Travel Industry CEO Interviews

Hostelworld needed to automate the online booking of hostels because there just wasn't enough money in it if employees or call center agents had to handle bookings over the phone. The company gave away free software to attract owners and then came up with a business model that was midway between Expedia's prepay model and Booking.com's pay at the hotel formula.

Norwegian Cruise Line is being strategic about deploying new ships to growing markets and bringing its aging fleet up to a better standard. But it still faces a challenge in communicating what exactly a Norwegian cruise experience is.

Booking.com rode the agency model, which is attractive for its lack of complexity in forging online travel agency-hotel relationships and consumer-friendliness, into the growth engine of a $68 billion business. Its executives did so by ignoring the trendiness of the crowds and sticking to their own beliefs and vision.

Deem will try to become more relevant by reducing its product offerings and adopting a more focused approach to developing travel solutions. But in an extremely crowded marketplace, it may be a case of too little, too late.

Royal Caribbean has been in the "world's-largest-ship" business for several years now. We're curious to know what they will come up with next.

Kudos to Royal Caribbean for focusing on product over bragging rights — but it would have been helpful to know about this development when it happened.

English envisions a travel booking experience where users can simply talk to their phone and have the perfect trip planned for them. Questions remain, however, about how exactly Lola's technology will enable customer service professionals to become indistinguishable from experienced travel agents.

Travel managers want more of their employees to book hotel rooms through approved channels — and they want those hotels to agree on reasonable rates. There's a good business opportunity for companies that can help them achieve those goals.

New products like river cruising are taking the focus for Tauck, instead of any attempts reinvent the guided tour experience. Why mess with a classic approach to the vacation experience?

According to DMAI's new CEO, the organization needs to package its destination marketing products better, and improve its promotion of signature digital tools like DestinationNEXT.