Travel Is Your Business – travel industry podcast

Tripp Higgins and Andy Hakes of AireXpert – Solving Communication Gaps in Aviation Maintenance

March 15, 2019Marc Raco Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 45:53 — 52.6MB)

Collaborative technology to the global airline industry that enables its customers to improve the pace and quality of aircraft maintenance, leading to significant productivity gains, lowered costs and improved safety…

Tripp Higgins, VP of Business Development, and Andy Hakes, Founder/CEO, of AireXpert (tech ops event control), joins John Matson and Bess Chapman in theMouthMedia Network studio powered by Sennheiser.

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Anthony Derico – Where Will Travel Go Next?

March 6, 2019Marc Raco Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 46:41 — 53.5MB)

If you had an hour to sit with someone who helped build the fastest growing travel media company in the industry – what could you learn? From user-generated content, to the shift of the mobile-first environment and how trends have drastically shifted in travel, along with travel management companies, the joys of traveling with family, and why not to take your eye off the ball in the travel industry…

Anthony Derico, Business Mentor / Advisor for Quake Capital Partners and Business Consultant / Advisor to Voyager HQ, and former VP/Head of Sales for Skift and Skift table, joins John Matson and Bess Chapman in the MouthMedia Network studio powered by Sennheiser.

In this episode:

The move to mobile as the biggest travel shift
The next biggest shift?
The cellphone as a tool of travel
Skiplagged for finding cheap flights
Influencer content and maintaining an authentic voice, and how everyone is an influencer when they travel and share on social media
Making travel more accessible is a market share
Does travel have a homogeny problem to get that instagrammable moment?
The effect on business travel
Why people travel for business, the many layers of that decision making, and a possible game changer to focus on
Working for your snack
Creating amazing experiences as a brand, and really executing events that can leave an impression
The impact of the rise of startup culture on travel
Why travel as a benefit should be core to a business
How trade publications can get real stories in travel, and then thoughts on content that stands out
Inspiring children with meaningful travel destinations and experiences that make an impact

069 – James Nannos of Stay Wanderful – Surprise, Delight, Return

February 28, 2019Marc Raco Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 40:20 — 46.2MB)

Acquiring and retaining hospitality customers with surprise-and-delight rewards…

James Nannos, Director of Hotel Sales & Partnerships for Stay Wanderful (a direct booking tool to increase guest conversion and provide surprise- and-delight rewards) joins John Matson and Bess Chapman in the MouthMedia Network studio powered by Sennheiser.

In this episode:

How independent hospitality brands should think about retaining customers
Independent hospitality chains don’t have a powerful distribution network
Tangible guest rewards, differentiated experiences to guests, and then continuing conversation after the fact
How can independents get in there and make a difference
Most prefer experiences and benefits to points, most won’t get value out of points
Personalizing small but highly perceived value rewards
Most want to choose rewards
If Stay Wanderful is in many properties, how that helps still customers choose a specific property
Raising the bar of service won’t dilute the opportunity
Stay Wanderful makes it look like a hotel is giving you the rewards, like a white label solution for that hotel
The only business where customers are sleeping in palace of business—you must capture them while they are there
Independent properties fighting uphill battle
A fee-for-success model
The importance of fining out the real decision-maker of a hospitality property or brand
Why hotels are operating off of antiquating systems, integrating into an old tech stack
The helpfulness of the Cornell network
The impact of military methodology and experience on entrepreneurialism and how it connects with hotel business

068 – Kristen Vasan of Foursquare – Where People Go

February 20, 2019Marc Raco Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 43:43 — 50.1MB)

Why the original travel app is partnered with so many brands and integrated into so much technology…

Kristen Vasan, Director of Strategic Platform Partnerships for Foursquare (a technology company that enriches consumer experiences and informs business decisions through a deep understanding of location intelligence), joins John Matson in the MouthMedia Network studio powered by Sennheiser.

In this episode:

The state of personalization in the travel industry, gained some momentum
Foursquare was previously thought as a social networking app, but is a contextually aware location platform that sits on top of some of the biggest brands’ tech
Can build a contextually aware map of where people go
People comparing brands to one another are looking at how technological experiences compare to one another
The risk of becoming the best tech company instead of best service
Going from the check in app for locations, and how Foursquare pivoted to become a huge player in the enterprise location space
How their API plays into geo-locations for images and social media
The goal to give marketers the ability to “bake” location tech, to know where you’ve stopped, see the venue where you are, and “tap you on the shoulder”
Giving people the ability to be present and enjoy life, and only use phone when it matters most
How Foursquare reached 1 billion consumers
Brands building loyalty, having an understanding of offline behavior, a lot is still left to be done in that space
How business travel is different than personal travel
Seeing location trails of consumers and telling stories about where they go
People look to Foursquare as the original travel app
Are travel startups able to use Foursquare’s SDK and try to iterate on it
Foursquare’s database of over 105M places globally you can ingest and share with world
And — a volcano

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…)