Niche No More: Traveler Perspectives given primetime focus at our 3rd annual Virtuoso Travel Tech Summit

Travelers come in all shapes and sizes and with an endless array of needs and desires. As hospitality providers, we strive to serve and care for all of them. But far too often executives, investors, and thought leaders, including myself, have overlooked these traveler groups, utilizing the shorthand of ‘niche’. But over the past few years, it has become clear to me that many of these segments are anything but niche and count an ever-growing number of travelers among their ranks.

This was solidified for me by Camilo Navarro who reminds us that all of us who are lucky enough to live a long life will face a disability of some kind and will count ourselves within these niches.

Thus, I decided to add a Deep Dive Showcase to our Virtuoso Travel Tech Summit focused on these traveler cohorts. What I called Traveler Perspectives, in order to open all of our eyes to these groups of travelers and to learn from innovators focused on serving and supporting these communities.

To kick off this Deep Dive Session we welcomed Carolyn Corda back to the stage for a Q&A and conversation based on her thought-provoking presentation earlier that morning. Carolyn is a long-time data leader in our industry and spent much of her presentation sharing how AI, and what I call The Great Commoditization of AI, are impacting consumer expectations and companies across our sector. She also shared with us her 4 C's for traveler preferences recommendations; which I will write more about next week in my main stage learnings.

During her Q&A Carolyn was asked about many topics but what resonated most with me was the conversation about a future where custom product bundles are the norm. Where the product unbundling we are seeing across the sector catalyzes a future of many more dynamic offerings; something I have written about a lot and am very excited by.

汉莎航空 is of course everyones favorite example at the moment. The Lufthansa Group recently unveiled their new business-class design with 7 different seating options including family seating, privacy seating, intimate seating for couples, etc. By taking these new product types and combining them with unique offerings on the ground and in destination, one can create a nearly endless number of products or packages tailored to nearly every type of traveler and use case.

Carolyn was also asked about the feasibility of using this technology within smaller hotels and travel organizations and I was thrilled to hear Carolyn go back to my theory of the Great Commoditization of AI and the exciting opportunities that brings to small businesses.

Our Traveler Perspective Startup showcase then went into full gear as we heard from Marissa Nelson, LMFT, M.S.Ed, CST of IntimacyMoons Couples Retreats . I often describe Intimacy Moons as a trip builder for travelers who want more than just a good time from their trip. By combining the best of luxury and hospitality Intimacy Moons supports an ever-growing 'niche' of customers who seek to work on their relationships and mental health while traveling. With a key focus on couples who are in long-term committed relationships, Marissa aims to help them go from Roommates back to Lovers in one weekend.

Like with many of these traveler groups, it is easy to write them off as niche and unrepresentative of the market but according to Marissa's research over 66% of couples travel to work on their relationships. Like with all of these groups we highlighted, not a niche at all. And Marissa was able to share some great insights into the way to better attract and cater to this large group of affluent travelers.

Up next we heard from Camilo Navarro of Wheel the World . If you have not heard the Wheel the World founding story I encourage you to look it up it is both inspiring and uplifting. But I must admit that when I first heard of Wheel the World and accessible travel I felt great about the effort but like far too many when my investor hat was on I stayed away from this category because I believed it to be niche and unscalable. That was until Camilo and his co-founders opened my eyes to a few critical realities.

1. Those of us who are lucky enough to live a long life at some point will have to contend with a disability of our own.
2. It is estimated that over 40 million Americans have a disability. That's a big number. But an even bigger number is the 160 million Americans, basically half of us, who are related to or live with, and thus often travel with, a person with a disability.
3. The world is simply not well designed for people with accessibility needs.

What makes this whole endeavor even more challenging is that the needs of a traveler with a disability change based on the person not based on the disability. Thus one-size-fits-all approaches do not cut it in this realm. Wheel the World is easy to love and highlighted for all of us how innovation can be used to improve the lives of travelers while at the same time enabling our businesses to better care for travelers of all kinds and by doing so grow our markets.

As Marc Zornes of Winnow , our next innovator, said: from intimacy and accessibility to sustainability focused travel. That's what made this Deep Dive Session, a new addition to our Virtuoso Travel Tech Summit, such a fascinating and valuable session. Winnow helps hotels and other venues where food is served tackle sustainable reduction of waste; a critical mission for an ever-growing segment of travelers who care deeply for sustainability. But the best part is that like many of our innovators, Winnow is creating the win-win-win we all seek. It's better for the planet, better for the business (Winnow can help clients save a lot of money from food waste reduction), and often better for the traveler who is getting higher quality fresher food.

When I first met Marc I was simply floored by the fact that over $138B worth of food is thrown away each year in the US alone. An enormous waste of food, labor (both growing and preparing the food), money, and opportunity; Winnow also partners with Food Banks to donate the food when too much is created.

There are so many reasons I wanted Winnow at our Summit including the focus on sustainability-minded travelers, a perfect example of where innovation creates win-win-win outcomes, and their use of AI. As I said a lot over the past few months, GenAI is great but for those of us living and working in the physical world there are other types of AI, Computer Vision in this case, that can be of even more value.

This article is already far too long but we had two more innovators join us who are focused on other growing traveler segments. First was Ian Mitchell of INHALE Superoxygenated Water . Inhale is bringing together science and innovation to support all of our well-being, but especially wellness and performance focused travelers. Ian, who is a scientist and true innovator, shared with us the science behind oxygenated water and its impact on the body and recovery.

Ian explained how Inhale can be a key part of a wellness and performance offering at a hotel, dining club, and other hospitality settings. And further, how Inhale can be a bridge to attracting and catering to an ever larger group of travelers who have not historically thought of themselves as performance junkies. We were even more fortunate that Ian was able to bring lots of samples with them, which I really enjoyed and even shared with my kids.

Lastly, we were excited to hear from Arjun Shokeen the CEO of Swayed . Swayed is a Startup utilizing AI, computer vision, signal intelligence, and other modern technology to help hospitality operators better understand their physical space and optimize it for both revenue and functionality. As we all know it is very hard to improve on things you do not measure and thus Swayed helps with exactly that; measuring and quantifying the use of physical space. Arjun was sadly not able to join us in person due to Tropical Storm Debby but shared his insights via video.

For me, this Deep Dive Session was one of the highlights of our Summit as it showed us how technology and innovation can be utilized to cater to and support travelers whose needs have historically been overlooked or neglected. As we all strive to better care for travelers with different needs, desires, and priorities we were fortunate to hear from so many brilliant innovators growing our market through their innovative efforts.