S2E5: Virtuoso Travel Tech: Insights LIVE from Las Vegas
Listen to full episode :
‘LIVE from Vegas’ with the Travel Trends Podcast, featuring highlights from the Travel Tech Day at Virtuoso's 2023 Travel Week, with esteemed industry experts Shane O’Flaherty from Microsoft, Stuart Greif from Forbes Travel Guides, and Carlos Garcia from Trip Ventures, for an engaging discussion on how social platforms, AI, and even travel photos are shaping the future of travel. Prepare to explore the core of innovative startups and the growing synergy between technology and travel, understand the nuances of how companies like Dharma are revolutionizing travel experiences and the essential role of a strong social media strategy (including the impact of influencers like Mr Beast), and gain valuable perspectives on the future of travel through the lens of startups like Tango and Legends utilizing AI and geo-location analysis, emerging trends highlighted by startups like Lucia and Kind Traveller, the contributions of female executives, purpose-driven travel, and Deloitte's predictions for the consumer industry.
Discover the exciting transformations occurring at the intersection of technology and travel, Live from the Virtuoso Travel Week in Las Vegas. Learn how innovative startups are reshaping the way we experience travel, with a spotlight on Dharma's revolutionary approach. The panel emphasizes the critical importance of a robust social media strategy in today's landscape, using the influence of figures like Mr Beast as a prime example. Looking ahead, the discussion introduces startups like Tango and Legends, who are leveraging AI and unique methods like geo-location analysis of photo metadata to connect with the Virtuoso audience. Emerging trends are further explored through startups like Lucia, which supports travel agencies, and Kind Traveller, a platform empowering travelers to give back to their destinations. The episode also acknowledges the significant contributions of female executives, delves into the potential of purpose-driven travel, and examines the evolving role of AI within the industry. Key takeaways include insights from Deloitte's research report on the future of the consumer industry over the next decade, with the panelists sharing their expert predictions for the changing landscape of travel.
Curious to explore the cutting edge of travel technology from the industry's leading voices at Virtuoso Travel Week?
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Speaker 1: 0:13
Welcome everyone to a very special live edition of Travel Trends. This is the very first Travel Trends on tour and I'm surrounded by a very illustrious panel here at the Bellagio Hotel on the day before Virtuoso Week kicks off, joined by my good friend Gillad, who was, of course, with us for season one, and this will be an important episode to kick off the latest season, and we're actually switching up the format. Today we're going to be a panel and we're going to talk about the event that Gillad hosted today, the Travel Tech Conference, and we're going to talk about what we learned from the sessions and the startups. There was many incredible startups that came together today, so we're going to talk about what they're focusing on, what the highlights are and what our big takeaways were. But let me first start by introducing you to Gillad himself, and then we're going to go around the room to give everyone a chance to give you an idea of who they are and what their background is.
Speaker 2: 1:04
Thank you very much. It's great to be back. Well, it's always fun to be here in Vegas. My name is Gillad. I'm a tech entrepreneur turned investor. I care a lot about artificial intelligence and trying to work on the connected trip.
Speaker 3: 1:17
Hi Shane O'Flaherty. I'm from Microsoft on the industry team leading travel and hospitality and using really technology around the customer experience, employee experience and operations in all of the travel enterprise companies.
Speaker 4: 1:34
Hi, thank you for having me. I'm Carlos Garcia from Trip Pensions. I am also an entrepreneur turned investor, and always excited about the intersection of technology and travel.
Speaker 5: 1:47
I'm Stuart Greif. I'm Chief Strategy, innovation and Operating Officer for Forbes Travel Guide. I'm passionate about innovation in our industry. I love the startup ecosystem and helping elevate. I'm excited because I feel like we're at this rare opportunity to really redefine the industry. I was also told down that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas or maybe broadcast globally across the travel industry on your podcast.
Speaker 1: 2:14
Well, we're off to a great start so far. I really appreciate you guys making time for this. I'm really looking forward to the conversation we're going to have now. I'm actually going to start off with Carlos. The reason I'm going to start with Carlos is because each of these other gentlemen gave presentations earlier today. I do want them to recap some of the key points that they had shared with the audiences. I wanted to start with Carlos and get a sense from yourself how you thought today's session went, what stood out for you?
Speaker 4: 2:39
Well, definitely the word of the decade is going to be AI. A lot of what we saw today was a lot of great companies that are building that new ledger of tech for the travel and hospitality industry. Obviously, gilaad made a great MC and host and presenter, and same with Shane and stored. You'll hear directly from them. What stood out for me during the day was really the quality of the startups that we had here today that are building true transformational technology for an industry that truly needs technology to propel itself forward.
Speaker 1: 3:18
That's great. So, gilaad, what are your thoughts on the startups? And then, as you just heard from Carlos' background, we also have a Microsoft. Deloitte was there as well today. I've got a number of notes that I've made, but, gilaad, maybe just if you wouldn't mind, for those people who are not familiar with the TravelTech Summit, just give a little context to how this event came about, how long you've been doing it and how you organize this year's session.
Speaker 2: 3:40
Yeah, absolutely. I had this idea a few years ago of trying to have actually exactly what you said for this call for this podcast the idea of bringing together people who normally have conversations behind closed doors and being able to do that in a place where we include more people, more perspectives from different parts of our industry. So what we decided to do this year was, instead of having kind of one big chunk, we broke it into segments or to tracks, where we brought different types of startups and those were divided into demand side startups, so things focused on agencies and advisors and things like that. We had supply side startups focused on air, hotel crews and tour. We had a track about sustainability tech and then, of course, the last one was about artificial intelligence, which, as you all know, is something I care deeply about, definitely.
Speaker 1: 4:24
And so after you spoke, you introduced Shane, and Shane took us through a number of really interesting slides from Microsoft, and there was clearly a lot of enthusiasm for Microsoft in the room, given that Virtuoso is a power user of Microsoft myself as well for many years. So there is great interest in what Shane had to share, because already the room is completely gripped with what Microsoft is continuing to release, especially in regards to AI. Finishing emails was one of the examples that you'd given earlier today, so I'd love if you wouldn't mind just give everyone a brief overview of some of the topics you covered when your presentation. That'll be most interesting to a wider audience.
Speaker 3: 5:01
Yeah, I think as we. I mean the topic was connected journey and where we see the connected journey from a consumer going over time. And then how does generative AI essentially play into that and this idea that, as you move forward in time, we believe that ultimately, the concept of a decentralized idea that the consumer will own their own identity long term and from that point they will permission companies into their world and they'll share information with them that allows them to have a better experience. But how do we move from in travel? How do we create a more frictionless journey for the consumer? How do we move from a transactional relationship to more of an emotional relationship with that consumer? And then, how does AI play into that? And really just also this concept?
Speaker 3: 5:43
I mean, AI has been around since the 50s, but this concept of generative AI is something that's been a building block over time. It's just not something that was just invented and came out in January. It's been a building block over time. So encouraging the travel industry to use generative AI, whether it's chat, GBT, whether it's Dolly, whether it's Codex to use those technologies and we saw a lot in the startups which was fascinating to use this technology and embrace it to drive a better customer experience, a better employee experience and really more operational efficiency across the board. So that was kind of the highlights overall.
Speaker 1: 6:16
Yeah, it was terrific. I mean, it certainly resonated with everyone. I was sitting around in the audience and one thing I was going to ask you, if it's possible, would be to share the presentation after this.
Speaker 3: 6:26
Absolutely, yeah, absolutely Happy to Perfect.
Speaker 1: 6:30
So what we'll do for those of you listening now, the power of magic of technology, we can make it available in the comments and the links. You can actually download that presentation, because I was busy snapping away so I know I wanted to copy for myself, but I'm sure it'll be a great benefit to everyone else listening to this Absolutely Great. Now let's transition over to when Gillab was explaining that we broke into tracks after the main stage, and Stuart here from Forbes was actually one of the keynotes doing an excellent introduction to. Yeah, there was, with the four tracks.
Speaker 1: 7:01
One of them was AI and emerging technology, which of course, everyone ran to, and Gillab, of course, took the keynote spot for that one, and and those were some excellent sessions as well. But the session that you ran with Stuart was the agency and advisor technology, and I came to that one first because I wanted to see you speak, but also I was interested in the various startups and the room was packed. So credit to you for rivaling the AI session that Gillette had organized, where you had a full house so well. Wouldn't would you mind sharing a few of the insights you'd share with that that group?
Speaker 5: 7:34
Yeah Well, I mean, first of all, gillette deserves credit for stacking the deck in my favor as well and balancing it out by putting a slate of startups that are really doing innovative things around advisor technology, whether that's you know, how do you Do do reconciliations, how do you reinvent the operating system? A lot of things you lad touched upon For my keynote. What we wanted to do is talk about an area that's really relevant not just to advisors and agencies, but really across the travel ecosystem, and it's it's more of a kind of macro trend when you think about social commerce. Let's talk about social first and then commerce, and then we can circle back and go into depth, if folks choose, you know, in the conversation. So, first of all, you know, social platforms are rising like never before.
Speaker 5: 8:21
Tiktok took five years to reach a billion monthly active users. It took Facebook about nine and threads whether or not it's able to displace or compete with Twitter. Put that aside for a second. It had a hundred million Daily active users within four days. Right, that even bested chat GPT, which took two months. It took Instagram two and a half years and tiktok nine months to hit that level.
Speaker 5: 8:45
So people are inherently social and what's what's really changed Is this intersection of commerce, this desire to be able to transact, and you see it already in retail, where we used a poll quote from somebody that said something the fact of you know, I see something in my Instagram Feed that I really like. You know, three clicks and two days later it's on my doorstep and there are a number of startups across ecosystem working on that. On travel, in terms of you know how do you make travel bookable directly through post? And it's not just the transactions, it's also the influence of economy, and one of the great reliefs is and make me made this Trend in this prediction come to pass that it's not about the Kim Kardashians, maybe we no longer have to hear about the.
Speaker 5: 9:30
Kardashians. You know we're all looking for people whose curation and expertise we respect and that might be somebody who has unique insights, let's say, to dim some restaurants in the San Francisco Bay area, so somebody that has really unique insights into, let's say, temples in Kyoto, japan. And we also want our friends and family. And I think what's really interesting is 2025. Years ago, with Google and the internet search error, what once was really innovative the trip advisors, the Yelps, these types of search models you know. Now I want to be able to know what people who I respect, including friends and families and my personal social graph and these influencers I want to be able to transact through them.
Speaker 5: 10:16
And we had Gillette, had a great company called Dharma that's enabling non-travel companies and individuals to create their own travel Experiences, and I know, dan, you may have had some background in there you can touch on as well. And so, as we look forward, I think 10 years from now, right now, influencers are really kind of like decentralized media companies to help you market your products and services. Well, when links become bookable, as they're increasingly happening in retail and travel, they become points of sales and distribution and their platforms today, the same way you look at doing an email campaign or Facebook. That are just gonna be part of the Mar-Tech stack, and we see all these platforms coming up. I can't tell you which one. We love journey. J e R N e at Forbes travel guide have a deep partnership for our hotels and other Clients. So I think that's something everybody needs to be attenuated to and have a strategy in terms of how you're gonna leave her Social, because if you're not where your guests are going to discover Travel, then you're not gonna be relevant.
Speaker 1: 11:23
Yeah, well, one of the other examples you brought up in your presentation Was mr Beast, and I definitely know mr Beast because my kids are completely obsessed with every video he puts out and there's no question that his video will determine their travel behavior in the near future. He even put one out recently about yachts a 1 million, a 10 million, 50, a hundred million. It's a fantastic bit of entertaining content. So, mr Beast was one that you mentioned and but you were also really highlighting the fact that the travel inspiration is changing, as you were just mentioning, around Tiktok and sure afo, of course, dharma. We work closely with them, the acceleration to you and myself, and it's great to see the success, the trajectory there on. But, as you he pointed out, is that this generation, the influencers, are going to be YouTubers that's right.
Speaker 5: 12:05
And in here's the Some of the data stats for, for our audience right 70, 70 per, 77 percent for recent expedient study of People are looking right to social media for inspiration when they're looking for tours, activities, experiences and to book travel. At 77 percent. And when you think about the degree to which Folks are going to tick-tock and looking at video content, even last year, before chat GPT came out, google conceded Inevitably a senior executive slipped out that 40 percent of young folks were looking when they're looking where to eat lunch. They're not going to Google, they're not going to Google ma maps, they're going to tick-tock, they're going to Instagram. I asked my 10 year old he had a question about something. I said well, why don't you Google it? Sorry, I didn't say chat GPT, she ain't my bad. And he said well, no, I'm just gonna YouTube it. So you know, people are going to social, they're going to video, they're going to short form and I truly believe that this is a seismic shift.
Speaker 5: 13:07
It's not just younger folks and Daniel Langer in the luxury world, who's very renowned and professor, talks about if you're not at that point of cultural creation, right, the same reason that you used to have a contact center and a phone number. And why do I need a website? Why do I need an app? Why do I need to be on Facebook? Why does my travel company need to have an Instagram account? You need to be where your customers are going to be relevant and they're going increasingly to the tick-tocks, to social Platforms and they're doing it in video increasingly, not just photos. Most of the gross on Instagram is through video and DMs absolutely.
Speaker 1: 13:45
There was some interesting stats shared on the number of photos that are taken per day and how that information, that data there was a lot of talk on the AI session will come back to you with some of those startups, but I wanted to bring Carlos back into the conversation because I'm really keen to know what track you sat through or which combination of tracks you sat through this morning and if there was one or two startups that stood out to you. I'm very keen to share a couple that stood out to me Now and I'd love for each of us to kind of call there was 20. We can't, unfortunately, go through all of them, but which tracks did you go through and which which startups really spoke to you?
Speaker 4: 14:17
well, I spent time in the Gilad's truck AI, of course you know like, and also Stored truck.
Speaker 4: 14:24
You know like, and those two were fascinating, I, I would say you know like, just to echo, you know like what Stuart was saying. You know like that travel itself is inherently social, right, like people elevate their profiles when they share social. And you mentioned, like, how many pictures are shared Everyday. It's about five billion, yes, images that are shared on social media. A big portion of that is travel oriented, right, so it's no Surprise. You know that now we are seeing the commercialization of, you know like, all of that content. You know like, so.
Speaker 4: 14:55
So obviously, you know like what Sharif is doing with Dharma, you know like, was one of the companies. You know that Continuously seems to have a gravitational force for me. You know like, right like, because I truly believe in that Travel being inherently social. And now it's time to, in a post SEO era, if you will, you know like SEO, you know it's it's going to be less relevant in booking travel. Where are we going to go to to decide? And I think that influencers and he's going to have a big A role to play in that area. Now, another startup you know that, and I have to. Well, we invested in them. So you know like I am biased, so I have to disclose that.
Speaker 4: 15:33
But one that is really interesting to me is tango. So tango you know like, and the reason why they are so interesting to me is because you know like it's a real business and a business that it's also very relevant to the virtuoso audience. You know like that that was there in the room. You know like and how they are basically using AI. And you know like the traditional agency model and and basically building a more tech forward business. And, if I can add another one, is legends.
Speaker 4: 16:01
You know like, and and going back to the amount of photos that are shared, and you know like travel being inherently social. To close the loop, that you know like you don't have to go to social media to find that treasure trove of data. That treasure trove of data is in your phone, right, Like, so I have 79,000 photos on my phone right now. So what they do is, you know like they are able to Basically go through all of the metadata of the photos, not the photos itself, right, but they're not doing computer vision on those photos, but they are doing geo location Analysis on all of those photos and they are creating a traveler DNA and and to me, that was mind-blowing. You know Like I remember when I first met them, we are also investors in that company. Have to again disclose, you know, Like sorry to be plugging the company that we invested in.
Speaker 4: 16:47
You know like, but you know like, when I first met them, you know like I was, I really like the founding team, you know like, and I thought that they they could talk to talk, but I was wondering whether they could walk to walk, right, you know like, an a few weeks later, you know like, we see the first MVP Very quickly, like okay, we know how hard it is to do this and they're getting it done, so so we think that that company, even building that Solution, you know, that is so focused on building a traveler DNA, could be a Cornerstone of the future of the industry as we go forward.
Speaker 1: 17:26
Well, it's interesting. You mentioned legends and by all means, I'm glad you disclose you an investment in those businesses, but what stood out to me with legends was the the. The concept and the presentation had real wow factor and for me, of all the presentations I sat through today, from the startups, it was the most powerful. So I think it's actually worth People listening to this to explore the concept they're looking to deliver on, because it's it's a big idea and the idea of having a company and you trust your data with and to have a, this whole shift. I know, gillette and I have talked about this Brian Chesky, moving the entire business Towards who you are and what you're interested in, as opposed to the where and when, and that really excites me about what's happening.
Speaker 1: 18:12
I'm Gillette. I want to bring you back into this as well. From Carlos's examples of the three that he mentioned, all were part of your session, the AI session. Now I realized you curated these startups, so you had a fairly good idea coming into it. Oh, what changed for you over the course of the session? Was there anyone like Legends? For clearly, for both of us, that really stood out and resonated with you. What was maybe different than you expected once they actually took the stage and you ran that session.
Speaker 2: 18:37
Yeah, I mean, for me it was really um, being blown away by the sustainability startups. Um, you know, I'm a new dad, so this is something I probably care about more now than maybe at other times. And there was some really incredible innovations there. And Cory, who presented from Impair, which is a company that provides Hybrid engines and kits that essentially upgrade airplanes to be much more environmentally clean, told me that, um, lax, the airport creates as much pollution as 80 of all the cars In the greater la area, and I was like that kind of blew my mind that it creates that much pollution Because you think about like we all think about, la and the cars and the gridlock everywhere. Um, so I mean that was something I really liked.
Speaker 2: 19:18
Obviously, hydrogen airplanes, I mean from hydrogen aero, I mean that's a really exciting future. Um, and they're really running actual routes and doing some some, some interesting things. And then just one other ones I'll call it kind traveler. You know it's essentially a club of people, of companies and hotels and businesses that come together and decide to give back to their communities and a big chunk of the amount of money that people pay to stay there and to Enjoy their time on vacation. Ghosts supporting charities in that actual community and I think there's something really important about that direct connection between the two. So those are three, but I love them all, of course. Yeah.
Speaker 1: 19:51
Well, it's interesting, you went down the sustainability route. I'm glad you did, because there was one on that stage, tuzmo, yeah, um that. I found really fascinating the idea of connecting with local artisans.
Speaker 2: 20:01
Yeah and so especially on the um, the comeback from kovat, totally, and I think you know, when you think about sustainability, it's really important to think about the environment and the planet, but also about the cultures and the histories and the peoples of this planet, and supporting artisans Is really a way of keeping alive traditions and craftsmanship that's come from generations, and I think that's almost as important in the sustainability side of things as making sure we have a planet to live in and air to breathe Absolutely.
Speaker 1: 20:28
I'm sure your son, when he eventually listens to this, will appreciate that uh you're welcome. And how old is he now?
Speaker 2: 20:35
seven weeks, seven weeks. Yeah, I'm gonna sleep like a baby tonight.
Speaker 1: 20:40
Shane, what sessions did you attend? And which I mean, and I'd like to part quit to this.
Speaker 3: 20:46
Sure.
Speaker 1: 20:46
I'd love to know your microsoft view and your personal view, the microsoft view being, you know, was there any of the startups that stood out to you as An executive and a leader in the technology space that you thought, wow, this is pretty interesting. And then, personally, in terms of what you would actually use, seeing some of these startups, that you thought, wow, I, this is, this is something that didn't. I didn't know existed. Yeah, and now I don't want to live without. If you're gonna start embracing, yeah, I mean I.
Speaker 3: 21:10
So I microsoft course is a huge in the sustainability space. Um, and I work a lot in the airline space and if you think of, you know, sass, this is a sustainable aviation fuel. It represents, you know, less than 1% of all the fuel and it's there's not enough out there on the planet. How do we produce more? And you know, and, and so really, I think, both echoing gilades, comedon and pair and hydrant Arrow, and what the progress that they're starting to make in the marketplace. I think that was huge. Um, because I think there's, um, you know, there's a better way to For us to pass on the next generation of air travel.
Speaker 3: 21:42
Um, you know, I love, just in general, the way you know these companies have embraced Generative AI and all kind of the daisy chain of AI kind of platforms. That's. That was amazing across the board. I like it. You know, in the contact center is probably the bigger area of generative AI where we're seeing some real Changes and push in the marketplace. And alexis, fantastic with this omni channel kind of approach that they have to customer service. So I think, one that's a great one. I love, I think, juneir what was the company's name? Oh, oh, legends was phenomenal dharma. I mean they're all, they're all fantastic. Point me, I was going to look up for myself all the points I have around the world from traveling.
Speaker 3: 22:22
How can I make some better Decisions? Kind traveler, I love the artesian one. The tuzmo was phenomenal because I was in traveling to stanbowl and I remember going to the market and I met this, walked in this random place and bought something and I said I'm looking for something like this and the guy's like, hey, I'll just walk you. So he walked me through this entire market there's probably a 10 minute journey and then introduced me another one of his artesian, artesian friends, artisan friends and An amazing experience. So that idea of how that curation can take place in advance to experience at a local level, I think that's a phenomenal opportunity to get more from a localization perspective as you travel.
Speaker 1: 23:00
Yeah that's great.
Speaker 2: 23:02
There's one more that I just had to mention, which is ResortPass. Resortpass is this really cool company that allows you to get like a day pass to a pool at a nice hotel or a cabana or a gym pass, and I do a fair amount of travel and I go for board meetings. I often have this problem where I have these like three or four hours to kill and I literally use ResortPass before I ever met any of the guys on the team, and they were here today, so I would love to plug those guys, especially if you like hot tubbing as much as I do.
Speaker 3: 23:29
Hot tub guy.
Speaker 5: 23:30
He's got the nickname today Hot tub time machine. So for me, one thing I want to say you know, gail, I mentioned about Plugging Company Carlos talks about, you know, companies invested in like all of us probably, whether we are advisors, investors or simply interested love kind of all of the companies and all I think, all five of us around this table, including you, dan we are passionate and get involved with the startup. So the conviction precedes any financial or personal investment and our talking about them is because what we love about them and our passion in trying to help support and advocate all the companies, including some that we don't have time, maybe necessarily today, to touch on. For me, I'm involved in a number of these in different capacities, but you know I love Kind Traveler and the Give and Get because there is a direct impact to local charitable organizations, nonprofit that hotels, in this case, but others themselves, their employees support and the guests get some benefit and 100% of the money that the guests provide to that go to that cause. And they have these amazing reports where they can say look, over the past six months you've provided 2,635 meals for families in need, you know, in terms of hunger, or for the environment or climate. I love Tuismo in the way it's connecting unique artisans around the world and providing economic support in ways that otherwise would be undiscovered with travelers that allow them to have something really genuine of high craft and meaningful, and not necessarily just some kind of trinket that's been mass produced overseas and creates unique experience and connection to the artisan. You know legends. I'm a huge fan of Dharma we've talked about I'm going to tease Gylattics.
Speaker 5: 25:20
I think Resort Pass is a ranger like. There's still a startup but they're absolutely killing it. So if you're in the market, check them out. They're in. You know 50 or more of our clients and growing rapidly, two others that I point out. One is the host co. So I love in, even as we're in hospitality and oftentimes hotels in the kind of short term rental space. You know, if you wanted to have an amenity, if you wanted to provide massage therapists in the area, if you wanted to send flowers, if you wanted to provide even early and late checkout so not all things that are physical, but even services or a good example that Annie, who's the founder and CEO, talked about is like if you're in this area where people are going for more kind of, let's say, health and well being and getting in touch in an area, or if you're going to something like Burning man, maybe you're looking for somebody that kind of has services that are more aligned to that. It'd be weird to have something that's like you know talk to me about my chakras like in New York City versus in a place like, maybe, sedona. And so I think they're really providing, I think, at scale, the ability for short term rental owners and operators and management companies to provide hospitality services beyond the real estate and the basics and to be able to do it at scale, and I love that.
Speaker 5: 26:46
And there are a number of other companies in the ecosystem around that. You know. I think there were a number of others, like Origin I just want to point out Traveler, tr, vlr that were in Cara Whitehill, who's an amazing go to market strategist and longtime angel investor and travel and thought leader in our industry globally, and some of the other ones that were in my session. We haven't really talked as much in depth TripSuite, travelwits, tern, t-e-r-n, hyperguest, trey as in three T-R-E-S Technologies, and I think there's probably one or two I've missed, I think Weaver and Ampere A-M-P-A-I-R-E in sustainability pointme, which is cool in terms of being able to arbitrage points across everything. You have an amazing way and turn that into high value. And another company called Voyages. Check those companies out, play this back and write those names down. They're all worth it. They wouldn't be here. Gilad wouldn't have curated them. The number of companies that didn't make it in versus the ones that did all of these merit attention.
Speaker 1: 28:00
Anybody else want to pick up on that? Okay, do you want to Please?
Speaker 4: 28:06
One thing that I think is interesting to note you know like, out of all the companies that we saw you know like today is that, as a common denominator, you know like a lot of these companies and not just the companies, but the founders are mission driven people and you see it, of course, in like the sustainability. But every other company, you can see that they are not working just to make money, which obviously they have to as a company, but you know like it's also the why. Why are they building this company and why they want to transform the industry? One that stood out to me was Traveler. You know like and, of course, you know like getting commissions faster to travel advisors is key for the industry to continue to grow. You know like and I think that they are a mission driven company that I would like to see them succeed. You know like and be able to scale, and we're not an investor in the company, will you be?
Speaker 1: 29:02
Well, there was quite a broad range, as I clearly everyone has highlighted here, and one thing that Stuart pointed out is resort pass. They were different stages. Some of them are pre seed seed. You mentioned hype beast, hype traveler, hyper guess, hyper, guess. Okay, I'll get that around.
Speaker 1: 29:22
One of the ones you mentioned was hyper guest and we actually had a chance to see them at dinner last night. That organized and they have just raised a series a and their business is is booming. They've got 37,000 hotels on their platform and I went to go see his talk today and he's a very confident entrepreneur, to give him full credit. He's exited three businesses and he's got great investors backing him now and he's got a very successful, scalable business. And so it was great to see the different stages these startups were. And so I want to throw it back to Gillad and in terms of that curation of how you kind of brought those individuals together we talked about the tracks, but they're all at different stages Was that also a factor in your decision making of the groups that you brought together?
Speaker 2: 30:06
Yeah, absolutely. And the way I think about the event from the macro perspective is, you know, we started off with a talk where I give every year talking about five themes and trends that I focus on in travel technology, and then I try to explore those from a bunch of different perspectives. So if I give a bit of an academic version of that, then I try to have some large corporate innovators, some analysts or investors perspective and then, of course, startups at different stages. So that was definitely by design and, exactly as Stuart pointed out, we got to see some more mature startups and what they're working on and then some really early stage, especially in the AI track of companies that are just, you know, a couple months old.
Speaker 1: 30:41
Yeah, that's a good point you just made, because there were a couple of presentations that were very brief, so I don't want to be harsh by saying underwhelming, but there was certainly a few presentations that you were expecting more, and but it was clear, it's just early. They've got a they've got a nugget of an idea, and they may be coming back to us next year or six months from now, and all of a sudden they've really blossomed into something.
Speaker 2: 31:07
And totally, and just to pitch, you know the Virtuoso tech partner program. A number of the companies who presented last year in the program, including Lucia and Sion and others, have now become tech partners of Virtuoso and use their membership in the network to be able to access hundreds of agencies and all the other partners. So it's exactly what you're talking about people who start early and then are able to much share with feedback.
Speaker 5: 31:28
Yeah, one of the things I love and really respect and admire about everybody at this table and it's reflected in Gilad, I think last year as well as this year is, you know, the audience for Virtuoso week. You've got a mix of right. You've got advisors, agencies, there's hotels, there are GMs and sales folks, you have suppliers, you have tech folks in the industry and I think you and Matthew up church, the CEO of Virtuoso, talk about this. You're not just inviting in things that are biasing towards just the subset. In fact, I think last year you had one of the leaders from Expedia in here.
Speaker 5: 32:00
There are people, innovations that may even threaten or be competing in some ways, and to the credits of those companies and the credit of you, that the opportunity to learn even from competitors and have, you know, spirited conversations and to the credit of your audience too, pushing back in respectful ways with hard questions, including to the startups today, which handled it with aplomb and folks are saying, well, I don't understand why would use you instead of a GDS, for example I'm not going to name the company and so it's not a listen, absorb.
Speaker 5: 32:35
It's really dynamic of people in the audience, and you set the table with this of actually engaging in conversation, not being presented to, and also not just putting you know hey, here's a subset that you know, we know people are already using here. You know things that may even, you know, still be six months or two point and different stages. So I love that about this program and I love the fact that it's not just you know companies that are, you know, friendly quote, unquote. It's innovation in ways that people need to be aware of, maybe competing with, maybe something that's a threat or maybe something that's even outside their domain, but helps them learn and evolve their own business.
Speaker 2: 33:14
Yeah, I mean the first time I ever spoke at a virtuoso event. There was symposium in Berlin a decade ago and I had a startup called U-Trip and half the people in the room thought that we were there to take him out of business. And you know that is one of Matthew's unique abilities is being able to bring people in who really push. And, of course, what I shared with them a decade ago is, I still think, true today, which is technology can be your competition or technology can be your superpower. Just depends what you do with it.
Speaker 1: 33:40
One other topic I want to go back to before we actually broke out into the startup sessions, was a presentation that was given by a lady named Carolyn Corsa, who came from Deloitte, and she was one of the people, when Gillad had listed the participants, that you had someone from Microsoft and from Deloitte and you had some high profile executives and then also these terrific startups. But one of the presentations that she gave at the beginning really stood out to me at first. I must say that when she started her presentation because I've never met Carolyn before she was an excellent presenter. But when she first started giving her talk, she was highlighting a research report that Deloitte had done. That took years and dozens of people and cost millions of dollars. And as soon as she said all those things, I thought, well, how good can this really be, because they had to talk about 10 years into the future when it's so difficult to predict what's going to happen six months or 12 months from now? No-transcript. So when she gave the context, initially I was slightly hesitant and then, when she started getting into the detail, I was really impressed, and I am going to share a link to this at the end of the talk as well, so you guys can check it out, but I just wanted to share with you the six forces that they had highlighted that shaping the consumer industry. This is their prediction for the next 10 years.
Speaker 1: 34:56
I just want to call it a couple of them, because they couldn't be more relevant to the startups, and I think that's where, for me, you start to see the stars are aligning, when you know one of the themes, of course, is the change in consumer and all the impacts that are that they're adjusting consumer behavior. There is extreme climate change, of course. That's another powerful and important force that's shaping our industry, which is why we're all talking about sustainability, the evolving society and culture of consumers, breaking free of certain traditional anchors that came up repeatedly, and that's a big focus, with the social commerce and the creator led economy and all of those elements, and that there is radical industry upheaval was another theme, and so those, for me, were some really interesting takeaways after listening to her talk, sharing that report, and then seeing how some of these startups are navigating this new world and the ones that are clearly onto something, and so, shane, I want to bring you back into this that's okay and get your take on when the day started. So, going back to the beginning and I want to bring Gillette back into this as well because obviously gave such a great introduction what are some of the other broader themes?
Speaker 1: 36:07
So, taking a step back from some of those startups that you see that are shaping travel, because you are not only a Microsoft executive but you're specifically focused on travel and hospitality, this is your space, right, you have a deep domain expertise here, so I'd love to hear from you with some of the other overall trends, since obviously that's the name of this podcast. Yeah, and get your insights.
Speaker 3: 36:28
Yeah, I think number the biggest one is we're starting. We're finally seeing investment from travel companies and getting off the legacy systems, so platforms that they've had around for the last 30 and 40 years, which is kind of shocking. But they're starting to reinvent themselves and I think alignment also with business and IT have all come together really to drive, because of the challenges of the COVID period, really driving innovation in the space that we've not seen before in a very, very long time. So I think that's been a catalyst for change in investment in the space. And that's number one, that's a broad theme. We're starting to see companies now invest more labor is a huge challenge in travel. So now there and their employees are saying, hey, you've invested all this money in consumer based technology, please invest in me, and we've done a lot of research associated with that. So investment in employee technology so they can come into work and feel like they're not going back in time, so that's a big investment we're seeing in space.
Speaker 3: 37:29
And then all the trends that Carolyn highlighted were all very accurate. And then this concept of digitally engaging this younger generation of consumers. I think this we've been very focused on historically, on the human to human experience, but this younger Gen Z wants digital engagement at the same level and experiences. They have human to human experiences and they need that. They want that and how does the industry as a whole help drive these kind of connection points with them in a digital way which doesn't really exist as very much beyond the kind of a transaction site today? Absolutely.
Speaker 1: 38:03
No, it's very interesting and I think that's where I want to make sure I get all of your insights. Now We'll shift onto this topic and then I'm going to give you guys the last word as well, to wrap up this fascinating podcast and discussion. I want to go back to Carlos, because you are an investor of not only in some of the startups we've seen here, but you specialize in travel as well. So Shane specializes in travel, your business trip ventures. You've really focused on the travel industry. What are some of the other main themes Like for you? Obviously, you're looking at some of these startups. You're aware of the trends and you're trying to see which ones are best positioned to capitalize on them. So what are some of the other trends that you're seeing across the investments that you're making?
Speaker 4: 38:44
Well, one that is top of mind for me, then, that I think complement the ones that Carolyn shared in her amazing presentation, is that millennials are outspending boomers in luxury travel, and that, to me, is one of the trends that I can see as an investment theme, like, okay, how do we digitize the experience? And, to Shane's point, like human to human is what we all want as well, but if you are a millennial or a younger, you also want the digital component, and sometimes, when I talk to my friends at the Forbes travel guide, we often say that technology is luxury Technology when you think of access to technology, being able to come into this room and open the shades in a modern way from your phone and things like that.
Speaker 4: 39:39
Those things are access to technology that I see as a trend going forward.
Speaker 2: 39:45
Can I just add one shout out to Aria next door over here they have the coolest alarm clock. You can tell it within the window of time you want it to wake up and it will slowly open the blinds in your room between the window of time you set for it. It's a quite cool little feature.
Speaker 1: 39:59
One of the things I'm going to ask these gentlemen at the end is there the big takeaway from today, and my big takeaway already is that Gillad has by far the nicest room, and then what he just described doesn't exist in my room.
Speaker 3: 40:10
So that's clearly a.
Speaker 1: 40:13
I was actually really impressed with the digital key, the whole idea of the seamless customer journey. I remember Sam Schenck from Hotel Tonight before they were acquired by Airbnb and it was a focus right conference and Sam Schenck, after his amazing presentation, was meeting with Dara when he ran Expedia and when I saw that conversation happening I thought for sure Expedia is going to acquire them. That was definitely leading in that direction and then Airbnb swooped in. But Sam Schenck gave this presentation to talk about the future of the traveler experience. That would also know information, including the temperature of the room that you prefer. So it would have all this information about you, which is some of the things that Legends was really touching on as well today is all these things that are unique to you. I mean, you may love that feature that may help you wake up in the morning. So how do you take that information?
Speaker 1: 41:01
And for me, I always try and make sure if there's a technology available, I will try and take advantage of it so that I can learn, because obviously sometimes it doesn't work as well as expected. But the digital key is a really impressive MGM development that is completely seamless. I checked in on the plane and when I got to the hotel, my room was ready and I got the notification and I went right to my room and it was remarkable and I'm using it as my key for access. The only thing I need to do is make sure my phone is charged. That's the only risk you run into. You don't have a key.
Speaker 5: 41:33
Pretty much no latency, which is also key. A lot of the other ones in the market have forward leaning, have lags or don't work by the time you're in the elevator, like the elevator door is closed before you can even get there. There's is fast and works every time.
Speaker 1: 41:48
Yeah. So, stuart, let's go back to you. Now We've with Shane's vantage point and Carlos's vantage point. You come into this. You're a veteran in this industry. You know. I've known each other for many years. You've had significant corporate roles in a number of different organizations and now, of course, you're with Forbes Travel Guide. What from your role there at Forbes, what were some of the things that you're seeing already coming into this that you were kind of looking for with trends in our space?
Speaker 5: 42:15
Yeah, I think there's. First of all, I think, if we step back, there's been a fundamental shift globally post pandemic and I think it is. Everybody had a moment to step back from their lives, professionally, personally, and be able to think about and recalibrate, and, whether it was conscious or unconscious, or the notion of our own mortality or our freedom to travel about when we want, I believe that everybody kind of realized that what they really want to do is have more opportunity to self actualize, to connect with something that is meaningful down to your soul, for lack of a better term and that's not just in the big picture but in our daily lives, whether it's personal or professional, to seek to have these moments of things that fulfill us on a deeper, more meaningful level. And I think, some of the things we touched on the growth in experiences, people wanting to travel that bodes well for our industry globally. You see, the younger generations that's been talked about, who are seeking experiences over things. Well, the boomers, which isn't talked about as much, are retiring with the greatest wealth transfer, and what are they going to do? Buy a fifth car? No, they're going to travel. They're going to spend money in restaurants. Experiences, and guess what they're probably going to bring their kids and grandkids along as well.
Speaker 5: 43:35
I also think there's been this huge shift. Even before the pandemic, you had wellness, where it was far beyond a yoga mat. We're starting to get into science-based sleep technology the example gladesat, or lighting circadian rhythms. Well, since then, we're already extending to things like longevity. But I think this notion of well-being imbued in everything that we do. How can I continue a healthier lifestyle and have elements of that throughout my experience and I'm not saying that in Vegas, all places people aren't going to indulge.
Speaker 5: 44:08
But sustainability is also one of these where I really do think, as in the industry, people want it, but they need help providing it and they also understand that, let's say, in aviation, there's going to be bigger shifts for things like sustainable aviation fuel, for example, and no one company or airline can do that.
Speaker 5: 44:27
But what is it that you're doing?
Speaker 5: 44:28
To do your best, within reason, to make your offerings and your services more sustainable and show that you're trying and moving in direction, and you'll get credit for that, and woes to you if you don't, because especially the younger generations will disproportionately punish you for it.
Speaker 5: 44:44
Ultimately, I think the ultimate luxury is now kind of how people are in their daily lives seeking that kind of joy and that fulfillment, and I think that is something that imbues, and travel is like no other industry maybe entertainment a little bit, but travel is something that really is at the core of all of these and I'm excited for everybody in the industry because I think the other overlap is we're at a point where the cost of technology where things like APS are product middleware, the ability to go outside the legacy systems has opened up and chat GPT as an example, with AI that the next 10 years this is the most opportune time you need to be building, even if, ironically, the funding environment is challenging in ways that maybe for the last 10 or 20 years haven't been possible, and I think that's why we all see this opportunity with these startups, to drive change in an industry in a disproportionate way. I'm excited for it every day, dan.
Speaker 1: 45:51
Yeah, definitely. That showed today in your presentation and the conversation that we're having, now that we're all animated for what's coming next. It's clearly we're all intellectually curious we wouldn't be having this conversation otherwise and we all have different vantage points and different perspectives and that's obviously the focus of this podcast and these discussions is to tell people's stories and also be able to share insights that will be beneficial to other people. To kind of close off, if you will, I'm going to give you guys each a chance to give you a big highlight, but I'm going to throw it back to Gillad, because each of us here in this room, because it's wonderful to be back together in person and not wearing masks we're all you know, we're not social distancing at all. We don't need to be.
Speaker 5: 46:32
Shane. Shane, aspen me to put one over my face in fairness. And he was right, he was right.
Speaker 1: 46:40
And here we are at a virtuoso event with 5,000 people from 105 countries, as Matthew Upturge reminded us as the conference started, and the total revenue for virtuoso agents is around 28 billion. It's a massive spend, and so it highlights that the industry is back. And one of the other elements I just wanted to highlight about the conference and what's unique about the sessions today was that it's still very focused on the travel trade, and that, to me, is an important reminder that I started my career 20 years ago in corporate travel, corporate travel management, and spent a lot of time building booking systems that were designed for travel agents to be able to automate or assist with their work, and there was always a fear then that technology was going to replace their role. And, of course, today, gillette had to address that front and center with one of his slides saying will AI replace the travel agent? And the answer is no, but you will have an AI assistant. And so one of the things that certainly came up in the sessions and I gave Sharaf some feedback before his presentation on Dharma about what's in it for the travel agent and, sure enough, one of the ladies in the question said how does this? She put her hand up and said how is this relevant for me as a travel, as a trip advisor or travel advisor? And he did a great job answering the question.
Speaker 1: 47:55
But the people in the room were asking questions of the startups about data security, their IP. You're a startup. Are you going to be around? There's that fear and concern to some of these new technology companies may disappear and that you know that these are large, established travel agencies in many cases that often are laggards not and that's not a disrespectful term in this instance because they're actually they're legacy businesses that have had proven success over an extended period of time and that have navigated many changes.
Speaker 1: 48:26
And so I just wanted to give everyone that context as we sit here preparing for the first official day of virtual so and the importance of the session that Gillad hosted. I mean, gillad, you sit on the board with virtual, so you're close with Matthew up church. You've had the privilege of organizing this now for a few years, and all of us have a desire to connect the ecosystem of startups with big corporate. And so, going back to where the day started and how this call came together, gillad, are there a few other things you'd like to be able to share with us, or even maybe talk about where you think we go from here, because I'm sure in your mind you're already thinking about next year.
Speaker 2: 49:01
Oh well, I'm definitely already thinking about next year, no, but I mean, you know, I'd conclude by really highlighting, you know kind of I think, the three macro themes that I'm looking at both from an investor perspective but also as someone who's just interested and cares about the industry. You know the idea of you know more connected technology. So, starting with the operating system and you know Stuart mentioned some of those that were with us today and then going from that to the connected trip, which I see is the Holy Grail. So you know, when people ask me about the upside, the promise of AI in our industry, it's a trip that's actually connected, where they know they want the humidifier and the chocolate bar in the room where my AI talks to their AI. So, anyways, the connected trip, which Shane spoke about.
Speaker 2: 49:43
The other is new monetization channels. So I think there's a lot of interesting things happening on business model innovation, with and without technology. So I'm really excited about both new agency models and Tango was one example we spoke about earlier today. There's also a lot of programs like Sephora, which is kind of like a Amazon Prime model for travel, and lots of other models there Brands monetizing their audience through travel, non-travel brands doing that. So you know, dharma was a great example of how you know, tv shows and winemakers and others are doing that, but we've seen a lot of other examples, and the last is financialization of travel, which is still going strong. And then, of course, lastly, is commoditization of AI, and you know, that's really my main thing. That I think about the AI chapter we're in right now is that very soon it's going to be accessible to businesses that never had access to advanced technology before, and I think that's a really exciting thing. So those are a few things I'm watching.
Speaker 1: 50:38
Definitely. Thanks, gilad, and thanks for putting this on. But let's get everyone else's kind of big takeaway, big insight or area of focus.
Speaker 3: 50:44
Well, I mean, as Stuart highlighted, you know, post excuse me, post, covid it's you know everyone has a more purpose driven life. And then how do you layer that into purpose driven travel? And then when you say purpose driven travel, you want a more curated trip. You recognize you have a little amount of time. So how can the travel agency, travel advisor network use technology to provide better insight for that consumer, if they have better knowledge on that consumer, to drive a better experience for them? And you know and use their time wisely when they're in market to find the right? You know crafts, attractions, wherever they're going. So it's really a how do you provide a more hyper personalized service?
Speaker 3: 51:21
And I think, as we talked earlier today, I mean technology. Humans have had to adapt to technology for a long period of time and now we've hit that inflection point where technology is adapted to humans. So now we have and Gilad talks about superpowers we now have a superpower, we have a co pilot who will be working with us, both on the employee side, on the consumer side, trying to drive a better experience for us long term. So it's super exciting. You could feel the energy in the room and feel the energy in this discussion today that you know we're always trying to push the industry as far as we can to accept technology, to accept changes and really to grow, and as we grow, everyone wins. It's kind of this virtuous circle.
Speaker 1: 52:03
Thank you, Shane. Really interesting points there. Carlos, how about yourself?
Speaker 4: 52:09
For me, you know like. I mean the takeaway is that you know like, as you pointed out, some of the companies that we saw you know like are not going to make it through right Like are not going to, but you know like, they are all contributing towards that vision of the connected trip. You know like, and I think that long term is many short terms and what I am seeing now is an acceleration of you know like, things that we were all hoping for for the last couple of decades, right, and all of a sudden it's here, you know like, and we talk about generating AI. You know like, and you know like the commodity cessation of AI, which I personally believe is what is where we are today right, but that is all paving the road for a much brighter future for the travel industry and for humanity. I think that you know like going back to being purpose driven and traveling with more purpose and being more intentional about your travels. I think that all of this technology is going to augment our travel experiences as we go forward.
Speaker 1: 53:08
That's great. Thank you, carlos and Stuart, over to you, and I'm just going to make one point, just as you kindly addressed before we started. To record is that we are five gentlemen having this conversation. There was actually supposed to be a female executive, kara, that was going to join us, and actually tomorrow, two of the three people that will be joining our podcast will be female leaders in our industry, and many of the startups we talked about today were legends, being a good example were female leaders in this space, and this is an industry that that, when you look around, virtuoso, is very female led and some really terrific executives, and so I just wanted to point that out. So we're remiss not to have one of them joining us right at this moment, but we all have a great respect for their contribution as well, and, on that note and I just wanted to do, stuart was the one that brought that to our collective attention as we started this conversation, and I appreciate in recognition everybody around the table we talked about.
Speaker 5: 54:05
We tried to actually also incorporate one or two other female executives who schedules just had conflicts and the funny thing is, before you brought that up on the call, I wanted to first and then I'll have a wrap comment recognize Carolyn Corta from Deloitte, who you talked about earlier. Carolyn is a rock star in the industry, just as Kara is, and kind of the angel and go to market and Kara has been in our industry if you look at her LinkedIn and her background seminal travel tech companies and it was a chief commercial officer in her own right. Carolyn Corta was the chief commercial officer and chief marketing officer for Adar, which was the largest data co-op in the travel industry. Marriott and other big brands participated. She was twice a partner and chief digital officer for the travel and hospitality practice at Accenture. She was an executive at FICO, the credit scoring. She was at Epsilon, among many other companies, and you talk about somebody who's quietly, oftentimes in ways not in the spotlight, driving change meaningfully in somebody that's a tremendous digital expert and e-commerce data, et cetera. So I know we would have loved to have her here and if you get a chance I'd encourage seeing if you could do a follow-up.
Speaker 5: 55:15
So for me, the closing comment, I think my big takeaway, is to circle back to something that a quote from Matthew Uptchurch, which he shared at the Forbes Travel Guide event earlier this year and I know his partnership with Gillad and what that has done to transform together, as well as the team at Virtuoso has been one of these incredible partnerships and Matthew's quote is that you know, when it comes to technology, you quote automate the predictable to humanize the exceptional, and the notion is and I love the way Gillad put this across in a follow-up on the stage today where he talked about you know, when it comes to AI or any technology, the short definition is this is a tool to help humans do their job better, and so I really think oftentimes technology is viewed with fear or as something that's threatening, as opposed to.
Speaker 5: 56:08
How does this free me up from the administrative, from the time consuming tasks in order to focus on the higher value add and our customers? And I have no doubt that Gillad also probably had no small part in his conversations with Matthew and Matthew developing that point of view that I know they both share. So I can't think of a better way to wrap this up at Virtuoso than quoting Matthew and referencing his and Gillad's perspective on technology that I know we all share.
Speaker 1: 56:36
That's perfect, and I won't look at Gillad to see if he actually wrote that in the background and maybe had a hand at it somehow, but it's interesting. You mentioned that. That's a great way to close off, because so many startups mentioned that today and people that work at Virtuoso that mission. That is clear to them and it's powerful. Fiona was on the podcast, season one after Gillad. She'd seen Gillad speak and that was she had shared that quote as well. So it's, it's meaningful, it resonates, and I'm sure we'll hear more of that over the next few days.
Speaker 1: 57:06
Well, gentlemen, this has been a real pleasure. Thank you for making the time, thanks for all your contributions today and we're looking forward to meetings in the next few days. And please be sure to check everyone out here. They're all thought leaders, so be sure to check out their LinkedIn's and follow up as beneficial, and we'll share some of these presentations and we look forward to doing more of these travel trends on tour in the future. So thanks for making the time to listen to us. Hope you really benefited from it and we'll see you on the next episode of Travel Trends. Thanks so much.
