Travel Tech Insider

It's here! Following up from our Season 1 episode on the investor perspective in travel tech, we bring you the latest from the front lines of venture capital and corporate innovation. What, if anything, has changed for the ecosystem in the past year? Are we bullish or bearish on where the innovation market is heading for travel, hospitality and mobility? If you’re a startup in this space, how should you be thinking about fundraising now? And if you’re heading up innovation within a corporate enterprise, how can you best capitalize on the new ideas coming to market so you don’t get left behind? For this episode we hosted a Salon featuring some of our good friends in the investing community, Gaurav Tuli (Partner, F-Prime Capital), Suzanna Chiu (Head of Amadeus Ventures) and Katelyn Foley (President, UP.Labs), to break down what they’re seeing, what they’re excited about, and how they each approach investing in innnovation in the travel sector. We also shine a light on some of the alternative models available for fundraising and innovation, digging into the differences in models among traditional venture capital, corporate venture capital, accelerator programs and the venture studio model. Each of these approaches may work better (or worse!) for a given type of startup or corporate innovation team, so we break it down for you. Finally, we hear from our guests what areas they are keeping a close eye on and where they are most excited to invest. #traveltech #venturecapital #startups https://lnkd.in/gP_Qfxqk

New pod episode drops tomorrow! We missed y’all and wanted to bring a little summer surprise to your ears while we plan out Season 2 coming this fall. We’ll be revisiting the state of Venture Capital in travel (our MOST popular topic from Season 1) and what some of the brains in our space are seeing in the current market — including some other areas outside of traditional VC. Stay tuned! #venturecaptial #traveltech #startups

Happy Friday friends! Something new coming your way soon…stay tuned!! 👀

Catch this webinar tomorrow (!!) Thurs Apr 25 and hear our co-host Gilad Berenstein and Phocuswright expert Michael Coletta break down why Trip Planning startups have yet to crack the code for success 👇 https://lnkd.in/gsNUz3KE

Hey friends, check out the Trip Planning App market mapping survey from our co-host Gilad, and share your thoughts!

Gilad Berenstein recaps season 1 of the Travel Tech Insider pod, with a little help from Friends of the pod Daniel Green, Janette Roush, Bobby Demri, Zach Demuth, Paul Tilstone, Tiffany Funk, and Michael Levinson. We packed a lot into 9 episodes! There were a number of topics we didn't get to this season, so stay tuned for more to come in season 2 later this summer. Thanks to Zach Vanasse, our amazing producer, for keeping us on point.

The season finale is here! Episode 🔟wraps up with some special guests to help us check in on the latest goings-on among all the hot topics we covered in season 1. Cliffhangers abound...   What's next with NDC, loyalty program changes, regulatory trends, and all things AI? Luxury and Zillennials, venture capital funding (or lack thereof?) and the future of destination marketing are all looking a little different from when we covered them just months ago.   Thanks to Friends of the Pod Janette Roush, Daniel Green, Tiffany Funk, Bobby Demri, Michael Levinson, Zach Demuth and Paul Tilstone for sharing your thoughts with us!   And a special thanks to our fabulous producer Zach Vanasse for serving as maestro for this little endeavor.   Catch the latest episode below and stay tuned for season 2 this summer! https://lnkd.in/gHNVpGtB

The intersection of episodes 2 (Future of Destination Marketing) and 9 (AI & the Big Guys) -- with LOTS of questions! As Rafat Ali and Dr. Richie Karaburun noted in our Destination Marketing episode, there is a big challenge in balancing demand across a particular location and time cycle to protect against overtourism. We need communities to be sustainable for the long run commercially, socially, and environmentally. If this project with OpenAI can help destinations curate demand and spread it across a wider range of places and times, that will be a meaningful step forward in helping destinations become more engaging and sustainble. If it's just a faster compilation of the same top tourist attractions...well, not so much. One to keep an eye on! #tourism #destinationmarketing #ai https://lnkd.in/gs9PDciR

Gilad Berenstein breaks down our latest episode (one of his favorites of the season!) on what the Big Guys in travel are up to with AI, and where some of the more interesting applications are gaining traction. Guests Shane O'Flaherty and Marilyn Markham pull back the covers on what they've learned so far and where their teams are diving in, and where opportunities to collaborate look most promising.

Episode 9️⃣ is out, last one of the season! We dive in to part 2 of our discussion on AI and what we've learned so far, from the perspective of the big enterprise players American Express Global Business Travel and Microsoft. We're joined by guests Marilyn Markham from Amex GBT and Shane O'Flaherty of Microsoft to hear what they've been working on, where they are seeing the most traction, and how their organizations think about the build/buy/partner question. One key area we dive into: is AI really all that different from other technology services we already use? Should we be thinking about it as just another tool in the toolkit, or are there unique elements that AI brings to the table which warrant new paradigms for selling and consuming travel services? Lots of good takeaways in this one, particularly for tech companies and startups with compelling value props around AI who are looking to collaborate with enterprise clients like these. Catch it here! 👇 https://lnkd.in/gfrJHnfw #traveltech #ai #startups