Online Travel Update: Focus Wire’s Hot 25 Travel Startups | Foster Garvey PC

Below is our weekly online travel announcement for the week ending Friday, November 18, 2022. This week’s update includes FocusWire’s annual list of the Hot 25 Travel Startups. This list always provides an interesting glimpse into what might be coming in the coming months and years in online travel. Enjoy.

• Focus Wire’s Hot 25 Travel Startups Here’s the fifth installment of Focus Wire and upcoming travel companies. This year’s list includes a variety of companies, most of which (14 out of 25) were started since the start of the Covid crisis. Over the next few weeks, we plan to take a closer look at some of the listed companies that caught our attention.
• TripAdvisor is considering plans to revise Plus. New TripAdvisor CEO Matt Goldberg is apparently considering options for overhauling its much-criticized travel subscription program, TripAdvisor Plus. As many recall, the plan received little support from major lodging brands for fear of undermining their own direct channel efforts and/or violating existing third-party channel rate parity obligations. According to Goldberg, TripAdvisor may drop its existing $99 annual membership fee. While dropping members will help address lagging membership numbers, TripAdvisor needs to address the concerns of suppliers, whose participation (and inventory) will be critical to any promising success.
• Is Uber the next online ride-hailing platform? Uber’s travel-related offerings are expanding. When it initially launched in March, the program (Uber Explore) allowed users to post activities (and Uber rides for activities) obtained through Yelp. Through its new partnership with TripAdvisor’s Viator (and other announced partners), Uber will expand the program to more than 10,000 cities by adding events and activities available in the app. Are events and activities signs of things to come? Can users book overnight stays (and travel to their chosen accommodation) on the widely used app?
• Another new payment platform is coming. Add Amadeus to the growing list of distribution platforms that plan to offer new payment (fintech) options to users. Amadeus is reportedly making a “significant investment” in the start-up of Outpayce, a new payments business. As part of its initiative, Amadeus has applied to the Bank of Spain for an eMoney licence, which will allow Amadeus to offer regulated banking services, including issuing payment cards, in the EEA.

Have a great week and thank you to those of you celebrating this week.

We present the Hot 25 Travel Startups for 2023
November 15, 2022 via Focus Wire
It has long been said that creativity and innovation often come in times of crisis. Our picks of the Hot 25 Travel Startups for 2023 certainly confirm that mantra. Of the 25 startups on this list, 14 have launched since the start of 2020 — and more…

Tripadvisor CEO May Revamp Plus Membership Program
November 15, 2022 via Skift (subscription may be required)
Skift Take Tripadvisor hasn’t made any decisions about Tripadvisor Plus, but the traveler membership program could re-emerge in a different form. Dennis Schaal Tripadvisor is considering restructuring its Tripadvisor Plus membership program, making it a free service in its early stages, and then finding a path that makes more sense.

Uber expands ride-related offerings
November 15, 2022 via Travel Weekly
Uber is making big moves to expand its travel offerings, including a partnership with Viator that lets users book its experiences and activities through the Uber app and expanding its “Uber Travel” service to more than 10,000 cities worldwide. The Viator integration is part of Uber’s …

Uber Adds Viator Content, Expands Uber Travel to 10K Cities
November 14, 2022 via Focus Wire
Uber is making big moves to expand its travel offerings, including a partnership with Viator that lets users book its experiences and activities through the Uber app and expanding its “Uber Travel” service to more than 10,000 cities worldwide. The Viator integration is part of Uber’s …

Amadeus is building a new payment business called Outbase
November 14, 2022 via Skift (subscription may be required)
Travel technology company Amadeus said it will make a “significant investment” by setting up a wholly-owned business called Outpayce, which will “focus on providing passengers with a smooth and connected travel payment experience throughout their journey and accelerating the pace of fintech innovation in travel. .” This also applies to…