Good morning from Skift. It’s Thursday, August 15, 2024, and now here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.
ToursByLocals CEO On Its Rebrand and Plans For The Future
30.07.2024 - 13:14 / skift.com / Jesse ChaseLubitz
In 2019, ToursByLocals received $33 million from a private equity firm and had plans for a full rebranding of its website. Then came the pandemic.
ToursByLocals connects travelers with, you guessed it, local guides. During the pandemic, the company used some of the funding to focus on keeping their guides above water. Now, five years later, the company finally followed through on its promise to rebrand.
In an interview with Skift, ToursByLocals’ CEO Lisa Chen explained the rebrand and also said that the company is working on integrating AI while keeping the customer experience human.
Chen, who took over last year, gave an inside look at what we can expect next from the company, including more partnerships and new tools for travel agents.
Skift: ToursByLocals underwent a significant branding overhaul in the past two months. Why?
Lisa Chen: It goes back a few years — before my time. Tritium Partners, which is a private equity company based in Austin, Texas, invested money in 2019. It was an incredibly inopportune time, being two months before the pandemic.
The original intent of funding was to completely overhaul the technology platform, the website itself, as well as the brand. We are now knee-deep, and I would say, sort of starting to be on the other side of that path. We completely re-platformed our technology stacks. We went to the cloud. We’ve overhauled our UI on the site to be much more modern. We’re using much more modern technology tooling, we brought in additional leaders that we sorely needed as head of product and head of engineering, and we rebranded all of it. It was a very ambitious project.
The reason we wanted to rebrand is to signal to our travelers, who are largely luxury travelers, that we are growing. We had fantastic growth last year and we’re doubling down on growth, on providing really excellent experiences and connecting and focusing on authentic, local experiences. And we wanted the brand to signal that much more clearly and distinctly than the old brand.
Skift: How are you incorporating artificial intelligence (AI)?
Lisa Chen: I’m dating myself, but I was around when the internet kind of came to be. I started my career in 1994 and my first job was in PR. I kind of feel deja vu again when I hear people say, how are you using AI? It’s like we used to say, you know, how are you using the internet?
It is going to be pervasive. We are using tooling that makes use of AI capabilities and machine learning capabilities, so it is threaded throughout our business. But our purpose is to keep travel human.
Right now, it’s more on helping us do our business more efficiently. We are threading it throughout our business. We have 165 people spread out throughout 10 different countries,
The website maxtravelz.com is an aggregator of news from open sources. The source is indicated at the beginning and at the end of the announcement. You can send a complaint on the news if you find it unreliable.
Top Autors
Popular Topics
travelandleisure.com
14.08.2024 / 16:49
Here's How Long You Have to Snag Vail Resorts' Epic Pass Before the Price Goes Up
It may still feel like the dog days of summer, but Vail Resorts is making sure skiers are ready for the slopes thanks to its famed Epic Pass.
insider.com
14.08.2024 / 12:22
I was born and raised in the Caribbean. People are wrong to reduce it to sun, sea, and sand.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Tenille Clarke , founder of the Caribbean-based public relations company Chambers Media Solutions . Clarke was born and raised in Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago.
cntraveler.com
13.08.2024 / 12:06
Chad's Ancient Geology and Epic Grandeur Make It the Ultimate Adventure Destination
From a distance, the sandstone pillars resembled a gathering of giants turned to stone by a displeased god. Our group of eight travelers had set out when the sun was at its zenith, and now, as it made its descent, we arrived at this place with air so pure it seemed to hold no scent. The only sound was the wind, as faint as breath. The rocks are called tassili, and some stand more than 300 feet high. They have been carved by this same disarmingly gentle wind over many thousands of years. This is what deep time feels like.
breakingtravelnews.com
13.08.2024 / 07:32
Davidson Hospitality Group Expands Footprint in the Caribbean
Davidson Hospitality Group, a leading hospitality management company celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, has been selected to operate the two distinctive yet interconnected resorts situated in Frenchman’s Reef on St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands: The Westin Beach Resort & Spa at Frenchman’s Reef and Morningstar Buoy Haus Beach at Frenchman’s Reef, Autograph Collection. The properties, which reopened in 2023 following a multi-year, transformational renovation, feature 486 guestrooms and suites; 85,000 square feet of meeting space; 10 restaurants and bars; a Heavenly Spa by Westin and more.
skift.com
09.08.2024 / 15:08
Pattaya Wants to Trade Its Nightlife Hub Reputation For a Family-Friendly One
The coastal Thai city of Pattaya is embarking on an ambitious rebranding effort, aiming to distance itself from its associations with sex tourism and illegal gambling into a destination that appeals to families, while also positioning itself as Thailand’s first casino city.
insider.com
08.08.2024 / 16:59
I flew business class for the first time with KLM. My 7-hour flight with the Dutch airline even ended with an amazing free gift.
As someone who's traveled to over 40 countries, there was one thing I never checked off my travel bucket list: flying business class. I always walked past the lie-flat seats and dreamed one day I would be able to.
euronews.com
06.08.2024 / 02:53
Ferrari seats, headphones by Beats and BeOnd: Inside the Maldives all business class airline
Offering business class flights at a fraction of the cost, this airline says it’s creating a new niche in luxury travel.
breakingtravelnews.com
28.07.2024 / 05:34
Beloved ICE! Attraction Returns and Expands for the 2024 Christmas Season
The country’s most extraordinary frozen holiday attraction, ICE!, announces its 2024 Christmas season lineup and its debut in San Antonio, Texas. Kicking off this November, the 24-year-old holiday tradition created by and featured across all five Gaylord Hotels will also be held at the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa. Each location will feature 2 million pounds of expertly hand-carved, larger-than-life ice scenes and fan-favorite characters from memorable Christmas classics. Two iconic holiday favorites will join this year’s roster including Elf™ and the long-awaited return of Frosty the Snowman™. Tickets to all ICE! locations are on sale today, including a limited time offer exclusively at ICE.marriott.com.
lonelyplanet.com
26.07.2024 / 19:46
Copy My Trip: Island hopping through the British Virgin Islands
Jul 26, 2024 • 5 min read
cntraveler.com
26.07.2024 / 19:37
Why Travelers Should Start Preparing for the Next Airline Scheduling Meltdown
They are scenes straight out of a travel nightmare: Airline passengers, including unaccompanied minors, stranded for days in strange cities amid a cascading wave of flight cancellations—with little hope of catching a plane home in a hurry.
thepointsguy.com
24.07.2024 / 20:00
Delta CEO Ed Bastian leaves Atlanta for Paris Olympics as meltdown abates
Delta Air Lines has been in the spotlight of the airline industry this week following a five-day-long operational meltdown that led to more than 5,000 flight cancellations and stranded passengers and their checked bags for days.