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 […]

Along with GetYourGuide‘s recent funding announcements came some interesting leadership quotes that I just have to memorialise for future reference as their statements about unit economics and strategy are significant. Before we cover that, a clarification, GetYourGuide are not THE largest funded in our sector, the autonomous vehicle mobility platforms are funded far in excess […]

Too much AI debate in the sightseeing sector relates to generative AI such as text, image & video generation. This article outlines why we should prioritise addressing other forms of AI first, and how we can incorporate decentralised technology approaches within an overall AI strategy. First, why is everyone distracted by generative AI? I believe […]

As someone who has been working full time on the impact of AI on local tourism since early 2018 [Evidence], the last six months have seen some kind of vindication. However not everything I have foretold has come to pass, or at least not yet. And some of my approaches to hedge, or mitigate, the […]

Great to see so much discussion around generative AI at ITB Berlin last week. In particular I heard there was significant debate within the sightseeing & experiences sector, where generative AI is fundamentally a product innovation, as opposed to flights & hotels sectors where generative AI powers retail innovation. However several key topics remain undiscussed. […]

Publicly available autonomous vehicles (e.g. robotaxis) are here. My Autoura service is available (for early testing) operating tourism experiences in four US cities – San Francisco, Las Vegas, Austin & Phoenix, using publicly available robotaxis. We have no vehicles ourselves. I have been disappointed that the tour bus sector hasn’t grasped the incoming disruption that […]