Virtuoso Travel Tech Summit to be held on 12 August

Virtuoso, the global network specialising in luxury and experiential travel, is hosting its second annual Travel Tech Summit during the 35^th annual Virtuoso Travel Week on Saturday, 12^th August at ARIA Resort & Casino from 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Virtuoso is putting technology on centre-stage in support of its long-held belief that its members and partners are best served by having choices when it comes to finding the best tech solutions for their respective businesses. Led by tech entrepreneur, investor and Virtuoso board member, Gilad Berenstein, the 2023 Travel Tech Summit will spotlight innovation in the travel industry with insight from established companies including Microsoft, Hopper and Deloitte, paired with a showcase of 20 startup businesses that are making waves and overcoming obstacles in the travel tech space.

Matthew Upchurch, Virtuoso Chairman and CEO, will kick off the session by discussing the network’s evolving search for the best tech solutions while simultaneously keeping travel advisors at the centre of its mission, enhancing the customisation and configurability of Virtuoso’s operating system.

“Integrating the Travel Tech Summit as a recurring session at Virtuoso Travel Week supports our mission to constantly discover the newest technology solutions for our members and partners, allowing for efficiencies so that they can focus on what they do best – serving clients and creating exceptional travel experiences,” Upchurch said. “Bringing together established and emerging tech companies during a larger event solely focused on furthering luxury travel provides us and our network with the invaluable opportunity to be at the forefront of innovation – something that is imprinted in Virtuoso’s DNA.”

Berenstein will then lead an Innovator Spotlight to take a deep dive into emerging trends, the crossover between travel and tech, the finance community, industry innovators and more. He will be joined by a handful of the industry’s top pioneers, including Shane O’Flaherty from Microsoft speaking about the connected trip, Stuart Greif from Forbes Travel to touch on social commerce, Cara Whitehill from Unlock Advisors to advise on how large corporations can collaborate with startups, Charaf El Mansouri from Dharma to spotlight non-travel companies that are monetising their brands through travel offerings, Zach Demuth from JLL to highlight sustainability in hotels and resorts and Carolyn Corda from Deloitte to explore travel tech trends.

Virtuoso’s proprietary Tech Ecosystem will also be highlighted with insight from in-house innovators: Barbara Joseph, Senior Product Manager, B2B Digital Partnerships; Travis McElfresh, Senior VP, Digital & Consumer Products; and Helen McCabe-Young, Senior VP, Marketing.

“The success of Virtuoso’s inaugural Travel Tech Summit reaffirmed that while technology has been developed to serve the luxury traveler, there remains a void in tech solutions for those who actually sell luxury travel and service those high-end clients,” said Berenstein. “Virtuoso’s role in the tech ecosystem is to bring together fellow entrepreneurs, agency owners, travel advisors, suppliers and the tech community, so that we can innovate and cocreate solutions that solve pain points for each of these entities. Building on last year’s format, we are introducing the Startup Showcase, which will consist of fireside chats and roundtable discussions featuring 20 innovative startups alongside Venture Capital investors, large technology innovators and our own Virtuoso team, highlighting the work and connection between the travel space, the finance community, big tech and more.”

Businesses participating in the Startup Showcase will be divided into four groups based on respective focus areas: advisors and agencies; hotel, cruise, tour and transportation; sustainability; and emerging technologies with a focus on AI. Attendees will be able to engage in two showcases of their choice. Information on the participating businesses follows.

Startup Showcase Participants & Groups:

Advisor & Agency Tech

• HyperGuest – HyperGuest is a cutting-edge, end-to-end, technology platform that facilitates seamless direct connectivity between hotels and travel companies. Through its innovative open marketplace and direct contract capabilities, HyperGuest empowers the hospitality industry to forge stronger partnerships and unlock unparalleled opportunities.
• Tern Travel – Tern is a platform that brings together everything advisors need to run their business withcomprehensive technology, empowering them to better bring the world to their clients.
• TravelWits – TravelWits built the first AI-enabled travel search engine to find door-to-door trips fully optimised around various user criteria while integrating the availability and prices of flights, hotels, car rentals and much more.
• Tres Technologies – With focus on the traveller and trip, advisors use the Tres software for integrations, automations and workflows that achieve maximum benefits with minimal work.
• TripSuite – TripSuite is a VC-backed startup building the core operating system for travel agencies.

Hotel, Cruise, Tour & Transportation Tech

• NLX – NLX is an AI company delivering world-class customer experiences that meet the scale, complexity, and compliance standards of enterprises.
• Origin – Origin is a Vertical SaaS platform enabling travel experience providers to ditch spreadsheets and bring their businesses online.
• ResortPass – ResortPass is the industry-defining platform that has created day access to hotel amenities for the first time, empowering people to experience luxury pools, private beaches, deluxe spas, and more, and creating an entirely new revenue stream for top hotels and resorts.
• The Host Co – The Host Co transforms short-term rentals into full-service hospitality with embedded amenities that delight guests and double revenue.
• TRVLR – TRVLR is a marketplace for the best luxury hotels and travel advisors in the world. It’s the first platform to integrate bookings, payments and commissions in a single place.

Sustainability Tech

• Ampaire – Ampaire is leading the charge in electrifying commercial aviation with its revolutionary propulsion system, the first to fly on actual routes across the globe.
• Hydrogen – Universal Hydrogen, a transformative hydrogen logistics company, targets aviation with a truly zero-emission, 40-60 passenger regional aircraft and a modular, capex-light hydrogen fueling solution aiming to establish a global hydrogen logistics network for aviation and other mobility applications.
• Kind Traveler – Kind Traveler is a travel platform that empowers travellers to give back to the communities they visit through a network of 150+ charities in 25 countries advancing the UN Global Goals.
• Tuzmo – Tuzmo is building a platform that connects travellers and tourists with authentic local artisans in a destination.
• Weeva – Weeva is a digital sustainability management tool for tourism businesses that tracks and reports on net environmental and social impact in real-time.

AI & Emerging Tech

• Dharma – Dharma partners with the world’s most inspiring creators and brands, from Equinox to Netflix, to curate and host unique travel experiences for their communities.
• Legends – Legends is the first platform that creates privacy-controlled, real-time profiles from phone and photo data, helping travel providers personalise offerings to unlock revenue opportunities while improving loyalty and experience.
• Point.me – Point.me is the world’s first real-time search engine for credit card points and airline miles, like a Kayak or Google Flights for points.
• Tango – Tango is hyper-personalised travel commerce powered by human-supervised Generative AI.
• Voyage.AI – Via its iPlan app Voyage was the first and is the largest AI travel planning tool on the market. It simplifies travel planning by taking traveller’s preferences and automating the logistics planning.