Travel Tech Essentialist #147: High Gear

This article was written by Mauricio Prieto. Click here to read the original article

Today’s newsletter covers a wide range of topics, from the latest travel projections to resolving cofounder conflicts, and lots in between. I hope you enjoy it. To all those in the Northern Hemisphere, happy almost summer —when everyone else relaxes and travel professionals shift into high gear!

Thanks to Propellic for sponsoring this newsletter.

Travel marketing has evolved rapidly post-pandemic, but travel companies haven’t kept up. Wasted budgets, marketing that doesn’t align with traveler intent, over-reliance on a single channel, and reporting on vanity metrics – it’s a mess. Here’s the deal: it doesn’t need to be that way. Explore travel industry-leading travel SEO & Paid Media consulting with Propellic. Schedule a free performance marketing audit today.

The most clicked link in Travel Tech Essentialist #146 was McKinsey’s report on The State of Tourism and Hospitality.

1. The State of Online Travel Agencies

My report on the full-year 2023 results for ten publicly traded online travel companies: Booking.com, Expedia, Airbnb, Trip.com, eDreams Odigeo, Despegar, MakeMyTrip, lastminute.com, TripAdvisor, and Trivago. Full report.

2. Google and Deloitte Travel Projections 2040

NextGen Travelers and Destinations is a report by Google and Deloitte that analyzes the evolution of the travel sector from 1990 and projects the travel sector’s development through 2040. It profiles travelers and identifies key destination clusters, offering insights to help travel operators and distributors anticipate future trends.

3. Equity for your Early Hires

In How to Structure Startup Equity for Early Hires, Pear Capital aims to simplify the decision-making process around equity grants for early employees and provides a practical, transparent approach for founders to use that captures many of the nuances missed by other methods. To help illustrate their approach even more clearly, they’ve built a calculator you can use to perform this exercise on your own.

4. Travel SEO implications of Google’s leaked algorithm

On May 27, 2024, Erfan Azimi revealed over 2,500 pages of Google’s internal API documentation, shedding light on how their search algorithm works. In Google’s Algorithm Leak & What It Means for Travel SEO, Brennen Bliss (founder & CEO of Propellic) shares the implications and his advice for travel SEO. He gives detailed and actionable tips on site design and architecture, content strategy, and link building and maintenance.

5. United Airlines’ In-Flight Ads Will Become More Personal

United Airlines has begun showing personalized ads on its planes’ seat-back screens. United’s new ad business, Kinective Media, had already soft-launched the ad product this year with a select list of brands including Macy’s, IHG Hotels, Televisa Univision, Norwegian Cruise Line and Chase’s United co-branded credit cards. United, which flew 165 million passengers last year, joins companies like Walmart, Uber, Instacart, and Home Depot (companies traditionally not focused on advertising) in leveraging their deep customer knowledge to sell and personalize ads. Read + WSJ (not paywalled).

6 Airline Loyalty is Evolving Beyond Points and Tiers

Loyalty programs are losing appeal across travel categories due to changing traveler behaviors and expectations. There is a growing gap between how airlines view their loyalty programs and the evolving expectations of today’s travelers.

This divergence highlights an urgent need for airlines to reassess and potentially redesign their loyalty strategies to better align with contemporary traveler preferences. In Redefining Loyalty, OAG highlights three fundamental approaches that are likely redefining the approach to airline loyalty:

Flight subscription: airlines like Alaska Airlines and WizzAir, in partnership with airline subscription specialist Caravelo, are offering subscription plans that provide unlimited or frequent flights, encouraging recurring use and building long-term customer relationships.
Gamification: incorporating game-like elements such as challenges, progress trackers, and rewards into loyalty programs increases engagement and makes earning points more entertaining, as seen with Delta’s SkyMiles Program.
Personalization: airlines are using advanced analytics to create highly tailored and exclusive offers based on individual traveler preferences and behaviors, enhancing the perceived value of loyalty programs.

7. Dealing with Co-Founder Conflicts

65% of startups fail because of interpersonal tensions within the founding team. Esther Perel is a couples therapist and has good advice for startup co-founders. She gives a playbook for resolving recurring conflicts and communication failures between co-founders and shares techniques for getting past them. Read + First Round.

8. Playing Devil’s Advocate on Devil’s Advocate

Let me play devil’s advocate on devil’s advocate. It has an important role, but it must be done correctly and treated with care to avoid paralysis and killing innovation. Duncan Currie proposes an alternative approach that can foster a more open and collaborative environment, encouraging creativity and progress without shutting down new ideas.

9. Low Cost and Full Service Creativity

10. M&A and Fundraising

TravelPerk acquired Chicago-based AmTrav to accelerate US expansion. With this acquisition, TravelPerk doubles its revenue in the US, which becomes the company’s top revenue-generating country. Congratulations to both! Here is a great letter from AmTrav CEO Jeff Klee about the acquisition and what it means for the future.
TravelPerk announced a new $135 million investment from Blackstone and Blue Owl, bringing its total raise in 2024 to $240 million. Read +.
Canary Technologies, which provides hotel guest management solutions, closed a $50 million Series C funding round, bringing its total funding to date to nearly $100 million. The round was led by Insight Partners, with participation from existing investors F-Prime Capital, Thayer Ventures, and Y-Combinator.

Are you fundraising?

If you are a startup looking to raise a round (from pre-seed to Series D), I can help (for free). Travel Investor Network is a private platform where I recommend innovative travel startups to investors and innovators. If you’re interested, please start by completing this form.

Travel Tech Essentialist Job Board

Explore the 1334 open positions on Travel Tech Essentialist’s curated Job Board and stay ahead of the curve by subscribing to job alerts. Here’s a taste of the jobs on the board:

Flight Centre Travel Group | VP Product Management, FinTech | New York City | $200,000 – $230,000
Stay22 | Senior Partnership Manager – Travel Media | New York City
TravelPerk | VP of Marketing | London, Barcelona
Viator | Director of Customer Value Management | London

All 1334 jobs

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