The importance of big data is increasing across all industries — as are the jobs required to tap into the insights within the data. So it’s no surprise that the McKinsey Global Institute recently predicted that the US will see 4 million to 5 million new data analysis jobs…

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.   Secret City Trails What is it? Secret City Trails bring an element of gamification to exploring a city. They enable the user…

This is a roundup of product news and announcements for travel systems in April 2017. Friday 7 April 2017: HotelPlanner partners with Travelport The group hotel bookings specialist is enabling customers to access custom group rates and instant online bookings as part of its “Book-in-Block” technology partnership with Travelport.   Wednesday…

In the past six months I’ve written about increasing hotel brand fees (Hotel Loyalty Rate Analysis) and increasing loyalty fees (The Great Loyalty Rate Debate). Both articles prompted some very interesting and much needed industry debate about how best to proactively manage hotel online distribution. In what was a…

Ryanair has “big ambitions” for ryanair.com to become “one of the world’s biggest travel sites”, selling third party flights and other travel products, even cruises. Its chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs talked through its plans when launching the fourth year of its Always Getting Better initiative at a conference…

Zomato, the B2B/B2C food and restaurant tech business, has issued some unaudited numbers for the year to end-March17 showing an increase in revenues and a massive reining in of its cash burn. The business was never far from the headlines a few years ago. It raised nearly $225 million…

Fun times in the vacation rental space with the rise and rise of Airbnb, funding for startups, hotels getting in on the act and consolidation around the middle ground. Where it all might head next makes for interesting speculation. NB: This is a viewpoint by Andrew McConnell, founder and CEO…

ComScore has reworked a 1940s academic theory into human psychology to structure a report about what consumers in nine markets want from their smartphones and apps, identifying travel with humankind’s need for self-actualisation. Maslow’s “hierarchy of needs” first appeared in 1943 and formed part of the American academic’s ongoing…

WestJet is up and running with FLX Shop & Price, a next-generation shopping and pricing engine developed by Farelogix. The new engine is rules-driven and, according to Farelogix, is the first to eliminate costly look-to-book or search volume limitations, providing the ability to accommodate large search volumes by online…

If you’re sick of innovation speak, you’re not alone. Some of the leading minds in innovation are encouraging a move away from buzzwords and towards more meaningful, practical and deliverable change. Speaking at the Passenger Experience Conference in Hamburg, experts shared their views on the gap between thinking and…