EDITOR’S COMMENT
CONTENTS OCTOBER 2022
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TRAVOLUTION INNOVATION REPORT 2022
04 CONFERENCE REPORT Altitude 22: Amadeus hosts Dubai conference
06 CONFERENCE REPORT Travolution European Summit 2022
08 COMMENT Don Birch: Prize ‘too big’ not to innovate
16 PROFILE Brett Norman, Ultimate Travel Group
23 PROFILE Ralf Usbeck, Chain4Travel
TRAVEL IT SPENDING
28 THE BIG PICTURE Pandemic’s true impact and bounce-back
32 WHAT FIRMS ARE BUYING Spending on IT staff lags all-UK economy
36 OUTLAY BY SIZE OF FIRM Total spending and spending per employee
40 FIVE-SECTOR ANALYSIS 2021 spending and 2022 forecasts 50 GLOSSARY
FRONT COVER: SHUTTERSTOCK/CKA
Collaboration key to post-Covid innovation
One of the clear takeaways from this year’s Travolution Innovation Report is that there’s never been a better time to innovate but it requires a mindset, leaders and collaboration. Existential shocks like the Covid
pandemic make the need for change only more apparent and can be an antidote to the usual inertia and fear. In this report we hear from
individuals and companies that are not prepared to accept ‘business as usual’ post-pandemic, and it will require these sort of leaders to be trailblazers. It might just take the likes of Finnair
calling time on legacy technology (page 4) to inspire the sort of rapid and fundamental change that many in the sector see as not before time. The sector should wish pioneers like
Chain4Travel (page 23) and Ultimate Travel Club (page 16) well as they bid to forge a more prosperous future. If the pandemic reinforced anything,
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it’s that where there’s a will there’s a way and, when needs must, incredible advances can happen at great speed. Look at how the banking industry changed after the 2008 financial crash and how the automotive sector has undergone an ‘e-revolution’. It’s this sort of vision and culture of
innovation that travel needs, and is an ethos echoed by Microsoft (page 5). What’s clear from our latest analysis
of UK government data on IT spend is the travel industry continues to prioritise investment in technology despite its economic challenges. But scarce resources, not least in human IT expertise, will make collaboration all the more important as travel journeys to the future.
INTERNATIONAL TRADE 2020
THE QUEEN’S AWARDS FOR ENTERPRISE:
LEE HAYHURST TRAVOLUTION EDITOR
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