ADVISORY BOARD


PAULA FELSTEAD CHIEF TECHNOLOGY AND OPERATION OFFICER, HBX GROUP


IAIN ANDREW CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER, SAUDI TOURISM AUTHORITY


I’m interested to see how immersive reality develops, to assist destination marketing organisations (DMOs) in particular. The new Apple devices [Vision Pro augmented reality ĈíËëʼníŏʼnǙ ũĊěě ŁĥʼnĊŏĊŨíěů ĊğŁËåŏ ŏĈí ŏËęíǐœŁ and I can see real value in giving potential visitors a taste of destinations in ways previously


Augmented reality (AR) will become a key component of the travel


industry’s demand generation and revenue stream. At HBX Group, we are making sure our data is ready to support what you need to


support with this AR interface, as an expected part of traveller journeys.


reserved for high-end gaming. Talking of gaming, there could be interesting alignments with game locations and DMOs, which could take the exposure to a very different level. Recently, in China, I was lucky enough to see some of the innovations in digital hosts at a quality that was frankly astounding. Could immersive reality, new hardware, gaming and digital hosts all come together ĊĠ Ë ũËů ĠíŨíŃ ʼnííĠ äíāĥŃíǯ TĈËŏǠʼn ũĈËŏ @Ǡğ ěĥĥęĊĠĂ āĥŃũËŃë ŏĥ ʼnííĊĠĂ ĊĠ ǀƾǀǃǫ


Financing of travel start-ups is back in 2024, helped by the return of


TARA COLPITTS


SENIOR DIRECTOR, MARKET MANAGEMENT, EXPEDIA GROUP


MORGANN LESNÉ PARTNER,


CAMBON PARTNERS


good mid-market M&A activity – with platform strategies including a lot of bolt-on acquisitions – and


the return of initial public offerings (TBO and hopefully in 2025


Hotelbeds and Etraveli). But the bar continues to be very high for deals to close. Slowly growing and non- ŁŃĥƗŏËäěí åĥğŁËĠĊíʼn ũĊěě åĥĠŏĊĠœí


ŏĥ ʼnŏŃœĂĂěíǪ ũĈĊěí ǔŏĈí ëĥğĊĠËĠåíǙ ĥā 40-plus companies will remain very ËŏŏŃËåŏĊŨí āĥŃ x#ʼn ǔŁŃĊŨËŏí íłœĊŏůǙǫ 2025 will remain a buyer’s market.


I am excited by the opportunity our industry has to harness the


power of AI to enhance the traveller and supplier experience where it


makes the most impact. At Expedia Group, for example, we focus on areas where it can uniquely make


a difference, like helping our hotel partners capture better demand by matching them with the right traveller, or putting more relevant


options in front of travellers to boost our hotel partners’ attachment rates.


BEN DIAS CHIEF DATA SCIENTIST, IAG


8íĠíŃËŏĊŨí @ Ǔ8íĠ @ǘ ĈËʼn äííĠ Ë ʼnĊĂĠĊƗåËĠŏ challenge to all businesses this year. While ChatGPT excited everyone about the potential of GenAI, businesses have rightly been hesitant to expose their customers directly to GenAI chat interfaces. This is because the generic GenAI chat interfaces powered by large language models are too prone to ‘hallucinations’ and are


ëĊāƗåœěŏ ËĠë íŮŁíĠʼnĊŨí ŏĥ ËëËŁŏ ŏĥ ůĥœŃ ĥũĠ ëËŏË ËĠë äœʼnĊĠíʼnʼn åĥĠŏíŮŏǫ Therefore, in the year ahead, I expect businesses will gravitate towards small language models that are more specialised and easier and cheaper to train, hopefully completely transforming the customer experience.


TRAVOLUTION.COM — OCTOBER 2024 — 21


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