Articles tagged “getyourguide”

Ten travel startups collectively announced more than $167 million in funding lately. Concepts included the online booking of tour guides, tour packages, Vietnamese domestic travel, Indian hotels, and e-visas.

In Skift's top stories this week, we covered Sonesta's rapid growth at the expense of Marriott and IHG, Asia's travel recovery, AirAsia's digital transformation, and Southwest's business travel strategy, among others.

Ugh.

In the school of online travel hard knocks, new entrants have learned that barriers to entry can be substantial. Amazon, Google, and Airbnb should realize that the devil is in the details, and the complexities.

While many travel companies are struggling to survive, Google has the resources to keep innovating and rolling out new products despite the travel advertising downturn. As with flights and hotels, Google's new tours and activities advertising business will have a far-reaching impact — unless regulators step in.

Google's travel ad chief said companies that aren't seeing enough advertising benefits with Google probably shouldn't spend as much as they are. Few big travel companies would drop out of Google knowing it might sabotage their businesses, but probably an increasing number are desperate for alternatives.

Amidst the carnage, there are job openings in the travel industry. However, many of the opportunities won't get rank-and-file restaurant or hospitality workers back collecting paychecks and benefits anytime soon.

GetYourGuide's Johannes Reck is underplaying the Google threat in tours and activities. Sure, Google has much larger priorities, but how much will it cost to build the GetYourGuide brand with Google controlling the airspace?

For tourist guides who manage to ride out travel's shutdown, a new set of challenges and expectations will be awaiting the profession on the other side.

Google has a huge travel advertising business. If Google's advertising partners had to hand out tons of refunds to consumers for coronavirus-tinged trips that never happened, shouldn't Google, with its deep pockets, share in the pain?