Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, December 9, 2022, is below. Payments again feature prominently in this week’s Update as American Express (not to be outdone by Mastercard’s recent announcement) announces its recent investment in a growing hotel payments platform. Enjoy.
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- American Express Announces Investment in Selfbook. This past week, American Express, acting through its venture capital vehicle, Amex Ventures, announced that it was making a strategic investment in hotel payments platform, Selfbook. Selfbook’s technology allows hotels to offer a one-step online checkout and payment process, which can be used to purchase a variety of products and services (e.g., hotel room, spa treatment and restaurant reservation) with a single payment. As part of its investment, American Express and Selfbook also plan to work together. Selfbook happens to be one of PhocusWire’s hot travel startups for 2023.
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- Demand for Travel Insurance Products Grows. So why a story on travel insurance? As many of you know, many of today’s shiny new fintech products (which we frequently cover as part of our Update) are little more than re-titled traditional travel insurance products (new flexible “cancel whenever you want” cancellation policies = trip cancellation insurance). A recent study by Allianz Partners confirms that consistent with the extraordinary success seen by many of the newer providers of these fintech products, travelers’ interest in travel insurance is higher (much higher in the United States) now than prior to the pandemic.
- Booking Holdings to Offer Full NDC Content. Priceline announced this past week that it had reached agreement with British Airways and Iberia to feature and sell the carriers’ full NDC-enabled product offerings – flexible booking options, seat selection and bagging handling. The newly announced deal extends across the portfolio of Booking Holdings’ companies – Priceline, Agoda and Booking.com.
If you plan to be in Seattle in January for HEDNA’s upcoming conference, please let me know. I’d love to see you and show you our Emerald City.
American Express invests in hotel payment startup Selfbook
December 9, 2022 via Phocuswire
Selfbook, a comprehensive hotel payment software platform and one of PhocusWire’s Hot 25 Travel Startups for 2023, has received a strategic investment from Amex Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of American Express. The amount of the investment is not being disclosed. Founded in 2020, Selfbook provides booking and payment ...
Corporate Travel Airfares Projected to Increase as Much as 25 Percent in 2023
December 8, 2022 via Skift
Airfares on key corporate travel routes are expected to rise by as much as 25 percent in 2023 amid high fuel prices, a stronger U.S. dollar and labour and aircraft shortages, a forecast from American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) showed.
December 8, 2022 via WIT
Tech In Travel: SITA’s megatrends, a whopper for Hopper, Prince Harry flies with IATA, and hotel guests want greater satisfaction, if you don’t mind. SITA’s Megatrends report indicates just how much travel will change Meet the Megatrends, a new report from SITA, has confirmed what we all suspected about the ...
Travel insurance demand higher now than pre-pandemic
December 7, 2022 via Travel Weekly
More U.S. travelers want to buy travel insurance now than they did before the pandemic, according to a new study from Allianz Partners. The "States of Mind Travel Report," based on Allianz's customer trends data and input from industry experts, found that travel insurance purchase intentions in the U.S. for ...
Priceline enters agreement to offer full content from British Airways, Iberia
December 6, 2022 via Travel Weekly
Priceline has reached an agreement with British Airways and Iberia to sell those carriers' NDC-enabled product offerings. The partnership, said Priceline, will enable flyers who use the OTA to gain access to the full range of fares and additional product offerings that are put forward by the two European carriers, ...
Hot 25 Travel Startups for 2023: Gopass Global
November 15, 2022 via Phocuswire
Gopass Global is a data and analytics company focused on building real-time risk platforms for the travel industry. These are constructed to provide comprehensive pre-travel risk analysis of an employee’s or customer’s trip covering biological, societal and geopolitical risks, …
PrincipalGreg is Chair of the firm's national Hospitality, Travel & Tourism practice, which is directed at the variety of matters faced by hospitality and travel industry members, including purchase and sales agreements, management ...
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About the Editor
Greg Duff founded and chairs Foster Garvey’s national Hospitality, Travel & Tourism group. His practice largely focuses on operations-oriented matters faced by hospitality industry members, including sales and marketing, distribution and e-commerce, procurement and technology. Greg also serves as counsel and legal advisor to many of the hospitality industry’s associations and trade groups, including AH&LA, HFTP and HSMAI.
