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Sustainable Tourism and AI Powered by Weeva

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Multiple award winning sustainability platform Weeva will be exhibiting at ITB Berlin  from 5th – 7th March 2024. ITB is the world’s largest travel show, gathering key decision makers across the global travel industry as well as showcasing trends and providing unrivalled opportunities for networking and knowledge sharing.

Weeva will be exhibiting in Hall 6.1, on stand 505 near the eTravel stage-  the hottest spot for conversations around all things travel tech.

Weeva’s Chief Technology Officer, James Lever, will be speaking on the eTravel Stage on 5th March at 16h40, sharing some exciting announcements including the highly-anticipated integration of generative AI into the award-winning sustainability data management tool – leading the charge for hotel tech in this niche.

Also joining James in Berlin will be Weeva’s Head of Sales, Gulam Sawant, Trade Ambassador, Melony van der Merwe and on the media side, Claire Roadley, representing the PR & Marketing team.

Harnessing the power of tech and AI to manage sustainability doesn’t just save hotels manpower and resources – but helps ensure that tourism ultimately has a more positive impact on people, planet and profit.

About Weeva
Weeva is a pioneering Software-as-a-Service platform designed to democratise access to cutting-edge sustainability management tools for the travel and tourism industry. A ‘GSTC-Recognized system’, the platform helps hotels of all sizes access best-practice, science-based, and data-driven sustainability solutions. Weeva has developed partnerships with the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance, Design Hotels, Small Luxury Hotels of the World’s Considerate Collection, and ATTA. In 2023, Weeva received the global Responsible Tourism Award for ‘Best for Addressing Climate Change’.

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First published at TravelNewsHub.com – Global Travel News

Sustainable Tourism and AI – Weeva heads for ITB Berlin 2024

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Multiple award winning sustainability platform Weeva will be exhibiting at ITB Berlin  from 5th – 7th March 2024. ITB is the world’s largest travel show, gathering key decision makers across the global travel industry as well as showcasing trends and providing unrivalled opportunities for networking and knowledge sharing.

Weeva will be exhibiting in Hall 6.1, on stand 505 near the eTravel stage-  the hottest spot for conversations around all things travel tech.

 

Weeva’s Chief Technology Officer, James Lever, will be speaking on the eTravel Stage on 5th March at 16h40, sharing some exciting announcements including the highly-anticipated integration of generative AI into the award-winning sustainability data management tool – leading the charge for hotel tech in this niche.

Also joining James in Berlin will be Weeva’s Head of Sales, Gulam Sawant, Trade Ambassador, Melony van der Merwe and on the media side, Claire Roadley, representing the PR & Marketing team.

Harnessing the power of tech and AI to manage sustainability doesn’t just save hotels manpower and resources – but helps ensure that tourism ultimately has a more positive impact on people, planet and profit.

About Weeva
Weeva is a pioneering Software-as-a-Service platform designed to democratise access to cutting-edge sustainability management tools for the travel and tourism industry. A ‘GSTC-Recognized system’, the platform helps hotels of all sizes access best-practice, science-based, and data-driven sustainability solutions. Weeva has developed partnerships with the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance, Design Hotels, Small Luxury Hotels of the World’s Considerate Collection, and ATTA. In 2023, Weeva received the global Responsible Tourism Award for ‘Best for Addressing Climate Change’.

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First published at TravelNewsHub.com – Global Travel News

Travel Booking Innovator Joyned Secures $8 Million in Series A Funding Round

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TRAVELNEWSHUB.comJoyned, an award-winning travel tech startup with an innovative social revenue technology platform, has just announced the completion of an $8 million Series A funding round. The funds raised will fuel Joyned’s mission to become a global growth engine for travel and hospitality brands.

The round was led by Reach Markets, an Australian private equity and financial services company. Sentor Investments, a private investment firm based in Australia, Velocity Ventures, a Singaporean investment fund focused on investing in innovative solutions in the tourism and hospitality sectors, and Lucerne Investment Partners, an Australian private investment group also participated.

Joyned enables end-users to discuss and book trips together directly on the website, making travel booking seamless and collaborative. This can be done anonymously, without registration, from a secure, private online space. The solution provides a cross-website, live experience for customers, at the same time empowering travel sites to own their shoppers’ natural social engagements and significantly increasing their conversion rates.

Joyned’s AI-based social revenue platform identifies critical data such as price perception and sentiment analysis, giving travel sites access to a comprehensive overview of the customer booking journey, which then allows them to offer users personally tailored deals.

With clients reporting increases across a wide range of metrics (KPIs), such as conversion rates, average transaction size, organic traffic, and more, Joyned generates remarkable improvements in the business performance of travel sites. By using its social revenue platform, the average booking value of users grows by an impressive 25%, and the conversion rate increases fourfold.

Commenting on the funding round, Joyned CEO, Jonathan Abraham, said: “The platform we have developed addresses the travelers’ need to experience the holiday booking process together. We are the first to bridge the gap between users’ desire for shared experiences and the possibility of doing so. Together with our partners, we are making a significant difference to the global hospitality industry, which is expected to roll over $4.6 trillion by the end of the year. The power of our solution is evidenced by the agreements we have signed with the world’s leading travel brands and the impact the solution has had on their businesses. We are proud of the support we received from leading funds joining our journey.”

Jonathan Cocks, Partner, Velocity Ventures added: Joyned’s innovative approach to collaborative travel booking experiences and its ability to drive engagement and conversions make it a standout player in the market. This investment will help catalyse Joyned’s expansion efforts and create lasting value for both customers and stakeholders.”

Joyned has made significant strides in its global expansion with commercial agreements with dozens of international travel brands, including a strategic commercial agreement with Amadeus, the world’s leading travel technology provider, OYO Vacation Homes, one of Europe’s leading holiday home rental companies, and TravelUp, the UK’s leading travel arrangements company. The capital raised will be used for product development, consolidating growth in international markets as well as business development and driving sales and growth processes in new verticals.

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First published at TravelNewsHub.com – Global Travel News

Joyned and Gratifii Announce Partnership to Elevate Customer Experience

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Award-winning travel tech start-up Joyned has announced a new partnership with Gratifii, an Australian market leader in providing loyalty and engagement programs from a single platform.

Joyned’s social revenue platform is now available across 60 partner brands of Gratifii in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, enhancing the travel experience for customers through increased collaboration between friends and family.

The new agreement between Joyned and Gratifii will explore the technical and commercial viability of several synergistic product offerings, including a promotion and distribution agreement between their respective platform and distribution networks, which is to be rolled out initially as a proof of concept (POC).

The partnership also facilitates the development of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for the Joyned ecosystem, enabling Gratifii’s customers to experience Joyned’s collaborative booking platform. This allows friends and family to seamlessly book trips abroad together through a micro social network which unfolds directly from Gratifii’s platform.

This results in improved engagement and conversions, with Gratifii and its partners typically enjoying a conversion rate five times higher, with increases to overall website revenue. Joyned’s platform also provides data-driven insights, enabling optimized offers to further grow customer retention.  

Commenting on the partnership, Joyned CEO, Jonathan Abraham, said: “We are delighted to announce our new agreement with Gratifii which will see Joyned’s social revenue platform used as part of their offering. Through this collaborative partnership, Joyned and Gratifii will continue to innovate a better, more collaborative experience for consumers and by expanding our presence across Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, we are confident consumers will benefit.”

Gratifii CEO and Managing Director, Iain Dunstan, added, “We are excited to be working with Joyned to expand our new travel rewards brand Neat Destinations and improve the booking experience for family or friends who want to travel together. Further, we are in discussions with some of our existing clients to integrate the Joyned platform into their existing travel offerings.”

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First published at TravelNewsHub.com – Global Travel News

Joyned Named Best Technology Product at Travolution Awards

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Joyned Named Best Technology Product at Travolution Awards - TRAVELNEWSHUB.comLondon, United Kingdom / TRAVELINDEX / Group travel booking innovator Joyned has been awarded the Best Technology Product award at the Travolution Awards 2023, having been recognised for its significant impact within the travel market.

Held in central London, the awards ceremony was attended by over 400 guests, hosted by Editor-in-Chief of Travolution, Kate Harden-England, and radio and television presenter, Alice Levine – complete with a three-course meal and lively entertainment from drummer group Box9 Drumline.

Joyned’s social revenue platform enables groups of friends and family (F&F) travellers to discuss and make purchases directly on a travel site from a secure, private, online space. The cross-website, live experience that Joyned provides enables travel sites to own their customers’ natural social engagements directly on-site, typically increasing travel sites’ conversion rates by four times their baseline and also increasing average order value by 25%.

Speaking about Joyned’s solution, the judges of the Travolution Awards 2023 said: “It was focused on solving a pain point of the industry, and had a solid value proposition.” The judges went further, stating that Joyned’s social booking technology “was entrepreneurial, with solid growth and showed that [Joyned] really understands consumer needs and that it addressed a problem.”

Commenting on Joyned’s recent win, CEO Jonathan Abraham said: “We’re delighted to have won the Best Technology Product title and we couldn’t have done it without our brilliant team. Joyned has experienced exceptionally strong growth over the past 12 months and this is absolutely due to our innovative SaaS social booking solution. Joyned enables friends and family travellers looking to book a holiday to do so more socially than ever. The online travel agencies we work with, including Amadeus, OYO Rooms, RIU Hotels and Despegar,  have commended Joyned’s innovation and we are the only SaaS solution to offer an off-the shelf collaborative booking solution.”

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First published at TravelNewsHub.com – Global Travel News

Weeva Wins Global Responsible Tourism Award for Climate Change

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(L – R) Weeva’s Julie Cheetham speaking on the Responsible Tourism panel at WTM, alongside Inge Huijbrechts, Global Sustainability Security Senior Executive for Radisson Hotel Group, Rochelle Turner, Head of Sustainability for Exodus Adventure Travels  and Shannon Guihan, Chief Sustainability Officer & Head of TreadRight for The Travel Corporation – moderated by Dr Harold Goodwin of the Responsible Tourism Partnership.

The awards champion the most progressive and innovative work in the travel and tourism industry across the world; celebrating a devotion to sustainability, positive influence, and conscious travel solutions. The awards aim to ‘unearth, acknowledge and promote good practice’ within the industry – signalling the trajectory of how the tourism industry is pursuing innovative new initiatives to combat climate change, increase biodiversity, and preserve local cultures and communities.

Read more about these globally respected awards in the Evening Standard.

Weeva is a pioneering Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform, aimed at democratising access to cutting-edge sustainability management tools for the travel and tourism industry. Over its first year of operations, Weeva has built a community of over 400 individual users around the world, who are making tangible progress to improve the sustainability of their business operations and drive lasting behavioural change within their teams.

Julie Cheetham, Co-founder and Managing Director at Weeva attended the WTM conference this week and spoke at the Responsible Tourism Programme run by renowned WTM Responsible Tourism Advisor, Harold Goodwin.

Julie commented: “What a huge honour to be acknowledged for this global award. It is humbling to know that our solutions are having a positive impact right across the world and helping our users on their individual sustainability journeys. This award is a testament to our collaborative work tackling climate change – a critical issue for our generation. We are so delighted to be recognised before touching down in London to join Harold and the Responsible Tourism Programme at WTM this week. I am grateful for a fantastic week of encouraging discussions with others who understand and support our vision for a sustainable and resilient future for travel.”

Sabre will be sponsoring the 2024 awards and were part of the international judging panel this year. Read Head of Sustainability Communications at Sabre, Tess Longfield’s report on the Global Responsible Tourism Awards on the Sabre website.  

The global award commendation follows the news that Weeva won ‘Gold’ at the regional WTM Africa Responsible Tourism Awards for the ‘Addressing Climate Change’ category. The WTM accolades wrap up a successful year of award wins for the start-up that celebrated its first anniversary in September. Notably, Julie Cheetham was recognised as Regenerative Change Maker of the Year at the 2023 edition of the Regenerative Travel Impact Awards.

Weeva's Julie Cheetham receiving her Regenerative Travel Changemaker of the Year award from Amanda Ho
Weeva’s Julie Cheetham receiving her “Change Maker of the Year” award from Regenerative Travel’s Amanda Ho

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First published at TravelNewsHub.com – Global Travel News

Pattern Insurance Revolutionizing Cancellation Flexibility for Non-Refundable Bookings

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Pattern Insurance Revolutionizing Cancellation Flexibility for Non-Refundable Bookings - TRAVELNEWSHUB.comPattern, a leading InsurTech innovator specializing in customized embedded insurance and non-insurance products, is thrilled to announce the launch of its groundbreaking service, FlexIt.

Designed to provide unmatched cancellation flexibility for non-refundable bookings, FlexIt empowers travel, booking, and registration retailers to offer their customers an immediate, no-questions-asked cancellation option. According to Expedia’s most recent Path to Purchase report, 28% of travelers look for travel brands that offer flexible cancellation policies or refundable rates. Pattern’s platform is meeting that need with FlexIt.

FlexIt seamlessly integrates into the booking pathway of Online Travel Agencies, event booking companies, and any business dealing with non-refundable reservations, effectively transforming them into refundable bookings. This new service redefines customer experience by eliminating the need for complex claim forms or restrictive reasons for cancellations.

Joyce Segall, Global Head of Insurance Innovation and Strategy at Pattern, states, “Today’s consumers are looking for maximum flexibility around refundability with the ability to cancel without the hassle of filling out claim forms or deciphering a list of covered reasons. FlexIt allows consumers to book with confidence knowing they can cancel their booking for any reason, no questions asked.”

FlexIt’s coverage extends across all regions where Pattern operates, ensuring a global reach. Existing Pattern customers can seamlessly access FlexIt through Pattern’s embedded protections platform. Additionally, the service is available as a standalone offer for prospective online retailers seeking cancellation flexibility or as part of a more comprehensive protection offering.

Ido Hertz, Head of Product Management, explains, “Trip cancellation products like CFAR have always come with their fair share of limitations and are not widely available with every purchase, which has been confusing and frustrating to many of our customers. This is not your standard CFAR insurance. We’ve reimagined this product based on market needs. It is easily configured and embedded in every business, booking and customer journey in minutes, and using machine learning, it addresses every flexibility need, with a personalized cancellation service.

Pattern Insurance invites businesses to explore FlexIt and revolutionize their booking processes by providing customers with unprecedented cancellation flexibility.

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First published at TravelNewsHub.com – Global Travel News

Joyned Appoints Omri Lachman as Managing Director of Growth

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Award-winning Jerusalem-based startup Joyned has today announced the appointment of Omri Lachman as its Managing Director of Growth.

A serial tech entrepreneur and executive with over 15 years of experience in launching and scaling disruptive tech ventures, Omri will lead Joyned into its next phase of growth and further extend its disruptive collaborative booking technology within the travel sector. Lachman’s expertise focuses on business development, strategy development, sales and marketing. He also has hands-on experience in working alongside both consumer (B2C) and business (B2B) audiences.

Lachman has previously served as CEO and co-founder of wireless charging technology startup Humavox, and was co-founder of gamified sports talent discovery platform LEAP. He serves on advisory boards of several Israel-based companies and has served as board member at Joyned since May 2021. 

As part of several leadership teams, Omri has nurtured early stage tech ventures to enable successful public offerings and has also successfully facilitated M&A transactions. His expertise spans across a variety of technological features, namely: semantic search engines, computer vision and image analysis, voice recognition, telecom, cyber security, sports and gaming, wireless electricity, blockchain and Web3. 

Commenting on Lachman’s appointment, Joyned CEO and co-founder Jonathan Abraham, said: “We’re really excited to have Omri join the team as our Managing Director of Growth. We’ve been very impressed with his contributions as a board member and he’s already provided invaluable expertise used in our business modeling, product-elements, business and go-to-market strategies. It felt like a natural progression to boost and enhance his position as we at Joyned are also looking to enhance our impressive growth further.”

Joyned is a SaaS solution for travel websites that enables friends and family to book together, increasing revenue in the process. Founded in 2017 by CEO Jonathan Abraham and CPO Michael Levinson, Joyned has rapidly expanded over the past year and its Gross Booking Value increased by more than ten times between Q2 2022 and Q1 2023. Joyned’s client base now includes travel industry giants Amadeus, RIU Hotels and OYO Vacation Homes. 

Omri Lachman said: “It’s a pleasure and a privilege to become even more involved in the growth and expansion phase of such an innovative company. Over my entrepreneurial journey, I have devoted most attention to companies and entrepreneurs which make their presence known within the market and are changing people’s lives for the better by doing so. Joyned is one of those companies. I look forward to working closer than ever with the team to continue Joyned’s position as the go-to solution and provider of this booking technology within the travel industry.”  

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First published at TravelNewsHub.com – Global Travel News

Weeva Celebrates as Sustainable Travel Continues to Top Consumer Priorities

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Weeva Celebrates as Sustainable Travel Continues to Top Consumer Priorities - TRAVELNEWSHUB.comJohannesburg, SA and London, UK – Weeva celebrated one year since it launched its pioneering Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform, which is aimed at democratising access to cutting-edge sustainability management tools for the travel and tourism industry. The anniversary comes as sustainable travel trends continue to top consumer preferences.

Over its first year of operations, Weeva has built a community of over 400 individual users around the world, who are making tangible progress to improve the sustainability of their business operations and drive lasting behavioural change within their teams.

Research has shown that consumers are making a conscious choice to opt for destinations, tourism operators, hotels and airlines that are investing in sustainability, despite perceiving the industry as a whole to be making little to no effort to mitigate the impact of the climate crisis or care for local communities.[1]

Because of this and despite pressures on personal finances, consumers are willing to pay up to 10% more to travel sustainably.[2]

Julie Cheetham, Co-founder and Managing Director of Weeva, said: “When we launched Weeva last year, it was apparent that the mood was already shifting, and that there was an urgent need to help the tourism industry improve its impact on people and the planet. Our platform enables travel and tourism businesses of all sizes to measure their progress on their sustainability journeys and identify opportunities to minimise environmental impact, build commercial resilience, and contribute to preserving thriving communities and ecosystems.”

In its first year, Weeva has been used by over 200 travel and tourism businesses – predominantly hospitality providers – to collect, analyse and track data across 18 interconnected sustainability parameters. Over the course of the year, users have captured, managed and analysed a wide range of data, including:

  • 1,600 species of fauna and flora captured and recorded.
  • 1,6 million kilolitres of water consumed/used.
  • 88,000 tonnes of scope 2 carbon emissions under management.
  • 2,000 tonnes of waste recycled.
  • USD $600,000 spent on community development projects with 30,000 direct and indirect beneficiaries.

As the platform’s capabilities grow alongside its userbase, these datasets will produce longer-term insights that point to emerging trends in sustainable travel and reflect the impact that tourism businesses are having on their local environments and communities.

Lindsey Walter, Co-founder and Director of Weeva, said: “In our first year, we have grown alongside our users – listening to their needs – and this month we celebrate the Weeva community’s sustainability achievements. As we look ahead, we are doubling down on our efforts to make sustainability management as accessible and simple as possible. We can’t wait to see how our users continue to shape sustainable travel well into 2024 and beyond.”

As part of its mission to demystify sustainability management for travel and tourism businesses, on October 18, Weeva will host an open-to-all virtual masterclass entitled, How to prepare your tourism property for making a difference.

Caption:  Weeva founders (from left to right): Arnold Meyer, Executive Chairman at Nianova Advisors; Russel Binks, Head of Sales and Marketing at Tswalu Kalahari; Lindsey Walter, Co-founder and Director of Weeva and Head of Commercial Development at Nianova Advisors; Jill Pruett, Finance and Operations Executive at Nianova Advisors; and Julie Cheetham, Co-founder and Managing Director at Weeva and Executive Sustainability at Nianova Advisors.  

About Weeva
Weeva is a pioneering Software-as-a-Service platform designed to democratise access to cutting-edge sustainability management tools for the travel and tourism industry. The platform helps travel businesses of all sizes access best-practice, science-based, and data-driven sustainability solutions.

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First published at TravelNewsHub.com – Global Travel News

Joyned Crowned Most Successful Scale-Up at Hustle Awards

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Joyned Crowned Most Successful Scale-Up at Hustle Awards - TRAVELINDEXIsraeli travel tech start-up Joyned has been recognised for the company’s outstanding growth at this year’s Hustle Awards, where they were crowned as winners of the Most Successful Scale-Up category.

The prestigious award ceremony took place on Thursday 20th July at the iconic Steel Yard in London. Competition was high and the judges noted the exceptional calibre of entries this year across multiple categories. 

The Most Successful Scale-Up category included nine shortlisted companies, with Joyned receiving the highest scores from the judges. The award was collected by Oz Erez, solutions specialist at Joyned and was presented by James Day, Sales Leader at Cisco SMB UK and comedian, Maisie Adam.

Joyned has rapidly expanded over the past year, having increased their Gross Booking Value by more than ten times over between Q2 2022 and Q1 2023, and with a client base including travel industry giants such as Amadeus, RIU Hotels and OYO Vacation Homes.

The team has also grown significantly in recent months, welcoming several senior level hires including Doron Luder as VP of Sales and Lior Zysman, former CEO of Playtech Israel, who joined as VP of Customers. Oren Elbaz, former founder of TinyTap (acq. by Animoca Brands) was also welcomed as Joyned’s new Head of Design, and will lead the UI/UX development of Joyned Booking during the next phase of growth.

Commenting on Joyned’s successes to date, the Hustle Awards judges said ‘we were very impressed with Joyned, as they gave clear evidence of impressive growth, with so much potential to continuing developing in future.”

Joyned’s CEO, Jonathan Abraham, said: “I’m absolutely delighted that Joyned has been named as the Most Successful Scale-Up at this year’s Hustle Awards. I’m very proud of the consistent growth Joyned has demonstrated over the past year which is testament to the calibre of our incredibly talented team. It really shows that what we’re doing in the travel sector space is resonating with some of the industry’s biggest companies and influencers.”

Joyned Booking enables groups of friends and family who want to go on holiday together to discuss and make purchases directly on a travel site in a secure, private, online space. Through its cross-website, live experience, travel sites are able to own their customers’ natural social engagements directly on-site, typically increasing travel sites’ conversion rates by four times their baseline and increasing average order value by 25%.

“Joyned is currently the only company providing an off-the-shelf solution to the travel sector that offers a seamless, collaborative booking experience. Our offering is unique and highly valued by customers and OTAs alike. Our growth to date has been exceptional and we can’t wait to see where the company goes next,” adds Jonathan.

The full list of this year’s winners can be found on the Hustle Awards website.

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First published at TravelNewsHub.com – Global Travel News