travel tech insights

The travel industry is witnessing a cross-current of demographics: on one hand, the Baby Boomer generation is retiring and leaving the work force; on the other hand, the millennial generation is entering the workforce and beginning to climb the income ladder. To a large extent, the way a travel company handles this transformation over the next ten years will determine its success. It will have to adroitly adjust to the changing travel habits – and budgets – of the graying boomers and become aware of – and knowledgeable about - millennial lifestyles and travel preferences. In some ways the challenge of millennial travelers is unique; certainly the influence of technology is unprecedented. But in more ways, it’s no different from what the travel industry faced when the boomers arrived decades ago; a new, significant, market requiring insight and innovation.

GetYourGuide, a young travel company founded in 2009, made a splash in travel industry news last week with the announcement of a $50 million investment by KKR, a prominent NYC-based investment company.  For new travel company entrepreneurs – or those in any industry, for that matter – GetYourGuide has all the hallmarks of a Cinderella story: humble students working through the night, unaware they’re on the brink of creating a multi-million dollar company.  Not long ago this blog had a post that relates to the GetYourGuide story, “Top Start-up Tips for the Travel Industry”.  Accordingly, this announcement provides a great opportunity to see how well this Cinderella story validates our travel start-up guidance in the areas of: value; planning and attitude.  

The travel industry has to be one of the best examples of everything old becoming new again. Imagine England in the year 1841: the telegraph was a less than ten years old; the telephone was still twenty five years away; railroads were transforming the countryside but steamships were nowhere in sight. Things were certainly very different back when Thomas Cook opened the doors to his travel company and began selling single day excursions from Leicester to Loughborough.  Since then, through steamships, airlines and the Internet, Thomas Cook Group – like many other travel companies during that passage of time – has thrived on change and transformed many times. Currently, creative people continue to reinvent the travel industry. For those planning to join them with an innovative travel company or travel technology provider of their own, here are top start-up tips to help them along the way.

In a recent blog we discussed how travel companies can derive benefits from Big Data, analytics and advanced reports in four operational areas: