Africa’s online travel market has a different look today, with flights-focussed Travelstart taking a majority stake in South Africa’s biggest accommodation site, SafariNow. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed. SafariNow lists 23,000 properties, mainly in South Africa but with some inventory elsewhere on the continent, covering self-catering,…
Expedia Inc. is expanding its agreement with Routehappy, which operates a rich content platform for airline shopping, to include integration of Universal Product Attributes (UPAs) and Universal Ticket Attributes (UTAs) – via the Routehappy Hub API. Currently, Expedia’s brands – Expedia.com, Travelocity, Orbitz and Egencia—use Routehappy Scores & Amenities,…
Anyone in the travel tech sector tasked with organizing the office Christmas quiz should take a look at CB Insights’ freely available Mapping the State of Travel Tech report. You could ask colleagues: How many $100-million-plus travel tech deals have taken place since 2013? Which is the most active…
We already know second-screening is a thing – you’re watching something on Netflix and reach for the nearest mobile device to find out more about a location or a restaurant. A few years ago, Nielsen put some figures on it, revealing that 84% of tablet and smartphone users say…
Limited service hotels are often challenged to deliver a superior guest experience amidst a revenue-constrained environment. The brand promise is that of affordable rates and straightforward service. Yet traveler expectations are higher than ever, meaning that even limited service hotels must compete on guest experience. Thankfully, the promise of…
Travel tech entrepreneur Jay Walker expects to expand his new venture Upside outside the US after signing a deal to provide a travel platform for the readers of The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) in the US. Upside, which launched earlier this year, is targeted at business travellers from small…
Edinburgh-based startup TravelNest has picked up £3 million in what it claims is Scotland’s biggest ever seed round. The business is “an advertising optimisation platform” for holiday rental owners, and allows owners to manage all their listings through a single dashboard which compares and contrast the performance of each…
Ryanair recently celebrated the opening of its third IT and innovation hub, its new Travel Labs, in Madrid, Spain; with a staff of 50 and plans to staff up to 250 people who will work on digital programs in support of the airline’s plan to become the Amazon of…
Amadeus Next has marked its two-year anniversary with plans to develop a presence in new markets, including China. The APAC-focused start-up community has so far powered 33 startups and has more than 70 partners. The announcement today also names three new members of the community, and give an indication…
Understanding what blockchain does, the likely use cases for the travel industry and implications for widespread disruption, remains something of a blur. Speaking at EyeforTravel’s digital strategies event in Amsterdam this week, Joerg Esser a theoretical physicist, former group director at Thomas Cook and now partner at consultancy Roland…