4 Takeaways From Skift’s Online Travel and Distribution Summit
Photo Credit: Many online travel companies are addressing the changing nature of work as part of their offerings. In an increasingly digital world, travel brands need to offer a variety of payment options to buyers to maximize their revenue. Skift / brain2hands
Skift Take
Profit, revenue and trends became less relevant during the pandemic so many travel businesses with deeper pockets used the standstill to rethink their strategies. Plenty of the new efforts will fail, but on the other side of the crisis, some of these businesses will look significantly different.
Many travel companies that have survived the pandemic have used the pause as an opportunity to reinvent themselves, or at least to launch new product lines that they may or may not have contemplated before masks and hand sanitizer became required accessories.
That was one of the four takeaways from Skift's Online Travel and Distribution Summit, which took place in a virtual event on February 17.
Pandemic-Era Product Innovation
Saying Certares raised more money for investing in the last year than it has in the past eight, founder and senior managing director Greg O'Hara announced that the private equity firm, with huge investments in travel, is looking at more real estate investments.
Referring to an upcoming hotel transaction, O'Hara told Skift founder Rafat Ali: “We’ll close our first deal in the next couple of weeks.”
O'Hara made the argument that given Certares' investments in companies including American Express Global Business Travel, Tripadvisor, Internova and AM
