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.
Confirmed attendees include global chief executives, chief information officers, chief technology officers, chief innovation officers, chief people officers and their teams from some of the world's largest and most influential companies.
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/.
This article has been developed ahead of Transform Food & Agriculture 2024 (October 8-9, Minneapolis).
Elo Life Systems stated mission is to “reimagine the future of food”. While Chief Commercial Officer Michele Fite admits this sounds like a cliché, the company’s top priority is anything but. Their first products are natural sweeteners that are up to 300 times sweeter than sugar, without calories.
Demand for such products from food companies is huge as consumers are actively cutting back on their sugar intake, and countries the world over introduce sugar taxes in an effort to tackle the obesity epidemic.
“We’re really excited about what our product can do because of the huge amount of sugar it replaces, and its great taste - and because it's affordable as well,” she says.
Available in both juice and powder-based formats, the sweeteners feature mogrosides produced by fruits and vegetables grown in the U.S., making them more accessible, affordable and sustainable. Mogrosides are the sweet molecules found in monk fruit. Big food and beverage brands prize monk fruit sweetener for its sweetness and zero calories. But it’s grown only in China, so supply is expensive and unreliable. And importing it has a big sustainability impact.
Through molecular farming Elo teaches fruits and vegetables, like watermelon and sugar beets, to produce only the sweetest mogrosides, says Fite.
The product is under wraps till launch, with the juice-based sweetener launching in 2026, followed by the powder. But Elo Life System’s molecular farming technology has been in development for more than ten years, mostly under Precision BioSciences, the biotech company it spun out from in 2021.
Fite has been in the food industry for more than 30 years. However, the past ten years “are just the most exciting thing I’ve seen,” she says. There is still a lot of exciting work underway, she says.
“There are so many new technologies being brought to the forefront, and investment dollars and a willingness to try new things, to change how food is impacting our health and our planet,” she says.
“Industry, startups, large companies, food ingredient companies, and even technology from outside our industry is coming together and unlocking new categories of ingredients and new ways to make food that's completely reinventing our food supply chain, from what we grow, to how we grow it,” she says.
Fite cites precision fermentation – which uses microbial hosts as “cell factories” for producing specific ingredients as one technology she is excited by. New enzymes that can reduce the sugar content of fruit, and 3D structures or ‘scaffolds’ to recreate the structure and taste of animal tissue are also promising, she says.
Meanwhile, technology is being introduced from outside the food sector such as “air protein,” which uses processes originally developed by NASA for astronauts to create protein. If commercialized, these could boost access to affordable protein for undernourished populations, and without using more land, Fite explains.
Seeing these new technologies become a reality to help nourish both people who lack accessibility to affordable food, and those that need healthier foods is “incredibly exciting for someone like me who’s been around the food industry such a long time,” she says.
These types of technologies are very expensive to develop and scale, which has proved to be a pitfall for some, Fite acknowledges, and the sector is seeing a period of realignment following the failure of some ideas to scale affordably. The sector needs to work together better so they become cost effective, she says.
However, the molecular farming process used by Elo Life Systems easy to scale, since it uses components extracted from watermelons and sugar beets, which are crops already grown in the U.S. in the existing agricultural system. And with a crop like sugar beets, Elo can produce their sweetener as a co-product. This ensures no additional land or other resources are to produce their sweetener.
“I came into this work because of the challenge of sustainability and affordability that some of these exciting food technologies run into. Our technology will solve those potential pitfalls,” she says.
“We’re creating an ingredient that consumers love to taste, and we do it through the existing crops, which makes it incredibly affordable and sustainable at scale. It's a win for everyone,” she says.
Want to know more?
Elo Life Systems Chief Commercial Officer, Michele Fite, was featured on stage at Reuters Events: Transform Food & Agriculture on October 9, as she and other industry experts took part in a fireside chat about how to reinvigorate the juice category.
To deliver on stated scope 3 and food security commitments, it’s never been more important for food multinationals to achieve greater alignment on strategic goals, impacts frameworks, and innovation investment.
Now is the time to accelerate a holistic transformation. Will you join us?
Forward-thinking food executives are expected to navigate these challenges, yet it’s clear that success cannot be achieved by working in silos. Instead, our shared exposure to unprecedented complexity demands that collaboration be at the heart of our global transformation journey. Only then can we urgently catalyze, empower, then scale the innovations that are essential to long term food security.
For this reason, Reuters Events: Transform Food 2024 (Oct 8-9 | Minneapolis) will challenge the world’s most influential food decision makers to break down the structural barriers to transformation at scale and unlock a viable roadmap to a net positive food future for all
Over two days, our innovative breakout-driven forum will provide executives with the trusted platform needed to break down barriers, think differently, and develop an implementable strategy for holistic transformation in all food categories.
Leveraging insights from impactful interviews, and expertly moderated panels, our attendees will work to unlock new insights, revise stakeholder strategies, and a develop a toolkit for driving meaningful innovation in supply chains and take advantage of net positive business opportunities at scale.
Join us this fall to unlock the innovation mindsets, strategies and technologies that’ll secure a more sustainable and resilient food future for all.
