16th October 2024: Here are some of the stories that caught our attention over the week with some of our takeaways.
Avilabs lands €8M for airline disruption management technology : Phocuswright reports that airline disruptions are said to cost the industry in the region of €60 billion in operational costs annually. The lack of technological solutions to address the challenges was addressed at a recent event with some experts saying the whole area of airline disruption and passenger recovery is “crazy under-developed.”
As hard as it is to believe, this is a staggeringly underserved space with massive potential – and I couldn’t agree more with the “crazy under-developed” tag. From my recent experiences in global hotel distribution any progress here will be such a welcome move. The level of manual work involved and the clunky processes are hard to fathom.
eDreams Prime Day sets record for new subscribers: Travolution reports that eDreams the Travel subscription platform and one of Europe’s largest OTAs has wrapped up its eDreams Prime Day by setting a new company milestone – the largest number of weekly accommodation bookings in its history.
The article says Prime currently has 6.2 million members and is on track to reach 7.25 million subscribers by the end of March 2025. As you may be aware, the main difference between eDreams loyalty programme and that of the other OTAs is that it is a paid subscription! I will be interested to see if any of the other OTAs are likely to follow suit.
TMC RFP Success in Current Market Requires Refined Strategy: Business Travel News reports that “Travel buyer chatter at industry conferences over the past several months has revealed a healthy appetite for change and innovation with their travel management service provider, but the path to and market for that change is as difficult as ever.”
Trends and challenges as China’s outbound market returns: TTG Asia reports that China is set to play a key role in reshaping the travel market as its outbound numbers recover, and is on track to surpass pre-pandemic levels next year, with some challenges. The CEO of Trip.com, Jane Sun noted that Chinese travellers will make 130 million trips abroad this year, building on last year’s 87 million trips after the country’s borders reopened.
Alipay+ transactions triple in 2024 as travel industry embraces cross-border digital payment and marketing technology: Web in Travel reports on the success and trends of Alipay+, a suite of cross-border digital payment, marketing and digitalisation solutions that help connect global merchants to consumers. Consumers get a choice of deals using their preferred payment methods while travelling abroad.
