Skift Take

Travel technology has been turned on its head over the past couple of years. Just about every major trend listed was caused, directly or indirectly, by issues related to the pandemic.

Justin Dawes

Much of the particular travel industry is continuing to recover after the pandemic and despite growing anxieties about the economy, with some metrics better than ever last year.  

As typically the industry continues to evolve technologically, there are several areas worth watching in the next year. Below are five highlights to keep an eye on:

Airport Biometrics 

In an effort to streamline the customer travel experience, airlines and airports are looking to implement biometrics capabilities into everyday use. Biometrics enables the personalization of technologies using an individual’s biological readings, like using a fingerprint as an unlock passcode or facial recognition in order to confirm identity.  

Though there is criticism about privacy and data security issues, United Airlines plus Delta Airlines — along with car rental company Avis — are among those experimenting now with face, iris in addition to fingerprint  biometrics. Registered passengers can move faster through security checkpoints by verifying their identification using a kiosk provided by Clear, a biometrics company that went public in June 2021.    

The U. S. Transportation Security Administration is also piloting tech that matches live cosmetic visuals with recording recognition photos. The organization is reportedly testing the program at 16 airports nationwide, and even that could expand this year.      

Journey Tech Boom in Southeast Asia

Iterative Capital just raised $55 million in its second fund focusing upon general technology Southeast Asia. One of its portfolio companies is GoZayaan , an online travel agency focused in that region.  

Southeast Asia will be two or three decades behind this Western world when it comes to general and travel tech investment, but it is catching up rapidly.  

“It’s just taking off. It’s kind of like Silicon Valley 20 years ago, ” said Brian Ma , founder together with managing partner of Singapore-based Iterative Capital.  

“The middle class is growing at a rate much faster than the U. H., and so more regular people have more money to spend. They’re starting to think regarding savings, health care, education, travel, all this kind associated with stuff. ”

Because the region is so far behind, it has an unique set regarding travel problems for which this largely needs its own solutions, which is why there’s a budding group of travel tech startups.  

The particular Korea Tourism Startup Center last fall set up an accelerator in Singapore concentrated on travel tech online companies, launching along with 13 companies that pitched products in an effort to expand throughout Southeast Asian countries.    

Airline Technology Investment 

Following the system failure that Southwest Airlines experienced during often the last week of December, the organization has already said it finally plans to be able to modernize operations. It took a disaster for Southwest, but that example may be the push that other airlines need to modernize and avoid a similar situation.  

Skift has already been getting press messages from technical companies looking to share opinions about what happened, no doubt looking for you to take advantage of what could be a sales opportunity. Whether it’s concerning scheduling optimization — your core involving the expensive Southwest issue — or something else, industry executives in the New Year may be more open to help what innovators have to offer.  

One statement came from Sourabh Gupta, CEO and co-founder of Skit. ai, the startup that will raised $23 million with regard to a product that’s meant to streamline call center procedures with a new voice bot that uses artificial intelligence to replicate human-like conversations.

“By combining voice AI technology and additionally human agents for a significant competitive leg-up, failures like what we saw happen this past holiday weekend are less likely to happen. Digital innovation is usually meant to stay, and that pervades each aspect connected with the airline industry including customer service. ”

Continued Hotel Tech Adoption 

Hotels have been slow to adopt new technology, yet it has been increasing post-pandemic. One with the primary reasons is because of a serious labor shortage within the hospitality industry.  

Lower budget hotels are adding features like contactless check-in not to mention housekeeping to eliminate some sort of need regarding as many workers, while luxury hotels are looking at their own type of technological adoption.  

But , many hotels have a long way in order to go to be able to reach the exact personalized, up-to-date experience of which customers are usually looking intended for. Most hotels don’t offer features such as mobile check-in, choosing their room location, or even television streaming services.  

Short-Term Rental Platform Growth

There were dozens of fundraises totaling billions for dollars last year for a variety about platforms dedicated to short-term rentals and also software to help property managers organize their own business.  

These platforms are not just centered on vacations, but also niche areas like business travelers as well as remote employees.  

Some of the consumer demand for vacation rentals is usually slowing , but the particular industry is generally expected to continue growing in typically the near future.  

A few venture-backed platforms, like Le Collectionist , are also targeted on acquiring travel agencies and some other smaller companies in order to consolidate the fragmented industry.