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·
Industry
leaders are supporting responsible travel through financial backing for ESG
initiatives, transparent data reporting and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF)
· Plug and Play also highlighted the influencer economy, fintech, payments and operational efficiency as key drivers of investment on the ATM Travel Tech Stage
Dubai,
United Arab Emirates, 4 May 2023: Generative
artificial intelligence (AI) and environmental, social and governance (ESG) activities
are attracting the highest levels of investment in travel technology at
present, according to innovation specialist, Plug and Play. Experts from the Silicon
Valley-headquartered firm shared a range of insights into the latest investment
trends on the Travel Tech Stage at Arabian Travel Market (ATM) 2023, which will
conclude today at Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC).
Speaking on the third
day of the show, innovation specialists explored how travel startups are being
affected by macroeconomic headwinds and fears of a global recession as part of
the ‘Investment
Trends Leading Travel Tech’ session.
Kristie Choi, Early
Stage Tech Investor at Plug and Play, noted that venture capital (VC) investment
witnessed a “dramatic pullback” in the second half of 2022, a trend that
continued into Q1 2023. “While this looks pretty scary, there are still
billions of dollars of dry powder out there to be gained,” she told attendees.
“Travel tech round dynamics tend to follow similar patterns as the wider tech
market, and we are seeing an increased focus on profitability and cash
efficiency in this segment.”
Choi said that the
travel sector was leading the curve in terms of generative AI investment and
adoption. This technology is being leveraged to enhance the customer experience
by facilitating trip planning, automating refunds and back-office processes,
and supporting content creation. ESG is also a major focus for the travel
technology sector, she explained, with sustained investments in transparent
data reporting and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) serving to bolster the
growth of responsible tourism. The influencer economy, meanwhile, is “driving
business away” from online travel agencies (OTAs), according to Choi, as
companies look to attract the Gen Z market by integrating direct booking into
the channels of content creators.
Following Choi’s
presentation, Mike Sung, Director, Partner Success – Travel & Hospitality at
Plug and Play, joined Natalie Seatter, Chief Product Officer at OAG on the ATM
Travel Tech Stage for a conversation about travel technology investment trends.
Speaking on the growing
importance of artificial intelligence to the tourism industry, Sung noted:
“It’s going to be very interesting to see how generative AI is leveraged,
especially among travel suppliers in the metaverse. There’s a lot of
experimentation happening in the metaverse, and for generative AI, it’s not
just about text. It’s also about audio, video and graphics. I think this
technology is going to ramp up the velocity of [Web3] solutions, especially for
travel and hospitality.”
Commenting on the need
for investment in data transparency, Seatter said: “The big elephant in the
room is the large cloud-based data warehouses [the industry] is using to power
platforms. It’s either really hard to understand the carbon-emission cost of
these platforms or no one wants to tell you how big it is – or maybe it’s a bit
of both. I think that’s certainly one of our challenges.”
The day-three session
followed the ‘Plug
and Play: Sustainable Tech – Startups Pitch Battle’ on day two of
ATM 2023, which saw six new ventures compete for a range of industry support
and data. Sustainable commercial food waste solutions company, Winnow, beat off
stiff competition from CarbonClick, Eilago, Hotelverse, OACIS Middle East
Limited LLC and Thrust Carbon to be crowned this year’s winner.
The 30th
edition of ATM is taking place as part of Arabian Travel Week
(1-10 May 2023), a festival of events dedicated to enabling industry
professionals from all over the world to collaborate and capitalise on market
opportunities through exhibitions, conferences, breakfast briefings, awards,
product launches and networking events.
Those attending ATM
2023 in person can get involved in the conversation online by using the hashtag
#ATMDubai when posting on social media channels.
ATM 2023 is being held
in conjunction with Dubai World Trade Centre, and its strategic partners
include Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism (DET) as the Destination
Partner, Emirates as the Official Airline Partner, IHG Hotels & Resorts as the Official Hotel Partner, and Al
Rais Travel as the Official DMC Partner.
The latest ATM news
stories are available at https://hub.wtm.com/category/press/atm-press-releases/.
Tags: Kristie Choi, Plug and Play, Mike Sung, Travel & Hospitality, Natalie Seatter, OAG, ATM Travel Tech, ATM 2023
