The recent event in Fort Lauderdale was no exception with much informal talk about the lack of innovation in travel and how it seems mostly about incremental developments and evolution.
This is probably more true for metasearch than other segments of the industry. During the Innovation Dilemma session, the bosses of Skyscanner and Trivago shared not dissimilar approaches to innovation and why agile development, sprints and squads are important.
But it also depends on the definition of innovation, according to Skyscanner chief executive John Mangelaars, who stressed there is still a significant amount of work to do to improve the user experience and that those improvements are a big deal for consumers.
Meanwhile, Trivago’s chief Johannes Thomas would rather see rapid experimentation over shorter periods of time than waiting six months or a year for something that ends up not working.
“It’s as simple as you click the hotel name and instead of going to the hotel information, we send you to the rates where you improve the comparison rates, so small changes can make a big difference.”
The conversation also focused on artificial intelligence and the advent of generative AI. Thomas talked about the need for evolution in the search experience and the current search box but said he doesn’t believe a chatbot experience is the way forward because “travel needs inspiration, it needs a visual experience.”
