hundreds of industry professionals to discuss the Reset, Reboot and Restart of travel. By Lee Hayhurst BUSINESS NEWS


Hostelworld tackles ‘risky’ tech upgrades


Hostelworld has taken some “big swings” to modernise its technology during the pandemic. Gary Morrison, chief executive


of the Dublin-based OTA, said refreshing technology was less risky due to the collapse in bookings. He said the firm’s growth


strategy had been on track, after years of under-investment, when the pandemic struck in March and left it facing some difficult decisions.


“As we went through the painful


process of making changes to our workforce, the two areas that we kept largely intact were product and technology,” he said. “In the ordinary course of


business, you want to do those big Gary Morrison


things, but you’re always chasing year-on-year growth every week, every day, every month. “And those are quite risky things


to do, but if there’s no demand you can take much bigger swings, and indeed we did.” Morrison said Hostelworld


migrated its website to a progressive web app, replaced its payments system, and consolidated tracking and data analytics into Google. “These were some really big


projects, but we could take those risks because there was no demand. “You could put something out


there and if it broke for a few days, it wouldn’t matter. It was taking advantage of the situation.”


‘Europe’s travel recovery will reflect trends in Asia’


The travel recovery will be led by domestic travel and longer stays, and bookings will be made much closer to departure, Trip.com told the summit. Schubert Lou, chief operating


officer of the global OTA, which is owned by Chinese giant Ctrip, said travel brands must react to the changing demands of customers. Trip.com, a sister brand of


Skyscanner, has ambitious plans to expand in Europe and the UK, where its European contact centre is based in Edinburgh. Lou said he expected recovery in


Europe to reflect trends in Asia. “Staycation has been booming


for the last three or four months and then there’s the hotel plus excursion in combination,” he said. “The other trend is the booking


window is changing. Forty per cent of bookings used to be over 30 days in advance of summer trips; now,


travelweekly.co.uk 50%


Proportion of Trip.com’s bookings made within two days of departure


50% of bookings are within a couple of days. “Third, stays are tending be longer,


partly because people can work from home or from a different location.” Trip.com is trying to incentivise


earlier bookings with a ‘Live’ programme of flexible, fully refundable and cancellation-permitted bookings with up to 60% off. “We see that people are willing to


commit the minute they find flexibility that’s built in, and the industry is experimenting with this,” said Lou. Trip.com’s plans for growth


in Europe remained on track, he Schubert Lou


said, adding that all travel firms must ensure they address emerging customer demands. “What the industry needs to start


doing is to listen to our customers and react to changing demand,” he said. “Understanding the customer,


and looking at what they are searching for, provides a tremendous amount of information on how we should be changing our platform.”


All 16 T


CATCH UP ravolution European


Summit 2020 sessions are available to view on T


ravolution.com


Keynotes ZKatie McAlister, chief marketing officer, Tui UK & Ireland


Z Ait Voncke, global senior vice president for lodging, vacation rentals and activities, Expedia


Z Karen Panetta, IEEE fellow, and dean of School of Engineering, Tufts University


Z Peter Van Manen, former MD, McLaren Applied Technologies


Executive interviews Z Marco Corradino, chief executive, lastminute.com


Z Simon Cooper, chief executive, On the Beach


Z Gary Morrison, chief executive, Hostelworld


Z Schubert Lou, chief operating officer, Trip.com


Digital masters seminars Z ‘Glocal’ content, AI and tech to


future-proof your business Joel Brandon-Bravo, vice- president travel and digital solutions, T


ransPerfect


Z Conquering the conversion conundrum with behavioural economics Ben Stirling, MD, Webloyalty


Z How travel firms are using data to reboot their strategies Andy Owen-Jones, co-founder and chief executive, bd4travel


Z High-performing strategies to get into the fast lane to recovery Paul Stephen, CEO, Sagittarius


Panel discussions Z The shifting sands of travel distribution post-Covid-19


Z Turbocharge your drive for more conversions using payments and marketing data


Z The Covid-19 travel reboot Z Re-platforming for the post- Covid-19 comeback


15 OCTOBER 2020


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