Are Travel Tech Companies Safe From Layoffs? These Execs Are Optimistic — For Now
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Travel Tech Briefing
Editor’s Note: Exclusive reporting on technology’s impact on the travel industry, delivered every Thursday. The briefing will guide executives as they decide if their companies should “build, buy, or partner” to stay ahead.Big Tech companies are laying off tens of thousands of people.
Most recently Meta announced this week that it is cutting about 11,000 people. And Twitter, of course, has had its own reports. There have been other layoffs by Salesforce, Stripe, Lyft, Coinbase, Shopify and more.
So, is travel tech next?
Maybe. But there are no signs yet. Booking.com, for example, reported $6.1 billion in revenue last quarter — its best quarter ever. And the CEO said demand is not slowing down.
Even so, executives are keeping an eye out, though some have said they’re not too worried — at least not yet.
That’s also what Ian Brooks is seeing as co-founder of travel tech recruitment firm Gail Kenny. The firm has hired more than 1,000 mid- to senior-level tech employees over the last 15 years, focused mostly in the European market, he said.
“Yes, there's a degree of caution,” Brooks said. “But at the same time, I think a lot of travel companies cut back so much during the pandemic … They’ve seen how difficult it has been to rehire people, so they're not rushing into cutting back
