How we socialise, communicate, do business and travel has been dramatically changed by mobile and we live in a “mobile culture’ that did not exist five years ago. NB This is a viewpoint by Brendan Bourke, digital consultant at MTT, part of Travelport Digital. We now have mobile-only companies…

This is a regular roundup of some of the latest mobile application startup launches in travel covering everything from trip inspiration and planning to virtual assistants.   Firef.ly What is it? Firef.ly is a location-based mobile app that aims to bring together in one place many of the mobile…

Whoever said social media is a low-level contributor to a travel brand’s online traffic? Not execs at alternative accommodation websites, it appears. Hitwise examined the online behaviour of three million consumers in the UK and found that rental sites generally have seen a massive 112% increase in traffic over the…

Amadeus has pinpointed four areas where it sees the most change in the travel industry and travel distribution in the next decade. A report put together, for Amadeus, by the London School of Economics and Political Science, talks in detail about the four areas chosen after studying current “disruptive…

The motorhomes industry could easily have a seat at the top table of independent travel – the “hotel on wheels” concept  appeals across demographics and geographies. Booking motorhomes online is emerging as part of the peer-to-peer/consumer-to-consumer trend. A few months ago, the world’s largest online motorhome rental business, Motorhome…

European low-cost giant Ryanair is gradually introducing a new accommodation platform, taking its inspiration in part from metasearch. Rather than having a single provider of hotel and rental products, Ryanair will use a combination of brands that passengers can get an initial view of options for in a city. The first…

This is a roundup for product news and announcements for travel SYSTEMS in tourism and hospitality for October 2016. Monday 10 October 2016: Boxever personalises FlyBe The European regional carrier will use Boxever to assist with its customer personalisation strategy. Ireland-baed Boxever uses real-time data to create marketing messages for its…

The two largest European-founded companies that have aspired to be Airbnb alternatives — Wimdu and 9flats — are combining. The unified business says it will host nearly 500,000 short-term rental properties in 140 countries. Roman Bach, 9flats CEO, will be CEO of the combined entity. Wimdu’s lead managers, Arne Kahlke and Sören Kress,…

The era of the traditional vacation package has ended, according to Michael O’Leary, chief executive of Ryanair, Europe’s largest discount airline. O’Leary said at a recent press conference in Copenhagen: “Sales of package holidays have declined because what people are doing now is that there’s so much readily available low-fares and services…

A few months ago, we introduced pre-built e-commerce segments—segments with predefined rules that make it easier for online sellers to target specific groups of subscribers and increase the relevance of their messaging. In our latest release, we’ve added even more pre-built segmentation options for both MailChimp and MailChimp Pro users,…