August 7, 2024 DJ Catron
Experts gathered at Phocuswright Europe to discuss travel tech trends from around the world, including generative artificial intelligence, machine learning and the metaverse.
So it might have felt odd when one of the Center Stage panelists defined travel in terms that conjured up images of photographs pasted into a paper scrapbook.
“that [travel] “We are an industry of memory,” declares Wolfgang Krips, senior vice president of corporate strategy at Amadeus IT Group. “We create memories.”
But when Focusright managing director and co-moderator Pete Como asked the panelists about the tech trends that most excited them, Cripps wasn't looking back, he was looking forward. Method First.
“The future of travel may be that you don't travel at all and you basically just make memories,” Cripps said. “That's obviously a long way off. A lot of the problems around sustainability and overtourism and stuff will be solved because you won't go there.”
The comment sent waves of laughter through the auditorium in Barcelona, and Cripps continued, excited about his role in getting his audience of travel industry professionals to think more deeply about the issue.
“It's a bit strange,” he acknowledged, “but if you think about it, for example, during the pandemic, I interviewed a local guide who did a city tour of Madrid, and he said he did the whole tour virtually. So it's possible.”
Fellow panelist Karen Borda, senior vice president of product and technology at Expedia Group, questioned whether this was a future she could embrace.
“Travel is about memories, but for me it's also about the human connection,” she says. “I touch a part of the memory and background of every person I meet, and I think that really changes me.”
Borda also had the distant future in mind when he suggested the tech trends he's most excited about, inspired by his love for children and the need for sustainable travel.
“When you think about clean energy, more efficient jet fuels and things like that, obviously we're going to continue to travel. We want to travel. Travel changes the world,” she said. “So how do we travel while also protecting the environment for our future, our children's future? Also, one of the things I love about traveling is really immersing yourself in the place, supporting local destinations and local travel and having authentic experiences. I think those things combine well.”
The third panelist, Iñaki Ulis, CEO of travel technology subscription specialist Caravelo, spoke about a greener future characterised by in-person travel, as long as you don't have to drive yourself.
“I'm a big fan of self-driving cars and they're very exciting,” says Uliz. “Honestly, I think they have the potential to really change not just how we travel but how we live. It will change our relationship with our cars and other possessions. Every time we walk down the street, we see machines lined up doing nothing. I think that waste will ideally disappear one day. There's a lot of room to make cities better and more efficient. I hope this happens soon because I don't like driving.”
The conversation took a more speculative turn when co-host Siu Hoon Yeow, founder of Web in Travel and editorial director of Northstar Travel Group Asia, pressed the panelists to talk about the industry's biggest challenges.
Uriez said it's difficult for companies, especially small startups, to keep up with new technological advances.
“On the one hand, we have to move really fast or we'll get left behind. We have to jump on things like the AI revolution or other things will overtake us,” he said. “Now, in parallel, we have to provide high-quality products for the enterprise that are very safe, highly secure, reliable. How do we do those two things? … I think that's a challenge we all face.”
Cripps pointed to leveraging data, particularly customer content, in a rapidly changing regulatory environment.
“Part of my department is a business incubator,” he says. “We had one initiative that was really promising, but it completely failed because we couldn't manage customer content and everything that goes with it and be compliant.”
Borda cited a number of issues, including the double-edged sword of new technology.
“Every new technology solves one problem and suddenly uncovers or exposes a whole new set of problems that we hadn't imagined before,” she says. “Problems that didn't exist before: security, privacy, government regulation. These are new challenges.”
She was still in the early stages. Borda said the cost of investing in and implementing AI and machine learning initiatives was also a consideration. The third was customer expectations.
“When we use new technology, we have to use it in a way that simplifies the traveler's experience,” she says, “making it better and less frustrating. I think that's a challenge because some people like human interaction and some people don't like that much human interaction.”
The panelists also discussed the most overrated and underrated tech trends, the likelihood of more airlines offering ticket subscriptions, what humans are better at than machines, what parts of jobs they'd like to automate, and other problems they'd like to solve with tech. Watch the full discussion below.
