5 Travel Tech Trends Worth Watching in 2023

25.08.2023 - 14:26 / skift.com / Southeast Asia / Justin Dawes / Airlines

Much of the travel industry is continuing to recover after the pandemic and despite growing anxieties about the economy, with some metrics better than ever last year. 

As the industry continues to evolve technologically, there are several areas worth watching in the next year. Below are five highlights to keep an eye on:

In an effort to streamline the customer travel experience, airlines and airports are looking to implement biometrics capabilities into everyday use. Biometrics enables the personalization of technology using an individual’s biological readings, like using a fingerprint as an unlock passcode or facial recognition to confirm identity. 

Though there is criticism about privacy and data security issues, United Airlines and Delta Airlines — along with car rental company Avis — are among those experimenting now with facial, iris and fingerprint  biometrics. Registered passengers can move faster through security checkpoints by verifying their identification using a kiosk provided by Clear, a biometrics company that went public in June 2021.  

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration is also piloting tech that matches live facial visuals with recording identification photos. The organization is reportedly testing the program at 16 airports nationwide, and that could expand this year.   

Iterative Capital just raised $55 million in its second fund focusing on general tech Southeast Asia. One of its portfolio companies is GoZayaan, an online travel agency focused in that region. 

Southeast Asia is two or three decades behind the Western world when it comes to general and travel tech investment, but it is catching up rapidly. 

“It’s just taking off. It’s kind of like Silicon Valley 20 years ago,” said Brian Ma, founder and managing partner of Singapore-based Iterative Capital. 

“The middle class is growing at a rate much faster than the U.S., and so more regular people have more money to spend. They’re starting to think about savings, health care, education, travel, all this kind of stuff.”

Because the region is so far behind, it has a unique set of travel issues for which it largely needs its own solutions, which is why there’s a budding group of travel tech startups. 

The Korea Tourism Startup Center last fall set up an accelerator in Singapore focused on travel tech startups, launching with 13 companies that pitched products in an effort to expand throughout Southeast Asia.  

Following the system failure that Southwest Airlines experienced during the last week of December, the company has already said it finally plans to modernize operations. It took a disaster for Southwest, but that example may be the push that other airlines need to modernize and avoid a similar situation. 

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