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Here is your weekly curation of the top travel news on innovation, trends and startups in the travel industry:
- Time for better inflight coffee? Alaska Airlines has partnered with Stumptown Coffee Roasters to bring better coffee to their flights. They carefully chose the coffee to make sure it still tastes good at high altitudes. Normally, being in the air can make food and drinks taste different because the air pressure changes how we can taste things. This is especially true for coffee, which usually ends up tasting kind of bland on planes.
- Baggage trolleys, but with a twist. Travelers at Munich Airport can now use smart baggage trolleys equipped with interactive tablets provided by Danish company Intelligent Track Systems. These tablets allow passengers to input flight information or scan boarding cards, providing real-time flight updates and granting access to terminal facilities like shops and restaurants. Supporting the goal to make the airport experience better, these tablets are part of Munich Airport’s innovation initiatives, blending digital and analog elements for added passenger value.
- Affordable (and certified) sustainable stays. On their effort to support travelers on their increased interest in accommodations with sustainability certifications, Booking.com is partnering up with Sustonica, a startup specialized in sustainability certification for short-term rentals. Sustonica assesses properties based on UN Sustainable Development Goals and evaluates energy efficiency, waste reduction, water conservation, and community impact. If a rental gets a good rating, it will have a special badge on Booking.com. Sustonica is trying to show property owners that being sustainable isn’t expensive and can be a good idea.
- Digital menus: quick and easy. Hospitality tech companies Popmenu and OpenTable have partnered together to make it easier for restaurants in the US and Canada to manage their digital menus. This collaboration, which will expand to the UK in 2024, allows restaurant owners to import, create, and update menus for multiple locations using Popmenu. By streamlining menu management, this partnership helps restaurant owners improve their online visibility and enhance the dining experience for their customers. Popmenu also offers additional AI-driven solutions to support the growth of restaurants.
- A push for cleaner skies. EasyJet is leading the way in reducing carbon emissions in the aviation industry. They are the first airline to partner with Airbus for their carbon removal program, which uses advanced tech to extract CO2 from the air and store it safely underground. EasyJet is spearheading carbon reduction in the airline sector by partnering with Airbus in a pioneering carbon-removal initiative, aiming for zero carbon emission flights through technologies like carbon removal and sustainable aviation fuel.