Digital. The Top Ten Travel News Stories of the Week. Day In, Day Out

The CDC stated that people who’ve been vaccinated against #COVID19 can now gather indoors with other vaccinated people without the need to wear masks. This may be one of the best news for our industry as it opens scenarios of (almost) normality. In fact, hotels with fully vaccinated staff could welcome fully vaccinated guests just like they did in 2019. It seems to me just another reason to vaccinate people working in hospitality as soon as possible.After months of beta testing, Google eventually added organic links to its metasearch product. On top of paid results, hotels can show prices organically. According to Google, the ranking of the free, organic links is based on an algorithm that takes into consideration variables such as prices, CTR, and landing page experience and not “commercial relationships, advertising and payment to Google.”The Hotels Network launched BenchDirect, a free, real-time interactive analytics platform to help hotels compare their performance to the market.Tripadvisor has opened its Tripadvisor Plus platform to hotels. Joining is free, and those that do receive a special badge on the site and increased visibility in TripAdvisor. In return, they have to provide discounts or perks to TripAdvisor Plus members.Voyager Station is the name of the first space hotel. Constructions are expected to begin in 2026, and the hotel could be open by 2027.Kayak, the metasearch engine owned by Booking Holdings, partnered with Life House to open its first hotel, the Kayak Miami Beach.Ryanair launched an in-app health passport, so that passengers can prove their COVID-19 status before flying.According to Canary Technologies, 68% of hotels are implementing contactless check-in processes.Today is the last day of ITB Now, the digital edition of Berlin’s ITB. You can get all the info at itb.com.After the success of “Hospitality Marketplace,” Hospitality Net and FunnelTV are coming back with a brand new series titled “The Revenue Manager.” Eight panels, eight masterclasses, and 70 international C-Level speakers. The show will start in April.

Booking Holdings has reported a 99% net income fall for 2020, compared to the previous year.Trip.com revenue decreased by 49% in 2020.Airbnb revenue decreased by 30% in 2020.The FDA authorized Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine. As discussed during the last issue of Digital., Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine is only one dose and can be stored at normal refrigeration temperatures.According to a J.D. Power survey, one-third of American travelers are eager to travel once they are vaccinated.ITB Berlin 2020 will be completely digital, and it will take place from 9 to 12 March 2021. So far, more than 2,000 have signed up.According to President Biden, The US will have enough vaccines for every American adult by the end of May.Expedia Group and Booking Holdings invested $4.7 billion in marketing in 2020, a 60% drop compared to 2019, when they invested $11 billion.According to analyst Jason Bazinet, TripAdvisor’s new subscription model, Plus, could draw 10 million members, “creating an additional $1 billion of high-margin revenue.”Expedia Group is selling the Classic Vacations brand, a wholesaler specialized in luxury vacation, to Najafi Companies. According to Najafi Companies CEO, Jahm Najafi, “The luxury vacation business will see a rebound in the near future and Classic Vacations is well positioned to capitalize on that growth.”

According to the World Travel & Tourism Council, “this will be a strong summer for travel to Europe — including inbound travel.”The Greek government is considering opening its borders to vaccinated British tourists by May.The FDA confirmed that Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine offers effective protection against severe cases of COVID-19. If approved for use, Johnson & Johnson expects to provide 100 million doses by summer.According to a report by Harri, 29% of hospitality workers do not intend to take the COVID-19 vaccine to maintain their current employment.Announcing results for 2020, Accor posted a loss of almost €2 billion.Hilton reported a $720 million loss.Marriott reported $164 million loss and forecasts a 6% growth for 2021.Anthony Capuano, previously in charge of the global development division, is now the new Marriott’s CEO. Capuano will take the place of Arne Sorenson, who recently passed away.During a recent episode of Joe Rogan’s famous podcast, Elon Musk stated that SpaceX will be making regular passenger flights by 2023. The full episode can be found on Spotify.I wrote a piece on hotel technology and innovation during crises, available here: “Hotel Technology During Crises, Does it innovate?” https://www.hospitalitynet.org/panel/125000091/126000925.html

Marriott International CEO, Arne M. Sorenson, passed awayGoogle will pay a €1.1 million fine in Francelastminute.com has to pay £1M in refunds within the next seven daysExpedia Group has removed Vrbo from Google's vacation rental metasearch product.Travel + Leisure Co. launched a new online booking platform called #BookTandL.com.Tripadvisor revenue plummeted 61% in 2020.Around half of Americans will be more likely to travel when a #COVID19 vaccine is widely available.According to a Crypto Research report, #bitcoin will be worth $397,000 in 2030Accor partnered with Microsoft to launch "All Connect."I gave an interview to Startup.info on how #COVID19 affected our industry.

According to a survey from MMGY Global, 50% of Americans would take the COVID-19 vaccine immediately.During its first day of trading, shares of Airbnb closed at a stunning $144.71, 113% above the initial public offering price of $68.Google launched #hotelinsights, a new tool allowing hotels to “learn where interest for your hotel and your region is highest right now, explore booking trends, and learn about the digital tools you can use to attract new guests and grow your business.” Here’s an example for Ile-de-France: https://hotelinsights.withgoogle.com/global-insights/?region=ChIJF4ymA8Th5UcRcCWLaMOCCwETripadvisor is about to launch a subscription service, called Tripadvisor Plus, providing members with deals and perks on thousands of hotels and attractions. “Think of it as a travel club,” CEO Steve Kaufer, stated. The service will cost $99/year, and you can sign up for early access here: beta.subs.tripadvisor.com/plus/. In the meantime, China banned Tripadvisor from its app store, considering it “illegal.” Tripadvisor did not comment on it.Tripadvisor launched reco (https://www.helloreco.com/), a new platform that “matches travelers with a personal Trip Designer to simplify vacation planning [and] ensures travelers’ unique needs for their next trip are fulfilled, thanks to the expertise of advisors who know a destination best.”The chatbot HiJiffy raised €1 million in funding, thanks to an investment led by Portugal Ventures.Trip.com made a quarterly profit for the first time since the coronavirus outbreak.Lonely Planet, known mainly for its travel guidebooks, has been acquired by Red Ventures.Sad news for geeks like me: Uber decided to sell its driverless car unit. On the other hand, however, Amazon is ready to launch its Zoox vehicle.The Federal Trade Commission and 46 states sued Facebook for social networking monopoly and could force the company to sell Instagram and WhatsApp.

2045: Visions and Previsions on Hotel Marketing By Simone Puorto - Founder & CEO @ Travel Singularity

Pfizer vaccineBooking Holdings Q3Tripadvisor Q3Expedia Q3Trivago Q3Amadeus study on #SCAMarriott fined for breachBooking.com and Expedia data breach#ITBBerlin 2021 will be virtualThe future of the PMS industry according to GX Spotlight

Tripadvisor BIMirai suggestions for google hotel adsNew layoffs for expedia"The day there's a vaccine announced […] will be our highest booking day in history."Google Analytics 4Sabre and Google launch Sabre Travel AIWIHP / skift on the rise of GHANew lockdown for FranceGX SPOTLIGHTS What's the future of hotel technology?CitizenM corporate subscription

TSA:1 million people at U.S. airportsGlobalData: bad news for 2020Arte channel: The Wuhan Paradox,Antitrust suit against GooglePayPal and cryptocurrenciesCOVID-19 mortality rates have decreased overRadisson launches #IndividualsAirbnb 15% commissionBooking.com launches flight searchMy latest speech on Transhumanism and Hospitality

Simone Puorto: Transumanesimo e Hospitality. Valutazioni etiche sulle tecnologie del futuro.

Amazon partnered with the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation to sell train tickets.Booking.com will discontinue its BookingSuite services(WebDirect, BookingButton, RateIntelligence and ChoicePro) starting on November 30 to focus “on growing our core accommodations business.”According to an Expedia study, “travelers are 57% more likely to book their travel through an OTA now than before COVID-19.”According to a Travel Leaders Group survey, 70% of US and Canadian travelers plan to take a holiday in 2021…… On the other hand, a study by YouGov showed that only one in 10 UK adults is planning a trip abroad over the next six months.Hilton launched its WorkSpaces initiative: guests can use hotel rooms as remote offices. Rooms provide a desk, a chair, and free WiFi, together with food and drinks.Like the majority of metasearch engines, Trivago launched a CPA model as well as an alternative to the classic CPC model.According to a recent Google study, private accommodation are recovering faster than hotels, as “vacation rental is perceived safer, easier to practice social distancing”Google is testing organic listings of its metasearch results. Thanks to Evan Davies for the findingDespite the situation, Italy maintained TTG and Hospitality Day fairs.

Italy National Tourism FundIan Schrager: the industry will return to the same normal we’ve always hadAn old tuberculosis vaccine could also protect against #COVID-19Radisson and Zoom hybrid online conferencesGoogle Meet 60 minutes limitTwitter and DMsHow will The Hotels of the Future look like?Amazon launched “Explore”Koddi and Tripadvisor recovery initiativeA US man sued by The Sea View Resort on a TripAdvisor’s review.

1. Virtual World Travel Market London2. Marriott good news3. Manhattan room inventory according to eHotelier.4. The Peninsula Hotels replace Oracle with Shiji5. TikTok, Oracle and Walmart6. "The death of hotels," wrote Skift's Dennis Schaal, "was greatly exaggerated."7. Thomas Cook relaunched itself as an OTA.8. eMarketer figures on ad spending9. 115 destinations have reduced their travel restrictions.10. Booking.com now allows listed properties to offer weekly and monthly rates.

1. Hong Kong man infected by COVID-19 twice2. Airbnb pre-pandemic in 2021?3. IPO of the century?4. Vaccine pre-election5. WeChat censoring coronavirus conversations6. The real risk of flying7. Fosun to relaunch Thomas Cook8. Tripadvisor contactless menus9. Booking.com and leisure travelers10. Coronavirus and innovation

1. Airbnb's IPO.2. Coca-Cola + IBM3. Google vs. LinkedIn4. Photoshop vs. fakes5. Google launches "To Do,"6. Accor merging with InterContinental Hotels?7. Marriott's data breach8. Agoda's day-use feature9. SpaceX raises $1.9 billion10. Zoom's revenue +355%

A talk by André Baljeu, Jordan Hollander, Simone Puorto and Mark Fancourttechtalk.travel, HotelTechReport.com, Travel Singularity & TRAVHOTECH, FOODnBEVTECH & Testbed VegasTen years from now. Some might say we would be mad to make a prediction. We've decided we will anyway. Tune in for a vision of hospitality ten years down the road.

Improve Operational Tasks Workflow, Optimize Revenue Performance, Apply Post-COVID-19 Protocols, And Cut Hotel Expenses By Up To 30%Special Guests:Svetlana Udalov (HKeeper)Matthijs Welle (MEWS)Andrea Spalletti Trivelli (Villa Spalletti Trivelli)Micheal Mccartan (Sciant)

1. Should we ban US travelers?2. Booking.com recovery kit3. #weareeurope4. Trip.com travel on sale5. CitizenM goes contactless6. Headspace Inc. get $47M7. Hotelbeds aptitude8. Google fact checking images9. Google gets flexible10. Apple maps + Lonely Planet

Intelligenza Artificiale, Attribute-Based Selling, Distribuzione Blockchain, Chatbot, Realtà Aumentata e Virtuale, Internet delle Cose, Biometrica e Ricerca Vocale. Che aspetto avrà l’Hospitality nei prossimi anni?Moderatore: Simone Puorto Founder Travel SingularityGuest Speaker: Emanuele Nardin Direttore HotelPerformance, Agostino Scialfa Owner Hotel Cosmopolitan Bologna, Marzia Baislak Co-Founder QualitandoLive Manager: Enzo Aita

Ho rilasciato una video-intervista a Ada Travel srl sullo stato odierno della distribuzione alberghiera.L'attuale situazione sanitaria mondiale cambia profondamente le nostre abitudini e ci porterà a un mondo completamente diverso. Dovremo profondamente rivedere l'approccio al lavoro e i nostri modelli di business. Insieme possiamo intercettare il cambiamento.

Digital "Focus": FLIGHTWhat's Going On In The Airline Industry?Special Guests:✈️ Giulia EremitaDigital Strategy & Innovation BTO2020✈️ Roberta CupriAviation Business Development Manager SEA Milan Airports di Milano✈️ Alejandro Gomez LosadaVP Global Sales @TripStack ✈️ @Marco MalatoSenior Airline and Travel Executive

Airbnb did cut its workforce by 25% (almost 2,000 employees), and reduced its investments in Airbnb Luxe.WeWork laid off around 300 employees (the number is still unofficial), mainly in the tech and development team.With traffic dropping day after day, Trivago notified investors that it is making changes to its organizational setup, involving a “significant” number of layoffs.Both Delta and Alaska Airlines have officially announced they are blocking middle seats on flights, and some low-cost carriers (such as Spirit Airlines) have started implementing this new policy as well.FDA approved a coronavirus vaccine, created by American biotech company, Moderna, for phase II trial. Phase III trial is expected this summer.Sabre CEO, Sean Menke, announced that the Sabre and Farelogix merger deal is officially off. “We continue to believe,” Menke commented, “that the transaction was not anti-competitive, a result confirmed by the U.S. federal district court’s decision in Sabre’s favor.”Apartment rental company, Frontdesk, landed a $6.8M Series A round of funding.Facebook launched Messenger Rooms. The new video chat service can be used to up to 50 people simultaneously, and, currently, only runs on Messenger, but the company is planning to implement it on Instagram, and WhatsApp as well.Expedia Vice Chairman, Peter Kern, is now officially the company’s CEO.Yesterday, my favorite podcaster (Joe Rogan) interviewed my favorite human being (Elon Musk) for the second time. A lot of insights on Neuralink, some Tesla news, and probably the most honest take on COVID-19 I’ve heard so far.

After borrowing $4Bon the capital markets, Booking Holdings asked for government support to pay salaries (that, according to The Volkskrant, are on average, €47,000 a year/employee), but the loan may not be enough, and, according to an internal memo sent to employees, layoffs will be “probable.”To survive the pandemic, Expedia is about to sell a $1B stake to the equity firms Apollo Global Management and Silver Lake Partners.Emirates, together with Dubai Health Authority is conducting on-site rapid COVID-19 on his passengers before departing. The blood tests used are able to give results within 10 minutes.In an email sent to hoteliers, HotelBeds has again extended the dates of force majeure to 15 May.According to a recent IATA survey, 60% of travelers will return to travel within one to two months of containment of the COVID-19 pandemic.According to research by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), as of 6 April, “96% of all worldwide destinations have introduced travel restrictions in response to the pandemic.” Did They Help? is a website that “tracks companies and public figures in terms of their actions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Users can search the site for a brand or celebrity to see a positive or negative score of their behavior. Results include links to the specific actions or policies that contributed to a particular score, such as offering paid sick leave to employees (or not), donating medical supplies, or supporting food banks.” Google is rumored to be working on a Visa-based smart debit card similar to the Apple card.“When will be a good time to consider reactivating my campaigns?” Mirai asks. According to the Spanish agency, the period from March 15 to 31 saw a -88% decline in impressions YoY, -63% in CPC, -41% in conversion, but a +5% increase in CTR. As Mirai points out, however, the average CPA for these campaigns is still around 6.5%, one-third of OTAs commissions.Stripe raised $600M and reached over $3B valuation. An IPO can be not imminent, due to the situation, yet it’s fair to say that Stripe, focusing on e-commerce, is actually benefiting from the lockdown.

According to STR, Mainland China’s daily hotel occupancy reached an absolute level of 31.8% on 28 March, up from a low of 7.4% (first week of February).According to an MMGY Travel Intelligence survey, 50% of destinations expect to resume their advertising within the next two months.To help you spot the first signs of a recovery, D-EDGE created a dynamic report “tracking the bookings and cancellations that have been processed through our systems. You can play with it and select the country and/or specific channel (OTAs, Wholesalers, Direct) you want to monitor”. McKinsey published a (freely downloadable) briefing on COVID-19, with several recovery scenarios. American Airlines CEO, Doug Parker, candidly admitted he has no idea when the airline industry will start to recover.Due to security concerns, Google decided to ban the video-conferencing service Zoom within its employees. Meanwhile, Big G. rebranded its Hangouts app to Google Meet. Strange timing…To “let you continue digital marketing while avoiding risks,” the Italian metasearch ads platform, AdsHotel, started charging hotels bidding on GHA only after guests check out. “Imagine about travelers that make a booking today for arrival date June,” the company wrote on a recent email sent to its customers, “if the booking will be canceled you pay nothing!”U.K. regulator blocked Sabre acquisition of Farelogix. Sabre stated it is “disappointed by the CMA’s findings, particularly in light of the U.S. federal court’s ruling, which found that Sabre’s acquisition of Farelogix is not anti-competitive and should not be prohibited. We are reviewing the CMA’s findings and will carefully consider our options.”Accor launched day-use room packages for people who need a private office space for the day. The service is already bookable on ten hotels in Bangkok from 8:00 AMto 8:00 PM.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Airbnb’s valuation has fallen from $31B (two years ago) to $18B. The company had to secure $1B investment from Silver Lake and Sixth Street Partners, in order to survive the crisis.According to PhocusWire, Booking Holdings bookings have decreased by more than 85% YoY.Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, donated $1 billion to coronavirus research (charitable fund Start Small).Hilton and American Express announced they will donate up to 1 million hotel room nights across the United States to frontline medical professionals fighting against COVID-19. Chinese Goliath, Shiji Distribution Solutions, has analyzed booking volumes and changes in lead time between booking date and arrival date. In times of crisis, advertising agencies are usually the most hit. Sojern is laying off about 50% of its staff (600 employees), while WordStream published a very interesting study on the COVID-19 impact on Google Ads performance.Google Maps is publishing aggregated, anonymized insights on movement trends, divided by geography and categories of places (such as retail and recreation, groceries and pharmacies, parks, transit stations, workplaces, and residential). Data can be downloaded here.“When we came out of the financial crisis of 2008, cloud computing kicked into high gear and started to become a pervasive, transformational technology. The current COVID-19 crisis could provide a similar inflection point for AI applications. While the implications of AI continue to be debated on the world stage, the rapid onset of a global health crisis and concomitant recession will accelerate its impact.” Here’s an interesting read by VentureBeat on the role of artificial intelligence in a post-COVID-19 world.Microsoft Edge became the second most popular desktop web browser, with 7.6% of market share, vs. 7.2% of Mozilla Firefox. Both browsers, however, are still far away from Chrome’s 68.5%.HotelNewsNow published “Timeline: The growing number of hotel data breaches,” a deep-dive into the last 10 years of breaches in hospitality. Here are some of from the last three years:2020: Marriott International, MGM Resorts International.2019: Choice Hotels International, Drury Hotels.2018: Marriott International, Radisson Hotel Group, Huazhu Hotels Group.

On April 1, 2020, Booking Holdings Inc. announced to its employees that Glenn Fogel, the Company’s Chief Executive Officer, tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus.“What if your computer could help scientists fight COVID-19?” You can download an app runs in the background whenever your device is unused or in light use. The app does not slow your computer down, personal data are never shared, and the software cannot access your personal files, yet, it distributes your processing power to IBM, to help scientists “study the world’s biggest problems in health and sustainability.” OpenPandemics will be launching soon. Starting from next week, residents in Wuhan will be allowed to travel again within the city. According to Forbes, “cautious optimism remains that normality will be resumed in the near future”.Airbnb co-founder and CEO, Brian Chesky, sent an email to his hosts, explaining why he had to refund guests fully. HEventually, Expedia Group is applying its force majeure cancellation policy to all bookings worldwide with stay dates prior to April 30, 2020.Just Stay Home, says the latest Hotels.com commercial. Never in my career, I would have thought to see the Expedia Group usine such a tagline…According to an anonymous source, Airbnb would have paused a good part of its marketing spending, saving around $800 million.Mattel is making face masks from Barbie and Fisher-Price fabric. Ynon Kreiz, Chairman and CEO, stated: “Our design and development teams in El Segundo, Calif., and East Aurora, New York, are producing face masks from Barbie and Fisher-Price fabric to help meet the significant demand for these supplies.”Booking.com, Expedia, and Trip.com are removing parity clauses in Hong Kong. “The existing clauses require accommodation providers in Hong Kong to always give the online travel agents the same or better terms as those they offer in all other sales channels […] As a consequence, buyers of accommodation services, such as hotel guests, possibly may not benefit from lower and more varied room rates,” the antitrust commission said in a statement.Still another data breach for Marriott International: the breach may have impacted over 5M customers, and, again, it may be originated from “a property system.” The breach was discovered at the end of February, but it is thought to have been going on since the beginning of 2020. “We are still investigating the incident,” Marriott stated, “We identified that an unexpected amount of guest information may have been accessed using the login credentials of two employees at a franchise property.” Stolen data might include: name, company, gender, birthday, physical address, email addresses, phone number, loyalty account information, room, and language preferences. No credit card or Bonvoy accounts have been, so far, affected.

COVID-19.TheHotelsNetwork published COVID-19 in Hospitality guide, updated daily with the latest available data and accessible here.In line with airlines and hotels, even OTAs and GDSs are now asking support from the European Commission. EU Travel Tech, the group, lobbying on behalf of major OTAs (such as Expedia and Booking), metasearch engines, and GDS, stated that “it is of utmost importance that the European Commission and member states include exceptional measures to assist the whole industry."Sabre is cutting $200M. Similar news for Amadeus, adopting a “set of measures to protect its liquidity,” by cutting €300M in costs, Booking Holdings temporarily froze hiring, internal company events, non-essential business travels, and reduced marketing investments. Travel Weekly published “Supplier Cancellation, Change Policies & Refunds,” an extensive directory, providing direct links to suppliers’ latest travel cancellation, change and refund policies. The list can be accessed here.Le Bijou Hotel & Resort, in Switzerland, took things to the next level, by advertising “Quarantine Apartments.” Marketing genius or plain bad taste?Vision.Summit, the world’s fastest computer, is helping to find candidate drugs to fight the coronavirus epidemic. Thanks to the supercomputer, created by IBM, researchers simulated how 8,000 different molecules would interact with the virus, identifying 77 candidates that can now be tested in trials. IBM’ Summit runs at 0.2 exaflops and can simulate a supernova explosion in about two months.Finance.Equity firm Certares Management purchased $325 million in Liberty Tripadvisor stocks, becoming a strategic investor. Certares founder, Greg O’Hara, is to become Vice Chairman of Liberty Tripadvisor.$1.1M in fundings for the rebooking app, Pruvo, led by Spanish VC 4Founders. Based on the current situation with cancellations, this is not really unexpected.Tech.IBM is taking Airbnb to court for the unauthorized use of proprietary e-commerce technologies. In the past, the tech giant successfully took both Twitter and Groupon to court and, both times, shortly before their respective IPOs…Hotel.Tripadvisor is trying to sell its vacation rentals brands on one side while, on the other, OYO wants to expand its alternative accommodation coverage.

TravelgateX launched a free control panel that allows monitoring of the coronavirus impact on the travel industry. According to Lastminute, travelers will start booking again in May/June, with levels back to normal in July and August, and Shiji published an interesting chart on how Chinese market is picking up reservations since the beginning of the epidemic.The Greek Ministry of Tourism announced all hotels (with the exception of seasonal ones) will be forced to shut down until April 30.Tripadvisor is trying to sell five of its vacation rental brands: FlipKey, VacationHomeRentals, Holiday Lettings, Housetrip, and Niumba.Bill Gates stated he is leaving Microsoft’s board to dedicate more time to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.Heather Simon, an Expedia’ former employee, stated that “Barry Diller failed Expedia [and] ignored the problems until he decided the only option left was the nuclear one.”Facebook and Twitter took down several accounts connected to the same farm responsible for interfering in the infamous 2016 Trump election.Egyptian tourism entrepreneur Hamed El Chiaty, that already owns Travco Group, bought a 3.4% stake in the TUI Group.Cloudbeds raised $82M in a Series C minority investment led by Viking Global Investors. SiteMinder launched Insights, a suite of monitoring and reporting tools, providing hoteliers a single place to access data on market trends, business performance, and guests’ behavior.

Reminders, notifiche, chats, tasks, bugs, email… la vita di un professionista del turismo oggi non è per nulla semplice, ancora peggio se il lavoro riguarda il marketing digitale dove il tempo sembra non bastare mai. La gestione del tempo per allocare meglio le proprie risorse e capire lo stato di avanzamento di un progetto diventa fondamentale, così come la gestione dello stress dovuta alla sensazione di aver fatto poco o di dover fare di più.In questo panel due approcci diversi sul “time management”, il primo più intuitivo che tende ad individuare le priorità nella vita e le motivazioni più profonde che danno un senso al tutto e il secondo più razionale che usa la tecnologia per misurare come viene suddiviso il proprio tempo e cosa produce. L’obiettivo è lo stesso: puntare sulla qualità della vita, del proprio lavoro e migliorare la produttività. In un’epoca di “onlife”, dove la realtà si modula e rimodula secondo le nostre interazioni nell’era dell’iperconnessione, costruire la propria "zattera in un fiume in movimento", per dare un senso alla realtà che ci circonda, diventa una necessità impellente.Giulia Eremita Coordinamento Digital Strategy BTO 2020Alessio Carciofi CEO Digital DetoxSimone Puorto Founder, CEO & Futurist Travel SingularitySéverine Obertelli Lifestyle Coaching and Travel Consultancy

Nel 2020, i pagamenti digitali supereranno i 700 Miliardi. In alcune destinazioni, come la Cina, i digital wallet sono già la prima forma di pagamento; l’ente turistico di Singapore ha iniziato a promuovere attivamente i check-in biometrici in hotel, ovvero senza bisogno di passaporti o documenti, mentre la più vicina Svezia, ha dichiarato guerra al cash, con oltre 5,000 cittadini ai quali è stato impiantato un chip sottopelle per le transazioni quotidiane. Qual è il futuro (o meglio, il presente) dei pagamenti?Simone Puorto Founder, CEO & Futurist Travel SingularityEnrico Plateo Head of Europe Tencent IBGEric Larsen Executive chairman Biohax Italia

Lo Human Intelligence dell’AILe tecnologie conversazionali, siano esse vocali o via chat, parzialmente o completamente automatizzate, sono ormai lo standard nelle nostre interazioni, spesso addirittura senza che ce ne rendiamo consciamente conto. Le utilizziamo per chiedere l’ora esatta, cercare un ricetta in cucina, trovare il tragitto migliore da A a B, acquistare un biglietto aereo, oppure chiedere informazioni sulla nostra camera d’albergo. Le piattaforme conversational processano miliardi di dati al secondo, li assemblano in maniera previsionale e rispondono, di volta in volta, con la risposta più adeguata alle nostre esigenze. E se, da una parte, queste tecnologie riducono (e a volte azzerano) il margine di errore e avvicinando e gli utenti umani a tecnologie artificiali, dall’altra si corre il rischio di privare l’essere umano di alcune importanti e caratteristiche capacità cognitive, come quelle legate alla memoria e l’orientamento, arrivando fino a vere e proprie mutazioni dell’ippocampo. Viaggio nell’onLIFE della conversational AI con due player leader nel settore Volara (voice nell’hospitality) e BeSpoke (chatbot per aeroporti). Quali saranno gli algoritmi che regoleranno questo nuovo sistema di ricerca delle informazioni?Simone Puorto Founder, CEO & Futurist Travel SingularityDave Berger Co-Founder & CEO Volara.aiAkemi Tsunagawa CEO & Founder Bespoke

The most controversial news of the week went almost entirely unnoticed, covered under a plethora of COVID-19 articles: Donald Trump issued an order to block the sale of the cloud-based suite of hotel management solutions, StayNTouch, to Chinese Goliath, Shiji, on the ground of “national security.” Still on Oracle. Moving to the cloud made the company extremely agile. The downside is that Oracle today needs a fraction of the human workforce it used to, so it is planning to cut 1,300 jobs in Europe, mainly in the Dublin, Amsterdam, and Malaga offices, in order “to adapt the spending of the company to the revenue situation.”In 2019, Expedia Group and Booking Holdings spent over $11B on marketing. Even though today is more a competitor than a partner, most of this budget went straight to Google. According to eMarketer, travel ads accounted for about 10.9% of total search ad spend in 2019 on Google, generating $10.7B out of the $98B total search-related Alphabet revenue.Tech.According to the AI-fueled advertising platform, AdsHotel, campaigns for Italian hotels showed a decrease of about 60% in clicks. UK, Spain, and Germany are decreasing approx 20%, while no significant reduction in clicks is registered on the US domestic market. Interestingly, conversion even increased.ReviewPro launched Guest Experience Automation™, an “AI-powered solution for hotels that seamlessly provides the correct information to improve the guest experience while reducing costs and increasing efficiency. “I was the first knowledge worker whose job was threatened by a machine,” said chess GrandMaster, and personal hero of mine, Garry Kasparov. 23 years after he was defeated by IBM’s Deep(er) Blue, Kasparov came back to New York to discuss AI with the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI). Meliá Hotels International is pioneering the adoption of RPA (Robotic Process Automation) technology n the hospitality industry, automatizing most repetitive processes that, so far, had to be performed manually by humans. The company is implementing RPA in several areas, from Credit and Insurance to HR.Amazon opened Amazon Go Grocery, its first cashier-less grocery store. The grocery industry is worth $800B, so it’s a very interesting one for Bezos. How does it work? You enter the store by scanning your app, then cameras and sensors record what you take from the shelves. When you leave, you’re charged on your Amazon account.Hotel.“The ability of hotel companies to remove (or at least reduce) the transactional friction from the guest experience relies in large part on the capacity to make payments as “invisible” as possible,” wrote James Montague, Shiji Group, on an interesting piece on payments accessible here.ITB launched its virtual convention platform. You can access the on-demand videos here, or watch my session here below:Welcome to Digital., your weekly recap of the best travel news of the week: day in, day out. Everything you need to know about hotel distribution, digital economy, travel, tourism, hospitality, startups, market stocks, reports, staff movements, industry events, innovation, and more. Hosted by best-selling author, journalist, futurist, founder of Travel Singularity, toy collector and retired punk rocker, Simone Puorto.

This was supposed to be my 5-minute-keynote at #ITB2020, revolving around the analogies between the myth of Prometheus, Friedrich Nietzsche, and #artificialintelligence.It would have been my first time as a speaker at the German event; I was so excited that I've spent weeks tweaking the speech, rewriting it and rehearsing it. We all know what happened, and even though it's not up to me to judge the decision to cancel the event, yet, I cannot help but feel a little sad about the whole thing. I feel particularly sorry for the hard work that Daniel Zelling and Anja Bredemeier put in organizing what was likely to be an amazing panel with amazing people: David Turnbull (techtalk travel), Ian Di Tullio (Accor), Stefan Matthiessen (Koncept Hotels), and Christian Schwarz Lausten (Airbnb). Well, life goes on, but I thought that, after all the work, you might be interested in listening to it. So here we go: a recording of me rehearsing the speech (sorry for the quality, this was never supposed to be published...). I hope you enjoy it. See you in 2021! _ _ _ Hospitality 2025 Category eTravel World Date March 5, 2020 Time 17:00 - 18:00 Location Hall 7.1b, eTravel Lab * How do processes in the hotel industry change due to the use of new technologies? * Will there still be a need for personnel in the future? * How will the expectations of different target groups change? * Which hotel product is the promising model for holidays, which for business trips? Moderated by: David Turnbull, Hospitality Entrepreneur & Advisor, Board Member, techtalk.travel Speakers: Ian Di Tullio, SVP of Guest Services, ACCOR Stefan Matthiessen, Chief Brand Officer, Koncept Hotels Simone Puorto, CEO, Travel Singularity Christian Schwarz Lausten, EMEA Lead, Airbnb for Work

Focus on Coronavirus:Over 5% of Italian GDP comes from tourism and this panic is not helping. First, if you're immune system is good, you're likely not going to die. Victims in Italy were all in their '80s or '90s or, when younger, people with pre-existing conditions (such as the 62-year-old man who died was on dialysis). Moreover: 400 proven cases for 60M Italians. That is 0.0006% of incidence. If we look at the death rate, that's 0.000016%. The odds of being struck by lightning are 0.03%. That's 2,000 times more likely to die from coronavirus in Italy.Expedia is about to fire 2,900 of their 24,000 full-time employees (approx 12% of the company's workforce), to cut $300–500M costs by the end of 2020. Here's an extract from the Expedia email to its team:"Team Expedia Group, Following our disappointing 2019 business performance and our change in senior-most management, the Travel Leadership Team has spent the last few months determining a better way forward. (…) Our company needed a fresh and forward look at clarifying our strategy and simplifying our operations (…) We have been pursuing growth in an unhealthy and undisciplined way. (…) We will exert more discipline in setting priorities and allocating resources (…) Today, we are announcing our intent to reduce and eliminate certain projects, activities, teams, and roles to streamline and focus our organization.GSD Group and True North partnered with Atari to open game-themed hotels across the US. "Atari is an iconic global brand that resonates with people of all ages, countries, cultures, and ethnic backgrounds," Atari CEO, Fred Chesnais, stated, "and we cannot wait for our fans and their families to enjoy this new hotel concept."

Finance.In 2019, Uber reported losses for almost $3B. However, the car-sharing app is confident it will reach profitability by 2021.OYO reported a loss of around $300M and is planning to cut down on its spending.No big surprises for Tripadvisor: revenue dropped by 3%, closing at $1.6B.Decline in revenue for Trivago as well (-8%), closing at €838.6M.Tech.Back in 2016, I was working for a web agency offering, among other services, a metasearch engine management tool. My idea, back then, was to combine the experience and the integrations we had by partnering with an AI company to increase the returns of our clients’ campaigns. It never happened (at least, up until I stayed in the agency). Still, I am happy to see that two of my favorite companies out there are doing precisely that: Mirai and TripTease signed a partnership, with the first offering a powerful IBE and the second adding a machine learning layer on top of the campaigns. Results? Over a three-month trial period, on average, conversion rates increased by 22%, and ROAS improved by 41% on average. Good job guys!Another friend, another success: Oaky,​ has partnered with ​Cloudbeds​, creating a two-way integration enabling Oaky to leverage Cloudbeds booking data o send personalized pre-arrival upselling offers to guests. Well done, Eric!Career.Revenue management consulting company, Xotels, is hiring: two cluster RMs, an area RM, a hotel RM, an area revenue executive, and a hotel yeld analyst. You can apply here.Hotel.Due to coronavirus, Expedia suspended listings of Chinese hotels, flights, and local tours. According to ChinaTravelNews, Europe projects 7%-25% less Chinese arrivalsAccording to a recent Kantar survey, over 75% of ads triggered by lodging-related-keywords (such as “NYC Hotels”) belongs to OTAs. So much for becoming less Google-dependent…Vision.“We want to automate the predictable so we can humanize the exceptional,” said Joerg Schuler, Amadeus’ VP of Travel Channels Customer Service, when talking about Amanda, the chatbot Amadeus created to answer travel advisors’ questions. According to Schuler, Amanda can answer 3/4 of the 1,000 questions advisors aks Amadeus support center every day.

Digital #10Unexpectedly, Trivago integrated Google Hotel Ads in trivago Business Studio. “Now,” according to the German metasearch company, “you can create a Google Hotel Ads campaign without leaving your Business Studio. (…) It runs on the CPA model, so you can advertise to a wider global audience with no extra risk.”Digital #9By a similarly odd move, Tripadvisor launched Review Hub, the new reputation management tool, giving restaurant owners and managers the ability to respond to reviews not only on Tripadvisor, but on Google, Facebook, TheFork, Yelp and, More, All from One Easy-to-Use Platform. You can take a peak at the platform here.Digital#8Mother is “one of the world’s most respected, independent creative companies” in the world, and, if you’re into design, you’ve probably heard of them. Their last work was the revamp of the Tripadvisor logo. “The redesigned logo,” Associate Editor of Creative Bloq, Ruth Hamilton, wrote “keeps the essence of Ollie (Tripadvisor owl mascotte) but given him a minimalist makeover. The new Tripadvisor logo has a simpler, monochrome design that’s much more flexible for use in different contexts.” The rebrand incorporates a new custom type font (Trip Sans), a new color palette, and the “a” in the name is no longer in capitals.Digital#7But will a logo revamp be enough to save Tripadvisor? As the company celebrates its 20th birthday, it may be facing way bigger issues. Just to name one: Viator. The company was acquired six years ago for $200M, and it is now officially operating independently from Tripadvisor Experiences. Experiences President, Dermot Halpin (obviously) left the company and will only stay in Q1 with the role of advisor. Viator Founder, Rod Cuthbert, enjoyed an I told you so moment, by saying that, “back in 2017,” he already talked “about the mistake I felt Trip was making in shifting emphasis away from Viator, the established leader in tours and activities, to Tripadvisor Experiences.” Based on the announcement, he was totally right.Digital#6But it gets worse: according to rumors, Tripadvisor may be making cuts for something around $60M and $80M. First one to go? CFO and President for APAC, Gary Fritz, leaving in Q2.Digital#5Changes in the Experience unit for Airbnb as well: the company hired Catherine Powell, former Walt Disney theme park president. That’s not the first time Disney exects get into the travel space: last May, Tripadvisor appointed Kanika Soni, former SVP, global e-commerce of the Consumer Products Division Disney, as President of the Company’s Hotels Business Unit.Digital#4After 11 years as LinkedIn CEO, Jeff Weiner is now stepping down. He will be replaced by Ryan Roslansky, another LinkedIn veteran, that has been in the company since before Microsoft acquired it (for over $25B) in 2016. Currently, LinkedIn as around 700M members.Digital#3Sabre seems unstoppable lately: it just signed a strategic long-term global partnership with OYO, connecting the Indian company to almost 1M travel agents worldwide via Sabre GDS. Digital#2According to the Phocuswright’s Europe Online Travel Overview 2019 study, “Europe’s travel market grew 2% in 2019 to €296B [and] travel continues to be a key element of the European lifestyle.” Digital#1Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni represents “a century and a half of welcoming elegance.” Recently awarded by Travel & Leisure N°1 resort in Italy, the hotel is so iconic that it inspired the famous Bellagio Hotel, in Las Vegas. Among its guests, you can find names such as JFK, Al Pacino, and George Lucas. During today’s episode of Digital. (3:00 PM CET)I will be joined by Anita Cancelliere, Marketing Manager (and personal friend of mine), and we’ll talk about the current state of luxury in travel. Don’t miss it!

Digital #10Australian court found Trivago guilty of misleading its users by not showing the cheapest hotel deals, but the ones on which advertisers bid the most. Federal Court Justice, Mark Moshinsky, stated that Trivago “did not provide an impartial, objective and transparent price comparison service, (and) the fact that Trivago was being paid by the online booking sites was not made clear.” The company was also found guilty of misleading users by comparing different room types, creating a false impression of savings.Digital #9As already speculated on an old Digital., Thomas Cook could be relaunched as an OTA as early as this summer (June, according to rumors) by Fosun, the current owner of the oldest travel firm’s brand. That being said, Thomas Cook’s customers are still waiting to get refunded for the canceled vacations…Digital #8During ITB2020, Protel will release the new version of AIR, “industry’s first and only PMS to include built-in voice capabilities for hotel employees.” Digital #7, 6 & 5Google I/O 2020 has, finally, a date and a location: May 12th — 14th, at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View. The event was promoted by a cool puzzle, that you can try to solve here. On different news, Google’ SERP redesign (check out the previous edition of Digital.) backlashed: many users (including yours truly) complained about the fact that the new design blurred the line between paid and natural results, making ads look more like organic search results. A Google spokesman minimized, by saying that the new SERP mirrors “the design that we’ve had for many months on mobile.” Still on Google: according to CEO, Sundar Pichai, artificial intelligence (if unregulated) could be used for “mass surveillance”, or to “violate human rights.” The Financial Times published an interview with Pichai, who highlighted how regulations should “take a proportionate approach, balancing potential harms, especially in high-risk areas, with social opportunities.” Google, according to Pichai, “wants to be a helpful and engaged partner to regulators as they grapple with the inevitable tensions and trade-offs. We offer our expertise, experience, and tools as we navigate these issues together.”Digital #4According to a recent Sojern survey, 60% of independent hoteliers consider increasing direct bookings their number one challenge. Digital #3Travel tech companies, on the other hand, seem to be more focused on creating a really frictionless travel experience, helped by the use of AI. According to Lindy Andersen, Director of Global Accounts at Expedia Group, the group is “harnessing the power of innovative technology, using AI to alleviate stressors and drive better efficiencies of our entire platform.”Digital #2Trip.com expanded its “Cancellation Guarantee” initiative to hotels outside of China. If you’re a hotelier, you’ve probably received a message from the company formerly-known-as-Ctrip.Digital #1PhocusWire does not need an introduction. If you’re in the industry, you know that PW is your “comprehensive daily news companion for the industry”, powered by Phocuswright, the most respected travel research authority and events brand in the world. During today’s episode of Digital. (3:00 PM CET) I will be joined by PhocusWire Senior Europe Reporter (and personal friend of mine), Linda Fox. Linda has been writing about technology and distribution in the travel since 1998, for media such as Travolution and tnooz. I had the privilege of working with her on a few articles over the years, and she’s -by far- on my personal Top-5 of favorite travel reporters. Tune in at FunnelTV, or follow the Livestream on LinkedIn, Facebook, or YouTube.

Digital #10Cvent partnered with HSMAI, offering its solution to the many events the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International organizes every year. HMSAI will use the whole Cvent ecosystem: OnArrival, Social Tables, and Cvent Appointments. If you want to know more about HSMAI events, check out this article I wrote for them in 2018.Digital #9As Google competition becomes fiercer, TripAdvisor had to reduce costs, and its first decision was to fire 200 of its 3,800 employees (around 5% of its workforce). No official comment from the company has (yet) been published.Digital #8(Rita’s pick) Accor Hotels and Sabre are working on a “full-service property management capability.” The first step of the partnership is Accor’s adoption of SynXis reservation system.Digital #7If something seems slightly different on Desktop Google’ SERP, don’t panic. It is. The new SERP features favicons, blurring the line between paid and organic results even more. Organic results now feature a small logo next to the URL, while paid ads feature a bolded black ad label. The change is not unexpected: I’ve already discussed this change back in May. At the time, the new design only affected mobile search, but it was quite obvious that desktop was next.Digital #6Yet another funding round for SiteMinder: the unstoppable channel manager raised $70M. With a valuation of more than $750M, it’s not so far-fetched to see these guys on the unicorns list before the end of the year…Digital #5Revinate launched a new, cloud-dased, AI-fueled data platform to clean and aggregate hotel guests’ profiles, aiming to solve one of the most pressing problems in our industry: guest data fragmentation. Marc Heyneker, CEO and Co-Founder of Revinate, stated: “For decades, technology companies have (managed) rooms, not guests. We are seeing a tectonic shift to a guest-centric approach (…) Our Guest Data Platform delivers the cleanest and most robust set of guest data intelligence ever made available (… ) Hoteliers now have access to unified guest profiles that power unmatched direct revenue performance and personalized guest experiences.”Digital #4Tesla is now worth $100B, more than Ford and GM combined. Tesla’ share price doubled in just three months, skyrocketing to $600/share. As the mighty Joe Rogan once wisely stated: “When you drive (a Tesla), you realize other cars are stupid.”Digital #3Skift published its sixth annual Megatrends Defining Travel magazine. If you’re looking for something to read over the weekend, here’s my best suggestion.Digital #2Google Cloud partnered with Sabre to “enable the travel provider to improve operational agility while developing new services and creating a new marketplace for its airline, hospitality, and travel agency customers.” The first challenge will be migrating the huge Sabre’s IT infrastructure to Google Cloud.Digital #1Ubisend delivers AI-driven conversational interfaces that enable brands to communicate in real-time, 24/7 in any timezone, across 29 digital channels. Its AI solutions provide a unified, cross-business unit and global solution, unlocking valuable resources and enabling brands to solve people’s problems with real care. During today’s episode of Digital. (3:00 PM CET), I will be joined by Jamie Gladstone, Sales Development Representative, and we’ll talk about AI, HI, and the future of our industry. Don’t miss it!Welcome to Digital., your weekly recap of the best travel news of the week: day in, day out. Everything you need to know about hotel distribution, digital economy, travel, tourism, hospitality, startups, market stocks, reports, staff movements, industry events, innovation, and more. Hosted by best-selling author, journalist, futurist, founder of Travel Singularity, toy collector and retired punk rocker, Simone Puorto.

Digital #10Do you remember Black Mirror’s Nosedive episode? We’re a step closer to it. After a £2.5M listing has been rented to organize a rave party, Airbnb has developed software that can analyze guests’ online personas to calculate the chances of them trashing apartments. The software scans for traits such as “neuroticism,” involvement in crimes,” “narcissism,” “psychopathy,” and -poetically enough, “Machiavellianism…”Digital.#9MakeMyTrip, added destination videos (covering 130 destinations) to its mobile app to inspire travelers. The new service is called Trip Ideas and, according to the Indian OTA, 10% of its users are already accessing video contents. Currently, Trip.com owns a 49% share in MakeMyTrip.Digital.#8Great (or terrible, depending on who’s reading) news for Facebook: WhatsApp is about to launch its advertising platform. The ad feature will be launched somewhere in 2020.Digital.#7AI-fueled RMS, Beonprice, received €2.5M in funding, bringing the company’s total funding to €5M. Check out my interview with Cristina Hernández Santonja, Business Development & Strategic at BeonPrice, here.Digital.#6Remember Joe Dante’s classic, Innerspace? Now it’s a reality! Xenobots are “entirely new life-forms,” created from frogs’ stem cells. They’re so small that they can be injected in the human body. Researcher Joshua Bongard stated that xenobots are “neither a traditional robot nor a known species of animal. It’s a new class of artifact: a living, programmable organism.” Xenobots can be used to clean up radioactive waste, get plastic out of the oceans, and — of course- transport medication inside human bodies. Xenobots can live over a week without external nutrients, but their lifespan can increase to several weeks in the right environment.Digital.#5Hyatt Hotels partnered with meditation app Headspace, offering mindfulness exercises to both guests, employees, and corporate customers. Hyatt staff will be offered a complimentary subscription to Headspace, and guests will receive access via in-room content.Digital.#4The metasearch industry is not in great shape: after SkyScanner tried to remove “the pain of meta,” and Trivago showed disappointing Q3, now Hipmunk gets shut down. Who’ll be next?Digital.#3According to a LinkedIn survey, “blockchain will be the most in-demand hard skill in 2020.” Blockchain overtook skills such as cloud computing, AI, and UX design, and, interestingly enough, the 2019 LinkedIn list did not include blockchain at all…Digital.#2Yahoo Finance published an interesting piece on how Google is hurting OTAs, metasearch engines, and hotel review sites. Here are a few takeaways: “Google Travel (…) was launched last year. It remains a breakthrough move for the company in this market. (…) Google Travel allows the company to deliver personalized travel experience to users, (…) the search giant is banking on integration of AI into its travel tools. (…) All the above mentioned strong endeavors by Google are likely to hurt the sentiments of the online travel agencies (OTA) further.” You can read the full article here.Digital.#1Born as a personal project, Bespoke became a product that is now used by millions of travelers. Today, Bespoke’s chatbot assistant, Bebot, allows foreign tourists to discover hidden gems in the area quickly and encourages in-market spent by visitors. The chatbot also helps cities and transport authorities to promote sustainable tourism by making recommendations that spread the visitor-flow across multiple sites and attractions. Today, during the live broadcast of Digital. I will have the privilege to be joined by its Founder and CEO, Akemi Tsunagawa. Make sure to tune in on LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, or directly on the website at 3:00 PM CET.

Digital #10Booking.com abandons scarcity marketing: from June 2020 (the latest), the OTA will have to stop showing messages such as “only one room like this left,” “other persons showed interest in this hotel in the last 24 hours”, “the room is popular,” or “time-limited offer”. The European Commission and National Consumer Protection, in fact, identified these techniques as “manipulative”.Digital #9Meanwhile, in Russia, the Federal Anti-monopoly Service found Booking.com to be in breach of Russian anti-monopoly laws (a crime punishable with fines from 1% to 15% of the revenue generated in the Country). The reason? Booking.com seems to have asked hotels to offer the same rates on competitor hotel reservation websites.Digital #8Uber co-Founder (and former CEO), Travis Kalanick, resigned. After the New York Times accused Kalanick (that, once wrote: “for the first time in my life I was leading an organization that wasn’t on the brink of failure each day”) of deceiving regulators in 2017, Expedia’s Dara Khosrowshahi took over the CEO position. Kalanick sold all of his stocks in Uber, and he has now, officially, nothing tying him up to the carsharing app. The market, according to the stock, didn’t seem to care.Digital #7Google confirmed a local search algorithm update. According to Third Door Media co-Founder, Danny Sullivan, the update is separated from the recent BERT update. If you’re (still) not optimizing your GMB listing, now you have another reason not to procrastinate.Digital #6AI-powered flight assistant bot, Eddy Travels, completed a $500,000 pre-seed round. The startup offers in-chat flight deals on, amongst others, WhatsApp, Telegram, and Slack. CEO and co-Founder, Edmundas Balčikonis, (unsurprisingly) played the super-app card: “We want to expand into other products (…) into tours and activities, expand into travel insurance and other categories.”Digital #5OYO will fire 2,000 employees by the end of the month. The company is known for his inclination to automatize processes whenever possible, so this may not necessarily be a bad omen. More alarming, however, is another rumor: owners are complaining that they are not being paid by the Indian unicorn, with due invoices dating as far as May 2019…Digital #4The Information Commissioner’s Office stated that Marriott had “agreed to an extension of the regulatory process” (for the infamous Starwood data breach) “until 31 March 2020,” and there is speculation the original $123M fine will be drastically reduced.Digital #3According to Skift, U.S. hotels increased National TV ad investments by a striking 32%, with Marriott alone increasing its spend by over $50M. Is this part of the design to be less Google-dependent? With Hilton putting $103M in the old school media, and Marriott echoing with $90M, the question is legitimate. When it comes to predicting the future, however, I tend to trust airlines better than hotels: and, in 2019, they cut TV investments by 47%…Digital #2According to Lindy Andersen, director of global accounts at Expedia Group, artificial intelligence can “alleviate stressors and drive better efficiencies of our entire platform.” The statement was given during a recent EyeForTravel webinar titled Customer experience lab: automation, partnerships and the human touch. According to Andersen, creating a “frictionless travel” experience will be one of the main focuses of Expedia in 2020.Digital #1Not strictly travel-related, but another step to ASI (and to a cancer-free world) has been made: Google’s health research department has developed an AI system that can outperform radiologists at detecting breast cancer. The system was trained by data coming from thousands of mammograms. On the more sci-fi side of the spectrum, Samsung unveiled its artificial humans (or glorified video chatbots, to be more realistic), called Neons.

Welcome to Digital., your weekly recap of the best travel news of the week: day in, day out. Everything you need to know about hotel distribution, digital economy, travel, tourism, hospitality, startups, market stocks, reports, staff movements, industry events, innovation, and more. Hosted by best-selling author, journalist, futurist, founder of Travel Singularity, toy collector and retired punk rocker, Simone Puorto.

SiteMinder is one of world’s largest connectivity services for hoteliers.

Not strictly travel-related, but another step to ASI (and to a cancer-free world) has been made: Google’s health research department has developed an AI system that can outperform radiologists at detecting breast cancer. The system was trained by data coming from thousands of mammograms. On the more sci-fi side of the spectrum, Samsung unveiled its artificial humans (or glorified video chatbots, to be more realistic), called Neons. “Neons are not AI assistants,” Pranav Mistry, Neon CEO, and head of STAR Labs stated. “Neons are more like us, an independent but virtual living being, who can show emotions and learn from experiences(…) They can act as teachers, financial advisers, health care providers, concierges, actors, spokespeople or TV anchors (…) There are millions of species on our planet, and we hope to add one more,” said in a press release. “Neons will be our friends, collaborators, and companions, continually learning, evolving, and forming memories from their interactions.”

According to Skift, U.S. hotels increased National TV ad investments by a striking 32%, with Marriott alone increasing its spend by over $50M. Is this part of the design to be less Google-dependent? With Hilton putting $103M in the old school media, and Marriott echoing with $90M, the question is legitimate. When it comes to predicting the future, however, I tend to trust airlines better than hotels: and, in 2019, they cut TV investments by 47%

OYO will fire 2,000 employees by the end of the month. The company is known for his inclination to automatize processes whenever possible, so this may not necessarily be a bad omen. More alarming, however, is another rumor: owners are complaining that they are not being paid by the Indian unicorn, with due invoices dating as far as May 2019…

Uber co-Founder (and former CEO), Travis Kalanick, resigned. After the New York Times accused Kalanick (that, once wrote: “for the first time in my life I was leading an organization that wasn’t on the brink of failure each day”) of deceiving regulators in 2017, Expedia’s Dara Khosrowshahi took over the CEO position. Kalanick sold all of his stocks in Uber, and he has now, officially, nothing tying him up to the carsharing app. The market, according to the stock, didn’t seem to care.

Booking.com abandons scarcity marketing: from June 2020 (the latest), the OTA will have to stop showing messages such as “only one room like this left,” “other persons showed interest in this hotel in the last 24 hours”, “the room is popular,” or “time-limited offer”. The European Commission and National Consumer Protection, in fact, identified these techniques as “manipulative”. Meanwhile, in Russia, the Federal Anti-monopoly Service found Booking.com to be in breach of Russian anti-monopoly laws (a crime punishable with fines from 1% to 15% of the revenue generated in the Country). The reason? Booking.com seems to have asked hotels to offer the same rates on competitor hotel reservation websites.