key elements in the startups looking for investment.

South Korea has been underestimated for its travel power despite being the second-largest market in Asia after China, and some Korean startups are growing strongly against global competitors.

Thai startup Tourkrub raised $5 million in a Series B funding to provide service for Southeast Asia's outbound tourists.

The Mauritian travel site Timbu.com began a selection process in some Eastern African countries to determine eligible startups to enjoy seed funding from the company to help kickstart their business.


Events

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the Basque Culinary Center are organizing the second edition of the Global Gastronomy Tourism Startup Competition. The call for proposals will close on April 6th.



With lots of love, yours truly,
Valentin Dombrovsky, Chief Alchemist at Travelabs,
Andre Fernandes and Travel Tech Newsletter Team


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