While the pandemic has decimated the travel industry, we fortunately continue to see indications of a strong rebound in travel in many, though not all, areas of the globe. However, international travel, especially long haul, will remain depressed for some time. The lack of clear and consistent regulations related to travel have been, and will remain, some of the biggest challenges our industry will face. The pandemic will soon become endemic and pent-up demand that is limited to domestic and regional travel may result in crowded accommodations and higher prices.
If governments and businesses could work together and unlock international travel quicker while maintaining health and safety, both the travel industry and the world’s economy would greatly benefit.
As we look back on a vastly disruptive 2020-21 for the travel industry, which innovations have stood out to you as going the extra mile to provide support, reassurance and clarity to travelers?
There are several. The first example worth noting is the EU Digital Certificate - which identifies travelers as safe through either proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID test. This was a significant step in the right direction to support the travel industry in Europe, and it is unfortunate that not all governments adopted a similar program as it would have been beneficial if everyone was on the same system.
In terms of our own businesses, last year, Booking.com made it simple for properties to display precautionary COVID-19 measures to travelers seeking this enhanced transparency, while providing online resources to help partners navigate health and safety regulations and traveler preferences. Over 17 million listings on Booking.com’s platform have now implemented health and safety measures.
As travel began to pick up again and countries were slowly reopening their borders, KAYAK developed a heat map that identified the different country and state-level restrictions that were in place for travelers to use as a guide when planning their trips.
These are just a few examples of some great efforts to support travelers and partners alike over the past 18 months.
To what extent was Booking able to collaborate, if at all, with its peers and competitors to provide innovative solutions to critical problems?
For a highly competitive industry that was arguably the hardest hit by the pandemic, there was a unified desire to support customers, partners and employees any way we could. The key, however, was working in unison with governments, stakeholders and intergovernmental organizations to revive travel for the long term. One example of this collaboration was a signed letter of support for the implementation of the EU Digital Certificate by Booking, along with several other travel sites and companies.
While the pandemic disrupted the travel industry significantly - and immediate unified support is still needed - it’s also important for us to remain focused on the long-term health of not just the travel industry, but the world. The pandemic spotlighted the importance of preserving our planet for future generations to also be able to experience it. Last year, we were the first online travel company, among a now broader list of travel companies, to join the UN’s global tourism plastics initiative, which promotes long-term solutions to reduce pollution and waste from disposable plastics, which will ultimately help support a responsible recovery from the impact of the pandemic.
In line with this long-term outlook, last December we pledged our support for the Tech for Good Call initiated by President Macron of France, alongside other tech firms in the EU. Through this pledge, we committed to developing technology in a responsible way, in alignment with the principles outlined by the Tech for Good initiative. Ultimately, we recognize that for technology to be a continued source of human progress, all stakeholders must cooperate to ensure inclusive access and prevent abuse.
Which technological innovation do you believe will have the biggest impact on the day-to-day operations of the travel sector in the coming decade? To what extent will Booking aid in the provision/development/implementation of this innovation?
The pandemic shined a spotlight on the importance of technology, highlighting not just our reliance on it, but also our expectations of it. This could not be more true as it relates to travel. At Booking, we continue to build towards our long-term vision of the Connected Trip, which is essentially a multiproduct offering, including accommodations, flight, ground transportation, attractions, and dining, all connected by a seamless payment network to further remove the friction out of the travel experience. Looking ahead, payment technology specifically will play an increasingly critical role in transforming the travel experience.
Travel is different from nearly every other corner of e-commerce, strictly because of the often massive time gap between financial commitment from a customer booking and the time they actually take their trip. Many people book and pay for their travel up to a year in advance, which introduces a whole host of different variables and financial risks to consider. Markets have vastly different payment practices and methods, and bridging the gap between these helps ease friction and enhances the value we bring as a global intermediary.
At Booking, the goal is to make it easy for anyone, anywhere in the world to pay for their travel or do business on our platform when and how they want. A few months ago, we announced the creation of a new internal FinTech business unit to facilitate seamless access to the company’s global travel marketplace for both customers and partners. As a truly global e-commerce company with business operations in nearly every country and city on the planet, the vision behind creating this new business unit was to make buying and selling travel-related products and services through millions of cross-border, cross-currency transactions taking place daily, truly easier for everyone.
Can you comment on the importance of “proof of vaccines” to the travel sector?
Proof of vaccination is important to the travel sector because it fosters safe travel, allowing the industry to recover while we all collectively work together to end this pandemic - and the key to ending this pandemic is through widespread distribution of vaccines. That is the only way we will move forward, and in the process, save countless lives. The recent decision by the U.S. government to allow non-essential travel to the US for only those who are vaccinated will likely encourage some people to get vaccinated in order to visit.
There are many countries that require vaccinations to prevent the spread of disease, so this is not a novel tactic to ensure travelers are deemed safe and people are protected. For international travel to rebound, proof of vaccinations will continue to be critical for border restrictions to loosen, allowing more people to experience the world once again.
Want to know more?
Glenn Fogel will be speaking further at Reuters MOMENTUM (Oct 27-29) on the intersection of technology and travel in a post-pandemic world. The impact of the pandemic on the travel industry has been unprecedented. While travel has begun to rebound in certain parts of the world, the uncertainty of the virus continues to impact travel recovery - affecting millions of people around the world. Eventually, the pandemic will end, but COVID will likely remain a part of our reality indefinitely. In this conversation, Booking Holdings' CEO Glenn Fogel will discuss the role technology has played in the travel recovery, and the role it will continue to play as COVID becomes more and more a part of our daily realities in the future.
For more information, and to secure a free ticket to attend visit our website here
About Reuters MOMENTUM
Running October 27-29, Reuters MOMENTUM brings together more than 25,000 executive attendees to hear from the world's most influential technologists, policymakers, NGOs and business leaders. Content is curated exclusively for Reuters MOMENTUM, with the event producer pushing every speaker to reveal real insights and invaluable business intelligence attendees. Ultimately, the producers aim to ensure that attendees gain the tools, tips, strategies, tactics and best practices they need to impact lives through innovation and future-proof their businesses.
Furthermore, access to the event and content platform was launched early, allowing attendees to consume the actionable takeaways they need to succeed right now.
Developed in collaboration with Reuters award-winning newsroom, Reuters MOMENTUM is broadcast live to share strategies towards a better future as society gets ready for the 'next normal' after a period of unrivalled disruption. All sessions are recorded and made available on-demand to attendees shortly after broadcast.
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The virtual summit has four central, interlinked content pillars: Society, Economy, Sustainability, Trust & Ethics. For more information on the event, visit https://reutersevents.com/events/momentum/.
Major food companies globally are squaring up to the reality of their Scope 3 or supply chain climate change commitments. For these companies to quantify - and therefore reduce - their emissions from suppliers, they typically need to work with thousands of small producers in complex and highly fragmented supply chains.
This is where MMRV – measurement, monitoring, reporting and verification – comes in. MMRV systems and platforms which meet common global accounting and reporting standards, can serve companies to help track the success of interventions and investments they make and meet public commitments.
Debbie Reed, executive director of the Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC) has been working in agriculture and carbon markets since the 1990s. She notes that recent years have seen a proliferation of MMRV technologies and programmatic infrastructure. “That didn’t exist five years ago, so that in itself is incredible, and means progress.”
There is also now more recognition among agricultural companies that supply chains overlap, and that competitive mindsets are shifting towards collaboration, she says. “We will all do better and be more successful and faster if we share resources,” she says.
Another area of progress is that guidance produced to support companies in accounting and reporting for Scope 3 emissions has become more sector specific. This is important because there is recognition that agriculture is far more complex, individually managed, and geographically dispersed than other sectors, and that MMRV systems need to be flexible to account for this, she says.
However, companies are now facing additional requirements to expand their horizons beyond carbon, into water, biodiversity, and social issues. The majority have only started working on these in the past couple of years, driven by demands from customers, shareholders and other external stakeholders, Reed explains.
However, standards and platforms across these different parameters have proliferated, she says. A lack of integration is forcing companies to decide between carbon, water, biodiversity and social issues, because they are struggling financially to meet requirements and obtain the expertise for all of them, she says. “This is not sustainable and it’s not scalable,” she says.
A key problem is that standards are not spatially aligned, she believes. For example, while work on carbon has been focused on the artificial constructs of ‘’supply sheds’, used as a means to focus work even where a company has not been able to identify all their suppliers, this does not match up with biodiversity work, which may need to be considered from the point of view of an animal or bird corridor.
“To be successful, we need to align the spatial components for accounting, reporting and project interventions. That is not happening yet.” Reed believes that there is a need for companies and the MMRV marketplace to pause and reflect on learnings from the past five years of work in carbon and consider whether it would make sense to use a different spatial construct, such as a jurisdictional area, or a watershed, for expanding work into other environmental and social footprints.
Such a shift towards integrated approaches would mean that data could be collected for all these systems in the same location. That will enable MMRV platforms to track interventions and outcomes across environmental and social footprints to ensure scalability, she says.
An added impetus to this comes from legal and regulatory risks associated with the accuracy of company ESG reports, Reed notes.
“In most industrialized countries of the world, there’s financial and material risks to companies for reporting - if someone invests in a company based on its ESG report, and it turns out to be materially wrong, they can be sued,” she says.
“This is why this inflection point is needed now, the friction is getting a little bit too much for companies,” she says.
What’s next for Scope 3 MMRV and ecosystem services?
As we look towards the future of MMRV and Scope 3 interventions in agriculture, it is essential that we're able to align wider impacts, not just carbon. To do so, we will need to discuss and learn from the past five years in driving CPG/Retail programs, including how we develop contracts and farmer incentives and payments. We must also propose solutions to reduce the complexity of data gathering and processing and bring more actors to the table.
To help uncover what’s next, we'll be joined by leaders from the Ecosystem Services Market Consortium, General Mills, and Ahold Delhaize this May 17 at 11am Eastern for an exclusive webinar.
Register here now to watch LIVE or on-demand >>>
Our panel includes:
• Debbie Reed, Executive Director, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium
• Jay Watson, Regenerative Agriculture Director, General Mills
• Mark Eastham, Sustainable Products Lead, Ahold Delhaize USA
Talking points include:
• What lessons have we learned over the past five years, both in driving CPG/Retail contracts and farmer incentives and payments?
• What are the implications for 2024 and the next 3-5 years?
• What are the proposed solutions to reduce complexity in data gathering and processing?
• How do we bring more actors to the table (e.g., scope sharing and storytelling, corporate collaboration, and co-investment)?
• What are the strategic and technical implications of quantifying net new practice impacts versus existing practices? How much opportunity do we see for regenerative agriculture in 2024, as it overlaps with broader sustainability goals and scope 3?
• Finally, is it worth a “pause” in the development of accounting and reporting guidance and standards to consider how we'll align markets for multiple impacts, including land, water and biodiversity?
We hope you find this discussion valuable as we all tackle the opportunities for regenerative agriculture, as a core driver of business resilience and sustainability goals.
For more information, or the to register, simply visit https://events.reutersevents.com/food-and-agriculture/esmc-generalmills-mrv
