3 AI-based travel and tourism start-ups
3 innovation and digital news in 1 minute. Every Monday. Episode 355
Swifty, AI business travel assistant by Lufthansa Innovation Hub
In August, Lufthansa Innovation Hub launched an AI business travel assistant. In a chat business travellers communicate travel dates, budgets, requirements, hotel and flight preferences etc. and Swifty will come up with suggestions. After bookings are made, Swifty provides the itinerary and receipts for the booked trip. Opinion: As of now, Swifty focuses on the travel itself — in addition to a partnership with Expedia for hotel booking. Lufthansa already announced plans to expand it to rail, ground transport alternatives and sustainability aspects.
Swifty has all the information about the booked flights and will also answer questions about meals on board or seat size, aircraft type etc..
Mindtrip, an AI travel agent
Mindtrip.ai is an AI travel planner and booking assistant. Type in prompts and get a whole travel itinerary proposed. The AI provides routes, images and booking information. Including maps with suggested places to visit, availability, restaurant reservation etc.. Started in 2023, it’s still a concept under development, public beta version to be launched by the end of 2023. Opinion: Not reinventing the wheel of travelling, but combining AI to do the full job of a personal travel agent.
Input by the user is a rough idea as a prompt, output is a full detailed itinerary, helps travellers saving time in travel planning.
Researching, planning and booking a trip can be a time extensive task that AI could take care of you in seconds.
Faye travel insurance and travel assistant
Faye’s core offering is a personalised travel insurance. By answering a set of questions (destination, activities etc.), Faye calculates a personalised offer. The app also works as a personal travel assistant with updates on weather conditions, flight delays etc. Opinion: All traditional travel insurances like emergency medical conditions or lost belongings are covered by Faye, also more unconventional ones like accidents while doing adventures and extreme sports. Claims are requested in a chat in the Faye app, in some cases even with instant payout into the Faye wallet (a virtual credit card).
Instant payout e.g. for a flight delay insurance. Faye is based in Tel Aviv with $18m VC funding (including funding from Munich RE).
