EyeforTravel North America 2018

October 2018, Las Vegas

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Who will leave Las Vegas with the start up & innovation crown?

Now a decade old, the EyeforTravel Start Up Awards continues to attract exciting newcomers to the world of travel. Read on for this year’s line up

In just few weeks, at EyeforTravel Las Vegas, innovative travel start ups will have their opportunity to shine. A regular on the EyeforTravel event calendar, The Start Up Awards was first launched in 2008 and has subsequently been held at every major conference. Given its popularity, the award programme has taken on a life of its own. Participants benefit from first-hand advice and tips; it is an ideal place to meet, network and learn from fellow entrepreneurs and investors.

From a B2C peer-to-peer flight sale platform, to B2B engagement platforms and to the world’s first comparison site for holiday rentals, the remit this year is wide. “We are excited to have such a range of start ups and innovators this year; it’s going to be close,” says Renu Kanu, Project Director, EyeforTravel. And, in no particular order, here is the line up.  

1. iVeew – A company that has grown from building a CMS platform designed to manage businesses in mobile applications to a complete personalisation and guest recognition application (the patent is pending) with several platforms including a merchandising platform for adventures and activities.

2. Refly – A handy peer-to-peer marketing place that allows users to resell their flight tickets, and also purchase them at low cost.

3. Clinch – Promises to be able to communicate with customers and prospects on a one-to-one basis, with an individualised creative experience, because, hey, “each individual on earth has a unique set of characteristics and preferences”. So, “shouldn’t your engagement reflect that level of relevancy?”

4. Instio – Another B2B firm looking to help hospitality businesses engage with guests in a different way. It promises to boost TripAdvisor review counts and revenues too.

5. Air DB – More than just an airplane catalogue, Air DB is an airplane app, a business aircraft database that allows you to make multiple aircraft comparisons based on detailed and daily updated aircraft data.

6. Apartum – This fast-growing firm has the big claim of being the first comparison site for holiday rentals no less. Its guarantee is that on Apartum.com, you can always find and book apartments at the lowest price. Today, the site compares over 6,000,000 apartments in over 50,000 destinations in 120 countries!

7. VoyHoy – Launched in Chile in 2014, VoyHoy was established to aggregate South Africa’s fragmented transport industry. It’s a multimodal platform offering affordable real-time ticket bookings in local payments. It now serves Chile, Argentina, Peru, Columbia and Brazil, with some routes available in Paraguay and Uruguay.

8. ZingTrip – Also founded in 2014, ZingTrip is putting the zing back into travelling, and is on a mission to keep travellers healthy and active by introducing and connecting them with fitness options.

9. MeetingsSuite – As the name implies MeetingsSuite provides worldwide distribution of meeting spaces of hotels and other venues. This frees up meeting planners and travel agents to book meetings and events online, in real-time, “without the hassle, expense and wasted time of RFP’s and proposals”.

Just three of these companies will be shortlisted and have a final opportunity to pitch to the audience before it goes to a live vote. Among the benefits for the final winner are: an exclusive interview on EyeforTravel.com; the opportunity to present and speak at the North America 2019 Summit; and access to EyeforTravel’s extensive content library.  

Just a few of the judges of this year’s competition include Matt Zito from Travel Start Ups Incubator, Amir Amidi from the Plug and Play Tech Centre, Utpal Kaul, who is head of innovation and strategy at Carlson Wagonlit Travel and Gregoire Poirier, president of Xenia Hospitality Advisors.

Previous winners of the awards include Hotel Tonight, What3Words, Apaleo and Splitty.

Join us in Las Vegas for EyeforTravel North America (Oct 18-19)

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