Travel Technology

With content marketing's move into the mainstream the next step for companies to master is measuring its performance and success.

If your company doesn't have an artificial intelligence-fueled chatbot, the odds are you will one day. Is your company going to sit out this trend like so many procrastinators, or resource-constrained companies, did when the first crop of mobile apps appeared? History does have a habit of repeating itself but it doesn't have to.

Facebook has quickly gone from the experimental phase for many travel companies to a growing part of the advertising budget with its own line item. We see the importance of the platform for the travel industry continuing to grow.

It's a trend we write about regularly: the emergence of consumer-friendly tools in corporate travel. Concur has been making that goal a priority.

The Facebook app now enables users to tap a Book Now button and has easy to use tap to call or messaging features with the venues. This is an important step by a company with a mammoth user base.

This move will allow The Rainmaker Group to concentrate on its core competency of demand management for hotels and casinos, an area where competition is heating up from rivals like Duetto, LodgIQ, IDeaS, and Revinate.

Amadeus says it is pulling off its promised trick of staying profitable despite margin pressure on its mainstay airline services business. This year much depends on how well its reservation system projects with Southwest Airlines and IHG go.

Travelers have long asked Airbnb to make it easier to share the cost of a rental, including when they are using different currencies from a lodging host. By acquiring Tilt, the startup will likely add that service to its app.

Change has not come as fast as a 2010 survey had predicted. This study offers a few reasons why, but misses a big one: The industry is in desperate need of loud champions of new techniques and strategies.

Overtourism is a growing problem, so it's heartening to see Booking.com taking on the problem of sustainability in an innovative way. That said, it's still too early to tell if this is a genuine commitment to sustainability, or just a "feel-good" move to create PR headlines.