Rapid Fire with Nicolas Martiquet of Amadeus

As we count down to Phocuswright Europe, taking place in Barcelona from June 10 through June 12, PhocusWire is shining the spotlight on a selection of conference speakers in a series of Q&As.

Nicolas Martiquet, director of Amadeus Discover, will take part in an executive panel titled “Experiences—Travel’s Biggest Battleground?” Panelists are expected to delve into who owns the traveler “at the moment of decision” as airlines, hotels and online travel agencies jockey in the competition to sell experiences.

Below, Martiquet opens up about what he is working on, what areas of the industry he thinks are conducive to mergers and acquisitions, his priorities for 2025 and more.

What are you working on currently that excites you?

Local experiences are the reason why people travel. If we look at travelers, nothing is more important in the travel decision making process than “what am I going to do there?” Amadeus Discover focuses exactly on that, and this is extremely exciting for my team and [me].

If you could change one thing about your business and/or the industry overnight, what would it be?

Although experiences are key for the traveler, our industry still massively considers this vertical as an ancillary. So there is a big mismatch between the traveler, who travels primarily for experiences and considers the rest as “how to get there,” and the industry on the other side, as most travel companies will typically host experiences in their “ancillary” department. With my team, we help travel companies give the right place to the experiences vertical.

What sectors in travel are ripe for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and why?

At Amadeus, we have always highlighted that acquisitions are part of our strategic mix to drive growth, and our M&A team keeps an eye on developments in the industry in case they come across relevant opportunities. I couldn’t name one sector above others.

What are your priorities this year?

In previous years, we have been focusing on building a strong supply in order to really help our customers. Now that we have this foundation, our focus today is to crack the demand. We have a very strong pipeline, with several big customers onboarded already, and with my team, we are now working with these customers to help them grow the demand.

What do you know now that you wish you'd known 20 years ago?

With the advantage of hindsight, it often seems easier to have predicted trends that weren’t clear to us at the time. Who can truly say they could have forecasted the immense rise in artificial intelligence and other advanced tech that continue to revolutionize not only travel but many other industries too? As a technology company, we are continually developing new solutions and technologies, which enable us to stay at the forefront of latest innovations, [but] could we have invested in this more 20 years ago? It’s difficult to say. 

From a personal perspective, two crucial skill sets that I become more aware of as time goes by are the importance of resilience and adaptability. We live in a volatile world and being able to change and adapt are often the levers to success in any career or company. That’s a message I frequently share when giving advice to young people at the start of their careers.