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I want to make sure you receive your weekly news wrap up on the top innovation stories going on in the travel industry. So here it is:
- The Finnish startup Valpas has just raised €2 million for growing their innovative tech solution (combining hardware, software and label) to fight bed bugs. I love to see startup founders tackling issues like this, where most of us just go like “oh, someone should do something about this”. Well, it seems like Valpas is on a mission to make guests have a pest-free stay.
- What if we could use space technologies to offer travellers a unique and sustainable way to experience local destinations? In other words: make the whole travel experience more personal while actively supporting local businesses and communities; travelling local rather than heading to the usual overcrowded tourist spot. This is exactly one of the challenges that will be explored at the upcoming CASSINI Hackathon. Want to shape solutions to issues like this one? Sign up right now.
- Travalyst wants to make it easier for customers to book a flight with lower emissions, with their just-announced framework that lets different industry players collect and display flight emissions data in a simple way. “By delivering clear and consistent tools for collecting and reporting airline data, we are helping travellers and the industry to make more informed – and lower-emitting – air travel choices,” said Sally Davey, CEO of Travalyst. In my opinion, anyone making an effort to make data more accessible and things less complex in this industry (specially when it comes to carbon emissions!), has my respect.
- The travel industry is starting to take education more seriously – for both travel facilitators and travellers. Avanti Destinations has just teamed up with Spain’s Tourist Office to create a travel booklet on ‘la buena vida’, giving all the best tips for savouring the Spanish good life. At the same time, Hopper is bouncing into the travel education market with Bunny Bootcamp – giving travel agents the experience and knowledge they need to grow into their careers. We are always curious about new education initiatives for the travel industry – is there something you think we shouldn’t miss in this topic?
- There’s one thing that always gives me stress when travelling: having a stopover. From panicking about whether I’ll have enough time to get through the airport, to worrying about my bags, security and one or another (very essential) duty-free purchases, it can be a headache. I’m sure I’m not the only one who was glad to see that Marseille Provence Airport has just teamed up with Kiwi.com to create a self-connect service that’s promising to make the experience much smoother and stress-free. I’m sold!
- It’s been a lot of “firsts” in the past weeks when it comes to the travel industry getting cosy with the Metaverse. This week, Emirates Airlines announced they will be launching NFTs and CitizenM announced they will be building a hotel in the metaverse. I love to see that both news points in the direction that there is a significant push towards the digital space, so I would like to share an article which brings the reflection if the metaverse is really necessary. What do you think, *|FNAME|*?
- Frankfurt Airport’s marketing agency Media Frankfurt has just teamed up with VIOOH to develop more streamlined digital ad experiences. As we know, airports are an ideal place for travellers to dream and to get swept up with excitement – making them prime locations for advertising and marketing.