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Google switch – says it now has a cautious approach to taking Google Flight...
What a difference a year makes – at the 2011 PhoCusWright Conference in Florida, Google was reasonably bullish about its strategy for Google Flight Search. Just a month or so after finally unleashing...
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Brian Chesky of Airbnb explains new consumption model, answers critics, takes...
Airbnb polarises opinion. On the one hand it’s the tech disrupter many want to emulate, growing fast and apparently pushing north of a $1 billion valuation. And then it’s also the annoying disrupter...
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Social travel site Gtrot – 18 months, close to $1M in funding, two pivots,...
Rather peculiar turn of events in the world of social travel media startups this week as Gtrot pivoted again to become a, err, gift sending service. In an email to members, Gtrot announced it is now...
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Make the most of your travel innovation pitch… or just go home
As a judge at the Phocuswright Travel Innovation Summit last week, I had the honor of having 30 companies present their businesses to me and my fellow judges in eight-minute slots during one day....
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TourWrist brings latest funding round to $1.25M, heavyweights liking the...
Not content with trousering $250,000 from winning the Travel Innovation Summit at the PhoCusWright Conference a few weeks back, TourWrist has added a further $1 million to its coffers. The additional...
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Turning tides: Travel agents losing steam as a cruise distribution channel
Travel technology has not always been kind to certain industry cohorts: travel agents being one of the endlessly highlighted losers of the accelerated pace towards the online sales. The narrative goes...
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OTAs outshine metasearch sites in sending traffic to air and hotel suppliers,...
New research out of PhoCusWright sheds interesting light on how well online travel agencies (OTAs) are performing in the US relative to metasearch sites, which aggregate fares and hotel offers from...
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Pitching apples against oranges in travel innovation produces the wrong type...
NB: This is a guest article by Rod Cuthbert, founder and chairman emeritus at Viator, and CEO at Rome2rio. I have a few years of experience of the PhoCusWright Travel Innovation Summit under my belt –...
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Deregulation of the air distribution in China and how agents can capitalise
NB: This is a guest article by Jack Zhai, chairman of Abacus China. Today’s travel agency environment is both dynamic and turbulent. The recent deregulation instituted by the Civil Aviation...
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Econsultancy says the top travel INFOGRAPHIC of 2012 was by Monetate
UK ecommerce and marketing service EConsultancy receives dozens of its infographics every week from digital marketers, and it selects a half-dozen favorites each week as models for its 100,000 members...
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The travel industry can be absurd, so don’t add to the suck factor – do...
It was like a breath of fresh air and a punch in the face all at the same time, if that’s possible. This was the moment when Brian Chesky, co-founder and CEO of Airbnb, started into the final minute of...
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360 rules: TourWrist follows PhocusWright victory with raft of new partnerships
Hot off of several awards, including the Demo Day $1 million IDG Media and several PCW/General Catalyst awards, panaroma technology provider TourWrist has announced a series of new travel brand...
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Facebook: Travel is behind other sectors with social marketing, but some...
When Facebook speaks, many people in the travel industry (often reluctantly) listen. No longer that upstart social thing for young folk – it matters to one billion or so people globally. Thus, a...
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Travel industry should go back to its innovative digital roots, act like...
NB: This is a guest article by Eric Dumas, CEO of Vayant Travel Technologies. Travel was the engine that drove the first wave of ecommerce. Travel made ecommerce a star, as the online travel landscape...
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The Scan: Skyscanner heads to the US, Marriott tests lobby booking, and more...
Skyscanner, PhoCusWright, Marriott, Yatra, OneTwoTrip, WAYN, TripRental, Rover, TUI, TourWrist, Yelp, JetBlue, and American Airlines are mentioned in today’s round-up of travel tech news. STARTUP...
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Time to feed the zombie travel startups to the lions (aka The Successful Ones)
One of the larger challenges running a complex, supplier-facing business within the tours and activities sector is the competitors (all startups) that are failing. They tend to have wonderful websites...
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2012 was the year cruise lines’ branded sites overtook the OTAs
Online sales of cruises have always been sluggish because of the complexity of the cruise product. Only one out of every six cruises are booked through websites, even in today’s do-it-yourself,...
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Travel fragmentation is extending to mobile
NB: This is a viewpoint from Alicia Jao, president of TravelNerd. Mobile continues to be a vital new frontier for most travel companies. With PhoCusWright forecasting $25.8 billion just for for US...
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A new problem for OTAs: Airline websites are outselling them in the US
For the first time, US fliers say they typically use airline websites to book airplane tickets more than they use online travel agencies (OTAs), according to PhoCusWright, a travel consultancy. The...
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Back to basics – Four essentials for any mobile travel strategy
NB: This is a view point by Carin van Vuuren, chief marketing officer at Usablenet. Believe it or not, people today are more dependent on our phones than even our wallets – indeed, some research says...
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