Johannes Reck, CEO and co-founder of GetYourGuide, remembers his first Phocuswright 10 years ago when he had to make about 150 pitches and 'everyone was intrigued by our new concept'.

“This year, it feels like the OTA was yesterday’s game and that in-destination has gone from side topic to main topic,” said Reck who was featured on Centerstage with Eric Gnock Fah, CEO and co-founder, Klook.

“In that way, life has changed completely,” he said.

Another aspect of life that’s changed is “I got married and we are expecting our first child”.

“Other than that, I still live in the same apartment and personally, I feel I have stayed the same. The job has changed, I am now managing teams and building leaders and it feels like a corporation now, a big change from having to worry about not making payroll. But I am enjoying the current stage.”

Johannes Reck said in his journey as an entrepreneur the biggest lesson has been about humility.

In his journey as an entrepreneur – going from a student who tried to build a peer-to-peer marketplace for tour guides to now one of the world’s largest marketplaces for tours and activities, after its last fund raise of $484 million led by the SoftBank Vision Fund – Reck said the biggest lesson has been about humility.

“I had two strong mentors – Fritz Demopoulos (Qunar) and Kees Koolen (Booking.com). They were two different personalities – Fritz was more Asian style, understated, reflective while Kees was a very strong personality. They taught me about strategy, and managing organisations in a different way and always challenged me, how can I improve? What’s the core of what you do?”

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