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Developer log


Version 0.4 (April 21): Add external link for each item in recent posts.
Please send feedback to Ian via WhatsApp or email ian@travelmassive.com.

Member activity

Here's 10 things that happened most recently:


Christine DePalo followed Tiglifet Abdelali (57 minutes ago)
Kylie Curtis upvoted Cruise-planning information is scattered. I built VoyagePro to bring it together in one place, from ports to ships to schedules. (3 hours ago)
Karen Piscitelli followed Courtney Glenn (3 hours ago)
Ian upvoted Four Weeks, Fifty Doors: How We Built Madeira's First Fully Digital City Pass at Madeira Startup Retreat (3 hours ago)
Rashelle Hibbert followed Kristin Clark (3 hours ago)
Senem Tongar registered for Sydney August Industry Social at 25Hours Hotel The Olympia (6 hours ago)
Alper Aydın followed Gonçalo Castanho (6 hours ago)
Scott Laird commented on Cruise-planning information is scattered. I built VoyagePro to bring it together in one place, from ports to ships to schedules. (7 hours ago)
Gonçalo Castanho upvoted Four Weeks, Fifty Doors: How We Built Madeira's First Fully Digital City Pass at Madeira Startup Retreat (7 hours ago)
Maria Rona Beltran followed Ian (8 hours ago)

Recent posts

Here are the 10 most recent posts:


#1. Cruise-planning information is scattered. I built VoyagePro to bring it together in one place, from ports to ships to schedules.: (1 upvotes, 1 comments).


Posted by Scott Laird in Website , Cruise, Travel Tech, Planning, Startup.
Featured on Aug 12, 2026 (Today).
External link to website.

1 comments:

Scott Laird (Co-Founder, VoyagePro):

I'm Scott Laird, a technology and service delivery leader with more than 30 years of experience, and the co-founder of VoyagePro. I also help develop the ClearDue family of practical apps. I'm based in Elora, Ontario.

VoyagePro began with a simple question while I was planning a cruise:

"How busy will each port be when we arrive?"

I could find pieces of the answer, but only by hopping between websites. Port schedules lived in one place, ship details in another, cruise listings somewhere else. And even after all that digging, I still couldn't compare sailings side by side.

That got me thinking about the bigger problem. Cruise-planning information is scattered. Ships, ports, timetables, safety details, and itineraries are all out there, but they're rarely connected in a way that actually helps you make a decision.

We built VoyagePro to bring that research together. You can explore sailings, compare options, check ports and ship schedules, and keep your planning details in one place — displayed in a format that's easy to read, so the information does the work instead of you.

What started as a fix for my own planning frustration has grown into a long-term business for us. We plan to keep building VoyagePro, adding practical tools, and improving the site based on what travelers tell us they need.

⚓️ Try us out at voyagepro.io

It's still evolving, and I'd love to hear from cruise travelers and travel professionals who've run into the same problem.

What information is hardest for you to find when planning a cruise?


End of comments.

#2. The New Competitive Advantage: How Airwallex is Powering Global Growth for Vietnam's Tourism Industry and Beyond: (5 upvotes, 1 comments).


Posted by Ian in Article , Vietnam, Booking, Hospitality, Travel Tech.
Featured on Aug 12, 2026 (Today).
External link to website.

Vietnam's travel sector is booming, and its businesses are going global fast. But there's a hidden cost: every currency conversion, transfer, and foreign card fee quietly erodes margins — and many travel businesses lose 3–5% of revenue before they've even served a customer.

This is the "multi-currency squeeze," and it's exactly what [Airwallex](www.airwallex.com/vn-en), a global platform for multi-currency accounts, payments, and FX, was built to solve — turning financial infrastructure from a back-office cost into a competitive advantage that protects margins on every booking.

We spoke with [Nghiep Le](www.linkedin.com/in/nghiep-le-8a4426106/), Senior Manager and VN Commercial Lead at Airwallex. He explains the double conversion trap, how Global Accounts let travel businesses bank like a local in 20+ currencies, and how upgrading your financial stack can provide a real competitive edge.

Article image #0
*Nghiep Le, Senior Manager and VN Commercial Lead at Airwallex. Meet the team at [Travel Massive Asia Conference](www.travelmassive.com/events/travel-massive-asia-conference-2026-da-nang-3982452889) (21–22 August) and [HorexFex Vietnam](horecfex.com) (20–21 August) in Da Nang.*

#Multi-Currency Squeeze: Turning Cross-Border Growth Into Higher Margins

Travel Massive: Vietnam's travel and tourism sector is experiencing massive growth. As businesses look to capture this demand, what is the biggest hidden hurdle they face?

Nghiep Le (Airwallex): As travel businesses scale internationally, they hit a massive friction point — cross-border payment infrastructure.

Right now, a travel operator might receive a booking in USD or EUR, pay their international hotel suppliers in JPY or THB, and cover their local operational costs in VND. Operating across this fragmented, multi-currency environment using traditional banking systems leads to massive margin erosion. We constantly see travel businesses losing up to 3–5% of their revenue simply through hidden FX markups and exorbitant international transfer fees.

#The Double Conversion Trap That Makes You Pay Twice

Travel Massive: Why are traditional payment gateways and banks falling short for modern travel agencies and OTAs operating in Vietnam?

Nghiep Le (Airwallex): Traditional systems were not built for the modern, high-volume travel industry. The biggest issue is the "double conversion" trap. For example, if a Vietnamese travel agency uses a domestic gateway to collect payments from a European tourist, the funds are often forcibly converted from EUR to VND at a poor exchange rate. If that agency then needs to pay an airline or supplier in EUR, they have to convert the VND back to EUR.

Additionally, manually processing refunds, managing chargebacks, and reconciling thousands of fragmented transactions creates an absolute nightmare for finance teams in the back office. It creates cash-flow friction that stifles growth.

#How Airwallex Global Accounts Let You Bank Like a Local

Travel Massive: How does Airwallex fix these payment headaches for Vietnam's travel sector?

Nghiep Le (Airwallex): This is exactly why Airwallex exists. We are a global financial platform built to remove the friction from cross-border business. Think of us as your autonomous finance department that gives you local banking capabilities around the world.

Instead of relying on fragmented systems, Airwallex allows Vietnamese travel companies to open Global Accounts. This means you can instantly spin up local bank details in over 20 currencies — like USD, EUR, AUD, and SGD. When an international customer pays you, or an OTA platform settles your funds, you receive it directly in that currency like a local, completely bypassing forced conversions.

Article image #2
*Financial Infrastructure: Airwallex provides the ability to collect funds in 20+ currencies locally, avoiding unnecessary FX conversions and gateway fees.*

#Smarter Payouts With Direct Transfers and Virtual Cards

Travel Massive: How does Airwallex help them manage payouts to global suppliers?

Nghiep Le (Airwallex): Payouts are just as critical as collections. Once you hold those funds in your Airwallex account, you can pay your network of suppliers — whether it's international hotels, airlines, or local guides — directly from your multi-currency balance.

If you do need to convert currencies, you get access to interbank, market-leading FX rates. We also offer programmable virtual cards. Travel agencies can instantly issue a unique, single-use virtual card for a specific supplier payment. This not only speeds up the payment process and secures the transaction, but it makes tying each supplier payment to a specific customer booking incredibly easy.

Article image #3
*View [case studies from Airwallex](tmsv.co/airwallex) and learn about cost-effective global payouts and virtual cards.*

#Killing the 3% Foreign Transaction Fee on Ad Spend

Travel Massive: Aside from booking flows, travel companies also spend heavily on marketing and operations. Does Airwallex support this side of the business?

Nghiep Le (Airwallex): Absolutely. To acquire international customers, Vietnamese travel businesses spend heavily on performance marketing across Google, Meta, and OTA networks.

Travel companies can optimize ad spend by issuing corporate cards to pay for Meta, Google, and software in USD to avoid foreign transaction fees.

Using Airwallex's multi-currency corporate cards, businesses can pay for global ad spend directly from their USD balances without getting hit by the usual 3%+ foreign transaction fees charged by traditional corporate credit cards. It helps teams control their ad spend and drastically optimizes their return on ad spend (ROAS) during peak travel seasons.

#How Airwallex Helps Meetup Travel and Aravinda Save Up to 90% on Fees

Travel Massive: Do you have any examples of how this looks in practice for a Vietnamese travel brand?

Nghiep Le (Airwallex): Yes! Take our clients like [Meetup Travel](meetup.travel) or [Aravinda Travel](aravindatravel.com). By shifting their high-volume inbound and outbound transfers to Airwallex, they bypassed the heavy fees of domestic gateways. They leverage our Global Accounts to collect B2C and B2B payments frictionlessly, and use our platform for multi-currency payouts.

Article image #4
*[Meetup Travel](meetup.travel) is a fast-growing Vietnamese travel company that connects tourists with locals.*

The result? They drastically reduced their operational costs and maximized their profit margins on every single international booking. Across our portfolio, we regularly save clients up to 90% on payment fees compared to local alternatives.

#Financial Infrastructure Is Your Competitive Advantage

Travel Massive: What is the main takeaway you want readers to leave with?

Nghiep Le (Airwallex): My main message is this: you shouldn't have to sacrifice your hard-earned margins just to operate globally. As Vietnam's tourism sector scales, upgrading your financial infrastructure is no longer just a "nice to have" — it's a competitive advantage. If you want to stop losing money to FX markups, automate your reconciliation, and focus on delivering incredible travel experiences, come speak to the Airwallex team today.

— Thanks, Nghiep Le, for sharing your insights!

Ready to stop losing margins to hidden FX fees? [Sign up for Airwallex](tmsv.co/airwallex_signup) and start collecting in 20+ currencies, paying suppliers directly, and keeping more of every booking.

*A big thank you to [Nghiep Le](www.linkedin.com/in/nghiep-le-8a4426106/) and Airwallex for joining us. To dive into case studies and learn how Airwallex can help your travel business protect margins and scale globally, visit [airwallex.com](www.airwallex.com/vn-en) — or come meet the team at the [Travel Massive Asia Conference](www.travelmassive.com/events/travel-massive-asia-conference-2026-da-nang-3982452889) on August 21–22.*

*[Airwallex](www.airwallex.com/vn-en) is the leading global financial platform helping travel businesses, from OTAs to local DMCs, scale across borders without losing their margins to hidden banking fees. Travel companies can open accounts in 20+ currencies to collect from international tourists, then use those balances to pay global suppliers via direct transfers or virtual cards. By automating reconciliation and optimizing FX, Airwallex helps the tourism sector maximize profit on every booking.*


1 comments:

Aaron Tran (Marketing Manager, Airwallex):

Thank you team Travel Massive for this great article. Looking forward to hosting the workshop and meeting everyone in the upcoming conference.

For more information about Airwallex and how it can benefit your travel business, visit: www.airwallex.com/global/solutions/travel


End of comments.

#3. Are you attending London World Travel Market in 2026?: (0 upvotes, 2 comments).


Posted by Debbie Hindle in Discussion , United Kingdom, London, Marketing, Responsible Travel.
Featured on Aug 12, 2026 (Today).


2 comments:

Debbie Hindle (Chair, ICRT global):

Is it too early to ask who is attending WTM London this year (3-5 November)?

I'm interested in any discussions or events about responsible tourism (I run a non profit focused on education and training in this space).


Ian (Founder, Travel Massive):

I'll be there!


End of comments.

#4. What I learned building a local tour company across Lombok, Sumbawa, and Labuan Bajo: (0 upvotes, 1 comments).


Posted by Muhammad Iqbal Firdaus in Discussion , Indonesia, Travel Tech.
Featured on Aug 12, 2026 (Today).
External link to website.

1 comments:

Muhammad Iqbal Firdaus (Software Engineer, Sungkar Group Indonesia):

We started Sungkar Group in Mataram as a small local tour company focused on Lombok, and over time the work pulled us into Sumbawa and Labuan Bajo too. On paper that just sounds like "we added destinations." In practice it meant learning how land tours, open trips, car rental, and phinisi charters actually behave when you try to run them as one connected product.

Most operators specialize in one line. A car rental company stays in transport, a boat operator stays at sea, a land tour team stays on the road. The moment you start connecting those pieces, the real work begins. And what I've learned is that the destination is rarely the hardest part. The handoff is.

Think about what a single trip actually looks like. A traveler lands in Lombok, needs an airport pickup, a hotel check in, a private route the next day, then a boat transfer or a flight toward Labuan Bajo. Each step looks simple on its own. Strung together, they become a chain, and if one link is weak the whole trip feels unreliable even when every individual part was fine. That is the problem we kept running into, and eventually the problem we decided to build the business around.

The shift for us came when we stopped thinking in single products. It's easy to sell a private tour, an open trip, a car rental, and a boat charter as separate items. But travelers don't experience a trip that way. They experience continuity. They care whether the driver shows up on time, whether the guide explains the route clearly, whether the hotel transfer lines up with the boat schedule, whether someone actually answers when plans change at night. Once we started looking at it that way, the whole product structure had to change. We still sell different trip styles because private tours and open trips genuinely solve different needs, but the operating layer underneath them has to stay consistent no matter which one you book.

A few things I'd pass on to anyone running something similar.

Clarity beats hype. People are far more confident when the structure is clear, meaning what happens on day one, what transport is used, whether it's private or shared, and what's flexible versus fixed. Clean explanations do more work than big claims. Related to that, private and open trips are not the same product at different prices. A private tour is about control, so pace, route, group, and timing. An open trip is about access, so a lower barrier, a fixed schedule, and a shared experience. If you don't explain that difference well, people compare the wrong things and walk away confused.

The weakest point is almost always the transfer, not the attraction. Guests remember the Gili snorkeling or the Komodo route, but the trip's real quality usually gets decided earlier, at the airport pickup, the hotel timing, the boat or flight connection, and the coordination between teams. If the handoff fails, the destination never gets a fair shot. And local knowledge only matters if it's operational. Knowing a place isn't enough. The useful knowledge is practical, like which routes cause backtracking, which timings create rushed transfers, and which combinations look great online but fall apart on the ground. That only becomes valuable once you turn it into process.

The website turned out to be part of operations, not just marketing. We rebuilt ours so packages, destinations, and guides are easier to understand before anyone contacts us, because a lot of travelers want to understand the difference between trip types and regions before they send a WhatsApp message. We're still refining a lot of it, like how package pages explain inclusions without overloading people, how to present private and open trip options side by side, and how support stays responsive when there are a lot of moving parts. Running across three islands means accepting that no system ever really feels finished.

If you're building a travel business with many products in one region, the temptation is always to keep adding packages. But the more useful work is usually the less visible stuff, like tightening the handoffs, cutting unclear trip descriptions, separating products that actually solve different jobs, and treating support as part of the product instead of an afterthought. For us, that has been the real work of growing from a Lombok base into a three island operation.

Here's a link to what we developed: sungkargroup.com

Curious if others here have hit the same thing. Where's the point in your operation that breaks most often, the destination or the handoff between all the pieces?


End of comments.

#5. Coffee in Kenya: What unique local experience should every traveler do before visiting a famous attraction?: (0 upvotes, 1 comments).


Posted by Daniel Mbugua in Discussion , Africa, Kenya, Safari, Coffee, Activity.
Featured on Aug 12, 2026 (Today).


1 comments:

Daniel Mbugua (Experience Manager, Exclusive Savannah Safaris):

I'm Daniel Mbugua, Experience Manager at Exclusive Savannah Safaris Kenya. I specialize in designing travel experiences that combine Kenya's iconic wildlife safaris with immersive coffee origin tours to connect travelers with the country's renowned coffee industry.

One of the most rewarding parts of working in tourism is showing visitors that Kenya is so much more than incredible wildlife.

A perfect day can begin with a walk through a coffee farm, learning how Kenyan Arabica is grown and processed, followed by a cupping session with local experts. The next day, you could be watching elephants in Amboseli or witnessing the Great Migration in the Maasai Mara.

Combining coffee origin experiences with wildlife safaris creates deeper connections between travelers, local communities, and the landscapes that make Kenya unique.

I'm excited to connect with the Travel Massive community, learn from fellow tourism professionals, and explore collaborations that promote authentic, sustainable, and experience-driven travel.

What unique local experience do you think every traveler should have before visiting a famous attraction?


End of comments.

#6. Four Weeks, Fifty Doors: How We Built Madeira's First Fully Digital City Pass at Madeira Startup Retreat: (6 upvotes, 2 comments).


Posted by Alper Aydın in Article , Madeira, Portugal, Travel Tech, Startup, News.
Featured on Aug 12, 2026 (Today).
External link to website.

I spent two months on Madeira earlier this year.

I walked the levadas, swam in the natural pools, ate at restaurants that have fed locals for generations, and met the people behind the businesses that give this island its character. By the time I left, one thing was clear: Madeira deserved a product built specifically for it.

So we built one. In four weeks.

The *Tripnly Madeira City Pass* (a trademark of Tripnly) is now live — a first for the Portuguese archipelago. This is the story of how we built it.

Why Madeira?

Tripadvisor has crowned Madeira the [#1 Trending Destination in the World for 2026](www.tripadvisor.com/TravelersChoice-Destinations-cTrending-g1): dramatic volcanic landscapes, natural swimming pools carved into lava rock, ancient levada trails through laurel forests, and a food culture all its own.

Article image #1
*The Madeira island group sits in the Atlantic Ocean about 600 kilometres west of Africa.*

And yet, until now, no fully digital city pass existed for Madeira.

That gap was impossible to ignore. Madeira's travelers deserve better, and its local businesses — the family-run restaurants, the independent surf schools, the cultural institutions keeping centuries-old traditions alive — deserve a product that works as hard as they do.

When we arrived in February for the [Madeira Startup Retreat](www.linkedin.com/company/madeirastartupretreat/) (7th Edition), we didn't waste a day.

Four Weeks, 50+ Partners, and a Lot of Doors

Building a city pass from scratch, on an island where you have no network, is hard. There's no shortcut for it. You knock on doors. You have conversations. You listen. You convince people, one at a time, to trust something that doesn't exist yet.

That's most of what those four weeks actually were: showing up, explaining the idea, and earning a yes. In the end, 50+ local businesses gave us one — museums, transport providers, tours, cafés, outdoor experiences, surf schools, and accommodation, independent businesses run by people who've devoted their lives to this island. We're still adding more every week.

Article image #2
*Moments before one of the best lunches of our lives at A Pipa Restaurant & Bar, with Tripnly Global Ambassador Nurgül at Porto da Cruz, Madeira.*

What I didn't expect was how much the island itself would shape the product. Living here while we built it meant every decision was grounded in a real place and real people, not a spreadsheet. The pass is projected to generate over €5 million in annual value for local partners and the broader Madeira tourism economy, channeling visitor spending directly to the businesses that define the island. That framing — building infrastructure for a community rather than just another travel product — came from being here, not from a plan.

The Madeira Startup Retreat, backed by [Turismo de Portugal](www.linkedin.com/company/turismo-de-portugal/) and recognized by the Câmara Municipal do Funchal, made a lot of those first doors easier to open. Innovation and sustainable tourism, hand in hand.

What We Actually Built

No physical card. No app to download. No complicated activation.

You buy it, you get a QR code, and Madeira opens up.

Article image #3

The *Tripnly Madeira City Pass* comes in 1–5 day options from €22.90 and gives instant digital access to 50+ of Madeira's top attractions and experiences — museums, cultural landmarks, levada tours, restaurants, coffee shops, surf schools, coworking spaces, and local brands. It can be activated any time within 12 months of purchase.

#Does it actually save money?

We spent a lot of the build worrying about this exact question, because a pass that doesn't clearly pay for itself isn't worth making. On a typical 3-day trip, the net saving is over €160. On a 5-day stay, up to €339. The math is straightforward, and it [pays off on day one](madeiracitypass.tripnly.com/is-it-worth-it).

Article image #4
*Save on more than 50 experiences in Madeira, including whale watching cruises.*

*Tripnly Madeira City Pass* is available at [madeiracitypass.tripnly.com](madeiracitypass.tripnly.com) and through [GetYourGuide](www.getyourguide.com/en-gb/estreito-da-calheta-madeira-l143943/madeira-city-pass-with-50-attractions-and-experiences-t1279876/), [Viator](www.viator.com/tours/Madeira/Tripnly-Madeira-City-Pass-Save-50-on-50-Top-Attractions/d5392-5651911P1), [Tripadvisor](www.tripadvisor.com/AttractionProductReview-g189166-d34452472-Madeira_City_Pass_with_50_more_Attractions_and_Experiences-Madeira_Madeira_Islands.html), and 10+ other OTAs worldwide.

What the First Months Taught Us

Since March 20th — and before we'd even reached July 1st — we crossed into the hundreds of sales across all our channels. And we're still counting.

But the number that means the most to me isn't the sales figure. It's this: rated 5.0 on Google by 80+ travelers, with 100% customer satisfaction from day one. Every single traveler who has used the pass has given it five stars.

When you've built something this fast, that's the signal you're really watching for — proof that speed didn't come at the cost of the experience.

Why This One Was Personal

The *Tripnly Madeira City Pass* is our second city pass, after Lisboa, with Torino and several more already in the works.

Article image #5
*Exploring the Immersive Museum of Madeira (IMOM), a contemporary digital art space in Funchal*

But it's the one that feels most personal — because I was there. I lived the destination while we built the product, so I understood why it mattered. Travel technology only works when it's built on real understanding, when the people building it have actually experienced what they're trying to serve. That's the whole lesson of these four weeks, and it's what we mean when we say we want to make every trip count.

A Note on What Made This Possible

This is [Tripnly](www.linkedin.com/company/tripnly/)'s achievement, but it didn't happen in a vacuum. Startup Madeira, Turismo de Portugal, Nova School of Business and Economics, and the Câmara Municipal do Funchal believed in this vision early, and their institutional support made the difference.

And [Nejat Aksoy](www.linkedin.com/in/nejat-aksoy/), my co-founder, who builds the technology that makes all of this possible.

We came to Madeira with a vision. We left with a product, a community, and a deep connection to an island that will always be part of Tripnly's story.

*De Madeira para o mundo.*

Made with ❤️ in Madeira, for lovers of Madeira.


2 comments:

Alper Aydın (Co-Founder & CEO, Tripnly 🧭):

Hello everyone 👋🏽

My name is Alper Aydın, Co-founder & CEO of Tripnly, a Lisbon-based travel technology company

I recently spent two months on Madeira, and the more I explored it (the levadas, the natural pools, the family-run restaurants, etc) the clearer it became that the island had no fully digital city pass despite being one of the world's top destinations. So we spent four weeks knocking on doors and built one with the local businesses, not just around them. That's the Tripnly Madeira City Pass, Madeira's first, and I wanted to share it with this community first.

🎁 Use the code MASSIVE20 for 20% off any pass option (1 to 5-day), valid until August 31, 2026. Grab yours here: madeiracitypass.tripnly.com/order

Would love to hear your thoughts, and hope you enjoy your Tripnly Madeira City Pass! 🙌🏽


Gonçalo Castanho (Owner and Manager, Cooltour Oporto):

Nice one! Madeira is a top place. I bet you also had a great two months there working on that project! Cheers


End of comments.

#7. "We have a secret price. Can you guess it?" — Introducing Deadline: (3 upvotes, 2 comments).


Posted by Elvina Beck in Article , Accommodation, Hotel, Booking, Startup, Marketplace.
Featured on Aug 11, 2026 (yesterday).
External link to website.

Hi everyone, I'm Elvina Beck, and I'm excited to introduce myself to the Travel Massive community.

A bit about me: I'm the founder of [PodShare](www.podshare.com), a network of 7 hostels across California that I've personally permitted, built, and operated since 2012. After more than a decade managing occupancy, pricing, and distribution firsthand, I recently started my latest project in the hotel and hospitality industry: Deadline.

#What I'm building: A new private hotel marketplace

Deadline is a new [private hotel marketplace](www.deadlinetravel.com) where verified travelers submit blind bids on hotel rooms while keeping each hotel's minimum acceptable price confidential. Or, as we say on the site: "We have a secret price. Can you guess it?" It's not an auction — it's a guessing game. Match the hotel's secret price to win the room.

Here's a demo of booking a room in Los Angeles for a secret price using Deadline.

youtube.com/watch?v=9DBNeTRTWRM

🎉 If your bid hits the hotel’s hidden price on an off-night, you instantly win the room.

#The problem I'm solving: helping independent hotels sell unsold inventory

Deadline helps independent hotels monetize unsold inventory without publicly discounting their rates. Every hotelier I've spoken to agrees that monetizing unsold hotel inventory is a massive problem. My job now is onboarding indie hotels to Deadline.

After a month of building Deadline - I hit the classic marketplace hurdle: the "Chicken and the Egg" problem. Explained in this video:

youtube.com/watch?v=0jIohZ_JRqM

Since launching, I've realized my biggest challenge isn't convincing hotels—they immediately understand the value.

It's getting introductions to independent hotels I haven't met yet.

#We launched a referral program to onboard more hotels:

I recently launched a [referral program](deadlinetravel.com/referrals) that I think could be especially relevant to this community.

Here's how it works: if someone introduces Deadline to a U.S. independent hotel and that hotel lists any number of rooms with us, they receive 50% of Deadline's commission on every booking from that hotel for 12 months.

They only make the introduction. I demo, close, onboard, and support the hotel, and the referrer can track the hotel, bookings, and earnings through their own Deadline dashboard.

It feels like a natural way for travel creators and industry professionals to support independent hotels while earning recurring revenue from relationships they already have. If you know a U.S. indie hotel that could fill empty rooms with last-minute bids from verified travelers, I'd love an intro.

#Follow our startup journey!

🤳 I'm documenting our journey from the ground up through short-form videos, covering hotel onboarding, product development, industry conferences, and fundraising, over on my [Instagram](instagram.com/podshare).

🏆 We recently won FoundersBoost Demo Day Pitch as well as [LA Startup Arena](nerdstage.com/recap/arena-jul-2026) "Best Pitch" for Deadline, hosted by Zach Sekar from Nerdstage.

🎤 [Watch my latest pitch](www.linkedin.com/posts/elvinabeck_yesterday-i-won-foundersboost-los-angeles-activity-7471072597418344448-CT2C) over on LinkedIn.

Thanks for having me!
— Elvina


2 comments:

Elvina Beck (Founder, Deadline x PodShare):

I'm still in the early days, and that's exactly why I'm posting here.

Communities like Travel Massive are built on relationships, and I believe the best partnerships start with conversations.

If you're a travel creator, consultant, hotel marketer, tourism organization, or simply know independent hotel owners, I'd love to schedule a quick 15-minute Zoom. Even one introduction could make a huge difference at this stage.

If Deadline sounds interesting—or you simply have ideas, feedback, or introductions—I would genuinely love to connect.

Feel free to comment below or send me a message. I'm happy to jump on a quick 15-minute Zoom about deadlinetravel.com or what you are working on.


Arlen Ritchie (Founder (travel startup), ):

Hi Elvina, I'm also building a travel marketplace. The coldstart / chicken and egg challenge is real! Might be an area where we can collaborate. One idea: when we onboard a hotel to our platform, perhaps we can onboard them to yours as well. Sent you a LinkedIn connect as well so we can keep in touch.


End of comments.

#8. Photo Recap: Pangea Launches Their Summer 2026 With Global Launch Party Across 6 Continents: (4 upvotes, 1 comments).


Posted by Matt Gray in News , Digital Nomad, Community, Planning, Map, App.
Featured on Aug 10, 2026 (2 days ago).
External link to website.

1 comments:

Matt Gray (Travel Tech Founder, Pangea):

Hi Everyone - Matt here. I'm thrilled to share the new launch of Pangea's Summer 2026 Release, and photos from our Global Launch Party last week which spanned 6 continents.

We're releasing a fully rebuilt version of Pangea including our new interactive profiles, travel visualizations, community groups, an updated explore view, and the debut of our Beta AI features for launch day participants.

We're also celebrating with our community with launch day meetups in 30+ cities across 6 continents from Sydney to Los Angeles!

🌍 Why I started Pangea

I've been to 123 countries in 12 years of full-time travel, and am on a mission to explore them all. I started Pangea because no other apps were fully solving the challenges I faced, and most of the ones that started disappeared after a year or two. I knew there must be a better way. We are far from perfect, but headed in the right direction to become the most comprehensive social travel, and have no intention of stopping anytime soon.

Pangea helps you discover where friends are traveling, connect with like-minded travelers, get trusted recommendations, and build a living map of everywhere you've explored.

🔴 Problem:

Consumer travel apps are fragmented leaving travelers consistently underserved

Incumbent players miss the most important part: travel is about people & experiences more than bookings & logistics

🟢 Solution:

Assemble a team of full-time travelers & product creators who fully grasp the complexity of the challenge so we don't just "build another travel app"

Apply a new approach to consolidate apps (starting with Overlap, Nomadago, & Flaire) into one integrated platform

Create a lasting category leader, becoming the "Strava for Travel" focused on Social Travel & IRL Experiences by making travel more authentic and connected

📲 What's Pangea do?

Keep track of where friends (and friends of friends) are now, and where they're going (and thinking about going)

Meet other like minded travelers & join communities around the world

Get recommendations from people you trust who have been before

Visualize the trips you've taken, countries/states/cities you've visited, and recommendations you've saved on an interactive and customizable profile

Get personalized AI insights about the places you're going, including people from your network who will be nearby, local contacts, recommendations, delivered to your inbox exactly when you need them

🚀 Where the App is headed?

Automated ways to import past and future trips

Customization in the way you visualize your travels

More ways to add, organize, discover and share recommendations (once we integrate Flaire)

More ways to connect with the right people, events, meetups, communities & group trips, anywhere in the world

Continued refinement and expansion of our AI individual & group trip planning capabilities

Our summer release brings together several key features laying the foundation to become the leading travel app: built by travelers for travelers.

And beyond the app, our incredible community will continue to host trips, events, meetups, and more so you can Explore the World, Together 🌎🌍🌏

👉 Would love to hear what you think! Check us out at thepangea.app

— Matt


End of comments.

#9. Free Report: What Really Drives Hotel Visibility in AI Search — Key Findings from the Stiplo Barcelona Study of 600+ Hotels: (8 upvotes, 2 comments).


Posted by Matthew Gardiner in Article , AI, Travel Tech, Hotel, Marketing, Barcelona.
Featured on Aug 5, 2026 (7 days ago).
External link to website.

When travellers ask AI where to stay in Barcelona, one in five of the city's registered hotels will never come up. Not in any answer, in any language. That's the headline finding of a [new study](stiplo.io/barcelona-study) that asked the four leading AI assistants the questions real travellers ask, more than 27,000 times, to map exactly which hotels the machines recommend, which they ignore, and why.

Article image #4
*Carlo Del Mistro, founder of London based Stiplo — a digital mystery shopper for hotels.*

The research comes from [Carlo Del Mistro](www.linkedin.com/in/carlo-del-mistro/), former Chief Digital Officer of Ennismore (the hospitality group behind brands including The Hoxton and Mondrian) and now Founder of London based [Stiplo](stiplo.io), a start-up that acts as a digital mystery shopper for hotels.

A regular at our [London Travel Massive](www.travelmassive.com/posts/london-travel-massive-979884824) events, and a previous speaker, I sat down with Carlo to unpack what he found: why a perfectly rated guesthouse can be invisible to AI while a middling chain hotel is recommended hundreds of times, why a third of AI's suggestions never touch the live web at all, and what hotels can actually do about it.

Why Barcelona, and why ask 27,000 times

Matthew: You asked AI assistants the same hotel questions real travellers ask over 27,000 times. What lead you to doing this kind of stress test? And what made you start with Barcelona?

Carlo: Over the last couple of years I have watched the question of what drives hotel AI visibility go from niche to one of the hottest topics in travel. There is a lot of good research on who is visible. What I could not find was proper scientific research on what actually drives that visibility. That gap is why we ran the study.

Article image #1
*The [Stiplo Barcelona Study](stiplo.io/barcelona-study) measured 659 registered properties across 27,360 AI travel answers.*

I wanted a closed context. Rather than sample loosely, we took a single city, looked at its entire hotel universe, and asked it the full range of questions real travellers ask. We seeded those from databases of real ChatGPT queries, so we were testing what people genuinely type, not what we imagined they would.

We asked more than a hundred questions, across four AI engines, in three languages, and we asked each one twenty times. That last part matters. Ask an AI the same question twice and you get different answers, so a single pass tells you little. We stopped seeing new hotels appear after about eighteen passes, so twenty gave us a stable picture.

As for why Barcelona. It is a wonderful city for tourists, which appealed to me. but more importantly, it is trilingual. A hotel there is expected to have content and to rank in Spanish, Catalan and English, and that made it a uniquely revealing place to start.

The one in five that AI never sees

Matthew: Let's start with the number that stopped me: one in five registered hotels in Barcelona is completely invisible to AI - never recommended once, in any language, by any assistant. Were you expecting that?

Carlo: It was one of the findings that stopped me too. I had seen plenty of numbers thrown around on AI visibility, but most studies ask only a handful of variations of each question. When you ask 27,000 questions, you see the full picture, and it is stark.

Article image #2
*The study discovered that one in five hotels in Barcelona are completely invisible on AI search.*

One in five hotels in Barcelona is completely invisible. Never recommended once, in any language, by any engine. I was not expecting that. If anything I expected something closer to ninety or ninety-five per cent of hotels showing up somewhere.

What is just as striking is the concentration. Around twenty per cent of hotels capture more than eighty per cent of all the mentions, and then there is a very long tail. The top twenty hotels are named on average more than a thousand times each. The bottom half of the hotels that are visible at all are named roughly 10 times, and the long tail just once or twice. So once you fall out of that top group, you do not just slip down the list. You effectively disappear.

What actually moves the needle, and what's just noise

Matthew: You tested the tactics that dominate the 'generative engine optimisation' conversation. Which ones held up, and which didn't?

Carlo: This is where the study became genuinely exciting. It is one thing to see which hotels are visible. It is another to work out why. We matched the hotels the AI favours against everything we could measure about them, then used several statistical techniques to separate the signal from the noise.

What came out was clear. Four things genuinely drive visibility, and four things the industry talks about constantly turn out to do very little.

The single strongest driver, by a distance, was the number of Google reviews a hotel has. Stronger than anything technical, stronger even than how authoritative the website is. After that: who links to you from around the web, then whether you already rank in Google's own results, which the AI leans on, and finally just having pages a machine can actually read that answer real guest questions. On that last one the twist is that having the content matters far more than how much of it there is.

And the four things the industry sells hardest did almost nothing.

* An llms.txt file, the tactic of the moment: nothing.
* Opening or closing your site to the AI crawlers: no measurable difference to whether you get named.
* FAQ and schema markup: no independent effect.
* Freshness and page-speed tuning: nothing once you account for the fact that big professional sites are simply fast to begin with.

The uncomfortable takeaway is that the technical GEO checklist being sold right now, llms.txt, bot rules, schema, freshness, is measurably not what moves the needle. Reputation and readable content are.

The new gatekeepers: listicles and Reddit

Matthew: When AI recommends a hotel, you traced where it's actually getting its information. Barely any of it comes from the hotels themselves or official tourism boards. Over three-quarters comes from guides and listicles. Who are these new gatekeepers, and should we trust them?

Carlo: It is fascinating to trace. When you ask an AI a question it does two things: it runs its own internet search, usually leaning on Google, and it draws on what it was trained on months or years earlier. It blends the two. What is striking is how little of the final answer comes from the hotels themselves. More than two-thirds of it, about 68 per cent, is assembled from guides and listicles. Only around 7 per cent comes from the hotels' own sites, and under 2 per cent from official tourism boards.

And they are not the gatekeepers you'd hope for. The listicles doing the work are mostly local SEO guide sites, barcelona.com, thehotelguru, foreverbarcelona, not the New York Times or Condé Nast.

The source the models trust most is Reddit. It only appears in about one in eight ai web searches, so it is not the most common source. But when it does appear, the model actually cites it as a source about two-thirds of the time, a higher rate than any OTA or guide. So a machine is now assembling your reputation partly from commercial guide sites and partly from Reddit threads, and most hotels have no idea those are the pages deciding whether they get recommended.

When AI still sells the hotel you used to be

Matthew: The Grand Hyatt was recommended under its old name, Hotel Sofia, over 200 times in your data. Hotels spend millions on rebrands. Your data suggests AI can keep selling the old identity for years afterwards. Is there anything a hotel can actually do to update a machine's memory?

Carlo: What the Grand Hyatt shows is how long it takes an AI to catch up with reality. We forget that these models are trained months, sometimes years, in advance, and then they carry a fixed cut-off. The hotel changed its name from the Hotel Sofia, but in the model's memory it is still the Sofia, and it keeps recommending it that way.

Blocking AI crawlers can't help here either. It won't stop the model recommending you from memory, and it does shut the door on the systems that might otherwise pick up your new identity. To be clear, opening the crawlers won't get you recommended more, that isn't what drives visibility, but it's what lets the model read the new reality when it does look.

The encouraging part is that much of this is in the hotel's hands. When you rebrand, or move information around your site, the priority is to stay readable to AI. Let the inference bots in, and make sure your schema and metadata reflect the new reality. The Grand Hyatt is a vivid example because it is such a prominent property, but I see the same thing constantly on hotels nobody would notice.

Why the machines skew to the top end

Matthew: I thought it was fascinating that four-star-plus hotels are about a third of Barcelona's register but take over three-quarters of AI's recommendations. Meanwhile nearly half of the budget properties never appear at all. Why does AI skew so hard toward the top end?

Carlo: There are a few reasons the upper end pulls so far ahead. First, resourcing. Four-star-plus hotels are more likely to be part of a chain, with real teams behind the website and the online presence, so they tick the boxes AI visibility rewards. Second, coverage. They are the hotels the guides and listicles tend to write about, and that third-party content is exactly what the AI leans on. Third, they simply produce more of their own content, where a smaller hotel rarely has anyone whose job that is.

But the more encouraging story is at the other end.

Some of the smaller three-star and budget hotels punch well above their weight, and they do it by owning a niche.

We had hostels that were close to invisible for general questions. Ask about a backpacking trip or a weekend away with friends, though, and those same hostels were consistently in the top 10. We saw the same for football trips, people heading to the stadium for a match. If you truly own a category, it does not matter whether you have five stars or none. You win the questions that matter to you.

A third of answers come from memory, not the web

Matthew: Roughly a third of recommendations come from the model's memory, not from searching the live web. What does that mean for a hotel that redesigns its website today?

Carlo: It means patience, and it means keeping the door open. If roughly a third of recommendations come from the model's memory rather than a live search, then the beautiful new website you launch today is invisible to that third until the models retrain. A redesign is not a switch you flip. What you can do is make sure that when the AI does look, and when it does retrain, it can actually read you. Keep the site crawlable, keep the structured data accurate, and treat visibility as something you earn over months, not overnight.

Winning the mention, losing the booking

Matthew: Say a hotel does win the recommendation. You found that even then, the AI usually doesn't send the traveller to the hotel's own site. Where does the booking actually go?

Carlo: This, for me, is the finding that matters most commercially, and it is the one hoteliers least expect. Getting recommended and getting booked turn out to be two completely different games.

When an AI names a hotel, it links through to that hotel's own website only about seven per cent of the time. More than nine times out of ten, the traveller is pointed somewhere else. The click lands, in order, on a local "best hotels in Barcelona" listicle first, then on an online travel agency, booking.com most often, with TripAdvisor acting as the review gateway.

A hotel can win the recommendation and still lose the booking, and with it the margin, to an intermediary.

I think of it as two separate battles. The first is being found: getting named when a traveller asks. The second is being chosen and keeping the guest on your website for the booking once you are named. Most of the industry conversation is stuck on the first, on visibility. But you can be perfectly visible and still watch the AI hand your guest to an OTA. Winning the mention is only half the job. The other half is making sure that when you are mentioned, the path actually leads back to you.

It answers in Catalan, but it searches in English

Matthew: You caught ChatGPT searching in English even when the traveller asks in Catalan. What should local hoteliers in Barcelona take from that?

Carlo: This was one of the results I least expected. I did not think ChatGPT would be doing its actual searching in English. This is a ChatGPT trait specifically. Ask ChatGPT in Catalan and roughly four in five of its underlying searches ran in English, with Catalan almost abandoned. Even in Spanish it searched in English about 60% of the time. It answers you in your language, but it goes looking in English. Perplexity, by contrast, tends to search in the language you asked in.

The lesson for a local hotelier is uncomfortable but simple. Your English content is not optional, even if your guests are local. You could have beautiful Catalan content and still be invisible, simply because the engine went looking in English and did not find you. This almost certainly holds for a lot of smaller languages, and it is one of the reasons we chose a trilingual city for the first study.

If you do one thing this quarter: Google reviews

Matthew: If a hotel owner reading this can only do one thing this quarter, what does your data say it should be?

Carlo: When we cut through everything, the single biggest driver of visibility was the number of Google reviews. Not OTA reviews, not TripAdvisor. Google.

So if a hotel owner does just one thing this quarter, they should look hard at where they send guests to leave a review. If you are pointing them to TripAdvisor or an OTA, you are handing that signal away. Redirect it to Google. And here is the part people find surprising. The quantity of reviews matters more than the score itself. Of course you want good reviews, but the sheer number counts for more than most people think.

— Thanks Carlo, for sharing your insights!

Article image #3
*Download your free copy of The Stiplo Barcelona Study.*

*[Carlo Del Mistro](www.linkedin.com/in/carlo-del-mistro/) is the founder of Stiplo, a digital mystery shopper for hotels, and former Chief Digital Officer of Ennismore. [Download the full study](stiplo.io/barcelona-study) covering all 659 of Barcelona’s registered tourist accommodations, across four AI assistants and three languages including the complete methodology, engine-by-engine findings and what hotels should do next.*

*[Matthew Gardiner](/@matthewgardiner) Is the Director of [Travel Massive London](www.travelmassive.com/posts/london-travel-massive-979884824), a fractional marketing leader and growth partner to travel brands and destinations.*


2 comments:

Christine DePalo (Tours, retreats, travel coaching, travel advisor, Journeys & Zen Morocco):

This was really interesting to read as the co-founder of a very small, very remote property (Arawan Luxury Desert Camp, Erg Lihoudi, near M'hamid El Ghizlane). We have almost no budget for the website or technical side, and we're constantly told how bad our website is — so it was a genuine surprise to learn we'd been found and booked through ChatGPT since before we were even six months old. I met a guest at the camp who told me she'd asked ChatGPT for accommodation recommendations in the area, it gave her three options, and after some follow-up questions it told her Arawan would be the best fit for her — for a camp that small, new, and off the beaten path, that really caught me off guard. A couple of other guests have mentioned finding our direct link the same way. And yet when I search generically myself, we don't come up at all.

We assumed we'd never really be able to compete in AI search given our size — we can't build Google review volume fast, and we don't have much in the way of backlinks. But one thing we did do early on was hosting newer content creators at the camp. We were lucky some newer creators were willing to come and work with us, because we had no way to offer things that many larger companies do to the creators, but also we are a really small accommodation of 6 tents and it is more of an experience too. Given your finding that most of what AI cites comes from guides and listicles rather than hotels' own sites, I'm now wondering if that decision is doing more of the work than we realized.


Steve Buchanan (Founder & CTO, The Home Swap Guy):

Fascinating stats seeing how little seeded from Hotels and the flip
Side how much cones listicles


End of comments.

#10. We're building doozi, the video app for travel discovery: (10 upvotes, 8 comments).


Posted by Erica Rankin in App , Startup, Video, Toronto, Planning, Map.
Featured on Aug 5, 2026 (7 days ago).
External link to website.

8 comments:

Erica Rankin (Co-founder, doozi):

Hi everyone, I'm Erica, co-founder of doozi! My best friend & I have been building doozi for the past year, and we are based in Ottawa (but spend a fair amount of time in Toronto).

Doozi has 30k videos, and over 4k businesses posted/tagged already in Toronto alone. We created this app to solve our own problem; Tiktok & Instagram aren't optimized for travel discovery. Tripadvisor is outdated and not honest.

Doozi is for 3 kinds of people:

🏨 Business owners: we help businesses in the hospitality get discovered by sending local creators to them to make content

🤳 Creators: we give them opportunities to monetize their content

👋 Travellers/locals: we don't run ads, or allow businesses to pay for priority placement. Authentic video reviews you can trust; see the businesses that are the best, not the one's with the deepest pockets.

Would love your feedback on the app and would also love to connect with more folks in the travel space. :)

👉 Learn more at doozi.app and follow our journey at instagram.com/doozigirls

- Erica

-

Here's a short intro video from me and my co-founder Jillian:

youtube.com/watch?v=2QExQVmXIl4


Ian (Founder, Travel Massive):

Hi Erica and Jillian, thanks for sharing doozi with Travel Massive and welcome to the community!

Seriously well done on the app and your launches! Building is the easy bit, but marketing and customer acquisition is the hard part (as you know!) so bravo for getting people together IRL.

A few questions:

What has been one thing that surprised you about building and launching doozi?

What is your "moat" that protects your business from TikTok or IG adding map discovery as a feature?

What cities are you heading to next in your launch strategy? Any international (outside of CA) destinations on your dream list? Perhaps we can connect you with some Travel Massive members in the next city you launch in.

Also, I recommend to head to a Toronto Travel Massive event if it's not too far, they have a great community and you could build some amazing connections for doozi.

www.travelmassive.com/posts/toronto-travel-massive-156537040

Hope this feedback is helpful!
Ian


Erica Rankin (Co-founder, doozi):

Hey Ian, thanks for all of this and for the kind words! I'm definitely going to get plugged into the Toronto network (attending the upcoming event on the 18, really stoked for it).

To answer your questions:


Most surprising thing building doozi:

How hungry creators are for a platform like this. We thought it’d be difficult to get them to see the vision & come along for the ride (especially so early) but they’ve been incredibly supportive since day 1. They want a platform that actually helps them get discovered & gets them opportunities to make money doing what they already do (most of them do restaurant reviews & local experience reviews). Doozi connects them to businesses to get paid.

Most against TT/IG:

So I would say... a feature isn't a moat, but what we've built around it is. There are 3 things:

TT and IG are entertainment engines built to keep you scrolling. Doozi is an intent engine; people open it already deciding where to eat, stay, or explore. Bolting a map onto an entertainment feed doesn't change why people are there. Different job entirely.

Second, we're a two-sided marketplace, not a content app. Our real product is the rails connecting creators to local businesses (the campaign builder, the payments, the vetting, the hospitality marketing tools).

TikTok could add a map tomorrow and still wouldn't have a way for a Toronto café to hire three vetted local creators, run a perk, and drive real foot traffic. That's the hard part, and it's what we've spent our time on.

Thirdly, density and trust. We're going city by city on purpose: hundreds of vetted creators, 30,000+ pieces of real local content, no ads, no algorithm gaming the feed. That trust compounds and it's slow to copy. The big guys optimize for time-on-app; we optimize for "I actually found my new favourite spot." We want to be the decision making app.

Next cities:

Toronto's our home base and where we're going deepest first - also building out Vancouver. Next up is New York City (later this year). Would love to get plugged into the Travel Massive community out there too. :)


Casey Mead (Founder, CM Communications):

Wowow this app is really neat! Well done! I am based in Melbourne, but used to live in Toronto, so it was great to see all the spots there. Wishing you all the best following the VAN launch, too!


Erica Rankin (Co-founder, doozi):

Thanks so much Casey! And Melbourne is on my list - haven't been out that way yet (made it sooo close in Bali) haha


Casey Mead (Founder, CM Communications):

Your map will be full of amazing spots in Melbs! :)


Paul Lipson (Founder & CEO, Triprecos):

Well done Erica! I love the idea and as a fellow Canadian start-up founder I'm rooting for you!

Hope to see you at the Toronto event and swap stories between Doozi and Triprecos!


Erica Rankin (Co-founder, doozi):

See you there!


End of comments.

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#5. Morocco Travel Massive: Connect, Create & Explore


City: Marrakech
When: Friday 11 September, starting at 18:00
Description:

Join the Morocco Travel Massive community for an evening of creativity and connection at Art House Marrakech in Sidi Abbad.

After our previous gatherings, we're bringing Travel Massive to this beautiful artisan space. Join us as we get hands-on with traditional Zwaq painting and connect with fellow travel professionals.

Our evening includes an introduction to Art House and its story, a chance for everyone to introduce themselves, a mini Zwaq workshop led by the Art House team, and finger food and conversation to close out the night.

Details:
Venue: Art House Marrakech, Residence Yamama, Villa 6, Sidi Abbad, Marrakech
Date & Time: 11 September 2026, 6:00pm – 8:30pm
Admission: Free with RSVP
👉 RSVP required - register here on the event page

Schedule
• Arrival & welcome
• Intro to Art House and its background
• Individual introductions
• The Mixer - a little surprise for you!
• Mini Zwaq workshop
• Finger food & chats

Share insights, discuss challenges, discover collaboration opportunities, and build genuine connections with Morocco's travel community.

— We look forward to welcoming you!

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#6. Tourism Innovation Summit 2026


City: Seville, Spain
When: October 6-8 (3 Days), starting at 10:00
Description:

TIS2026: The New Generation of Travel & Hotel Tech

Get ready to reimagine the tourism industry with the most cutting-edge technology showcased at TIS2026!

In an increasingly connected and innovative world, the tourism sector is transforming. The fusion between the travel industry and technology is opening up a world of endless possibilities. From trip planning to destination experiences, every aspect of the traveler’s journey is being reinvented thanks to technological advances. From intuitive mobile applications to augmented reality systems, innovation is elevating the way we explore the world. In this exciting journey towards the future, TIS 2026 stands as the epicenter of change.

Join us from October 6th to 8th 2026, as we explore the latest trends and technological solutions that are transforming the travel industry. This year Tourism Innovation Summit 2026 offers you a unique opportunity to showcase your latest and greatest advancements to +8,000 Tourism professionals.

Learn more at www.tisglobalsummit.com

Link to event page

Classified Ads

Here's the 10 latest classified ads:


Classified #1. Apply to Pitch at Travel Tech Association's Start-Up Summit (14 October)


• Company: Travel Tech Association
• Location: Arlington, VA.
• Travel Tech Association’s second annual Start-Up Summit is coming to Concorde in National Landing, Arlington, Virginia, on Wednesday, October 14. The event brings together travel technology founders, investors and industry leaders for a day of networking, education, targeted connections and a live pitch competition. Start-ups can apply to pitch, reserve showcase space or attend. Pitch applications are due Tuesday, September 1. Finalist selection is competitive and separate from registration, showcase participation and membership. Learn more and register today.
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Classified #2. Applications Closing Soon: Pitch Your Startup at Touristech Startup Fest 2026


• Company: Tourism Innovation Summit
• Location: Seville, Spain.
• 🚀 We’re looking for startups ready to revolutionise the tourism industry. 📣 Entrepreneurs, innovators, startups and scaleups: this is your opportunity! The deadline to apply for the **Touristech Startup Fest 2026** Call for Innovation is still open, but not for much longer... Present your project at **Touristech Startup Fest 2026** and gain visibility among investors, venture capital funds and leading industry decision-makers attending **TIS – Tourism Innovation Summit 2026**, taking place from October 6–8 at Seville, FIBES. Connect with the customers, partners and investors who can accelerate your startup’s growth. Connect with 8,000+ tourism and hospitality professionals and executives (CEOs, CIOs, CMOs, DMOs and COOs) who are actively seeking new technologies, disruptive services, strategic partnerships and innovative business models.
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Classified #3. Destination Specialist – Asia


• Company: Vaya Adventures
• Location: Remote.
• We are currently seeking a Destination Specialist for Asia. This individual will be responsible for designing, planning, and booking customized travel experiences for our clients that are tailored to their unique tastes, preferences, and interests. The ideal candidate will have a deep knowledge of Asia travel, a passion for exploring new cultures, foods, and experiences, and an enthusiasm for joining a growing company.
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Classified #4. TP CONNECT 2026: The Conference About YOUR Tour Business


• Company: Tourpreneur
• Location: Louisville, Kentucky, USA.
• TP CONNECT is Tourpreneur's annual conference built entirely for tour operators. This year - nobody is talking AT YOU from a stage. The whole event is two days of round table conversation at The Historic Seelbach Hotel in Louisville, November 17 to 18, 2026, with a welcome party the evening of the 16th. Each table has an important business topic and someone leading it who knows it deeply: an expert, a coach, or a fellow operator who has been through it. You sit down at the table working through the thing you're wrestling with right now. When the round ends, you pick your next table. The topics come from the problems operators are always bringing us: prices you haven't raised in three years, the OTA cut you want to shrink, what to actually do with AI, finding and keeping good guides. Every table is built so you walk away with a defined strategy, a decision finally made, or a next step you can act on Monday morning. Tickets: $249 USD. Built for both day tour and multi-day operators.
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Classified #5. Travel Tech Sales Representatives


• Company: Theta Technologies
• Location: italy.
• Theta Technologies is looking for motivated, well-connected sales representatives to promote our travel technology products and grow our network of travel agencies and tourism partners. **Key Responsibilities:** • Introduce Theta’s products and services to travel agencies and tourism companies - Identify and approach potential clients • Conduct product presentations and follow up on sales opportunities • Build and maintain strong relationships with clients • Support marketing campaigns and market-development activities **Requirements:** • Previous sales experience in the travel or tourism industry • Experience with GDS systems such as Amadeus, Sabre, or Galileo is an advantage • Previous work with a travel agency or tourism office is preferred • Good communication, presentation, and relationship-building skills • Basic knowledge of digital marketing, including social media, email campaigns, and content creation • Ability to work remotely with flexible hours according to project requirements • Self-motivated, proactive, and results-oriented. **What We Offer:** • Flexible, remote, part-time work - Ongoing opportunities with a growing travel technology company • Exposure to innovative travel products and international markets • A collaborative and supportive working environment • Interested candidates are invited to send their CV, along with a brief note describing their travel-industry and sales experience, to info@thetatechnologies.net
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Classified #6. Online Event: ICRT Responsible Tourism Awards Worldwide and Scholar Announcements


• Company: ICRT global
• Location: Virtual.
• Be inspired by global changemakers who are pushing the boundaries of Responsible Tourism. Join us on 25 August between 12 to 1pm UK time and: - Be inspired by the winners of the 2026 Responsible Tourism Award winners worldwide - Hear about our Scholarship programme in partnership with ITB Berlin. Ten applicants will be going on to study one of our Professional Certificates in Responsible Tourism, Rebalancing Tourism or Creating Economic Impact - Learn how you can enter our 2027 Responsible Tourism Awards. (It's free too!) Any questions please do message debbie@icrt.global and or connect with Debbie Hindle in Travel Massive
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Classified #7. Looking for a co-founder for a B2B solution for Airport Transfers


• Company: Kaributaxi.com
• Location: Nairobi, Kenya and US / Europe.
• Hello My name of Peter, a founder based out of Nairobi Kenya. I have operated https://kaributaxi.com for more than a decade now and I have seen an incredible opportunity in this area. I am looking for a co-founder based in Europe, US for an idea that I have developed. I want to develop a channel manager for airport and city transfers. Hit me up for more information. peter.kibe@hg.co.ke
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Classified #8. Destination Specialist – Europe


• Company: Vaya Adventures
• Location: Remote.
• We are currently seeking a Destination Specialist for Europe. This individual will be responsible for designing, planning, and booking customized travel experiences for our clients that are tailored to their unique tastes, preferences, and interests. The ideal candidate will have a deep knowledge of Europe travel, a passion for exploring new cultures, foods, and experiences, and an enthusiasm for joining a growing company.
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Classified #9. Exclusive Himalayan FAM Trips: Nepal, Bhutan, Ladakh, Rajasthan & Tibet for Travel Advisors


• Company: Last Frontiers Trekking (Pvt) Ltd.
• Location: Kathmandu.
• 🌏 Would you sell a destination you've never experienced? ✨ The best travel recommendations come from firsthand experience. That's why we've launched our Exclusive FAM Trips for travel advisors and tour operators—giving you the opportunity to experience Nepal, Bhutan, Ladakh, Rajasthan & Tibet before recommending them to your clients. On our carefully designed journeys, you'll: 🏔️ Discover iconic destinations and hidden gems 🏨 Experience handpicked hotels and unique stays 🤝 Meet trusted local partners 🧭 Gain valuable destination knowledge 💼 Return with the confidence to create unforgettable client journeys For over 40 years, our third-generation Sherpa family from Khumbu has helped travel professionals deliver authentic Himalayan experiences. 📩 Interested in a future FAM trip? We'd love to hear from you. ✨ Experience the Himalayas before you sell them.
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Classified #10. Travel Club in Orlando Launch (Thursday July 30)


• Company: Joy's Travel Adventures Agency
• Location: Orlando.
• Join us for a chill evening of cheesecake, tasty drinks, and travel stories – good vibes only! Looking for people to travel with? Join us for Happy Hour as we officially launch the FREE **Joy's Travel Adventures Travel Club** —a fun travel community for people who love cruises, all-inclusive beach getaways, escorted tours, and making new friends to explore the world with! 🍹 5:00–7:00 PM | The Cheesecake Factory We'll meet for Happy Hour, get to know one another, talk travel, share dream destinations, and introduce the new Travel Club. 🎁 Everyone attending receives one entry into our travel-themed raffle! 🍰 Then we'll celebrate National Cheesecake Day with 50% off one slice of cheesecake (dine-in only). Whether you're a seasoned traveler or planning your very first adventure, you'll find a welcoming group of people who share your passion for travel. 📅 Thursday, July 30 5:00 - 7:00 PM 📍 The Cheesecake Factory (520 N. Orlando Ave., #100, Winter Park, FL 32789) **Please RSVP** so we can reserve enough seats for everyone. There is no cost to join the Travel Club or attend this meet social event; however, each guest is responsible for purchasing their own food and beverages. 🍹 Come for the Travel Club. 🍰 Stay for the cheesecake. 🚢 Leave with new friends, travel inspiration, and a chance to win our travel-themed raffle!
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