Here’s our roundup of the people, product and partner news from the global travel industry this week.

Leadership updates from Serko, SITA, HolidayPirates, Mobi and Grasp

Serko, an online travel platform for business, announced the
appointment of David Holyoke as its head of unmanaged travel to take effect
on July 1.

Prior to Serko, Holyoke’s background includes head of commercial
strategy at Airbnb and a senior leadership role at Travel Leaders.

CEO Darrin Grafton said, “We have already achieved so much
in bringing a leading SME travel product to market, highlighting the enormous
potential ahead of us. David’s proven track record and expertise will be
incredibly valuable in unlocking that opportunity.”

Read more details here.

SITA, a multinational information technology company, has
appointed Shawn Gregor as its new president of the Americas.

Gregor’s background consists of serving as vice president and industry leader for travel and transportation and contributions at Infosys Technologies Limited and Accenture.   

While leading SITA’s operations and driving strategic
initiatives across the Americas region, Gregor plans to expand their technology and industry connections to deliver solutions that will enhance the travel experience for customers across the Americas.

Read more details here.

Holiday deals platform HolidayPirates Group has boosted its team with the appointment of a chief people officer, chief operating officer and chief financial officer. Vivien Schwarz-Elbelazi, who has been with the company since July 2016 takes up the CPO role while Judith Eyck becomes COO. Eyck, who has been part of the executive team for a year, will also be responsible for global operations, including marketing, brand, public relations, product development and e-commerce.

Meanwhile, Sönke Kisker takes up the CFO role, having held similar roles at Trivago and Pepper Group. HolidayPirates said it has had a “flat hierarchical structure” up to now because of the impact of the pandemic.

Read more details here.

Mobi Systems, a collaborative AI company,
announced the addition of James Russell as chief product and engineering
officer and Harriet Brown as vice president of product.

Prior to Mobi, Russell and Brown worked together at ITA Software
where they worked on product engineering and scaling airline software that laid
the foundation for Google Flights. With the additions of Russell and Brown, Mobi is
said to be able to streamline travel planning with destination discovery,
personalized recommendations and more.

Read more details here.

Grasp Technologies, a provider of travel data
management, visualization and payment solutions, announced the addition of
Chris Wilson as chief executive officer.

“We’re
thrilled that Chris has come on board as CEO,” said Mike Rozenfeld, founder and CEO of Waverock Software, which made a strategic investment in Grasp Technologies in 2021. “He’s a seasoned executive who has
a track record of go-to-market success, and his expertise will be invaluable as
we continue to expand our product offering to better serve our customers around
the globe.”

Read more details here.

Kayak’s new SMB product

Kayak is expanding its capabilities for small- and mid-size
companies to use its Kayak for Business solution.

The company first debuted the beta version of a free Kayak
for Business tool in late 2019 and then did the full
launch in July 2021.

Now the company is upgrading the solution with capabilities
for trip management, guest and group booking, flexible payments, 24/7 travel
agent support and expense tracking and reporting. The service is priced at a
flat fee of $20 per trip.

“In the world of business travel, where time is of the
essence, simplifying the booking process is key. Our corporate travel product
is designed to address the specific challenges SMBs encounter, streamlining the
planning process and saving time for both employees and travel coordinators,” said
Eva Fouquet, senior vice president of Kayak for Business.

“We hope to make booking a business trip as easy as booking a leisure
vacation.”

Kayak for Business also has an enterprise
product created in partnership with Blockskye.

Viator’s Alexa integration

At the HITEC conference in North Carolina this week,
Amazon announced new developments for Alexa Smart Properties, including
a collaboration with travel experience marketplace Viator. This partnership is said to give hoteliers new visual capabilities for control over how they connect and engage with their guests.

Sarah Dines, chief commercial officer at Viator, said, “This is a new way to plan and book experience – it enables more travelers to live in the moment, while broadening our operators’ exposure to new and larger audiences.”

Read more details here.

LuggageHero launches HotelsHero

On-demand luggage storage network LuggageHero has launched a
new solution to help hotels manage luggage storage and tipping. 

Hoteliers can use HotelsHero to enable a secure,
self-service storage option for guests, or they can use its sign-up and bag
identification tools for their own managed storage. Hotels can determine
whether to charge a fee for the service and guests have the option of adding
insurance through HotelsHero. 

HotelsHero also includes digital tipping capabilities. 

Amadeus, Thai Airways

Thai Airways has renewed its distribution agreement with Amadeus and expanded the partnership to enhance its travel retail offerings. The carrier is also revamping its website and mobile channels using Amadeus Reference Experience to improve the booking flow and enable travelers to manage end-to-end flight bookings, check-in and disruptions by themselves. 

Read further details here.

Spotnana, Air France

Spotnana has developed an NDC integration with Air France and KLM enabling customers to access entire Air France-KLM’s NDC offerings. Agents using Spotnana are able to provide servicing for NDC fares.

Support for self-service exchanges and cancellations post-ticketing is planned for the second half of 2024.

Read more here.

Sabre, Etihad

Etihad Airways is the latest carrier to announce it will distribute its new distribution capability content through Sabre’s global marketplace. 

Initially, the launch will be rolled out to agencies in Oman and Bahrain, allowing them to shop, book and service the airline’s NDC offers, with a broader rollout to follow. 

“We are excited about the addition of Etihad Airways’ NDC content to our travel marketplace, which demonstrates our ongoing commitment to providing the content our customers want and the scalable capabilities they need,” said Jean-Vincent Teuler, vice president of airline sales for the EMEA region at Sabre. “This initiative highlights our dedication to innovation and to operating a compelling travel marketplace that provides efficient access to multiple sources of content, including NDC.”

Read further details here.

Omio, Flix

Omio has partnered with Flix to offer the long-distance coach operators Flixbus and Flixtrain tickets on its multimodal transport platform.