Innovation Propelled the Travel Sector Forward Despite the Pandemic

Crises prompt innovation, and that’s been true of the travel sector during the coronavirus pandemic. A theme of Skift’s reporting in the past year was an innovation surge. The crisis compelled companies and destinations to seek inventive fixes to problems.

As the world laps a year of drama, we’re pausing to recall some representative modernizations, sector-by-sector.

“One surprise about the trajectory of travel tech innovation in the past year was that the spirit didn’t just come from startups,” said Máire Walsh, senior vice president, digital technology, Enterprise Ireland. “The industry overall became more open to new solutions.”

Exhibit A: In November at the Skift IDEA Awards, we highlighted brands defining the future of travel through innovation, design, and experiences. See: Announcing the Winners of Skift IDEA Awards 2020.

Some of the willingness to experiment came from a painful collapse in revenue.

“We see today an enormous appetite in certain parts of the hotel market for something different that we wouldn’t have seen three or four years ago,” said Ben Stephenson, founder and CEO of Impala, a startup that offers connectivity and distribution tools for hotels.

“When occupancy levels were high, hoteliers were fine with the status quo,” Stephenson said in an interview this month. “But many hotel executives are now like, ‘Well, let’s give it a go with new partners because what’s there to lose, really?'”

Anticipating rising demand, the London-based Impala doubled its headcount during the pandemic to about 60.

It wasn’t just hotels, of course. Skift columnist Colin Nagy spotlighted several examples of cross-sector creativity in his roundup, “The Biggest Innovators in Travel and Hospitality: Covid Edition.”

A Practical Definition for Innovation

To be clear, we’re defining “innovation” in a modest and pragmatic way. We mean travel companies experimenting with new methods, ideas, processes, and technologies.

The travel sector adopted many innovations that weren’t “new” in a strict sense. Travel companies imported ideas that have worked in other sectors, such as e-commerce, retail, and banking.

Travel companies focused on modernizations intended to drive profitability and customer satisfaction. The innovations weren’t glamorous, such as jetpacks, housekeeping robots, or perfect universal translator devices. Instead, the transformations mostly boosted quality control, provided more consistent service, or reduced traveler and employee pain points.

Some geographic regions were better able to afford innovation than others. Some brands became fixated on innovation during the pandemic in the Middle East, for instance. See Reem Abdellatif’s story: 5 Middle East Travel Innovations Born Out of Pandemic and Fierce Rivalries.

The Hotel Tech Sector’s Innovation Effort

Two examples, one from a large company and one from a rising startup, highlight how the hospitality tech sector approached innovation during the crisis.

A business traveler. Source: Adobe.

Oracle Hospitality, the juggernaut of hotel property management systems, had for years experienced an undertow of complaints from hoteliers and vendors.

“In the past, we had restrictions on the technology side or in the business model, which meant that some innovations that were supposed to come to life in our industry couldn’t,” said Laura Calin, vice president, strategy, and solutions management at Oracle Hospitality, in an interview this month. “We don’t want that ever to happen again.”

During the pandemic, Oracle Hospitality pushed an innovation drive, as shown by its first so-called innovation week, which we reported on in July 2020. See: What Legacy Travel Companies Could Learn From Oracle Hospitality’s Weeklong Tech Push.

The event was successful enough that Oracle Hospitality is having another innovation week on March 22, with 178 companies signed up to take part so far. More than 50 Oracle staffers will take part. Staffing across time zones will be available to instantly answer questions about integrations with its systems so that partners can create new digital connections as fast as possible.

“It’s not just a technology component,” said Luis Weir, a senior director at Oracle. “It’s also the engagement in how we engage with each other that really creates an energizing vibe.”

Hotel Innovation

Last year saw the rise of “ghost kitchens,” a pairing between hotels and an outside food operator that strives to turn food-and-beverage operations profitable through creative cooperation. Skift Hospitality Reporter Cameron Sperance profiled the highest-profile example of the phenomenon, Butler Hospitality. See: Hotels Hope Profits Are Cooking in the Ghost Kitchen Business and This Ghost Kitchen Boss Makes Sure Hotels Thrive in a New Era of Room Service.

The crisis prompted hoteliers to try new things, prioritizing how hotels could make many of their “high-touch” processes “contactless” through technology. See: Hilton, Hyatt, and Others Pull Back the Curtain on Making Hygiene More Than Theater.

Many brands focused on affordable technology that could be most quickly rolled out, such as digital room keys and mobile check-in platforms. See: Hotel Owners’ New Financial Realities Thwart Pandemic Tech Push by the Major Brands.

A view from a king suite at View Hotels Sydney Harbourview property. Source: View Hotels.

Sometimes the tale of a specific company can stand in for a broader trend. Such was the case for View Hotels, an upscale, independent hotel brand in Australia, which used the pandemic downturn as a time for a brand and tech overhaul. See: How One Upscale Australian Hotel Group Used the Crisis to Rethink Everything.

Hotels offered inspections and visits via Zoom to travel managers and meeting planners, adding dynamic extras to bring the venues to life. See: Hotels Using Virtual Tours to Woo Corp Travel Managers.

Hotels also sought ways to keep their staffing needs low during a slow rebound in business. See: Hotels See Automation as a Stopgap When They Can’t Afford Full Staffs.

Online Travel Innovation

Skift Founding Editor Dennis Schaal had countless scoops about online travel’s leading innovators in 2020. One that stood out was Schaal’s leading coverage on Tripadvisor’s product development. See: Tripadvisor to Launch Its First Subscription Plan for Travelers and see Schaal’s follow-up Tripadvisor Plus reportage.

Suppose you believe that large tech companies stymie competition. In that case, a regulatory push by authorities in China, Europe, and the United States might boost your spirits. Watchdogs took various steps in 2020 to reign in so-called Big Tech.

Antitrust investigations and regulatory pushes in 2020 targeted several large tech companies, such as Google, Booking Holdings, and Trip.com Group. See: Online Travel Innovation May Emerge From Big Tech Crackdown on 3 Continents, an edition of Schaal’s newsletter that is an exclusive perk for Skift Pro members.)

While some travel companies griped about Big Tech, others sought to work more closely with them. Salesforce, a customer relationship management platform, agreed to buy messaging service Slack for $27 billion in late 2020 and several travel companies saw it as an opportunity to work more closely with both for mutual advantage. See: 3 Ways Salesforce’s Purchase of Slack Will Shake Up Corporate Travel.

The pandemic sped up digital adoption in Southeast Asia, which will benefit online travel. See: Big Long-Term Gains Ahead for Southeast Asia Online Travel, Even With Pandemic Setback

But the online travel giants didn’t stun the world with many innovations in 2020 — unless you counted some cross-marketing efforts. See: Kayak Moves Into Hotels by Opening Miami Beach Property in Partnership With Life House.
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Airlines Saw a Runway to Innovation

A few airlines saw automation tools as a way of keeping labor costs down. A case in point, see: Japan’s ANA Steadily Embraces Smart Airport Tech to Be a Global Model

Some airlines invested in technology as a way to not only drive cost-savings but also generate new sources of revenue. India’s SpiceJet aqui-hired in 2020 the team and technology of subsidiary Travenues, a Bengaluru-based airline technology company that had built several products for airline e-commerce. The move represented the latest in a series of tech moves by SpiceJet as it built a business-to-business services unit that will provide white-labeled versions of its tech to other airlines. See: How India’s SpiceJet Is Using Tech to Innovate During the Pandemic.

Airlines were cash-strapped during the pandemic. But a few tried to find ways to use technology to prepare for the recovery.

KLM maintained an IT team focused in 2020 on inventing virtual training for some pilots, cleaning crews, and maintenance crews. The training, which relied on virtual reality headsets rather than physical simulators or actual equipment, reduced the cost of workforce education while boosting worker performance. See: KLM Is Ramping Up Virtual Reality to Train Workers Since Pandemic’s Start.

In another behind-the-scenes trend, airlines increasingly used more advanced application programming interfaces, or APIs, to distribute their fares. That move could one day let Amazon and other e-commerce companies more easily sell tickets. Carriers such as Lufthansa, Qantas, Air France, British Airways, and Southwest Airlines embraced APIs and other technological platforms and workflows to improve how they distribute their content to agencies. See: Southwest Moves Ahead of Schedule to Bring On Distribution Partners to Boost Corp Travel Bookings.

That, in turn, opened up an opportunity for tech players. Travelport, one of the tech players that helps airlines with distribution, spent 2020 revamping the foundation of its tech stack and its branding. It became the first global distribution system to help Qantas use IATA’s New Distribution Capability for travel with travel agencies such as ATPI and Maxim’s Travel via Travelport’s agency desktop solution.

Meanwhile, a few upstart companies also spent 2020 working on their distribution tech and adding partners. See: The Startup That Could Bring Airline Ticket Shopping to Amazon.

Tourism and Destination Innovation

The island of Kauai. Source: Hawaiian Tourism Authority.

In a major departure from other tourism-dependent destinations, a majority of Hawaiian residents said in a survey they don’t want a return to overtourism after the crisis. Skift Global Tourism Reporter Lebawit Lily Girma looked at how Hawaii might become a model for trends in “responsible” and “re-generative” tourism.

Destinations can take an integrated community tourism approach that can balance local needs with providing visitors with authentic and transformative experiences —with technology’s help. See: Lessons From a Tourism Pushback in Hawaii.

A few institutions aimed to innovate how they support the tourism sector to foster change in destination management. IDB Invest, the private sector arm of the Inter-American Development Bank, worked with companies in Latin America and the Caribbean to offer financial solutions and advisory services in transactions determined to have a high developmental impact. Last year, IDB Invest made a $50 million investment in lodging brand Selina.

“When we’re talking to our developer clients, we’re saying what is it that you’re doing to provide training support guidance to elevate the role of women so that they are not restricted only to this junior staff, where there’s a glass ceiling that they cannot surpass?” said the travel lead at IDB Invest in an interview with Girma. See: Why the Business of All-Inclusive Resorts Will Never Be the Same.

Amadeus, the Madrid-based travel tech giant, took steps to show it was a good partner announcing a travel career education program to supplement instruction at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) on Spain’s Canary Islands. The move came as different players in the travel industry sought ways to collaborate for mutual benefit. See: Amadeus’ First Travel Tech School Will Open Soon on Spain’s Canary Islands.

Perhaps the country with the most signs of organic entrepreneurship and innovation was Vietnam. See Skift Editor-at-Large Raini Hamdi’s article: The Asia City That Could Emerge Strongest From the Pandemic.

Corporate Travel Innovation

The corporate travel sector saw digital disruption speed up in 2020. Skift Founder and CEO Rafat Ali outlined the playbook for the sector in his essay How Digital Disruption Happens in Industries, the Travel Industry Edition.

Against that backdrop, many companies sought to embrace innovation.

A case in point: The winner in the Skift IDEA Awards in the innovation category for business travel was Zeno by Serko. This booking tool from Serko, a New Zealand-based online travel booking and expense management company, syncs up data sources from across a traveler’s journey and overlays it with the latest decision-making tools, best practices in user interface design, and savvy business intelligence to help travel managers assure greater compliance, ensuring lower costs and safer behavior.

In February 2021, Serko updated Zeno to make it easier for companies to follow regulations in some countries, such as Australia, to supply contact tracing information to authorities. Zeno auto-populates as much of this information as possible and requires travelers to fill the gaps in required data before confirming a booking.

Serko’s effort adopts some techniques pioneered in e-commerce years ago, such as the use of APIs, or application programming interfaces, to pull data from many sources. Yet it’s still commendable that Serko bringing this innovation and applying it to corporate travel — which hasn’t yet seen much of it.

Several travel management companies also tried to rev up their innovation metabolisms, as Skift Corporate Travel Editor Matthew Parsons reported.

CWT, for example, doubled down on its so-called B2B4E (Business-to-Business-for-Employees) program in sync with a new operating structure. Meanwhile, Australia’s Flight Centre Travel Group sought greater exposure to innovation by investing in TP Connects Technologies and acquiring WhereTo. See: Flight Centre Takes Aim at Essential Services Travel for the Road to Recovery.

Meetings and Events Innovation

The startup MeetingsBooker added automated bookings to help corporate clients source local workspaces for teams that are working from home but who need to meet.

The Dublin-based MeetingsBooker represented a trend among companies in adapting to the crisis. It tried to enable fresh revenue drivers for the industry by layering on new offerings, collaborating with industry leaders, and ultimately adding more choice for customers. See: Amex GBT Wants to Help Remote Workers Escape Confinement of Their Homes and How Travel Benefits From the Future Decentralized Workplace.

Travel Startups

Venture capitalist poured $4.7 billion into the travel sector in 2020, according to Skift Research calculations. (Skift Research subscribers can read “Venture Investment Trends in Travel 2021.”

Thayer Ventures was one venture firm that saw many of its travel-focused portfolio companies prove resilient during the pandemic. The San Francisco-based company even hopped onto the bandwagon of investing in travel companies via SPACs, or special-purpose acquisition companies — the hot investing trend of 2020. See: What Exactly Are ‘SPACs’? Why They Will Matter in Travel This Year?.

One of the largest SPACs to debut in 2020 with the intent to invest in a travel or transportation sector company was Go Acquisition. See Dennis Schaal’s report: This Newly Public $500 Million Company Is Set Up to Go Shopping for Travel Acquisitions.

You might think 2020 was a bad year to launch a travel startup, but a few launched anyway. One of the most timely was SkySquad, which offers families and others needing extra help, dedicated airport help from the time they arrive at the curbside until they are at the boarding gate. See this report by contributor Ruthy Muñoz: Airport Startup Aims to Help Frazzled Traveling Families as Part-Nanny, Part-Concierge.

Some travel startups used the pandemic year to fine-tune their products. One example was Frontdesk, a property management service and tech vendor, among other things. (See: Frontdesk Sprints Ahead by Taking On Short-Term Rental Castoffs From Stay Alfred.

Frontdesk’s net promoter score, a measure of customer satisfaction was 69 out of 100 before the pandemic. But Frontdesk drove it up to 72 by early 2021, compared to an industry average NPS of 37.

The most identifiable changes at Frontdesk that drove this score higher were switching to a new system that made it easier for its client-facing staff to access information about customers. Updates to its property management system also boosted satisfaction, such as sending housekeepers clearer and more actionable guidance for planning their cleaning routes and schedules.