A recurring theme at ITB 2015 is related to the travel sector’s slowness to embrace the mobile market and adapt to the habits of the increasingly connected traveler of today.
In a special panel on Friday, five budding innovators put forth their arguments for why this should change, with each delivering a seven-minute sales pitch on how their own respective tech solutions could help bridge the gap.
Among the audience of tourism professionals, was industry expert, Kevin May of travel site Tnooz, who praised the quality of apps on show as “excellent.”
“I think it’s very encouraging that people are building things for the industry and not just consumers,” May said. “Not that I have anything against consumer-facing websites but it’s usually the other way around.”
Panelists included (from left to right): Eddie Robb (CEO, Make it social), Samuel Aloni (Technical Product Manager, Allryder), Andre Kiwitz (Founder, trip.me), Blaz Jemc (Chief operating officer, TravelStarter) and Pierre Barnier (Chief commercial officer, Pierre Barnier).
Make it social
UK start-up Make it social offers a platform for group bookings, with the goal of lessening the rate at which lucrative bookings fall through.
“Hotels are complex with multiple rooms and stuff,” CEO of Make it social, Eddie Robb, told the audience. “So what we do is integrate with the users and pull all the available data and live pricing so if a group takes ages to make their booking, we’ll keep checking and we’ll relay that the prices are going up to try and create some urgency and get them to book.”
Group pressure works as an incentive for all members to pay on time, according to Robb.
“Once one person has paid up, they can go back to people’s pages and see who they need to chase up,” he added. “ And if you’re the last guy who hasn’t paid up in that group, and you’re the reason it’s not going ahead…”
Allryder " The urban navigation app
Allryder shows users the available transport modes in their locality, from public transport to car share, bike share or taxis.
“We all want to get to our desination in the cheapest and quickest way,” Allryder’s Technical Product Manager, Samuel Aloni, explained.
Having created custom apps for brands including McDonalds, Lufthansa and Volkswagen, Technical Product Manager, he added that the app could also be replicated for the tourism sector.
“The consumer-facing app is directed at both locals and tourists. It’s easier for tourists and if you look at our reviews, we get amazing reviews from tourists. For example, people in Berlin, who couldn’t figure out how to get to places,” Aloni said.
Trip.me " Multi-destination, multi-day trip booker
“Imagine a 10-day trip through Rajasthan or a week safari through Kenya, trips like that,” founder of trip.me, Andre Kiwitz said.
“What’s the problem?” he asked. “For travelers that want to book a hotel and a trip, it’s simply overpriced. It costs so much money with all these middlemen.”
“There are portals for tour operators, local agencies, but there’s not one central place to go to find great itineraries and to book them,” Kiwitz added. “We want to be that place by connecting the true travel expert with the traveler directly.”
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