PhocusWire

Acai Travel, a #PhocusWire Hot 25 Travel Startup for 2024, received the People's Choice Award as part of Phocuswright’s Launch: #Innovation program. At The #Phocuswright Conference in San Diego last week, co-founder and CEO Riccardo “Ricky” Vittoria shared highlights of Acai's platform and its #artificialintelligence (#AI) agents built for #travel management companies, online travel agencies and airlines. The #startup has built three agents, including an "AI supervisor" that oversees the call center, an AI front-office agent that speaks naturally with travelers and an AI back-office agent that understands #airline policies, schedule changes, etc. Watch Acai's full Launch presentation on #PhocusWire now ⤵️

Ryanair has closed its #Prime subscription scheme following an eight-month trial period. The low-cost carrier said the existing 55,000 Prime members will have access to exclusive monthly offers until October 2026, but no new members will be accepted. #Ryanair chief marketing officer Dara Brady said the initiative had cost the #airline money generating more than €4.4 million in subscription fees while members received more than €6 million in fare discounts. “This level of memberships, or subscription revenue does not justify the time and effort it takes to launch monthly exclusive Prime seat sales for our 55,000 Prime members,” Brady said. Learn more on #PhocusWire now.

The spotlight turned on #Asia at The Phocuswright Conference in San Diego earlier this month, with Agoda CEO Omri Morgenshtern opening the event. In an executive interview, Morgenshtern addressed some of the challenges facing the industry in Asia and beyond, including the potential demise of online travel agencies (OTAs). He doesn’t believe #artificialintelligence (#AI) will disintermediate the OTAs and said AI now makes it easier and cheaper for them to build their own “top-of-funnel” search rather than relying on search engines for traffic. Watch the full interview with WiT (Web in Travel)'s founder and editor Siew Hoon Yeoh ⤵️

🌍 #Travel is evolving fast—let’s unpack what it all means. Join Phocuswright, #PhocusWire, and Miles Partnership for our 10th annual webinar, “The Year in Review and the Year Ahead.” 📅 December 11 at 11:00AM ET We’ll unpack the latest trends and technologies reshaping the #travel and #tourism industry, with fresh insights from #Phocuswright #research, case studies and expert analysis. Register now: https://bit.ly/4qT28ua

India-based Yatra Online Ltd. announced that CEO and co-founder Dhruv Shringi has been appointed chairman of the board, and Siddhartha Gupta has been named CEO, effective yesterday. As chairman of the board, Shringi will work on guiding the #onlinetravelagency (#OTA) and #corporatetravel platform toward "expansion, #innovation and shareholder value creation." "With Siddhartha coming on board, we are bringing in the right leadership at the right time. His depth of experience in enterprise sales and SaaS aligns perfectly with Yatra's B2B-first strategy," said Shringi, who has held the CEO title since Yatra's founding in 2006. Learn more in #PhocusWire's recent article by Abby Crotty. #traveltech #traveltechnews #travelindustry #yatra #businestravel

Vacation rental management company Evolve has acquired #Guestworks’ portfolio from Vacasa for an undisclosed amount. The Guestworks solution provides technology for #shorttermrental operators who oversee their own properties. Guestworks’ 1,000 portfolios are included in the asset purchase transaction. Evolve co-founder CEO Brian Egan said the acquisition bolsters its leadership in hybrid, tech-enabled vacation rental management. “This transaction strengthens our category leadership and underscores our focus on what we do best—leveraging #technology and human expertise to deliver exceptional performance and service at industry-low rates.” Read more in #PhocusWire's latest article by Abby Crotty.

🎙️ In Phocus season six, episode one just dropped! In the #PhocusWire Studio during The Phocuswright Conference 2025, Sharad Sundaresan, founder and CEO of #Homescreen, and Eric Goldreyer, CEO of Savvy, discuss how consolidation and increasing professionalization are reshaping the vacation rental industry. The conversation also explores how #artificialintelligence could streamline manual processes and reduce fragmentation across the sector. 🎧 Listen to the new #podcast episode now ⤵️

🏆 2025 Launch Innovator interview: BoomPop #BoomPop, a PhocusWire Hot 25 Travel Startup for 2023, is an #artificialintelligence (#AI)-powered event operating systems that helps companies source, book and plan events. At The Phocuswright Conference in San Diego last week, BoomPop co-founder and CEO Healey Cypher presented the #startup as a solution for corporate group #travel and #event planning. The platform was named Travel Innovator of the Year as part of #Phocuswright's Launch: Innovation program. Learn more about BoomPop & watch the full Launch presentation on #PhocusWire now ⤵️

Emirates is looking to drive #artificialintelligence (#AI) adoption across the #airline through a partnership with #OpenAI. The collaboration will see the deployment of ChatGPT Enterprise alongside training to help implement AI capabilities across the carrier. “We see enormous potential for AI #technology to support our business requirements, helping us tackle complex commercial challenges, strengthening our operations and enhancing the customer experience.” said Ali Serdar Yakut, Emirates' EVP of IT. “Closely working with OpenAI will make our technology investments both strategic and scalable, enabling us to deliver enhanced value to our employees and customers, fundamentally changing how we innovate, deliver value and maintain our competitive edge in the industry.” Learn more in #PhocusWire's latest article by Linda Fox.

Within the #vacationrental industry, opportunity abounds as operators lean into consolidation and professionalization. During an interview in the #PhocusWire studio at The Phocuswright Conference last week, Sharad Sundaresan, founder and CEO of #Homescreen, and Eric Goldreyer, CEO of Savvy, shared their thoughts on these trends. “You’ll see consolidation bring about that degree of consistency across the board, which helps with dealing with those increased guest expectations,” Sundaresan said. According to Goldreyer, #shorttermrental (#STR) guests also want standardization, but, more importantly, they want to forego #travel anxiety and have a reliable point of contact if something goes wrong. Watch the full conversation with PhocusWire’s Abby Crotty.