Innovation We offer start-ups wide exposure
I
nnovation has become the key to remaining relevant, says Sara Pavan, head of the Amadeus start-ups programme which is part of the company’s research and innovation department. “The world in general, and travel in particular,
are changing quickly,” she says. “With all the noise about technology and fast adoption, the challenge is to focus on innovation that stands the test of time and delivers real benefit. “We developed an approach that is not just about looking at the next big ideas but about converting ideas into concrete value. “The project is based on three pillars.
One, a focus on trends that really matter for the industry, otherwise you can waste energy looking at everything. This year we are focusing on six themes: improving conversion; improving acquisition and retention; extending content to diversify offering; opportunities to improve efficiency; messaging platforms and e-commerce; and use models for disruptive ideas. “The second pillar is a research and
innovation department. [We have] a team dedicated to fostering new ideas, a group of data scientists and engineers dedicated to research, and a team dedicated to incubating opportunities that are a bit risky. “The third pillar is external partners
and our start-ups programme. We want to work with third parties of different levels of maturity, from start-ups in a garage to more-mature companies. “We have a programme for three levels of start-up. First, a corporate fund, Amadeus
Amadeus is investing in start-up ventures and exploring blockchain in pursuit of innovation. Sara Pavan, head of the Amadeus start-ups programme, explains
Ventures, established in 2014 to invest in travel start-ups. This is the most consolidated programme. The latest investment is in AVUXI, a Spanish-based company providing a platform for indoor navigation systems, for example for use at airports. Another is in a cloud-based start-up in London called CrowdVision with a tool to enable transport hubs to look at the movement of crowds. “A second programme, starting this autumn, is a self-service start-up platform, Amadeus for Developers, offering access to technology. “The third programme, Amadeus Explore, launched a year ago. It targets more-mature start-ups globally with the aim of giving companies market exposure to carry out pilots. It has seven members, ranging from blockchain-supported identity verification and companies using AI to predict flight delays to technology supporting value-added services such as event ticketing or personalised destination content. She says: “AI is a key trend impacting
many industries not just travel. We are not only thinking about collecting and learning from data, but how to use it to understand the language to push certain actions, and even to understand and predict human behaviour. “We have an AI research laboratory with
ONLINE travel purchasing has not penetrated even the UK
market to the extent that holiday accommodation has – despite UK
rail-ticket site Trainline being among Europe’s top-five OTAs (Figure 35).
a team of data scientists and engineers looking at how we can apply technology in the travel space, for example, to improve revenue management at airlines, and we’re working with third parties to apply AI techniques, for example to make more-accurate flight-delay predictions to help airports improve operations.
%
10 20 30 40 50
0 41% 35% 23% 16% 11% Age 16-24 25-34 12% 35-44 30% 25%
FIGURE 35: ONLINE PURCHASE OF TRAVEL*: 2017 By age
48% 36% 39% 29% 32% 31% 23% 23% 17% 10% 45-54 8% 55-64 24% 18% 6% 16% 11% 11% 2% 65-74
*Transport, car hire etc Base: All adults Source: Eurostat
48% 47% 42% 29% EU
Germany France
UK Italy
Travel Weekly Europe Report 2018 | 31
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
