Question came up at the Arival San Diego sector conference when Douglas Quinby was interviewing Tao Tao from GetYourGuide. It is a clever question as it sounds simple but the answer goes to the heart of how GetYourGuide see themselves, with many nuances and future looking aspects. Are GetYourGuide a marketplace representing what tour operators […]

Unless you are living under a rock, you will know that generative AI is coming to your phone. Within the next few months we will see: new iPhone hardware with Apple Intelligence Google Pixel 9 with Gemini ChatGPT app with Advanced voice mode supporting more human-like conversations AI is not just coming to existing phone […]

Why this question today? In the last few weeks: Google (Waymo) now open access in San Francisco with their robotaxis (i.e. available to tourists with no waiting list), becoming one of the largest growing US city based attractions and a significant sign of what is to come to all US cities in the next few […]

Risk is a judgement. When I set off to sail over the Atlantic (twice), or drive London to Kathmandu (4 months), run a marathon (twice), cycle 1000 miles John O’Groats to Lands end, race a 21 foot boat from the UK to the Fastnet rock and back (and win), or just be a startup founder, […]

I am thinking about hiring. Not actually hiring, but thinking about hiring. So with that in mind, I have pulled together some questions that I could ask in a job interview. The more senior you expect to be, the more of these questions I expect you to be able to give a good answer to. […]

The new year period is a time of reflection. With that in mind, I realised that most of my recent focus has been on what can startups do with AI, or what can tour operators do with AI. But what about the current generation OTA marketplaces, how can they adapt to AI? Are they destined to […]

If it hadn’t been for the pandemic, the 2019 version of the GetYourGuide Originals would likely be in place providing 50% of GetYourGuide’s current net revenues, their IPO would have happened, the executive team would have retired to their Swiss lakefront homes, and everyone else would be scrambling to work out how to compete against […]

Last week I went to the Arival conference in Orlando and I was surprised by the reaction to the content. Some tour operators were saying too much AI in the schedule. Well I have news for you, your upstream big tech partners are winning AI and you are not part of their plans. Tomorrows experience economy […]

In the AI age, you can’t just be a digital service anymore. For the digital only companies this makes it a strategically important task deciding what to do beyond digital. This post is a quick summary of how Viator, GetYourGuide and Google are going physical with three different approaches. Not mutually exclusive of course, but […]

Depending upon your perspective, the big news this week was either the Checkfront / Rezdy shared ownership announcement, or Tripadvisor launching their AI tour itinerary generating service to consumers. Here is how both stories can be viewed from a singular perspective and are relevant to more than just suppliers who use Checkfront / Rezdy. But […]