In Phocus

Flight specialist Oojo is a relative newcomer to the online travel world.

The company launched four years ago and is part of Trevolution Group, which is the travel technology and services part of the wider Dyninno Group.

During an interview in the PhocusWire Studio, Gulce Karsli Rozeveld, who joined Oojo as CEO earlier this year, discussed the online flight specialist’s growth and her thoughts on whether a one-...

Airline distribution developments such as new commercial approaches and the move to offer-order have been the topic for many debates in 2024.

Discussions around IATA’s New Distribution Capability (NDC) technology standard are ongoing but general adoption is still quite low and there seems to be an acceptance, or perhaps resignation, that although there has been a little acceleration, it will take more time.

David Gunnarsson, ...

Turkey with its East meets West location, high internet penetration and relatively young population is well-positioned to further strengthen its presence in the online travel market.

At least that is what Çağlar Erol, CEO of online travel agency Wingie Enuygun Group, is hoping for as he shapes the business for further growth.

In an interview in the PhocusWire studio, Erol said that the OTA operates in 22 d...

Group travel in particular seems to be flourishing with an uptick in internal meetings and further growth predicted for 2025. Research from American Express Global Business Travel, released in October, revealed that 66% of meeting planning professionals expect their budgets to rise.

Dennis Vilovic, founder and co-CEO of Troop, a PhocusWire Hot 25 Travel Startup for 2021, believes group travel could increase by 30% ne...

When travelers are on the move, ground transportation can be considered in isolation or in combination with another travel element — a traveler could be taking a car to the airport, to a hotel or to the train, the list goes on.

It makes sense therefore that some companies are setting their sights on linking the bookings and data from various travel suppliers — a concept known as the "connected trip," which&nbs...

Alberto Gutiérrez, the founder and CEO of tours and activities marketplace Civitatis, had no business plan when he set out to build the company.

Asked for his advice for travel startups, Gutiérrez attributed the success of the Spain-based platform, which was founded in 2008, to his ability to do a little of everything from coding and finding partners to accounting.

"I always see this as the key to my success...

Travel is all over social media — and it’s continuing to play a big role in travelers’ decisions while planning and booking their trips, according to research from Phocuswright.

But misconceptions around how travel brands should be using social media remain, according to experts.

“Travel brands are seeing social media as a category of the internet still when it's increasingly becoming the way ...

Advances in hotel revenue management technology mean hotels are able to react more quickly and tap into local trends.

The idea is that if there’s a big event in town such as a convention or concert, hotels should easily be able to find out about it in advance and adjust their revenue strategies accordingly.

Artificial intelligence is increasingly playing a role in bringing more pieces of the puzzle together and ultimately hel...

Tours, activities and attractions — in short experiences — have been a hot topic in the travel industry over the past few years.

And with its staying power as a driver of travel decision-making, new growth opportunities exist, according to experts.

"I think it has increased, more and more," said Luuc Elzinga, founder and president of Tiqets during an interview in the PhocusWire studio at The Phocuswright ...

A little more than a year into her tenure as president and CEO of ToursByLocals, Lisa Chen is excited to be leading the company as the tours and activities sector continues to flourish. 

ToursByLocals is poised for growth with recently updated technology aimed at improving the 15-year-old private tour company’s strategy, she said.

“We launched a new website this past year,” she said. “We compl...

Travel planning and booking at the touch of a button.

It’s an idea that’s been talked about in the context of artificial intelligence travel planning, the connected trip and data sharing.

“I think now the focus of the innovation is around bringing this idea that the traveler is buying trips, and we need to have a connected trip, and we need to make things simpler,” said Decius Valmorbida, president...

Knowing where to start in terms of applying artificial intelligence to a travel business is difficult.

Some companies bring in a chief AI officer, others establish an AI business unit and more still just start playing with stuff and learning how it all works.

Less than a year ago, American Express Global Business Travel set up a program internally to focus on AI across the business. 

During an interview during The Phocusw...

Many who have left the travel industry often end up back in the industry because they love its ever-changing nature, the people and the dynamics.

Filip Filipov, a former vice president of Skyscanner, left travel more than four years ago, and is now back as chief operations officer of airline data specialist OAG. He joined us in the PhocusWire studio to discuss what he has observed about the industry from the o...

Investors Matt Zito and Min Liu have sat front row as travel merger and acquisition activity has warmed up over the last couple of years, with plenty of attention-grabbing moves in the third quarter of this year, following those that happened in the first and second quarters of 2024.

“For the M&A side, we're definitely on top,” said Zito, managing partner of TSI, which serves as a broke...

Will there be a mega merger or acquisition in travel in 2025? Will AI fatigue take hold? And, will travel companies address not just technical debt but technical deficit? 

Predicting what might happen in travel is never easy with the industry impacted by so many external factors, but some executives usually take a good stab at how things might play out.

Aaron Gowell, founder and CEO of SilverRail Technologies, Timothy O’...

Internet boom. 9/11. The financial crisis. The COVID pandemic. ChatGPT. The list goes on.

The last 30 years have been full of course-changing events and technological innovations since Philip Wolf founded Phocuswright in 1994. The world has become digitalized with travel shifting largely online and expected to account for nearly 65% of all bookings by 2026, according to Phocuswright's Global Travel Mar...

Artificial intelligence is touching every segment of the travel industry with destination marketing being no exception.

Tourist boards are exploring how AI and other emerging technologies such as virtual and augmented reality can improve destination search and booking as well as the in-destination experience.

During an interview in the PhocusWire studio at The Phocuswright Conference 2024, Gregory Yap, vice presi...

Acai Travel, a startup using artificial intelligence to drive efficiency for agency and call center environments, has signed Hopper as its latest partner. The deal sees Acai, a PhocusWire Hot 25 Startup for 2024, use its technology to support Hopper's human agents. The startup, which recently landed seed funding of $4 million, already counts companies including Globespan Travel Management among its customers.

During an interview in...