James O'Brien

The role of marketing technology in the travel industry has passed the threshold of adoption, but significant attention is still required to bring the technology at work into its true and central role, industry-wide.

A record amount of venture capital was invested in travel startups in 2017 driven by unicorns, like Airbnb, emerging technologies, expansion outside of core geographies, and traction in new verticals. The industry is no stranger to disruption, but we may be seeing some of the greatest changes of the last two decades, and we expect this momentum to continue into 2018.

The global digital payments ecosystem is undergoing a rapid and monumental shift; smart travel brands should stay on top of the shifts in how we pay for goods and services. Peer-to-peer payment platforms, digital wallets, and cryptocurrencies may have been a thing of science fiction just years ago. Yet, many of the data points now clearly suggest otherwise.

Travel booking is transforming the mobile-first ecosystem. Messaging technology is replacing face-to-face and voice-to-voice commerce with a screen-to-screen conduit that stands to drive returns and open interactions to new levels of customer context and continuity that the travel industry has seldom, if ever, experienced before.

Messaging technology is expanding at a rapid pace across the online commerce ecosystem, across categories. This report addresses the marketing operations side of the messaging technology equation among travel companies. A companion Skift report will focus on bookings and messaging tech.

The on-demand economy is on the rise, but what does on-demand mean, exactly? In this report, a look at the nature of a technology-driven sea change in consumer behavior and the business models emerging to meet it in the travel industry.

For the travel industry, online search is in the middle of significant transformations. From the mobile-first milieu to the evolving concepts of search and commerce, attribution and product-level innovation, avenues to reach travelers via search marketing are moving toward a future that brands can’t afford to bypass or ignore.

In this study, we look at what silent travelers are doing, where they are going, and how they are getting there. What can brands do to reach them in-trip and at-destination? This report dives into demographics, travel trends, and best practices for seeking the often younger, tech-savvy, and business/leisure-combining travel consumer.

A look at the present — and future — of e-mail marketing for travel brands. From responsive design and targeted sendings, to pushed content and pulling travelers into a fluid cross-channel narrative — e-mail marketers are steering the industry's course toward more reliable conversions, more of the time.

Business travel is showing post-recession resiliency, and opportunities to reach working travelers abound in the digital ecosystem. For brands, capturing a segment of what’s estimated to be some $71 billion in business-travel revenue, however, means a balancing act between travelers’ wants, corporate travel policies, and the emerging expectations of Millennials in the space.