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 September 2019


How will the travel industry look like in 10 years? Probably we are in the middle of the most innovative developments that will shape how we travel in the next decades. At the end, who will be the last movers in the travel tech scene? We tend to intuitively think that the first entrant into a market can capture significant market share but, as described in the book Zero to One, moving first is a tactic, not a goal. What really matters is generating cash flows in the future. The companies that make the last great development in a specific market are the ones who will enjoy years or even decades of profits.

Since 2015, Southeast Asia's startup scene quickly turned more vibrant as shown by the blossoming of ride-hailing apps, flight tracking, and hotel booking solutions in the region while plenty of pain points remains as opportunities. Meanwhile, in Latin America, with more people traveling in new ways, there is a need for better travel infrastructure, and one of the critical areas is the payment solutions to improve cross-border transactions following the increasing prevalence of smartphones in the region.

Still, in payment solutions, another example is Booking.com offering travelers more flexible payment options that help its own vacation rental businesses so as its tours & activities sector. Another example for leveraging opportunities in travel is Google Maps, which has become an indispensable tool for Western travelers offering navigation services in nearly every country in the world and is on the way to a serious monetization rolling out new advertising products refining its user experience, according to a study by Morgan Stanley.

• Tours & Activities: TripAdvisor refining review collections, Klook in its 5th year, and GetYourGuide going in-flight.
  
  
• Business: Opportunities on insurance and business travel, TripAdvisor becoming more digital and Pinterest targeting travel.
  
  
• Hospitality: Google moving heavily to hotels, Airbnb signing regulation deals and Booking Holdings working on alternative payments.
  
  
• Startups: Highlights on funding and the case of Traveloka including locals into their services.
  
  
• Events: upcoming travel industry events.
  
  

Tours & Activities

TripAdvisor launches new features for collecting reviews, GetYourGuide moving to in-flight booking, Klook celebrates its 5th anniversary, and Groupon targeting tours operators. TripAdvisor Experiences has announced new features for tours and activities partners collect reviews on their own website.

Celebrating the 5th anniversary, Klook unveils an ambitious expansion plan, bolstering its presence in Asia and Europe, as well as plans for its transit unit. 85% of Klook's users are from Asia and the company sees growth in booking coming from the U.K., France, and the Netherlands.

While 80% of its traffic come from mobile, Groupon is trying to convince operators in favor for a mobile-focused resellers for tours and activities.

GetYourGuide announced a partnership with Viasat Inc. to bring excursion offers to passengers in-flight, enabling them to activate the offers from the booking platform inventory.


Business

Insurance and business travel on the edge of opportunities for travel startups, TripAdvisor moving to more digital marketing, and Pinterest targeting the travel industry. Bigger insurers must adapt their service offerings to keep up with the increasing digital propositions offered by startups. According to GlobalData, global funding for insurtech broke the US$ 3 billion mark in 2018.

In retaliation to Google moves to travel, TripAdvisor will focus more on digital and integrated marketing and rely less on TV, aiming long-term loyalty and engagement with customers.

Pinterest is trying to become more appealing for marketers and travel companies while Instagram and Facebook are the most popular channels for advertising. Bring travelers down the planning funnel is one of the doubts Pinterest generates.

Startups such as TravelPerk and TripActions have grown with the aim to fix some of the long-standing issues that have plagued the business travel space, like the clunky and old-fashioned interfaces.

Thomas Cook's digital strategies were also part of the mistakes that took the company to collapse, as the company didn't adapt to the shift caused by the online booking.


Hospitality

Airbnb signing regulations with Boston and Miami, and cross-listing Atlas Obscuras's local experiences. Booking Holdings working pre-pay alternatives and Google investing heavily in hotels. The Boston-Airbnb pact contains a Fairness Across Platforms provision that states that on the heels of the settlement, the city will begin talks with Airbnb's rivals including Expedia, Booking.com, and TripAdvisor. Miami and Boston's settlements give signs the short-term rental industry is being subject to regulation.

Airbnb will cross-list Atlas Obscura's local experiences and guided trips to its own website, as part of a strategy aimed at increasing inventory supply in its own network and diversifying into other markets to be end-to-end travel experience.

Booking Holdings is ramping up its pre-pay alternative lodging business through its online payment system because of many hosts, particularly those with more than property, may not offer payment options such as credit card, WeChat payment, e-checks, and other options used by travelers.

Will Google's price guarantee give hotels more prominence across different phases of a traveler's journey? Following the Google Flights product, the search engine is working on its data on hotels.


Startups

Highlights on funding, the case of Traveloka including locals into their services, highlights from India and news about New Zealandic travel startup scene..

Denver-based Hotel Engine raised $16 million to expand its team and go further to the small-to-medium business market on managing business travel lodging.

Following the short-term rentals, Padlifter is a marketplace vacation rental that connects hosts with service providers such as property management, maintenance, accounting, laundry, security, and more.

Indian road trip planning ScoutMyTrip is looking to expand in the Southeast Asian market and is seeking an institutional round of funding to make in-roads to Indonesia.

Indian startup OYO has acquired the data science company Danamica for refining its pricing, revenue and inventory management. The startup is also backed by Airbnb.

Israeli startup Splitty Travel aims to find a better way to book hotel deals and has been looking at optimizing options and cost savings for travelers. For its founder, Eran Shust, Agoda launching the "Mix and Save" feature puts this issue on top of the agenda.

Staff communication platform Beekeeper has added $45 million in funding to build out the app with more tools and integrate with other platforms.

Traveloka's founder says: "We don't consider ourselves an online travel agency anymore. We are a travel and lifestyle platform, proposing discovery and inspiration." While many companies are pushing experiences for tourists, Traveloka is trying to address local experiences for local people.

Showaround allows travelers to hire locals as personal tour guides in Egypt, and has attracted more than 6,000 locals.

Are you curious about travel startups in New Zealand? The accelerator Lightning Lab Tourism focused exclusively on supporting local travel startups.

Munich-based Holidu has raised €40 million, and plans to ramp up the number of holiday rental owners using its tools and open regional offices.


Events

Upcoming events in the travel industry.

The call for proposals for the 2nd UNWTO Tourism Startup Competition will be launched worldwide and will end on 15th November. The winners will be announced on 21st January 2020 during the Madrid International Tourism Fair (Fitur).


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


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