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Travel tech this week: Cybercriminals target tourism industry
As we recently celebrated World Tourism Day, it is appropriate to talk about why cybercriminals target travellers as booking everything online makes them vulnerable targets for scam and phishing. Cybercriminals target tourism industry Most tourists would agree that the internet is an essential part of their travelling. For example, 82% of travel bookings in 2018 were done online, without any human interaction. “People go on various websites to buy their flights, book a hotel, and rent a car. To do this, they must enter their credit card details and ID information, disclosing their most sensitive data,” says Daniel Markuson, the digital privacy expert at NordVPN. The global tourism industry being dependent on the internet, no one is protected from security breaches. But there are steps that we can take to protect ourselves from hackers while on vacation. Relying on internet makes travellers vulnerable to cyber attacks. Scammers use fake travel websites and holiday packages to attract people with extremely good prices. When customers try to book the deals and enter their credit card details, their data is hacked. To prevent this from happening, look for the signs of a scam. Fake travel deals usually require an advance payment without a written agreement. They also do not specify the airline and hotel names and frequently use words such as “complementary” and “free.” Thus, before booking a cheap vacation, always look for these signs and check the website reviews on the internet. Chain hotels prioritise tech investments According to a new survey of more than 1,200 hoteliers by Expedia Group, chain hotels prioritise technology investment. Meanwhile, small independent properties put room renovations first. Reliance on technology is becoming increasingly important in the lodging industry as hotels begin to recognize how they can gain key competitive advantage with strategic technology investments. According to the latest report by Hospitality Technology, 54% of hotels plan to increase their technology budgets for 2019, while only 8% plan to decrease. However, cost continues to be the key barrier with technology adoption for many hoteliers, with nearly half of the small independent hotels surveyed indicating that technology investment decisions are based on affordability and value. In contrast, more than half of the chain hotels prioritize technology that seamlessly integrates with their existing systems. “We’re witnessing chain hotels place significant investments in technology, which opens the potential for a greater divide between properties that are not able to match those investments,” said Ait Voncke, senior vice president, Expedia Group. “Technology has the power to level the playing field for hoteliers of all sizes. We continue to listen to our partners’ needs and invest in how best to serve all our partners so even the smallest of properties can compete effectively and find opportunities to succeed.” Among the small independent hotels surveyed, 1 in 4 cited complexity as their biggest challenge when adopting technology, with 1 in 3 saying ease-of-use is a priority when evaluating solutions. To remove these barriers, Expedia Group is making enhancements to its platform so partners not only have the right resources whenever and wherever they need it, these solutions are delivered through intuitive and easy to use tools. Payment performance = more sales and revenue Performance is set to become the next big battleground within the payments industry, as travel businesses look to enhance customer experience and increase margins in response to market disruption and increased competition. Research from emerchantpay reveals that 89% of travel payments leaders predict that a greater focus on payments performance (including tools, analytics, skills and investment) over the next two years will increase their organisation’s revenues by up to 10%. In fact 41% of travel businesses expected the potential impact of improved payments performance to be between 7 - 10% revenue uplift. The Performance Pulse white paper identifies the number and variety of steps that payments leaders are looking to take to improve performance across all areas of their payments infrastructures. At the top of the list is minimising the number of steps in the payment user journey across multiple touchpoints, cited by 94% of payments leaders with the travel sector as having a significant impact on performance. This is followed by action to reassure customers around security and encryption on payment pages (92%), consolidating international payment providers (82%), incentivising payments teams around improved efficiency (86%) and optimising Merchant Category Codes (MCCs) to increase authorisation rates (84%). New technology is also seen as an important catalyst for improved payments performance and, therefore, increased revenue. More than three quarters (77%) of payments leaders within the travel industry believe that deploying AI within payments systems will drive improved performance.
Travel tech this week: DiDi Japan expands in 20 cities
DiDi Japan plans to service more Japanese as it expands in more cities by the end of the year. DiDi Japan to expand in 20 cities DiDi Mobility Japan, also known as “DiDi Japan” and a product of the joint venture between Didi Chuxing (“DiDi”) and SoftBank Corp., celebrates its one-year anniversary of operation in Japan with an announcement to accelerate its expansion to 20 cities by the end of this year, beginning with its launch in Niigata on 9 October. The company will also introduce its heat map feature for the Japanese market which supports optimized taxi demand and supply management. Since its launch in Osaka in September 2018, DiDi Japan has received a warm response from users across the country. It achieved the majority of taxi-hailing market share in the key cities in Kansai region, as well as other areas. DiDi Japan was also the most downloaded taxi-hailing app in Japan in August and September 2019. In addition to serving the local Japanese community, DiDi Japan also allows visiting Chinese users to hail taxis within DiDi’s Greater China app interface through its roaming functions. Over the last year, DiDi Japan has focused on understanding and addressing the needs of the Japanese market and has leveraged its cutting-edge AI technology to develop localized product offerings that enhance user experience. In July 2019, DiDi Japan responded to Japanese taxi drivers’ feedback by developing the industry’s first hands-free driver app interface. This feature enables drivers to complete passenger pick-up and route navigation using only voice commands and eliminates the need for drivers to touch their mobile device while driving. To provide more personalized user experience, in August 2019, DiDi Japan debuted the first Loyalty Program for a taxi-hailing app in Japan. It has also adapted its AI-powered online fleet management and dispatch system according to local regulations and user preferences, resulting in efficiency improvements for local taxi companies. DiDi Japan has expanded the number of local taxi companies on its platform to over 300, an increase of more than 17 times since its launch. DiDi Japan aspires to build a more open, inclusive, and user-friendly ecosystem for all of Japan’s taxi operators and users through collaborations with strategic partners including Google Maps, Yahoo! Transit, and Pay Pay, allowing users to hail taxis directly from these popular apps. It has also established a strategic partnership with Zenrin, the leading local map application, to provide multiple navigation options to Japanese drivers. Stephen Zhu, CEO of DiDi Japan, said: “We are grateful for the continued support from our users and partners, as well as the dedication from our employees over the past year. DiDi Japan hopes to keep close interactions with local taxi companies, taxi drivers, passengers, and relevant partners in the industry by virtue of its experience in smart transportation, so as to provide more convenient service for local residents and tourists in Japan.” HRS acquires Conichi The HRS Group has acquired Berlin start-up Conichi and will integrate their technology into the HRS payment product platform and all Conichi employees will become an integral part of the HRS Group. Conichi founders Maximilian Waldmann and Frederic Haitz concentrated on digitizing the hotel check-in and check-out process and streamlining it. HRS will continue to use the Conichi technology for the automation of check-in/out processes. Conichi will become an integral part of a new HRS business division focusing on payment. HRS will use Conichi's technological know-how to further leverage its corporate payment solutions to the next level. Conichi’s employees, including Waldmann and Haitz, will work jointly with their new HRS colleagues to develop the next generation of data-driven, automated payment technologies. HRS is creating a scalable, globally-accepted payment solution that goes far beyond the actual transaction, delivering incremental savings and process efficiencies. “Payment has long been one of our most important strategic pillars. The new structure ensures the agility of the division while emphasizing the importance of payment solutions as managed travel evolves,” said Tobias Ragge, HRS CEO. “An innovative and reliable payment process achieves 23% higher acceptance of the travel program by travellers; no other solution offers companies such as savings potential, especially with an uncertain global economy looming in 2020.” StayList collaborates with Luxstay StayList Inc. has officially launched Vietnamese and Thai version of the Vacation Rental bulk search service. Furthermore, in conjugation with the launch, we have begun system collaboration with "Luxstay", the Vietnamese Vacation Rental site. On the release of StayList in February 2019, it was available in four languages: English, Japanese, Korean, traditional Chinese and catered mainly to travellers from East Asia. In April, in addition to our East Asia, we added Malay and Indonesian version to assist travellers from Southeast Asia as well. And now we have officially launched Vietnamese and Thai version which we have been operating on trial from July so that StayList will be accessible to more Asian travellers. In addition to launching the Vietnamese version, we have begun system collaboration with the Vietnamese vacation rental site "Luxstay” offering an abundance of high-class vacation rental on the Vietnamese domestic market. On the other hand, StayList is a service where travellers can search vacation rentals listed on multiple sites at a clip. This collaboration enables travellers to search for accommodation on Luxstay via StayList.
Travel tech this week: From staycation to golf tourism
This week, Airbnb has revealed staycation trends in MENA region, while TripAdvisor has released a transparency report. Lastly, stat-up golfscape has launced in Ireland enhancing the country’s golf tourism. Love staycation? More and more UAE nationals and residents prefer staycations, even during the hottest months. Crunching three-months’ worth of numbers from 22 May to 22 August (a key booking period for travellers around the world), the online platform has identified the growth of staycations and domestic travel from residents within the United Arab Emirates as the number one summer trend. Following Airbnb’s Arabic Website launch earlier this summer, this data indicates growth across the region: Ras Al Khaimah is proving popular with a 66% boost in year-on-year summer visitor numbers to stays on Airbnb, while there was a 59% growth during the same period for stays in Dubai. Being able to access the website and App in native Arabic provides added incentive for guests travelling from the MENA region to the UAE with KSA visitors topping the list of foreign nationalities booking stays on Airbnb, followed by the United States and United Kingdom. List of visitors to the UAE by country of booking (Summer 2019)*: United Arab Emirates Saudi Arabia United States United Kingdom France India China Australia Germany Canada Honesty is the best policy TripAdvisor has published its first-ever Review Transparency Report, revealing never-before-shared details about its review moderation processes, as well as statistical data on the volume of fake review attempts targeted at the platform in 2018. The report, which analysed a full year’s worth of data on reviews submitted by the global travel community, revealed the overall volume of reviews submitted to TripAdvisor in 2018. It details the multi-layered approach TripAdvisor takes to ensure reviews posted on its pages comply with the site’s guidelines. The report also provides a detailed breakdown of the proportion of reviews that were either blocked or removed. “Ensuring that TripAdvisor is a trusted platform for our users and listed businesses is a top priority. We’ve continued to make advancements to our industry-leading fraud detection efforts in recent years, but it’s a daily battle and we are far from complacent,” said Becky Foley, senior director of trust & safety at TripAdvisor. “While we are winning the fight against fake reviews on TripAdvisor, we can only protect our corner of the Internet. As long as other review platforms aren’t taking aggressive action, then fraudsters will continue to exploit and extort small businesses for cash. It is time other platforms like Google and Facebook stepped up to the plate to join us in tackling this problem head-on.” Travel planning on computer Some of the key findings in the report are: 66 million reviews were submitted to TripAdvisor in 2018 by the global travel community. Every one was analysed using advanced fraud detection technology, and 2.7 million were subject to additional human assessment by content moderators. 7% of all review submissions were rejected or removed by either TripAdvisor's advanced analysis technology or manually by the content moderation team. There are a number of reasons why TripAdvisor rejects or removes reviews, ranging from guideline violations to instances of review fraud. Only a small fraction of all review submissions — 2.1% — were determined to be fraudulent, and the vast majority of those (73%) were blocked before they were ever posted. This equated to over 1 million fake reviews that were prevented from being displayed on TripAdvisor. Fewer than 1% of reviews were flagged by users or businesses for potentially violating TripAdvisor guidelines. TripAdvisor’s content moderation team reviewed most of these community reports within six hours of them being submitted. 34,643 businesses were subject to a ranking penalty, which is a reduction of a property’s position within the popularity or traveller ranking. Ranking penalties are applied when a business is caught attempting to post fake reviews. Golf tourism Following the success of its European expansion earlier this year, golfscape announced today its launch in Ireland. The fast-growing golf tech business has integrated with multiple courses on the Emerald Isle to expose the region’s world-class facilities to an international user base. The first and only worldwide tee time booking platform is making golf easier to book for both local and international players by moving courses online to increase accessibility while supporting the area’s rapid growth in golf tourism. Earlier this year, the Irish Times highlighted the importance of golf tourism in a feature revealing that more than 200,000 overseas visitors play golf in Ireland every year. Golf plays a significant role in Irish tourism, resulting in considerable increases in the hospitality sector. International golfers are estimated to contribute almost €270 million to the Irish economy, with up to 50% of them coming from the United States. “We are driving our international user base to Ireland and accelerating the growth of overseas visitors to the area. We are supported by a global team of talent that continues expanding to benefit our partner courses,” said golfscape CEO Raghad Mukhaimer. “Our unique expertise will play a key role in promoting the region abroad to achieve Ireland’s goal of growing international tourism. Players all over the world can book golf online as easily as they book hotels and flights on Expedia.”
Travel tech this week: All about ride hailing
This week, ride-hailing giants from the east are rolling out new services to propel their growth, while their western counterparts are suffering losses since going public. GoFitness Men Practicing Yoga Outdoors Indonesian unicorn Go-Jek has partnered with DOOgether, a fitness app that allows its users to book fitness classes in advance and find fitness partners, to roll out GoFitness. Following to the latest trend in health and wellness, Go-Jek’s GoFitness aims to provide access for users to reserve wellness and sports classes such as yoga, pilates, pound fit, barre, Muay Thai, and zumba in hundreds of gyms and studios in Jakarta area to rival similar apps like ClassPass and GuavaPass. “The launch of GoFitness is in line with our commitment to keep innovating in making users’ lives easier, from the moment they wake up in the morning until they rest at night,” said Head of Third Party Platform Gojek Group Sony Radhityo. Grab data also revealed that more than 11,000 users recorded on the app making trips to gyms and sports studio every month and GoFood also recorded more than 600,000 portions of healthy food order; therefore, it is reasonable to launch this new service. “We believe that technology has a big role in making lives easier. This is our way to actively participate in Indonesian sports industry,” DOOgether CEO Fauzan Gani said. All time low Uber and Lyft share hit their lowest close ever on Tuesday and investors are starting to lose confidence in the ride-hailing companies. Uber closed down 5.7% to USD 30.70, falling below its previous low of USD 32.57 on 30 August. Earlier in the day, the shares hit an intraday all-time low of USD 30.67. Lyft experienced a similarly steep drop, ending the day down 7.2% to USD 45.42, compared to its previous low of USD 48.15 on 13 May. The stock dropped as low as USD 45.40 on Tuesday, touching a new intraday low. The rivals have has a hard time keeping their stocks afloat since their respective IPOs earlier this year. Investors are growing sceptical whether Uber and Lyft will be in the black in the near future. Uber reported a net loss of USD 5.24 billion for its second quarter of 2019, blaming stock-based compensation costs. By comparison, Lyft lost USD 644.2 million in the second quarter, representing a significant jump from the USD 178.9 million it lost a year earlier. GrabGifts? GrabSalon? True to its claim, Grab proves to be a “super app” as the ride-hailing giant will roll out new services in the next three months. The company is expanding its transport, logistics and lifestyle services by introducing Bus Marketplace, GrabExpress Nationwide Delivery, GrabSalon, GrabGifts, Videos and Hotels. The latest additions are expected to bring wider reach and greater convenience to its users. “Our aim as the leading super app is to solve everyday problems so that Filipinos can do more. We are doing this by breaking daily limitations such as limited transportation solutions, disconnected systems and services, and lack of financial inclusion,” Grab Philippines president Brian Cu said. “We then collaborate with partners to create a suite of connected services within one super app and help unlock the benefits of the digital economy to Filipinos,” he added. Grab’s Bus Marketplace enables users to skip the long queue to buy tickets, which can be a pain, especially during holidays. The service also offers point-to-point (P2P) operations by Tas Trans and San Agustin for Glorietta 2-Nuvali and Glorietta 2-Southmall routes with trips every 30 minutes. This month, Grab is expanding the service with a new provincial P2P bus service from Olongapo to Clark, and Clark to Dagupan with a local bus services provider, and Makati to Noveleta, Cavite with San Agustin. Grab is also ramping up its GrabExpress service to include nationwide delivery in partnership with Ninja Van, whose network covers 95% of the Philippine population with over 9,000 riders.
Travel tech this week: One thing humans are better than robots and more
Travel technology is all about the use and contribution of digitisation to the improvement of the travel industry, but there is one thing that any robot cannot do – that is being human! In other news, India’s tourism is aided by technology to reach new heights. One thing machines can’t do better than us News of the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to take over jobs and replace humans in the workplace has dominated the headlines in recent years. The World Economic Forum predicts that five million jobs will be lost by 2020 as the Fourth Industrial Revolution continues to transform labour markets, while the McKinsey Global Institute expects automation to impact up to 160 million women globally, who may need to transition between occupations by 2030. Most of the ‘casualties’ will be repetitive manufacturing tasks and those considered dangerous for humans to perform. Robots can do these jobs faster and with greater precision than humans could ever hope to achieve, leading to higher productivity and lower costs. Ironically, as we move towards the near digital future, we’re being forced to become more human, to embrace the skills and attributes that robots are not yet able to replicate or do better than us. As more robots enter the workplace, people will crave face-to-face interaction, authenticity and human connection more than ever. While we leave the repetitive, time-consuming back-office jobs to the machines, human employees will be able to focus on core tasks, such as customer experience and social interaction. Managers will have more time to interact productively with team members. Colleagues will have more time to speak to customers and comprehend their needs. HR will have more time to upskill team members rather than spending hours on tedious but essential onboarding and payroll processes. Moreover, when we understand and can relate to each other better, we come up with new solutions, new products and better ways of doing things. We create and innovate. This means that skills like communication, emotional intelligence, strategy, people management, stakeholder interactions, leadership, creativity, entrepreneurship, analysis and decision-making will be more in demand across all industries. The reality is that automation is going to impact every job in some way. Impact, not replace. That impact will be the ability to do our jobs better and faster, taking away the rising epidemic of ‘busyness’, and giving us more time to grow and to find that elusive work-life balance. More time to be more human. EaseMyTrip to boost medical tourism 201,333 people visited India on medical visas in 2016 EaseMyTrip has tied-up with hospital Medanta to provide travel-related services to the patients and their families. With this, Medanta’s patients will be able to get services like accommodation, local transfers and flight tickets post their treatment without any hassles. Through this association, EaseMyTrip envisions to facilitate the patients and their families who are seeking treatment in India. India is progressively observed to be an ideal destination for “medical tourists” who cross boundaries to pursue treatment that is less expensive in comparison to their home countries and Medanta is one of the biggest service providers to such tourists. Majority of the clients of this hospital are foreigners owing to its reputation among international patients from all over the world. Medanta solely treats more than 20,000 patients from around the world annually. Medical tourism in India is a multi-billion dollar industry, which is continually being promoted by the government along with the medical and travel industry. The perfect combination of affordable advanced facilities, competent and English-speaking medical professionals and the world-class facilities are the main selling points of the Indian medical tourism industry. Patients from various countries like UK, Canada, Gulf and Bangladesh travel to India for their treatments and EaseMyTrip is helping them in providing services like accommodation, transportation within the city, airport/railway station transfers, flight tickets post-treatment etc. As per The National Institute of Transforming India, Medical Value Travel has been the key source of foreign exchange earnings in India. A report shared by FICCI and IMS Health states that India contributes to 18% of the total medical tourism market globally. It has been projected that by 2020, the medical tourism industry in India could be worth $9 billion accounting for 20% of the global market share. Talking about this initiative, Rikant Pitti, COO & co-founder, EaseMyTrip said, “We are happy with this association as India is an important base for medical tourism and Medanta provides medical aid to a good number of patients from different parts of the world. By joining hands with Medanta hospital, we will be able to provide travel services to people in need and value-added packages to its staff.” With this corporate tie-up, EaseMyTrip is also catering to all internal corporate travel and effectively conducting MICE events for the hospital. The travel aggregator is empowering the hospital to manage and fulfil their tour requirements efficiently with the help of its travel experts at reduced expenses. Snapchat brings Landmarkers to India Snap Inc. today introduced two new Landmarker Lens experiences in India enabling Snapchat users to use augmented reality to bring to life two iconic monuments - Gateway of India in Mumbai and Taj Mahal in Agra. To enable the feature, users have to simply point the Snapchat camera to the monument on location. Through the Landmarker Lens, users can play with beautiful floral embellishment on the monuments. In addition, these locations will be available as Landmarker Templates alongside a further twelve locations spread around the across the globe as part of an update to Lens Studio - Snap’s free desktop app that allows anyone to build AR for Snapchat. The new features also include six new templates and additional tools that support an even wider range of creators – from new 2D illustrators to sophisticated developers. It has never been easier to create your AR and share it with the world. To date, over 500,000 lenses have been created by the Snapchat community using Lens Studio, and they have been played with over 15 billion times. The number of Snapchatters submitting new Lenses through Lens Studio every month grew by more than 20% this quarter from the prior quarter.
Travel tech this week: Free food on trains when you book with EaseMyTrip
Eating while riding a train is a unique experience that one should not miss out on. In order to elevate customers’ experience, EaseMyTrip is offering free food when users book. Meanwhile, Amadeus held hands with Thailand’s Digital Economy Promotion Agency (depa) and the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) to future-proof Thailand’s tourism industry. Below are the top travel tech stories this week. Free food! EaseMyTrip allows rail passengers to enjoy free food during their train journeys. Now customers booking train tickets through different modes from EaseMyTrip will be eligible to avail a food thali from RelFood without paying anything extra. When a customer books their train ticket from EaseMyTrip, they will get an email on their registered email address with a coupon code. He/she can then use this code to order food from RelFood Website following which delicious food will be delivered at the customers’ seat. Commenting upon this development, Rikant Pitti, COO and co-founder, EaseMyTrip, said: “We always look forward to opportunities that can provide convenience to our customers. Food is an essential part of any journey. Tiresome long journeys become easier when you have the company of good food. By joining hands with RelFood, we would now be able to offer fresh-delish food for free to our IRCTC customers. We believe it to be a great game-changer for the rail passengers offering them good quality scrumptious food.” Talking about this alliance, Abilash Marupilla, CEO of RelFood, said: “We are extremely happy and proud of this association as it brings together two like-minded partners of IRCTC which are dedicated to redefining the travel experiences for customers by bringing ease for them.” Roiback X Book on Google Roiback is the first tech company from Spain being directly integrated into Book on Google, the tech company solution that allows to book hotels rooms without having to leave the searcher. This agreement aims to benefit Roiback’s clients by providing a higher conversion rate and a lower acquisition cost. One advantage of Book on Google is that it removes friction in the conversion process, particularly on mobile, by allowing users to book a room on a Google-hosted site, avoiding losing clients who tended to leave the reservation when they were directed to other websites from different OTAs or from the hotel. With this function, Google improves the user experience and the conversion, thereby also increasing the hotel’s profitability. Book on Google is available in Spain, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Poland. “In the last year, the sales generated from the metasearch engines have been multiplied by five and, in particular, Google Hotel Ads has tripled its traffic and it is present in more than the 40% of the traffic from the hotels in Google. In the end, what is important is the hotel’s profitability and, if Book on Google allows you to increase your conversion and to low the distribution cost, certainly, we must be there,” Rebeca González, managing director of Roiback, has explained. Future-proofing Thailand’s tourism Amadeus has released a new report – ‘Thailand Towards 2030: Future of Travel & Tourism’ – in partnership with Thailand’s Digital Economy Promotion Agency (depa) and the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA). Thailand’s airports are approaching capacity and popular destinations are starting to show the impact of overtourism, both of which could limit the rate of future tourism growth if not urgently addressed. To sustain growth, Thailand must invest in a central strategy to make its travel and tourism infrastructure ‘smarter’ in the next decade. To help with this, the report has identified four key areas the country should prioritize: (L-R) Mr. Pracha Asawateera, depa, and Mr. Simon Akeroyd, Amadeus Increasing airport capacity: In addition to the physical expansion, airports should adopt smart technologies such as self-serve check-in kiosks and automated bag-drops Improving inter-modal air-to-city links: Destinations should develop direct airport-to-conference centre rail connections, and dovetail rail and air schedules with typical conference start and finish times Scaling up public-private partnerships to improve the efficiency of inner-city transport networks: A current challenge is that Thailand’s public sector doesn’t currently know which companies to partner with, while private firms often don’t know how to engage the public sector. Engaging third-party advisers could be the solution to bringing these key players together Reducing overtourism: More action needs to be taken to protect the country’s tourist hot spots from the risks of overtourism. The industry could look to provide tourism boards, local authorities and hospitality businesses access to accurate data for real-time analysis and predictive modelling to manage tourism Amadeus, depa and PATA agree that giving tourism boards, local authorities and hospitality businesses access to accurate data for real-time analysis and predictive modelling will be integral to managing tourism in a more sustainable way in the future but, like smart mobility, this is still in its infancy in Thailand too. “The data exists, but Thailand’s tourism industry isn’t quite there yet in using it effectively to manage peak periods. Education on how to interpret and use the data will be just as important as access. Done well, the potential is for the data to be used not only to control tourist numbers, but also to inform everything from ticket prices to infrastructure investments and long-term tourism policies,” said PATA’s Dr Mario Hardy. Wirecard X OYO Wirecard and OYO have announced that they are exploring collaboration opportunities to provide a suite of financial services to make payments for OYO hotels and home bookings seamless and hassle-free across several regions in the world, notably, South-East Asia, Europe, UK and the USA. OYO is a constituent of the SoftBank Vision Fund which facilitated the introduction to Wirecard. As part of the collaboration, Wirecard will look to enable OYO with a wide range of digital financial commerce-related services including payment acceptance and issuance for OYO’s booking services – online, mobile and point-of-sale (POS) –as well as enabling it to leverage Wirecard’s banking-as-a-platform capabilities that include lending and loyalty to ensure guests booking an OYO hotel have a hassle-free payment experience. “We are very excited to explore working with Wirecard – not only because of the all-encompassing scope of the company’s set of financial service offerings but also because of its international financial payments expertise. By easing the booking experience for our customers around the world and helping create value-added offerings, Wirecard can help us come closer to our goal of becoming the most preferred and trusted hospitality brand in the world,” said Maninder Gulati, chief strategy officer (Global), OYO. For more travel tech stories, click here. Send us your pitches and press releases at tech@traveldilymedia.com.
Travel tech this week: This is how Cathay Pacific records passengers in flight
This week, Cathay Pacific admitted that it records passenger activity, but it is not the way most people think. Deem X Conferma Pay Deem, a leading mobile and cloud technology provider for the corporate travel industry, has announced the launch of its first virtual payment provider program with Conferma Pay, a leading FinTech company specializing in virtual card technology. The new program allows corporations to use virtual payment solutions for travel spend, starting with hotel bookings and extending to airfare and ground transportation. “The payment industry is moving quickly to a more efficient and highly secure virtual payment model with leaders like Conferma Pay, Apple Pay and Google Pay,” said John F. Rizzo, CEO and president, Deem. “Our new virtual payment program solves a host of challenges for corporations and travellers alike.” Virtual payment gives corporations a central method to bill services, and a better way to audit and account for travel spend. This solution helps corporations mitigate security and fraud, especially in regions or countries with higher levels of fraudulent activity. Travellers also aren’t required to present a credit card at hotel check-in, mitigating their personal risk. The virtual payment program service is available for hotel content across all GDS with direct integration to Conferma Pay via their API and is available for profiled and non-profiled users of the platform. The system also supports custom PNR remarks by leveraging Deem’s unique PNR Editor functionality. The functionality will be available to customers by the end of Q3. “We want to support corporations by enabling them to cut costs through more efficient administrative processes. With Conferma Pay’s virtual payment technology, customers benefit from a holistic and detailed, automated reporting system accounting for every single transaction. This achieves greater efficiencies, tighter controls, heightened security and avoids laborious manual tasks to create a complete cost-effective solution,” said Paul Raymond, director of strategic relationships at Conferma Pay. Guesty directly integrates HomeAway Guesty has announced that all Guesty users can integrate directly with HomeAway’s distribution network and manage their HomeAway listings directly from the Guesty dashboard. Vered Schwarz, COO of Guesty, says: "Enabling our users to more seamlessly manage their properties is of the utmost importance to Guesty. That’s why we dedicate countless resources to direct integrations with our valued channel partners. We are excited to add HomeAway to that list. HomeAway is a strong player in the vacation rental ecosystem and our direct integration will provide Guesty users with increased exposure, specialized support and more, enabling them to focus on what matters most: growing their businesses." This addition to the Guesty family is one of many on the long list of capabilities we have added to our platform in the last quarter alone to ensure that short-term property managers can do it all from the Guesty dashboard. These updates include a revamped mobile app, the ability to manage multi-unit listings from our platform and access to advanced analytics that can be utilized to make data-driven decisions. Guesty’s Direct Integration To HomeAway Means: Property managers get paid right away: they can process traveller payments automatically (currently available to those with existing Stripe accounts) This integration enables property managers to automatically distribute their listings from Guesty to HomeAway with a single log-in Property managers’ data automatically syncs: listings stay up-to-date across all HomeAway Specialized, quick customer support: Guesty users who take advantage of this integration will have access to a support team dedicated to integrated property managers In the last year, Guesty’s customer base has increased by 100% and employee count has ballooned to 260+ spread out across 7 offices worldwide (and counting). The company is now the highest-funded short-term rental PMS on the market, according to Crunchbase, with $60M in funding. Guesty proudly has customers in 70+ countries managing hundreds of thousands of listings who report an average 150% increase in revenue annually, a 100% increase in listings annually and 50 or more hours saved per week, on average, due to Guesty's features. Cathay Pacific records passengers Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific has revealed it is recording passenger activity on its aircraft. The carrier outlined its information gathering in an updated privacy policy published at the end of July 2019. Cathay confirmed it is collecting images of passengers while they're on board as well as logging their usage of the in-flight entertainment system (IFE) and how they spend time during the flight. The airline says the images are not captured from embedded seat-back cameras. "In line with standard practice and to protect our customers and frontline staff, there are CCTV cameras installed in our airport lounges and onboard aircraft (one camera, positioned near the cockpit door) for security purposes. All images are handled sensitively with strict access controls. There are no CCTV cameras installed in the lavatories," a spokesperson of the airline said. "Our inflight entertainment systems do not have any cameras, microphones or sensors to monitor passengers, nor have they in the past," Cathay Pacific added. For more travel tech stories, click here. Send us your pitches and press releases at tech@traveldilymedia.com.
Travel tech this week: When the ‘cheapest’ route may not always be ‘best value’
This week, the tech industry showcases a software making it easier for short-term rentals to secure their properties. Also, a technology that enables travellers to find the best value routes when travelling, after all, time costs money too. Safety and security solution for short-term rentals CertiStay, the third party safety and security auditors that provide safety inspections and certifications for short-term rentals with a proprietary software tool and trained auditors, has today announced that following a successful proof of concept trial, they are now launching the service in multiple locations across North America. The CertiStay audited certification process provides property owners with the opportunity to reduce safety and security issues, limit their liability, and demonstrate their commitment to guest safety and security through independent third-party certification. The propriety auditing tool, the first of its kind, has been developed by police and fire chiefs, insurance underwriters, senior vacation rental industry professionals and government leaders. All audits are completed by fully trained auditors, whilst the operational process is fully backed by leading software developers. According to Transparent Intelligence, globally, the short-term rental supply listed on major Online Travel Agencies grew 33% from 2017 to 2018 to reach a total of 7.1 million properties. Currently, there is little regulation enforcement or safety standardization for homeowners or property managers, nor is there a clearly identified way that guests can ensure that the homes that they are booking, both meet and exceed safety standards. CertiStay has been developed in order to create a global standard where guests are assured of the safety and security of their accommodation whilst short-term rental providers can reduce their liabilities and ensure that they follow best practices. Randy Bacik, CEO of CertiStay said: “The current regulations for vacation and short-term rentals are confusing and inconsistent. Today’s guests want assurance that the properties they are staying in meet safety and security standards that are on a par with hotels. The CertiStay solution meets that need, as well as providing an efficient process for property investors and property managers, and the added bonus of cost reductions on insurance.” Smart journeys by Omio Whether it’s saving pennies or minutes, Omio, Europe’s leading travel booking platform for travel by train, bus and flight, recognises that travellers must be able to make informed choices about their journeys. Saving time when travelling can be more valuable than saving money and the Omio app provides its 27 million users with cost-saving versus time-saving options when searching and booking trains, buses and flights in more than 35 countries, including the UK. Searching for journeys between A and B, Omio users are presented with the cost-effective and time-saving options from up to 800 travel companies and alternatives are displayed for comparison, such as fastest journey time. Whether spending less or saving time is the priority, Omio provides travellers with information to make an informed choice as to what means ‘Best Value’ to them. Chris Hall, Omio director UKIE and overseas, said: “Travellers have different priorities, whether that be saving money, saving time or saving the planet by choosing the most environmentally smart way to travel. Our app provides users with the information they need to make an informed choice based on their own priorities for a specific journey, enabling them to explore whilst keeping an eye on their wallet and watch.” Did you know? Brussels to Paris is 2h 39m faster by train than plane Paris to Lyon is 1h 28m faster by train London to Manchester is 1h 24m faster by train London to Amsterdam is 49m faster by train Amsterdam to Brussels is 45m faster by bus Brussels to Paris is 15m faster by bus Chris added: “The cheapest route may not always be the best value, especially if time is of the essence, so Omio gives travellers the opportunity to compare different travel options before they book.” Travel operators lose money because of this More than half (60%) of payments leaders admit that their organisation is currently losing revenue due to shortcomings with their payment gateway. And almost two thirds (64%) report that they are coming under increasing pressure from business leaders to improve payments performance as a matter of urgency. Global research from emerchantpay reveals that two thirds (69%) of payments leaders within the travel industry believe they need to make significant improvements in payments performance over the next 12 months in order to avoid losing significant numbers of customers and revenue, more than in any other sector. The Performance Pulse white paper reports that the current lack of optimisation within payments in the travel sector is largely driven by a need to prioritise innovation and a lack of understanding and support from senior leadership. Only 39% of payments leaders feel that the wider business fully recognises the value of optimising payments performance, and only 35% believe that business stakeholders fully understand the benefits of agile payment infrastructure. The research indicates that senior business leaders are more interested in innovation and transformation within payments, rather than looking at current systems and delivery. Three quarters (75%) of payments leaders in the travel sector report that innovation is more important that maintaining high levels of performance in payments within their organisation. Where payments teams are attempting to improve performance across their payments eco-system, they are hampered by a lack of data and insight to make decisions and optimise processes. Three quarters (73%) of payments leaders in the travel sector report that analysing payments data is a challenge within their organisation and the majority of travel operators are failing to review and optimise performance on a monthly basis in areas such as analysing decline codes, domestic routing, Merchant Identification Number set-up and processing through the payment gateway. The research finds that there is not a single area of payments where a majority of payments leaders are happy with their current performance. Less than a quarter (23%) of payments leaders are fully satisfied with their ability to analyse decline codes or their ability to analyse fraud data to set better rules. Travel operators report the lowest levels of satisfaction across all sectors when it comes to current efforts to execute a sophisticated approach to Merchant Identification Numbers (MIDs). Worryingly, given the associated risks, only 28% of payments leaders within the travel sector are fully satisfied with their current ability to monitor fraud in real-time. Jonas Reynisson, CEO of emerchantpay, said: “A large proportion of travel operators are simply ‘leaving money on the table’ by not offering their customers the fastest, easiest, most personalised payment experiences possible and by not fully understanding, detecting and preventing fraud. What’s more, they’re risking customer loyalty and brand reputation by neglecting payments performance. Travel companies need to start providing their payments teams with the tools, skills and support to do their jobs effectively and to deliver real value to the organisation. The opportunity for those operators that can put in place the processes, technologies and behaviours necessary to optimise payments performance are huge.” Other barriers to improving payments performance are lack of budget (36%), outdated technology and tools (30%), the burden of regulation and compliance obligations which are becoming an increasing drain on resources (29%) and finding appropriate partners/vendors (22%). 56% of payments leaders within the travel sector report that Brexit and the associated foreign exchange risks are adding uncertainty to their payment strategy. The most common areas where travel operators are doing best when it comes to driving optimal performance are ensuring that payments infrastructure is flexible and agile and delivering efficient processing through the payment gateway. Reynisson concluded: “Travel operators need to ensure they have access to the data they need across all areas of their payments infrastructure and the dedicated resources and skills to translate this data into meaningful and actionable insight. The payments industry has to to do a better job in supporting payments teams across the travel industry to develop robust businesses cases for investment in this area, which prove the commercial value of increased performance, in terms of enhanced customer experience, increased revenue and higher margins.”
Travel tech this week: Travellers favour alternative payments and more
This week, the rise of alternative payments is seen in many parts of Europe and Asia. This trend has a significant on travel as we may see a revolution on how we pay for goods and services. TravelgateX and Travel Compositor team up When the front and back of two global technology companies come together, the business opportunities that can arise are incalculable. And this is the case of the historic agreement signed between TravelgateX and Travel Compositor, companies in the technology sector, who are working on boosting the growth of B2B travel with a global strategy worth millions of euros. Although they have two different business models, both companies are dedicated to travel technology, which makes them complementary. In this way, OTAs, travel agencies, channel managers, hotels, airlines and activity agencies can take advantage of this global agreement to grow in transactions, products, and business worldwide. The strategic alliance will allow multiplying business for both clients and suppliers. Travel Compositor is a consolidator that allows any tourism company to sell dynamic packages around their own product. TravelgateX is a marketplace that connects tourism buyers and sellers from all over the world. Both companies have joined efforts, talent, technology and knowledge that will undoubtedly mark a before and after in the B2B travel sector. This strategic alliance has been designed between the two technology companies to multiply the connectivity for buyers and suppliers and make them more competitive in the B2B travel sector. TravelPerk raises USD 60 million Avi Meir, CEO and co-founder, TravelPerk Global business travel platform TravelPerk today announces that it has closed its series C round at USD 104 million by adding an additional USD 60m from existing investors. The investment will be used to further accelerate the company’s product innovation with the goal of giving business travellers real freedom and flexibility while providing companies with control over their travel spend. As well as continuing its European expansion, the company expects to announce major product additions in the coming weeks and months that will bring a new level of disruption to the pricing structure of an industry that is still dominated by outdated solutions that make business travel expensive and painful. TravelPerk’s decision to focus on Europe – a huge market for business travel, worth more than USD 250 billion annually – is born out of a desire to tackle the most difficult market first. Europe presents unique challenges due to its fragmented nature - country-specific suppliers, languages, currencies, local tax, accounting laws, and GDPR are just a few of the complexities that need to be addressed across the continent. TravelPerk combines the best of business and leisure travel to provide its customers with a one-stop-shop solution to these problems, with proprietary technology and best-in-class 24/7 traveller support. The TravelPerk platform hosts the world’s largest bookable travel inventory, allowing travellers to seamlessly compare, book and invoice trains, cars, flights, hotels and apartments from a range of providers including Kayak, Skyscanner, Expedia, Booking.com, and Airbnb. This offers business travellers the same level of flexibility and freedom of choice that they are used to when booking leisure travel while giving employers more visibility and control than ever before. Avi Meir, CEO and co-founder of TravelPerk, said: “At TravelPerk, we believe that travel is the biggest unsolved problem in business today. As a USD 1.3 trillion global market, it's staggering that businesses have been stuck for so long with a status quo defined by limited inventory, inflexible booking experiences, and lousy customer support. That's why our approach is all about innovations that will genuinely make life easier for the traveller, and we’re proud to have the continued backing of our fantastic investors in support of this strategy. We have big ambitions for the next phase of our product development, which will see us quickly bring new offerings to market that don’t just see business travel catch up with consumer travel, but actually surpass it.” The Series C extension has been raised from the same investors that participated in the first part of the round, announced in October 2018: Kinnevik, Partners of DST Global, Target Global, Felix Capital, Sunstone, and LocalGlobe. Alternative payments for Asia and Europe Global fintech innovation is happening at a rapid pace and there are now more than 300 different ways to pay for travel across the world. It’s against this backdrop that Amadeus and PPRO have commissioned ‘The Travel Payments Guide’, a new report charting the rise of alternative payment methods. Designed to help travel merchants understand which methods are most popular in their key international markets, the report supports merchants when defining their payment acceptance strategy. According to the analysis, travellers now choose alternative ways to pay for travel, such as e-Wallets and bank transfers, more often than cards and cash combined. This growth is occurring across the world with e-Wallets now twice as popular as cards in China, accounting for 49% of the country’s USD 155 billion digital travel spend. In the US, e-Wallets may replace cards as the most popular way to pay by 2025, having gained an additional 4% share of the market in the last 12 months. The report also marks a new partnership between Amadeus and PPRO, a leading cross-border payment specialist. The integration of PPRO with Amadeus’ Payment Platform means travel companies can now easily accept the widest range of alternative, local payment methods such as real-time bank transfers, e-Wallets and direct debit methods. Importantly, the integration means travel firms can now rapidly add and experiment with a new payment method, testing its impact in response to rapidly changing consumer payment preferences. Payment methods by region (full year 2017 data) Market Alternative payments share (e-Wallet, bank transfer, other) Cards & cash Asia 58% 42% Europe 53% 47% Africa 49% 51% North America 38% 62% Middle East 38% 62% LATAM 19% 81% NB: Regional averages based on a subset of markets in each region
Travel tech this week: The best travel brand, tickets for space and more
This week in the travel tech sector, TUI is hailed by independent consumers as the best travel brand trumping rivals Thomas Cook and Booking.com. Meanwhile, this could be your chance to go to space as the Swiss Space Tourism is giving away 100 tickets to space. Read on to know how to join. TUI – Best travel brand Independent consumers have spoken ranking 14 of the UK’s leading online travel companies. TUI has topped Maru/Matchbox’s 2019 Travel Benchmark Report analysing online holiday booking experiences. The in-depth study by the global professional services insight agency asked 800 independent consumers about their mobile and desktop holiday shopping experiences at 14 leading and fast-growing travel brands. Holiday bookers gave TUI an impressive overall digital experience score of 84%, closely followed by Thomas Cook (83%) and Booking.com (82%). TUI and Thomas Cook also came top for first impressions, and feedback suggests that they are far more effective than other travel brands at communicating their proposition from the homepage and providing fast and clear navigation and search options to the desired type of holiday. The report studied 2,500 booking experiences over the end-to-end customer journey - from first impressions and the level of available consumer information to search facilities and the booking process. The report is the latest instalment in an eleven year-long series of studies on the digital travel shopping landscape. The report reveals key trends in how consumers rated each area of the holiday shopping experience: Online travel agents (OTAs) and tour operators had better command of the end-to-end customer journey, and consumers felt they consistently provided better information and ideas for things to do in the resort and the local area when compared to general booking websites Availability and visibility of offers differed hugely across sites, but consumer felt they were less visible on general booking websites. Travel agents had clearer offers with wider coverage, whereas general booking sites tended to deliver this only by location/property. Lower scoring travel brands tended to lack functionality to refine, select and narrow down holiday options. These functions were used by nearly all participants, but some consumers were cautious when there was no option to sort/filter results based on individual criteria or preferences. Consumers were sceptical about signposting on viewing and booking frequency of resorts and did not always find these messages useful. Quality reviews and ratings information were appreciated, however information on the number of rooms left and displaying properties that had been fully booked were seen as pressurising and unnecessary Images and video of accommodation and experiences were inconsistent and not always available across many travel brands. 100 tickets for space Swiss Space Tourism launches a staggering challenge. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the first man on the Moon, Swiss Space Tourism will offer 100 Tickets for Space as part of its space contest reserved for its active members. Boris Otter, a future space tourist, is challenging all astronaut enthusiasts: a challenge whose five winners will receive a real Ticket for Space in one of the first sub-orbital tourist flights in History in 2020. The price for a Ticket for Space? USD 100. The principle is simple: to participate in the contest, you must first become an active member of the Swiss Space Tourism Association for a contribution of USD 100. The second condition is to successfully pass a medical check ensuring that you can physically cope with a suborbital flight above the Karman line—at an altitude of 100 km. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hawxygq9olU&authuser=2 Boris Otter aims to gather 20,000 members, raising USD 2,000,000, to cover the costs of flying with Blue Origin in its six-passenger New Shepard rocket. "The advantage of Blue Origin is that the waiting list is shorter than that of Virgin Galactic. Virgin already has 650 registered participants,” says Boris Otter. In order to select winners from the 20,000 members, the results of a quiz on the basis of 30 space-related questions, writing a personal motivational text of 15 lines, and confirmation of the absence of medical contra-indications will allow the Selection Committee to determine five winners of tickets for space flight. Boris Otter, meanwhile, de facto reserves the first seat for himself. IRONMAN partnership with Avis IRONMAN, a Wanda Sports Holdings company, has announced a new partnership with leading car rental brand Avis. The new two-year agreement will give IRONMAN athletes across Europe a wide range of unprecedented benefits. These benefits include a 10% discount on Avis’ regular prices as well as priority parking on race day. In addition, age group athletes will also be given priority bike racking capability and have the opportunity to have a family member or friend award their IRONMAN medal after they complete their epic journey to the finish line. “I’m delighted that Avis has partnered with IRONMAN to offer a wide range of benefits, including discounts, that can be used on race weekends and throughout the year,” said Julia Kemp, director of international sales and partnerships – international, Avis Budget Group. Whilst the partnership has been designed to positively-impact athletes on race weekends, athletes will also have the additional benefit of receiving the 10% discount throughout the duration of the partnership period, regardless of whether they’re competing in an IRONMAN event or they’re away with their family on summer holiday. BookingPal hastens the channel distribution process BookingPal, the leader in software technology solutions and distribution for vacation rental property managers and owners worldwide, has announced today that it has released a new solution to automate the channel distribution for vacation rental property managers. With the automation, BookingPal has the ability to not only build out listings quickly, but also to update new content, rates, and any other changes to the channels with limited delay; allowing vacation rental property management customers to benefit from real-time updates to their properties. Most importantly, the new automation process allows property managers to start generating revenue more quickly from our channel partners, including Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia, HomeAway, Ctrip, and TripAdvisor. BookingPal’s channel connectivity and onboarding solution not only grants the ability for users to create, modify, and manage their listings directly through the BookingPal platform, but also provides channel-specific property validation to ensure that each property meets the minimum requirements of each channel. Should a channel require content that is not available from the PMS (Property Management Software), BookingPal’s intuitive onboarding design will assist the user in identifying what content is still required so it can be input and saved directly into BookingPal’s database to be distributed to the supported channels. The onboarding solution can be used for new properties being listed for the first time on a channel, or existing listings that are switching over to the BookingPal distribution platform, as well as allowing for the import and management of pre-existing reservations from the channels. Alex Aydin, BookingPal founder and CEO, said: “The time it takes to launch a listing has always been an area that property managers wanted us to improve, so that they can start generating revenue from their properties as quickly as possible. Leveraging the full content API capabilities of the various OTAs, and automating the steps required to get a listing created on a channel, we can now get properties created on a channel within minutes - easing the process significantly for our customers.” For more travel tech stories, click here. Send your travel tech stories and press releases to tech@traveldailymedia.com.
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