Let’s
Transform
Travel
Uniting the brightest minds.
To tackle travel’s biggest retailing challenges.
Got what it takes to shape the future of travel?
The Travelport Accelerator program invites tech companies and start-ups from around the world to pitch ideas and solutions to travel’s unique challenges. This is your chance to meet and work with some of the biggest names in the industry, including leading travel agencies and suppliers (airlines, hotels, and car rental companies).
And that’s not all — you’ll also get new development opportunities, mentorship, and access to Travelport and AWS channel expertise and data.
This year, the challenge is to revolutionize customer acquisition and retention through hyper-personalized digital marketing. So, if you’re a creative-thinker who gets data and how to use it — we want to hear from you.
Applicants
Start your engines
If you’re a scaling start-up, or a technology business trying to move into travel, this unique opportunity is for you. What’s on offer? The chance to kickstart your business by working closely with travel’s biggest decision-makers. Get mentorship, training, plus final-stage participants get access to Travelport+ and AWS’ channel expertise.
Challenge
Time to get personal
This year’s theme is hyper personalization. We’re looking for pitches that will revolutionize digital marketing through cutting-edge technology. Ideas that complement Travelport+ in enabling targeted and personalized digital marketing. And ones that emotionally engage with travelers and build trust.
Program
Need to know
The challenge runs from September to early 2022. Up to ten applicants will be chosen by a panel of judges from travel’s leading businesses at the start of October, and invited to a pitch between October 11-15, 2021. Then, a max of three participants will go on to the final round, where they will work in collaboration with Travelport and AWS to actually bring the solution to life using Travelport+ data and APIs. The deadline for entries was September 29 — so entries are now closed for 2021.
Challenge 2021
Travel consumers are overwhelmed. They’re bombarded with an astounding volume of information, and are often left with underwhelming, inaccurate and confusing shopping experiences where nothing feels personal. That’s because the technical side of travel marketing is tricky and expensive. Businesses have a lot to contend with, from complex offers, real-time pricing, technological incompatibilities, barriers to data, and rapidly changing demand trends.
But hey, challenges are there to be overcome. And recent research shows this kind of challenge is a priority for 84% of travel marketing professionals. So this year’s Accelerator program invites applicants to pitch ideas and solutions that will revolutionize customer retention and acquisition through digital marketing. Your existing product or technology should correspond to one of the use cases below.
Use cases:
Use data and AI to make personalized, targeted, real-time offers of dynamic travel products to travel customers over digital channels (web, ads, email, social), based on demographic and behavioral data.
Improve customer satisfaction for TMCs (B2B) by increasing relevance of offers and recommendations for business travellers, with in-policy recommendations for hotel, transport, ancillaries based on demographic and behavioral data (including preferences and past trips).
Empower the small to medium sized travel agents (or other travel companies) with software to acquire and engage customers on digital/social channels, manage targeted advertising, travel promotions, etc.
Help travel agencies get a 360-degree view of their customers across all physical and digital channels, and multiple systems.
Solutions that take data from clicks, views, interactions of travel offers to enable the travel company to optimize those offers to improve customer experience, engagement and conversion.
Entries for 2021 are now closed
What our customers and partners are saying
Travelport Accelerator gives travel innovators the potential to pitch their technology to some of the most influential leaders in the global travel industry, and to influence the future of travel retailing.
No single person or business has the solution to all of travel’s retailing challenges. Travelport Accelerator unites bright minds from diverse backgrounds and geographic locations and focus their energy on solving a specific problem.
“Effective marketing is about getting the right offers, to the right people, at the right time. Achieving this on an individual level is currently a challenge for travel companies. We’re therefore excited to see what solutions come out of Travelport Accelerator.”
Di Mufic
Business Systems Lead
Helloworld Travel Limited
“The travel industry would welcome digital marketing services that better meet its complex needs and, in doing so, help to reduce the cost of customer acquisition.”
Josh Cameron
Chief Strategy Officer
Christopherson Business Travel
“There is such high demand for personalized marketing services in the travel industry because, fundamentally, decision making in travel is deeply personal.”
Christine A. Sikes
Executive VP Customer Experience
Direct Travel
