New business models facing colossus travel players

The Travel & Tourism industry scenario is changing, with a concentration of companies that, thanks to economic and financial capacity, organisation and innovation (and data) are fighting to gain more and more space, sometimes creating obstacles to independent companies which are entering the market.

We have already described two of the possible scenarios foreseen by Amadeus, namely the Mega Online Travel Retailers and the Travel Marketplaces, and we have observed that there is room for new companies if they are focused on a certain segment and/or if they can count on new business models.

The composition of these new business models is becoming an interesting evolving element: who knew, before 2009, that many of us would have rented our house for short periods to strangers through online platforms? Nowadays, the “Airbnb” model feels like a normal thing to us.

For example, the Spanish platform Vibbo allows to buy airline and train tickets at convenient prices, as they are “second-hand”, and used to belong to a person who, for any reason, had to give up on his/her travel.
A very similar concept has been developed by Pruvo, which renegotiates the hotel rooms bookings that were cancelled, proposing them to the market at more convenient conditions.
Moreover, an interesting business model is the one of the Italian company called DayBreakHotels, which offers hotel rooms during the daytime, meeting the new consumers’ needs. In fact, this service gives a solution to who is looking for some rest during a stopover or who is looking for some relax during a business trip, or a luxury experience in his/her own city.

On the occasion of the last BIT held in Milan, we met My take it, which is now at its business start-up stage but which is quickly developing. This startup changed the approach to the booking of a room, as the tourist is now able to state how much he/she wants to spend and to evaluate the best solution according to his/her expectations.

At Twissen we observed that in the Travel & Tourism industry there is still room for innovation, and the success is going to depend on the knowledge of the target-tourist and on a customer-centric approach.

Francesco Redi

President and founder at Twissen. Manager in Local Development, Tourism Policies,  EU Funds. He cooperates with several European universities, public bodies, development agencies, DMOs and enterprises.