Travel Innovation Summit 2014 Recap

The US$1.2 trillion global travel industry is accustomed to innovation. Phocuswright's Travel Innovation Summit 2014 Recap: What's Hot, What's Not and What to Expect in 2015 (an Innovation Edition publication) summarizes audience response to the 32 Travel Innovation Summit (TIS) innovators that promoted their businesses at the November 2014 Phocuswright Conference in Los Angeles, CA, and considers them relative to past industry innovation and potential future innovation. Based on audience response in 2014, "we can be certain that TIS 2015 will offer another day of absorbing, applauding and, in some cases, questioning some of the travel industry's newest ideas and innovations," says Phocuswright research analyst, Caryn Smith.

The article notes that new technologies have sparked imaginations and spurred thousands of companies, from startups to established businesses, to create the means to better serve suppliers and travelers. While many innovations are found in emerging and established businesses, the number of startups (and level of investment in these new companies) can be considered a proxy for the level of innovation in the industry. As related in Phocuswright’s Travel Innovation Summit 2014 Recap: What’s Hot, What’s Not and What to Expect in 2015, between 2005 and 2013, the travel industry attracted more than 700 startups and more than $4.8 billion in investment[1].

Travel innovation is manifest in new business concepts, distribution patterns, sources of content, technologies, and approaches to customer service and customer engagement. It emerges from confronting industry challenges: suppliers with expiring inventory; fragmented supply; complex travel planning; travel cost and management concerns; health insurance issues; intricate revenue management processes; distribution channel battles; and addressing the needs and expectations of global travelers. Innovators apply creative solutions to old problems and identify problems industry participants might not have even recognized.

Since 2008, Phocuswright's Travel Innovation Summit event has provided a platform for an elite group of industry visionaries to promote their ideas globally, gaining new partners, customers and suppliers in the process. And they've received monetary support; to date, 153 TIS innovators have realized more than $1.3 billion in funding and acquisitions (excluding IPOs).

The article categorizes TIS 2014 innovators relative to the 700 startups tracked by Phocuswright[2]:

Phocuswright's Travel Innovation Summit 2014 Recap: What's Hot, What's Not and What to Expect in 2015 provides insight to and context for trends in travel innovation.

Witness the next wave of innovation at The Travel Innovation Summit Europe, May 12, 2015 in Dublin, Ireland. CLICK HERE to learn more.

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[1] Phocuswright'sTravel Innovation: The State of Startups, May 2014. Notes: Excludes Uber, Airbnb, HomeAway and eHi Car Rental. Study criteria meant not all startups were included. In total, more than the 700 were tracked.

[2] Phocuswright's Travel Innovation: The State of Startups, May 2014. Notes: Excludes Uber, Airbnb, HomeAway and eHi Car Rental. Study criteria meant not all startups were included In total, more than the 700 were tracked.