Between conversations at Phocuswright Europe in June, The Phocuswright Conference in November and our regular CEO Spotlight features, we’ve delved deeper into ongoing trends, industry shakeups and predictions for what’s yet to come in travel.
Our editors took a look back at this year and compiled a selection of 10 interviews that stood out this year, focusing on news value and relevance to 2025’s top themes. Check out the list, in no particular order, below.
1. Expedia Group’s Ariane Gorin opens up about first year as CEO
After wrapping up one year as head of Expedia Group, CEO Ariane Gorin reflected on her experience and what was yet to come in an interview this spring.
In terms of challenges, Gorin pointed to long-term and strategic planning, as well as artificial intelligence (AI).
“With a topic like AI, where things are moving so quickly, it's thinking about where you are going to place your bets. When something is early on, you need to have irons in the fire in a lot of different places, figuring out where there is a one-way door versus a two-way door, but I also think that's been the fun of it,” she said.
2. Thayer's Hemmeter on SPAC comeback and space for a new travel brand
In September, PhocusWire executive editor Linda Fox spoke with Thayer Investment Partners’ Chris Hemmeter about the industry’s hesitancy to take travel companies public via special purpose acquisition companies (SPAC).
“At the end of the day, a SPAC is really more of a capital markets vehicle than it is a financing vehicle, and when seen that way, it’s a disciplined alternative—a door number two, if you will—for any company that for whatever reason wants to get to the public markets,” Hemmeter said.
3. Priceline CEO Brett Keller reflects on 26 years at the OTA and industry evolution
In November, Priceline veteran Brett Keller announced plans to step down from his role as CEO, with current chief commercial officer Brigit Zimmerman named his successor.
Keller reflected on his time at the online travel agency (OTA) during an interview in the PhocusWire studio at The Phocuswright Conference, also sharing advice for founders.
“Be careful in believing that you can acquire customers effectively in today’s marketplace. That is probably the hardest thing to do in today’s world,” Keller said.
4. CEO Spotlight: Muzzammil Ahussain of Almosafer
While focusing on the Middle East in October, PhocusWire spotlighted Almosafer CEO Muzzammil Ahussain.
In an interview with PhocusWire news editor Abby Crotty, Ahussain outlined the OTA’s business model, the role of religious travel, its greatest challenges and more.
"In terms of Booking.com and other global OTA competitors, our differentiator is really about a local understanding and local knowhow of the Saudi context, or the regional context, when booking travel,” Ahussain said.
5. CEO Spotlight: Alex Mans of Flyr
Another notable CEO spotlight featured Alex Mans, the founder and CEO of Flyr.
While Flyr started out as an artificial intelligence (AI) company in the revenue management and pricing space, Mans said AI’s role is shifting as it moves towards modern retailing enablement. Flyr, he said, is preparing for booking interfaces to change and for real-time negotiation between AI agents.
“We’re building for that future on the interface layer [with] AI agents and as well on the back-office negotiation layer, that is agents as well,” Mans said.
6. How Expedia Group believes AI can improve digital travel marketing
In a PhocusWire studio interview last month, Rob Torres, SVP of media solutions and retail partnerships for Expedia Group, shed light on the OTA’s travel marketing strategy.
Torres discussed the role of social media and targeting the right audiences.
“It’s not the number [of followers] anymore. It’s the type of followers and the relevancy of those followers, and that is changing. I think people are finding that that’s more important—[targeting] the right people, or the right followers of the right influencers with the right intent signals—and it’s really understanding those signals and actually being able to market to those signals.”
7. CEO Spotlight: Peter O’Donovan of CarTrawler
At Phocuswright Europe, CarTrawler CEO Peter O’Donovan shared thoughts on the coveted connected trip, CarTrawler’s future and, of course, AI.
“Travel is really well positioned to take advantage of the opportunities of generative AI because, if you think about the best travel experience you had as a traveler, they’re about being responsive, being personalized, being contextual—and actually, they’re the three things that gen AI is really good at,” O’Donovan said.
8. CEO Spotlight: Johannes Reck of GetYourGuide
In May, GetYourGuide co-founder and CEO Johannes Reck spoke with senior editor Morgan Hines about the tours and activities space—a noteworthy sector in 2025.
The company had just launched a suite of AI tools for operators and introduced a shows and events offering.
According to Reck, GetYourGuide added the latter after identifying it as a “major category for travelers,” specifically in the U.S. Long term, he said the company is “laser focused on experiences.”
“I think it's very likely that over the long term, we continue to broaden to even more verticals, but the experience always needs to be at the center. That's our brand promise,” Reck said.
9. Casago's Steve Schwab on finalizing Vacasa and what lies ahead
One of our first CEO Spotlights this year featured Casago founder Steve Schwab, who we caught up with again in May after the company acquired its larger competitor, Vacasa.
Reflecting on the deal, Schwab said it the experience was “different” than he expected.
“The truth is we had to really work hard to find the right investors. We had to ask a lot of people and have a lot of presentations to find the right people who could share the vision. It was a complex deal, and it's not without risk—and our investors and those people who decided to roll and all the people that were involved were able to see the vision and understand how we saw the world differently, and I'm really grateful for them because not everybody did.”
10. CEO Spotlight: Luis Maroto of Amadeus
In a CEO Spotlight published in January, Amadeus CEO Luis Maroto weighed in on the year ahead and potential for New Distribution Capability growth.
When discussing AI, Maroto shared a unique perspective, stating that the technology actually isn’t new to Amadeus.
“We have been using AI for the last 30 years,” he said.
“All technologies are somehow disruptive—cloud is a big matter, AI is a big matter. Now we talk about generative AI and the jump this represents for the industry. I don’t think the technology itself is going to be disruptive. Technologies are a means. The use of this technology and how we are able to adapt to the opportunities it is offering is how we make it disruptive.”
Tags: Expedia Group, Ariane Gorin Amadeus Luis Maroto, Peter O’Donovan CarTrawler The Phocuswright Conference
