Disruption and Travel Tech #lovestory

We live in the most exciting times where everything well "almost" is sold online and the consumer behavior is (I wanna buy this ... let me check this online ... its price availability and specs and book .. tadaaaaa).

But let me tell you what is so amazing. The travel industry. There are so many portals right? booking.com, expedia.com and hotels.com and this.com and that.com and what not. But the most amazing fact is that all the powerful and supersonic web portals that we use today for travel (airline, hotels, rent a car etc) are owned by two giants (there is a very very interesting duopoly).

So my question is ... where is the innovation?

in Disruption (may be)

Companies like Tripadvisor and trivago as well as sky scanner and wego are really disrupting this industry and Tripadvisor's awesome decision to acquire Viator is a masterstroke. But there is always a lot to talk about disruptors. I dont remember attending an event or conference where Airbnb was not a topic of discussion. It has really changed the way how hotel booking should be done and it has allowed the consumer to dream. To dream and wander into the places the consumer haven't been before and that too with a local touch. Which unfortunately traditional hotels couldn't do. It has also created a new industry (a short term housing industry) and literally everyone can dream to be a hotelier (in a way).

Another thing that disruptors do well is they keep it simple by asking a simple question where as traditional businesses have a status quo. Even in their forms :)

Have a look at this.

The booking interface of Airbnb is clean and simple whereas booking.com wants to know all your thingee before showing you the hotel listings. But then they learned and how? ... look at this.

Booking.com is now talking about experiences, accommodations and sightseeing. Cool isn't it? we can always learn from the disruptor and improve.

Because in technology it is never too late. You can always adapt to the changing trends and even the traditional setups can relaunch and reinvent and become the new disruptor. Lets not bog down to the keywords (disruption, big data, bit coin). #Keepinnovating

"This article is a part of a presentation of the keynote speech by Ammar Akhtar in #TravelTechME Congress in October 2017 in Dubai"

Ammar Akhtar is a founder and CEO of 1CallGroup a travel tech company working mostly on car rental booking systems. Ammar loves to explore new tech trends and loves to express his views openly. Feel free to connect.