Videreo launches its public beta and its FREE

Videreo yesterday launched into public beta, so now anyone in travel can add the user experience (UX) of scrolling vertical videos found in nearly all social media nowadays, onto their own site in just minutes.

And they can do it for free.

The free tier includes the ability to show on a map where the video was taken so the user can navigate by location and include the direct link to the product associated with the video to drive more bookings.

“Our aim is to bring opportunity to everyone” said Videreo co-founder Adrian Villabruna. “The little guys in travel have the least ability to pay for these types of software but they are the ones we most want to support”

With the free plan a small tour operator business can choose the best 10 videos that tell the story of their business and products and have those able to be watched by visitors to their site.

“There is research out there that says having video in the flow alongside product can increase conversion by up to 80%” said Villabruna. “With Videreo, now everyone can test that for themselves in a zero-cost way.”

 You can join the free beta user program right here. 

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Go vertical! 

Loved this article from NFX this week that talked about the “verticalization of everything.”

The core point: “A model that is trained on a specific problem, by a team who intimately understands each industry’s control points, with an excellent user experience focused on a specific vertical, can gain a lot of traction in today’s SaaS world.”

Or even more simply put “A generalist model is good for everyone, and great for no one.”

Don’t just wait for ChatGPT to solve everything. It never will for an enterprise user.

Is AI over-hyped?

PhocusWire caught up with a bunch of significant industry folk to get a current view of where we are at with AI. I’ve summarised their core point in a table:

| Name | Company | Overview of Position

| Brian Chesky | Airbnb | CEO; emphasizes AI's potential but warns progress will take longer than anticipated. |

| Mike Coletta | Phocuswright | Senior manager; sees AI evolving rapidly but limited by human pace of adaptation. |

| Sundar Narasimhan | Sabre | Senior VP; sees AI more tech-ready than blockchain, with emerging use cases. |

| Amy Read | Sabre | VP of Innovation; compares AI hype to the dot-com boom, stresses gradual progress. |

| Line Crieloue | Accor | VP of Image & Influence; differentiates between AI and GenAI, foresees gradual impact.|

| Sanjay Mohan | MakeMyTrip | CTO; acknowledges early GenAI hype but sees long-term transformative potential. |

| Adam Harris | CloudBeds | CEO; highlights AI's limitations due to siloed data in hospitality. |

| Alex Bainbridge | Autoura | CEO; believes AI change is here but adoption faces commercial and operational challenges.|

| Andres Martinez Artal | Speakspots.com | CEO; AI faces challenges with real-time data and proactive customization in travel. |

| Ilan Twig | Navan | CTO; AI chatbots already save costs and improve customer service, with rapid future growth expected. |

No-one asked me but I see incredible things getting done, way more efficiently than they were just 12 months ago and I think that bit is under-hyped! EG: the Everything AI in Travel podcast simply wouldn’t exist without AI.

This is your captain speaking

Loved this simple but profound example of improving the experience a few % points that doesn’t take a lot of development chops.

On Türkiye’s Low-Cost Carrier, Pegasus “flights to Spanish, Arabic, and Russian-speaking countries will feature AI-generated announcements in the respective local language, following the English version”.

“The system clones the voices of male and female Pegasus captains to create dynamic multilingual announcements tailored to each flight.”

Simple. Effective.

(OK they did start an innovation lab in Silicon Valley to come up with this - so maybe not as cheap as it could’ve been).

The saddest travel story I’ve ever read

This story from Nigeria’s version of the Guardian cut me to the core.

The Government is exploring the use of AI & VR (virtual reality) because the country is deemed too dangerous to visit for tourists.

“To come to a country at the risk of being ransomed or being welcomed with “your life or your money” at gunpoint is not palatable to the imaginations of intending tourists” the article stated.

The timing of this article is one of those strange coincidences because I’ve just watched Michael Palin’s trip to Nigeria on TV, and I also saw there was a big Travel Massive gathering in Lagos on around the same time as one I went to in Melbourne.

I literally started trying to work out how I could get there.

What happens to all those (116 turned up to the Travel Massive) people who work in travel if nobody comes to Nigeria?

I still want to go.

Our offer at Videreo to support those nations under 0.6 on the UN Human Development Index stands.

If anyone has a contact at the Nigerian Tourism Board, we’d love to help them and all these people working in tourism to find a way to tell a different story. Please send me an intro.

Nezasa says with our trip planner you can also book!

In the latest travel planner news, Swiss company Nezasa has launch its AI Planner Co-Pilot.

The difference: “The AI feature offers instant itinerary suggestions that can be customized and, most importantly, booked - setting it apart from other offerings in the industry.”

“Additionally, it integrates with existing travel planning tools that lack booking capabilities, filling a critical gap in the market.”

That second piece might be more unique than the first.

Who is the audience for this? Its “seamless integration with third-party B2C apps” maybe gives a clue.

If you think someone (or everyone) you know or work with could grow from being more informed on the topic of ai + travel (or could use the training above) then please forward this email to them and they can click the button below:

Expedia points to its AI integration for its growth record

In this analysis of Expedia’s earnings call, we find AI getting the credit for the positive results and outlook.

The key passages: “Expedia's investment in AI technologies, particularly through initiatives like Romie, has the potential to significantly enhance user experience and drive financial performance.”

“Furthermore, AI integration in customer service, such as chatbots and automated support systems, can reduce operational costs while maintaining or improving service quality.”

For any travel business of any size, I’d argue that both of these are now table stakes.

For the second one, this is (unfortunately) where the incumbents have the edge simply through their willingness to move first and fast on something so obvious.

What is happening with AI and Travel in China?

Meanwhile over at CTrip in the analysis of their earns call, pretty much the same thing!

“Against the backdrop of intensifying competition in the travel market, investment in AI technology development and application exploration will help provide more intelligent, convenient, and personalized services, matching diverse travel needs and amplifying the professional service capabilities and efficiency advantages of OTA platforms to address cross-industry competition.”

(This wordy and verbose paragraph is not mine)

Utilising their own in house LLM CTrip have built “"Travel Hotspots" and Reputation Rankings. Both are AI-powered features based on big data from user search behaviors and reviews, intelligently providing users with inspiration and decision-making assistance across dimensions such as travel destinations, hotel dining services, and more.”

Have you seen how Sora can be used in Travel Marketing?

No, I haven’t either. But according to this article, the people at Dublin City Council have!

“The event also featured ChatGPT’s creator OpenAI, who showcased the latest developments in their text-to-video generative AI model Sora and how it could be applied to city tourism.”

To be honest, I loved everything about this article. the fact that Dublin City Council surveyed its residents about tourism and then worked from those results to build plans and projects that protect what is most important to residents and still charm the tourists was really pretty great.

““I think over the past five years Dublin [city council] has had this collaboration model – we act as an independent broker between the Dogpatches (a local innovation hub), the Googles, the OpenAIs and big tech.” Dublin’s Smart City Lead Jamie Cudden explained

Dublin seems like a great place to be innovating.

Catching the AI Traffic

This article by Host.ai founder Amirali Mohajer looks at the near future (probably murky) world of catching traffic that is going into AI summaries and answers. The new SEO if you like except it is “AI search optimization”.

The advice was actually very practical. “Brands can up their Generative Search Engine game by creating relevant content that targets the very specific audience they wish to attract. Think of each post as personalized letters that are as unique as the guests they want to draw.”

This is very sound advice!

I expect there will be a lot of sharks circling in the water on this topic with less sound advice.

Slack Group!

Where is Tony?

There are a few places upcoming where you can find me if you like.

I’m looking at coming over to both TIS in Seville (late October) and WTM in London (early Nov). If anyone is interested in catching up at either of those places, please send me a message.

This spot used to be about how to work with me but between existing consulting work and joining Videreo as co-founder, there isn’t really a lot of time for new consulting work I’m afraid.

More than happy to catch up at a conference somewhere and give my two-cents as always. Also happy to field speaking spots at conferences.

The Everything AI in Travel marketplace is now launched - please just jump on the site to grab your listing if you have an AI tool or service that you want the industry to know about.

Most clicked last week was the link to the AtlasGuru story! You can find my podcast with founder Kim Bennet here.

That’s it - you’ve made it to the end of this edition. Did you like the more snappy version? Please don’t be shy to tell me what you think when I post this on LinkedIn.