LANGLEY, UK, 7 September 2021: Travelport, a worldwide leader in travel retail, has launched a new global accelerator programme in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) that will attempt to solve travel retailing challenges.
Travelport Accelerator’s first challenge is to introduce cutting-edge digital marketing technology for travel companies, which uses behavioural and demographic traveller data in order to deliver highly targeted and personalised, real-time offers to customers.
Selected startups will be given a chance to receive up to USD100,000 in AWS Activate credit.
“No single person or business has the solution to all of travel’s retailing challenges,” said Travelport chief product & technology officer Tom Kershaw. “The most effective way to drive innovation, especially at pace, is to unite bright minds from diverse backgrounds and geographic locations and focus their energy on solving a specific problem. That’s precisely what Travelport Accelerator will do. We look forward to working with companies across the world, both large and small, to drive the modernisation of travel retail for the benefit of the entire travel ecosystem.”
Travelport Accelerator
Travelport Accelerator allows tech startups and innovators looking to enter the travel space to solve a series of different travel retailing challenges, such as data protection, hyper-personalisation, and customer acquisition. Once the challenge has been set, companies with existing technology and products that are relevant to the challenge and use cases outlined on the accelerator webpage are invited to apply.
A cohort of up to 10 companies will be selected to proceed to the next stage, which involves pitching solutions to an esteemed panel of judges from some of the world’s most renowned travel companies, including American Express Global Business Travel, Priceline, Internova Travel Group, Direct Travel and Christopherson Business Travel. A group of up to three participants will ultimately be selected to move to the final round, solving the challenge in collaboration with Travelport and AWS. Each will be given access to Travelport+, Travelport’s next-generation travel marketplace.
Selected startups could receive up to USD100,000 in AWS Activate credit and each participant will receive mentoring from travel domain and technical subject matter experts with deep experience working on AWS. The programme also offers collaboration opportunities with AWS travel customers and members of the AWS Partner Network (APN) looking for technology solutions to their most challenging problems.
The First Challenge
The first challenge set by Travelport and AWS is to introduce cutting-edge digital marketing technology solutions that will complement the advanced capabilities of Travelport+, which in a normal year will process hundreds of millions of travel transactions and reduce the cost of customer acquisition and retention for Travelport’s customers.
Applications are open
Entry forms are available at www.travelport.com/accelerator. The deadline for submission is midnight Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) on Wednesday, 22 September 2021.
Applications will be judged on several factors, including the innovative and unique nature of the solution, the overall value it will bring to the industry, the creative application of technology to solve problems, and the team’s ability to deliver on the opportunity with Travelport and its customers.
Travelport Accelerator is now part of Travelport Focus, a Travelport innovation hub supported by AWS.
