Tripadvisor’s New Categories for Business Listings

Good morning from Skift. It’s Wednesday, September 7. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today

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Episode Notes

Tripadvisor has started allowing U.S. and Canadian hotels and restaurants to self-identify as woman-owned or Black-owned, for example. It’s part of the company’s push to attract travelers seeking to do business with members of underrepresented groups, writes Executive Editor Dennis Schaal.

Tripadvisor’s other new categories in its business listings include Indigenous-owned, veteran-owned and Hispanic-owned. Those designations specify that the restaurant or hotel identifies itself using such a term, Schaal adds. Tripadvisor has said hundreds of businesses have already taken advantage of the new feature, which it plans to roll out more broadly. However, Tripdadvisor does not verify if a business is at least 51 percent owned by a member of a certain group, which is similar to its approach with user reviews.

We head to Cambodia next. The Southeast Asian nation is finally digitizing its tourism industry to boost its recovery, writes Global Tourism Reporter Dawit Habtemariam.

Cambodia’s Ministry of Tourism has launched a digital literacy training program and an online vocational school as part of its strategy to reform tourism in the country. As Habtemariam writes many Cambodian hotels still conduct bookings manually, one tour operator executive said the government needs to introduce training to help businesses operate more efficiently. Cambodia’s tourism sector has made strides digitally in recent years though, with more travel companies accepting contactless payments.

However, Habtemariam notes Cambodia has a lot of work to do regarding digital marketing. Prime Minister Hun Sen described it as a significant weakness for the tourism industry, adding that Cambodia’s struggles in digital marketing have led to an overreliance on selling its most famous landmark Angkor Wat to prospective visitors.

We wrap today with major news from online travel agency Hopper. The company is announcing a partnership on Wednesday with JetBlue Airways that it sees filling a major gap in its schedules, reports Executive Editor Schaal.

The new agreement means that JetBlue flights are being sold through the Hopper app and the carrier’s distribution partner, Capital One Travel. Hopper had said recently that getting the deal done was a major priority for the company as it hadn’t previously offered JetBlue flights. Meanwhile, JetBlue said the partnership would enable it to reach travelers who may not go to its website when booking a flight.

Hopper estimates that it has a roughly 10 percent share of third-party flight bookings in the U.S.