Travel Is Your Business – travel industry podcast

067 – Filip Maksymilian Bloch and Daniel Flynn of Hotailors – Humanizing Travel with Technology

February 13, 2019Marc Raco Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 56:47 — 65.0MB)

Organizing business trips 90% faster, 30% cheaper via AI with a human touch…

Filip Maksymilian Bloch (CEO) and Daniel Flynn (Business Development Manager) of Hotailors (a next-gen AI-powered travel platform allowing organization of corporate travel faster, at a lower cost) join John Matson in the MouthMedia Network studio powered by Sennheiser.

In this episode:

What does Hotailors see changing in corporate travel bookings?
Hotailors wants to treat your employees right
Who’s driving the change in corporate travel?
Identifying and relating to the pain of being a traveler
Trimming down the “waste time” spent booking a trip
SMD vs Enterprise
Winning the market and becoming a unicorn
Sizing up the market
How Filip and Dan met
Narrow Domain Intelligence vs General Form Intelligence
Applying AI to the travel space
Where Filip sees AI succeeding and thriving
How Artificial Intelligence will help travel be better, smarter, cheaper, faster, and more comfortable
The competition in the travel AI space
Hotailor’s hybrid approach to travel – Merging A.I. efficiency with human touch by employing a network of 3,000 travel agents across the globe
Building a product so good, customers won’t want to leave – the key is to be faster and more robust
Hotailor’s approach to product research and development
How Hotailor built a network of 3,000 travel agents across the globe
The early struggles and mistakes made while growing Hotailors
Where Filip believes AI will be used and where he wants to see it utilized
Filip’s upbringing running hotels with his parents

066 – Andrea Bonaiuto of Eurowings Group and Brussels Airlines – Exploration and Experiences

January 22, 2019Marc Raco Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 43:33 — 49.9MB)

The growth of Brussels Airlines in the Americas..

Andrea Bonaiuto, Marketing Manager for The Americas with Eurowings Group, joins John Matson and Bess Chapman in the MouthMedia Network studios powered by Sennheiser.

In this episode:

The most effective B-to-B and B-to-C channels for Brussels Airlines and Eurowings, depending on gaol and purpose
Having a smaller budget, acting in startup style in the Americas
Working two brands
Brussels has three points of departure in North America, but Eurowings has seven gateways in North America
Local targeted events, getting people who haven’t travelled to a destination before, acquiring new customers, strategic partnerships
Tomorrowland as the largest music festival in Belgium, seeking to create a seamless customer journey experience and related experiences, with live DJs at 30,000 ft
A fun activation, working with United Airlines
Gate parties
Keeping customer loyalty when the customer may not be interacting directly with brand, consistency, quality service and experiences, and staying in front of customer
The deal with airline food, and how at 30,000 feet your taste buds change, t more he need to add more sodium
Business class menus created at a high culinary level
The “bleisure” markets
How promoting airlines is constantly changing with digital opportunities and new platforms
Virtual reality at a lot of events, experiencing what the inside of cabin and business class is like

065 – Dean Locke of Riskified – Enabling Ecommerce and Reducing Fraud in Travel

January 17, 2019Marc Raco Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:56 — 37.7MB)

An eCommerce fraud protection solution that protects travel companies…

Dean Locke, Head of Business Development at Riskified (the world’s leading eCommerce fraud-prevention company, trusted by hundreds of global brands – from luxury fashion houses and retail chains, to gift card and ticket marketplaces), joins John Matson and Bess Chapman in the MouthMedia Network studios powered by Sennheiser.

In this episode:

Travel as a high-ticket item, attractive to fraudsters because they can sell per transaction
Smaller margins mean magnification of chargebacks
How fraud happens
Gift cards are highly targeted
When revenue streams must shut down due to fraud

A Cakeboss treat
Being received in the travel space
The shift to digital payment, and preparing for cryptocurrencies
Indicators of risky transactions
The tech scene in NYC

064 -Jared Alster of Cox & Kings – Forward Thinking in a Legacy Travel Brand

January 1, 2019Marc Raco Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 36:54 — 42.3MB)

How does one of the world’s oldest and largest international tourism companies think about innovation?

Jared Alster, Vice President of Marketing for Cox & Kings (offering customized private and group travel tours to India, Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, Antarctica, Australia, and the Middle East), joins John Matson and Bess Chapman in the MouthMedia Network studios powered by Sennheiser.

In this episode:

Marketing to Americans outbound
Domestic vs. international
UK and Australia, different mindset than US, people brought up to be travelers.
Brand loyalty largely non existent in the US
Challenges of multi-day tour packages
When operators makes sense in US – i.e. national parks
US is largely a road trip approach
B to C focus
Being like a travel advisor
Designing a site for clarity and purpose instead of for design’s sake
More opportunity with people in later years than the past
Reaching down as well into small luxury groups
Government incentives, bodies rely on operators and agents for CTA to book a trip, may impact what regions are strategically focused on at a time
Centralized content the last shoe to fall in industry

063 – Marty St. George of JetBlue – Making Connections

December 13, 2018Marc Raco Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:28 — 63.5MB)

A visionary executive and experienced senior revenue and strategy leader in the commercial airline business offers insight into what has turned the aviation industry on its head again and again over the last 30 years…

Marty St. George, EVP of Commercial and Planning for JetBlue Airways, joins John Matson and Bess Chapman in the MouthMedia Network studios powered by Sennheiser. Note that Bess Chapman is interviewing Marty St. George only in the capacity as a podcast host – she also works for JetBlue Technology Ventures, a subsidiary of JetBlue.

In the episode:

Marty’s history with JetBlue and the Airline industry
JetBlue focus cities and outlook on growth
The fascination with bankruptcy and what he’s learned from it
Changing with the times and evolving to meet demand; From down turn to profits, low cost to premium
How customers will always dictate and pick what business model suites them
JetBlue training; everyone from baggage handlers to vice presidents share the experience
The future of the Airline industry
Maintaining the upstart attitude at a larger scale
An anecdote about Mint, and a “missed” business opportunity
The 5 core values of JetBlue and the secret sixth
White Leather 90s
What JetBlue is doing to future proof for recessions
The business vs leisure argument; which is more important
A love for building networks and the competitive nature it brings out
Data, from the new ways aircraft manufacturers are collecting it inflight to the need for protection
The mass amounts of data that are available to due regulations
The need for airlines to be more customer focused, and restructuring CRMs
Viewing JetBlue as a service business and not an operator
Overseeing JetBlue ventures; outside the box solutions from outside heads
Wouldn’t it be great to have a solution for Air-Traffic Control and the weather?
Identifying a business problem, and finding the means to properly address it
The future of JetBlue, 1 year, 5 years, and 10 years down the road, and what Marty thought JetBlue would be doing now, 10 years ago
Hush Puppies and PBRs, a guide to outlasting “hipness”
Doubling down on successes
Improved Airline safety and JetBlue’s brand new 220 aircraft
Marty’s love for all things Boston, Necco, The Patriots, The Sox, and the small city charm

062 – Darley Newman – Equitrekking the Globe

November 30, 2018Marc Raco 1 Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 41:40 — 47.7MB)

Discovering locations around the world by horseback riding and other adventure activities with local people…

Darley Newman (travel expert, published author and the host, writer and producer of Equitrekking, the Emmy-Award winning PBS TV series, and Travels with Darley on PBS, Create TV and on AOL, MSN Travel, Huffington Post, Amazon and over 2000 partner sites) joins John Matson and Bess Chapman in the MouthMedia Network studio powered by Sennheiser.

In this episode:

Botswana
Salt pans and stargazing
Discovering experts, keeping track of them for use indifferent locations
Complicated logistics involved
Horses and their personalities
Getting charged by an elephant
Being a safari guide
Finding the right guides
Less remote areas are still unique on horseback
Something connects people because of horses
Why horses are therapeutic for both mind and body
Starting the show, how Darley manifested it, a background in journalism and behind the scenes
How she started with a website and some videos
Horses are a vehicle to get to know people and places
Creating a second show, “Travels with Darley”, started short form, and the many places to distribute content
Curating content for the right platform
How a trip-planning business came organically out of the show
The aspect of ecotourism aspect
What’s next, and the one place Darley would like to travel to next (because of the food…)

061 – Brian Altomare of LugLess – The Case for Suitcase Shipping

November 23, 2018Marc Raco Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 41:30 — 47.5MB)

A luggage shipping platform leveraging existing logistics networks, and including options such as doorstep pickup and additional coverage, with LugLess…

Brian Altomare, Director of Business Development for LugLess (a next generaton luggage shipping service), joins John Matson and Bess Chapman in the MouthMedia Network studios powered by Sennheiser.

In this episode:

The first low-cost alternative to luggage and baggage shipping fees, start at the door, not at baggage clam
Being friends to airlines
With airlines, it is possible to be an asset
The opportunity for partnerships
How LugLess doesn’t need operational help
Being in stealth beta mode for 12 months, with consistent growth
New brand, positioning, model
Can be an asset to any OTA with a booking engine
Making agreements with hotels, airlines and OTAs, or direct to consumer
API not a feature, it’s a tool
Friction – the effort to bring and do it ahead of time
Can increase service
Most are economy travelers with convenience
Insurance considerations, relationships with FedEx and UPS and DHL
Low-price shipping several bags, dynamic pricing
A mass travel economy play
LugLess is a platform to do something for less and more convenient
Strangest things shipped
Why LugLess is currently domestic only
Shark Tank and how it changed LugLess, why LugLess gutted everything, rebuilt
Low-cost, API, drop-off
Brian on making fun of himself in articles
Why LugLess didn’t rebrand
Turning negative press into a positive
Staying healthy when traveling
Feeling at home when abroad

060 – Fernando Camara of Skyhour – The Gift of Flight

November 15, 2018Marc Raco Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 35:45 — 41.0MB)

The next-generation gifting platform offering a smart, easy way to gift air travel…

Fernando Camara, Co-Founder and CEO of Skyhour (creating the ultimate air travel currency that powers travel across platforms and industries), joins John Matson and Bess Chapman in the MouthMedia Network studios powered by Sennheiser.

In this episode:

Gifting travel, inspiring friends to become better people, inspiring people to go to new places and get new points of view, make an impact in their lives, travel is the best thing you can do
How it started, a friend wanted to travel
$140B on gift cards and less than 1% is spent on travel
The goal of connecting giting and air travel industries
Offering flight hours for $60/hour, and the ability to apply to virtually any airline
The opportunity to crowdfund a flight
Being able to sell tickets without dates or destinations
Like creating a new currency
Getting around liabilities in some restrictions
The money goes to escrow accounts — if you don’t use the hours, the money goes back to person you gifted to
Works with Sabre for accessing the inventory of airlines
Being a JetBlue Technology Ventures portfolio company
Potential partnerships with hotel chains, clothing brands, etc.
Camara’s other companies in digital marketing, real estate, then told a friend about the Skyhour idea, and how he needed someone to help build product, and thinking about hiring agency and agency (which loved it so much, sold the company and brought best the guys in to work on it)
Why New York is the best place to launch company in the US
A $5.5M seed round, working on Series A
Raised an initial round starting with cold calls
Seasonality, ebb and flow—flight frequency varies but people give all year round
Dealing with gift card restrictions
Only make money when people book a flight
Time between buying and booking, prompting booking and re-gifting actions

059 – Tal Shalit of Betterez – RTM From the Ground Up

November 7, 2018Marc Raco Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 45:41 — 52.3MB)

Flexible, scalable cloud-based enterprise software solutions for the Reservation and Ticketing Management (RTM) space…

Tal Shalit, Founder & CEO of Betterez (a leading reservations and ticketing management solution specifically designed to address the needs of travel, transportation and admissions companies, and part of the JetBlue Technology Ventures portfolio) joins John Matson (VoyagerHQ) and Bess Chapman (JetBlue Technology Ventures) in the MouthMedia Network studios powered by Sennheiser.

In this episode:

How Shalit used to work with Porter Airlines
Learnings for bus industry – originally built a reservation system for small airlines
Customers bus brands
B to B, or B to B to C
End to end reservation system, and how acquiring brands
Selling the vision as assembling components
Omnichannel experience for operators
Getting going on any channel you need help with
An intelligent way to set it and forget it and adjust over time
An overlap for airlines
Potential for air to bus to cruise, seamless customer journey
Considering the volume of bookings and speed through any operator
How the bus industry doesn’t have the legacy infrastructure that airline or rail has — so you can leapfrog over that and jump to mobile and latest tech faster, big opportunity
The economic downturn has a positive impact on bus travel, although a downturn doesn’t stop people from moving and traveling
The bus of the future, experiences
An engine to sell tickets, reconciliation
RTM (reservation and ticket management) – many crossover opportunities, building something flexible, even for events, can get into the market even with attractions to medical equipment reservations

058 – Eric Bamberger of IgnitionOne – Consumer Insights in Hospitality

October 30, 2018Marc Raco Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 46:04 — 52.8MB)

Guiding consumer insights to build audiences, optimize marketing campaigns, collect data, and utilize life moments…

Eric Bamberger, SVP of Hospitality for IgnitionOne (an award-winning Customer Intelligence Platform enabling marketers to understand, value and engage with their customers in real-time), joins “Fashion Is Your Business” podcast hosts Pavan Bahl and Marc Raco on location at the IgnitionOne Summit in New York.

In this episode:

Data has always been important to travel and other lifestyle industries
Bigger companies operating with legacy systems, making consumer insights difficult
Department of hospitality, organizing data, making it effective with clients
IgnitionOne has a fundamental understanding of the customer journey
First party data – the data a company can personally aggregate from their site, most companies don’t even know what to do with this data much less integrating third party data
Connecting with CRM files
Starting with cookies, using tags, create a scoring algorithm
Processing in real time, which gives a leg up on others
Working primarily with enterprise customers, larger hotel chains
Reading macrotrends, such as oil and gas mining in Texas relating with a hotel occupancy standpoint, adjusting strategies to react on trend data
Messaging vs. using data to drive direct bookings
Loyalty is less important, more about saving money
IgnitionOne’s proprietary scoring algorithm, custom machine learning algorithm for each customer, get high accuracy prediction on propensity to convert, which then leads to bidding decisions
Platform, ads, the spend used defending brands—-generic type key words for searches
Everything can be an acquisition channel with the right conversion strategy
Ad experiences in personalization
Considering trends in social platform use related to driving spend and conversion, and searching for all inventory sources
The relevance of apps
New data impacts each consumer visit, various sources of info for strategy in connecting uniquely to that person
The wins in digital marketing that are possible with real effort