Collaborating against COVID-19: bridging travel and travel tech
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Collaborating against COVID‑19: bridging travel and travel tech Isaac Mizrachi1,2 · Ulrike Gretzel1,2 Received: 27 August 2020 / Revised: 22 October 2020 / Accepted: 5 November 2020 / Published online: 16 November 2020 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The distinction between “traditional” travel businesses and travel tech companies has remained steady for years due to knowledge, resource and financial reasons, leading them to operate in separate bubbles. The massive damages caused by COVID-19 for both sides of the industry pose a unique opportunity for them to ditch the old transactional working model, and to seek for more strategic collaborations in order to weather the storm. This viewpoint article discusses the business potential behind such collaborations in the short and long runs—from improving immediate safety perceptions to building technological foundations for the travel industry of tomorrow. It argues that local government mediation is needed for it to succeed, in formats such as funded hackathons or incubation programs that are targeted at addressing COVID-19 and its unique challenges. Keywords Travel tech · Travel startups · Travel safety perceptions · Destination marketing · COVID-19
1 Introduction: two bubbles serving one industry For years, the “traditional” travel industry and the travel tech sector have worked side by side, each in its own bubble. A visit to any major travel trade show, from WTM in London to ITB in Berlin reveals this separation: specific halls are designated for hotels, travel agents, airlines and so on, while the travel tech part gets a different exhibition space—or even a separate conference, such as Travel Forward * Isaac Mizrachi [email protected] Ulrike Gretzel [email protected] 1
Department of Hotel and Tourism Management, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Be’er Sheva, Israel
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USC Center for Public Relations, Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
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that takes place alongside WTM but requires buying another entry ticket (https ://travelforward.wtm.com/). This distinction between “travel” and “travel tech” puts hoteliers, restaurateurs and National Tourist Organization (NTO) leaders on one side, with data scientists, developers and tech entrepreneurs on the other. The two only get together to solve specific problems—but even then, collaboration is minimal and the relationships are of a client and a service provider in a typical transactional model. Some might argue that these two sectors are just too different to work more in sync. The “traditional” travel industry, with its often fragmented nature, is massive in its scope. It spans across various segments, ranging from big hierarchically structured players to one-person enterprises. Despite this diversity, it is very common to see strategic collaborations between the sectors, such as airlines negotiating new routes with NTOs, or hotels running marketing
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