Start-up & Innovation in Travel Awards 2015 Submissions Due by July 31
The Startup & Innovation in Travel Awards are being held on October 19, 20 in Las Vegas at TDS North America, Eye For Travel’s largest USA based event for travel tech executives and startups. I am excited to be asked to participate as a judge again this year in the innovation awards. This is a great event with over 500 travel executives attending. I tell all our startups in the incubator that this is one of the must attend events in the travel tech industry if you want to gain traction for your new product or service. Past winners of the Innovation award include Hotel Tonight, Gogobot, Options Away and VeGo.
Startup submissions are due by July 31. (more…)
Travel Startups Incubator and Skyscanner announce Innovation Partnership
Skyscanner, a leading global travel search engine for flights, hotels and car hire, has entered into an Innovation Partnership with Travel Startups Incubator to help the incubators portfolio companies gain access to the Skyscanner for Business API’s and data.
Matt Zito, managing partner of Travel Startups Incubator says; “As our portfolio of travel technology startups grow, more startups are seeking access to APIs and data from the larger OTAs and GDS’s. Partnering with Skyscanner for Business will help our startups grow their business much quicker by having access to Skyscanner’s API and data sets. Skyscanner will provide our startups with an API key for testing within 24-hours of requesting access.”
One of the biggest challenges for travel startups today is gaining access to coveted travel industry data and inventory and having the funding to pay for it. Traditionally the travel industry has closely guarded their valuable data charging thousands of dollars to access it. (more…)
Travel Startups Incubator invests in Africabookings
Travel Startups Incubator is pleased to announce our investment in Africabookings, a hotel bedbank (wholesaler) with offices based out of Zimbabwe, Africa and the UK. Africabookings is lead by founder and CEO Bruce Tapping and a investment group of veteran travel executives. Matt Zito, managing partner at Travel Startups Incubator says, “we were impressed with Bruce’s vision and presentation at Eye For Travels 1-day Startup Village conference in San Francisco in March where we first met.”
Bruce Tapping, Founder Africabookings, with Gina Baillie, GM Eye For Travel and Matt Zito Travel Startups Incubator.
In a short-period of time Bruce has been able to onboard 500 African hotels with direct contracts into an online wholesale distribution system for travel agency’s, agents and OTAs to resell Africabookings hotel inventory. Africa is a huge untapped continent with massive growth potential for the travel industry. As more people travel globally over the next 10-years, Africa will become a major destination positioning Africabookings to capitalize on this growth.
The seed funding will be used to expand throughout sub-Saharan Africa into more than 19 countries. Africabookings is currently looking for hotels and lodges that need global distribution for their inventory.
Contacts:
Bruce Tapping
bruce.tapping@africabookings.com
Travel Startups Incubator and Amadeus announce Strategic Alliance
New Amadeus program features strategic alliance with Travel Startups Incubator to deliver best-in-class travel technology and expertise.
Amadeus, a leading technology partner for the global travel industry, announced today the launch of “Amadeus for Startups,” a new program designed to equip travel startups in the North American marketplace with industry leading technology, expertise and consultative support to navigate the complexities of the travel industry and achieve success.
“Amadeus recognizes that the future of travel lies in the innovations and disruptive ideas being generated within the startup community. (more…)