Six trends for travel startups to consider

Fifteen startups have joined the popular Welcome City Lab, part of the Paris & Co network of services to support new businesses in France.

The addition of the 2018 intake into the program follows the publication of WCL's latest Trend Book, a regular look at some of the emerging areas that travel, tourism and hospitality businesses are focusing on (or should focus on).

The latest edition has identified six core trends that give the best opportunity for travel startups entering or already in the industry.

These include:

• Seamless travel - smoothing the customer experience.
• Micro social networks - establishing brands and services within existing ecosystems
• The wow effect - creating experiences that are unique and outside of traditional travel services
• Fair trade - encouraging travelers to respect and support environment and economy of destination
• Social - incorporating gamification, digital badges and peer support within teams
• Techno a gogo - tools and platforms that benefit from introduction of artificial intelligence and blockchain

The 15 companies in the 2018 batch of startups are:

• 360&1 designs and markets solutions and interfaces for web analytics and online advertising management. This B2B platform lets hotels, chains or booking engines take control of their sales management through artificial intelligence and big data.
• Allons Bon Train is a platform which lets travelers benefit from up to 60% discount on their train tickets by grouping them with other travelers when more than 10 people are interested in the same trip.
• Bagshare is an internet platform that lets independent travelers discover the material needs of small NGOs abroad and to take advantage of their journeys to deliver relevant donations to their destination.
• eCentime is a shopping guide that connects Asian consumers with local French or European stores. The application offers shopping information on fashion brands, cosmetics and perfume stores.
• Monkey Kwest is the first mobile Escape Game room. The Monkey Mystery Van comes to you to challenge you and your friends, colleagues or family.
• Ouibike is a bike rental service with more than 300 rental locations throughout France. When booking a bicycle you can choose whether you want to pick up your bike from a store or whether you want the bike to be delivered to an address of your choice (hotel, hiking area, holiday home etc.).
• Points in the City is a solution that rewards the best tourists and enriches their stay by offering them access to good deals, discounts and promotional offers from shops or tourist sites by collecting points.
• Postmii reinvents the postcard thanks to its mobile, autonomous and ecological three-wheelers which let tourists personalize, print and send their best photos in real postcard form, all on site.
• Qweekle is a B2B platform which provides an all-in-one solution for leisure activities management (booking / online sales, employee schedules, CRM etc.) to increase customer satisfaction, save time and boost sales.
• Realcast is developing technology and interactive content in XR (Extended Reality). Its product, In Situ eXPerience (ISXP) offers an interactive & immersive experience through different wireless devices (HoloLens or smartphone) to bring history alive for visitors in different environments.
• Sitta is a vacation rental booking platform which enables homeowners to finance the renovation, decoration or improvement of their home. And as you book in advance you get the best price on your vacation rental.
• SKYdeals is a retail platform dedicated to air passengers which lets them access discounts and offers on products or services in-flight by connecting to the internet via onboard wi-fi.
• Skylap is an intelligent solution that, thanks to an algorithm, lets you book flights for multi-destination trips while optimizing prices. This lets you book your tours of Europe or Asia at reduced prices.
• Universal Voucher is an application which aims to dematerialize luncheon vouchers quickly and easily. These vouchers are sent directly to the customer by SMS, and are usable with dedicated partners.
• Travelchain is an open source “blockchain service” platform which manages loyalty programs linked to the tourism services marketplace, aimed at improving loyalty and therefore the tourist brand experience.

* The full Trends Book is available here.