As 2022 comes to a close, we are reflecting on the past 12
months and thinking ahead to the new year.
Overall there has been a strong current of optimism running
through every sector of the industry this year and excitement about innovation
is bubbling up, in many cases spurred by the frustrations and weaknesses
laid bare during the pandemic.
These are some of the people and topics we have identified
as being in the spotlight in the past year and as the ones to watch in the
coming months.
The people
Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber
- As the former
CEO of Expedia Group, Khosrowshahi has a clear understanding of the travel
industry, so it shouldn’t be too surprising he’s leading the ridesharing and delivery
giant deeper and deeper into the travel experience for consumers. The company announced
several travel-related updates in 2022, and there is certainly more to come. Uber
Travel, which launched in May in the United States and Canada and is now
available to users worldwide, streamlines the process of requesting rides
connected to a trip by importing flight, hotel and restaurant reservations from
Gmail, Outlook and Hotmail into the Uber app. In the United Kingdom, Uber is
also offering train and bus bookings in its app, with talk of flights and hotels
being added in the future. And Uber
Explore now includes an integration with Viator, so users can book
activities and a ride to the location all within the app. The word super app
comes to mind, and Uber may have the foundation to be one of the first U.S.-based
brands to get there.
József Váradi, co-founder and CEO of Wizz Air
- As
co-founder and CEO of Wizz Air, József Váradi steered the Hungary-based low-cost
carrier through the pandemic. The carrier said during recent earnings that it
plans to exceed pre-pandemic levels of business in the next six months and also
continue its growth strategy even with the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. For the
first half of 2022 Wizz Air carried 26.5 million passengers compared to 12.5
million year-on-year. Váradi also said recently that the airline is planning a
35% increase in capacity for the second half of its 2022 financial year as well
as more flights to the Middle East. And, despite its growth, Wizz Air is also
managing to reduce carbon emissions per passenger at a time when governments
and consumers are watching how the aviation industry tackles the sustainability
challenge. In January, Sustainalytics, a Morningstar Company that rates companies on their ESG (environmental, social and governance) performance, named Wizz Air Europe’s most sustainable airline, and in July CAPA named the carrier its Global Environmental Sustainability Airline Group of the Year.
Marjan
Rintel, president and CEO of KLM
- Marjan Rintel took up the reins of KLM in July this year. Having
previously spent eight years in a similar role at Dutch Railways (NS), she is
no stranger to travel industry challenges. However, no one was prepared for the
chaos at Schiphol, and other European airports, this past summer as travelers
returned to the skies. Fighting current fires alongside more medium to long
term challenges such as sustainable travel and labor shortages will be very
much part of her role. In addition, the need to drive the carrier further in
its digital journey will likely be high on the agenda especially after more
than two years of the pandemic and, Rintel recently stated that the next five
to 10 years will be spent getting rid of legacy technology and speeding up the
move to more modern ways of selling.
Matt Goldberg, CEO of Tripadvisor
- Will Tripadvisor sell
off Viator? Will its membership program, Tripadvisor
Plus, remain in its current form? And what else might change at the
20-plus-year-old company now that founding
CEO Steve Kaufer is gone? In his first
interview as CEO of Tripadvisor, Matt Goldberg took the stage for the opening
session at The Phocuswright Conference in November and shared that the company
is “in the messy middle” of identifying
which areas to strengthen, which ones to do differently and what to drop
completely. Goldberg emphasized the decisions are being driven by “putting
the consumer at the heart of everything we do.” In the coming months we expect
to hear about what he called a “refreshed approach” to the Tripadvisor core as
well as an acceleration of efforts to reinforce the Viator brand as the leader
in the experiences space. Goldberg also says the company is considering how
content can be provided in new ways to create an “immersive travel experience”
and how to make the Tripadvisor app a more valuable tool for consumers.
Omri Morgenshtern, CEO of Agoda
- Like Goldberg, Omri Morgenshtern
stepped into the role of CEO at Agoda on July 1. But unlike Goldberg,
Morgenshtern was already an insider, having been chief operating officer at the
Booking Holdings-owned online travel agency since 2018 and with the company since
2014. While recovery has been slower across Asia Pacific – and challenges
remain according to Phocuswright – Agoda hasn’t let up, building its teams
around the world and launching new products, including a “Price Freeze” feature
in collaboration with Hopper Cloud. In a discussion
at WiT Singapore 2022, Morgenshtern said Agoda is working to create a new
UX that connects every element of a trip even when bookings happen at different
times – what he calls a “persistent trip.” And he has expressed an ambitious
vision for the OTA’s future as a platform that provides “any service you
consume while traveling, and everywhere, physical or virtual. When you travel,
we want to give you the services, and make sure the more elements you book, the
cheaper it becomes for you. If you get the flight, accommodation and attraction
through us, quite frankly nobody will be able to compete with the rates I’m
going to provide to you.”
Peter Kern, vice chairman and CEO of Expedia Group
- Since
joining Expedia Group as CEO and vice chairman in April 2020, Peter Kern has
overseen a radical shake up. In recent months alone, the company has unveiled
its Open
World strategy which includes a new technology platform. Further launches
have included One
Key, the group’s unified loyalty program and Open
World Accelerator, laying the ground for startups and small-to-medium sized
businesses to work with Expedia brands. Almost three years into the role, Kern
will watch as these initiatives bear fruit but the results will not be
immediate. In the interim, many will be asking what’s
next, but Kern will have to contend with the impact of recession in many
parts of the globe as well as long-standing challenges including the
eye-watering marketing dollars handed to Google every year.
Sally Davey, CEO of Travalyst
PhocusWire’s Hot 25 founders
- Narrowing down a list of more than 120 startups to 25 is a
complex task, and certainly the backgrounds and capabilities of the founding team
is an important factor in the consideration. Our selections
for 2023 reflect both the strengths of the products and services and the
smarts of their founders – more than half that launched their companies since
the start of the COVID pandemic. We believe these leaders are poised to
continue growing their companies and grabbing headlines in the coming year. We’ll be watching
closely, and we believe you should as well.
The topics
eVTOL
- With this being
the year that the cartoon character George Jetson is thought to have been born, it’s fitting that electric aircraft
would make great strides in 2022. Manufacturers of electric vertical takeoff
and landing (eVTOL) aircraft scored funding round after funding round – sometime from major airlines. United
Airlines, for example, paid $10 million to Archer Aviation for 100 of its eVTOL aircraft. Less
than one month later, United invested $15 million in Eve Air
Mobility with an
agreement to purchase up to 400 of its air taxis. Fueled by an investment from Delta Air Lines, electric aircraft manufacturer Joby
Aviation and Skyports Infrastructure announced in October they are developing a moveable
passenger terminal, called a “Living Lab,” with the aim of delivering a
zero-wait check-in experience for customers. The Living Lab will travel
throughout the United States in the hopes of winning over regulators,
government officials and the public to electric aircraft. Expect to see
investments and innovations in this sector to continue to grab headlines in
2023.
Blockchain
- PhocusWire has been covering
blockchain and its potential use in travel from our outset – including stories
about its role in
identity, loyalty,
distribution
and payments.
The pandemic certainly slowed progress, but in the last year we have seen quite
a bit of activity from companies around the globe including Arise,
Blockskye,
Dtravel,
Pinktada,
Chain4Travel,
Winding
Tree, Travala
and several of our PhocusWire Hot 25 Travel Startups for 2023 – Neoke,
TravelX,
Flycoin,
Aeropaye
and IoMob.
As we get more and more examples of real-world implementations – and
potentially ones that not only work but that enhance efficiency and even drive
revenue for travel companies – will we see wider use of blockchain-powered
solutions? We think the answer is yes – and that 2023 may mark that tipping
point.
The economy
- It’s been a topic of conversation
across the industry in 2022 and will continue to be top of mind in the new
year. How will economic challenges impact the travel industry? Inflation, energy
costs, mortgage rates, the war in Ukraine – all of these factors play into
decisions about travel, both for individuals considering vacations and
companies weighing the value of business trips. According to the International
Monetary Fund’s latest Global Economic Outlook published in October, “Global
economic activity is experiencing a broad-based and sharper-than-expected
slowdown, with inflation higher than seen in several decades… Global growth is
forecast to slow from 6% in 2021 to 3.2% in 2022 and 2.7% in 2023. This is the
weakest growth profile since 2001 except for the global financial crisis and
the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.” In their Q3 earnings calls, travel
leaders remained cautiously optimistic. When asked about macroeconomic
volatility, Expedia
Group CEO Peter Kern said, “Despite some macroeconomic uncertainty
and some short-term impact from Hurricane Ian, travel demand has remained
strong and ADRs remain substantially elevated relative to pre-pandemic levels… so
far, there’s really no evidence to suggest there is some bigger macroeconomic
thing happening.” And Booking
Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel said, “While there continues to be uncertainty
around the near-term macroeconomic environment, we are as confident as ever in
the long-term growth of travel and in the opportunities ahead for our company.”
The Q4 and full year 2022 results coming out early next year will certainly paint
a more clear picture of the impact.
New travel sellers
Sustainability
- Sustainability
became a top concern for the travel and hospitality industry in 2021. And judging by the quantity of news
stories devoted to the issue this year, sustainability in travel shows no signs
of leaving the global spotlight. Whether driven by consumer demand or government incentives, having a
more positive impact based on environmental, social and economic measures is an
aim for many – if not all – segments of the industry: travel managers, hoteliers, airlines, tour companies, ground transportation and online travel agencies. And we’re
seeing some movement in the right direction. In June of this year, the Swedish airline Braathens held what it claims to be the first
regional flight using 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in both engines. Vancouver
Island has made a bold shift to define itself as a social enterprise,
focused on measuring its success through its social impact versus through
economic indicators. And earlier this month The Travel Corporation – parent
company of 40 brands including Trafalgar Tours, Contiki Tours, Red Carnation
Hotels, Uniworld River Cruises and more, with operations in more than 70
countries – announced
a new carbon fund to help it reach net zero. But the
industry still faces numerous challenges in reaching its sustainability targets,
including the European energy crisis, a shortage of SAF and a lack of unity around emissions
standards. Stay
tuned to PhocusWire’s coverage in 2023 to see how the industry overcomes
obstacles to inch closer to its environmental goals.