Travel Technology

In January there was a changing of the guard at Sabre. New CEO Sean Menke thinks his background as a former airline CEO gives him insight into what airlines want from Sabre in new products. But he'll need to up his company's product execution and delivery if he wants to maintain market share, according to employee complaints.

Travel companies have an economic self-interest in reversing the travel ban and maintaining the relatively free flow of visitors. But, in the current political climate, they obviously feel that the issues involved are important enough to risk stepping into the line of fire.

Piece by piece, private equity firm Warburg Pincus is building Mercator into a rival to Sabre and Amadeus -- two travel technology providers that provide overlapping software and operational services to commercial airlines (and that recently went public after restructurings by buyout experts). Expect the Mercator merger with Accelya to spur an acquisition spree.

After years of hype, hospitality and travel companies are now delivering real added value for consumers by integrating artificial intelligence into online search and booking platforms.

Between their digital advertising tools and deep knowledge of consumers, there's virtually no tech company on earth (other than Google) that can match Facebook and Instagram. The launch of Instagram's new "Stories" feature should make advertising competitor Snapchat very afraid.

The demand for alternative payments will continue to flourish in 2017. The question remains as to whether the industry will be ready to meet the demand.

Given how much time we all spend at airports, it's a sector of the travel industry that's ripe for technology innovation and disruption.

Smart destination marketing organizations will recognize that civil rights isn't just a hot-button political issue — it's a crucial part of a destination's identity, and with the right tech, it can draw visitors accordingly.

This webinar will discuss the foundational best practices for travel retailers to use in order to understand, acquire and retain their most valuable travel customers and build a more optimized and engaged customer relationship with them.

Love it or hate it, the online travel industry would arguably not exist without the promotional firepower generated by paid digital advertising. As more online consumers choose to avoid this advertising using ad blocking tools, it's raising some difficult questions about how travel companies should proceed.