The special ranking by PhocusWire, presented during The Phocuswright Conference that every November highlights the Hot 25 Startups of the year in the tourism and travel sector. Let's see what the top 25 startups of 2021 are.
L’ Hot 25 startup 2021 per PhocusWire è una raccolta di società che sono sopravvissute all’inizio della pandemia globale e che possono comunque prosperare nel 2021. Tutte le società presenti nell’elenco di quest’anno sono state create negli ultimi cinque anni.
I criteri utilizzati negli anni precedenti sono ancora rilevanti, nonostante le circostanze insolite in cui si trova l’industria del turismo:
- capacity to grow the customer base and to expand geographically
- product innovation
- quality of the leadership team.
List of 25 startups 2021
- Air Doctor: is a digital platform providing a global network of doctors and making it accessible to any traveler, anywhere. Israel
- Anyplace: provides turnkey furnished accommodation rentals worldwide, without long-term leases, without owners, and a simple application process. United States
- Beachy: software that combines mapping technology with a booking and payment system so hotel guests can reserve items like a sunbed, an umbrella, or a cabana by the pool or beach, all contactless. Enabling reservations allows hotels to better control capacity and social distancing at their pools and beaches, generating additional revenue through extra sales. United States
- BeRightBack: platform for short trips to European destinations. The system creates itineraries for subscribers based on their preferences such as trip type, destinations, airports, and preferred times. In response to COVID, the company also launched a staycation product. United Kingdom
- Buser: Buser’s intercity bus charter market allows travelers to meet others interested in the same trip and instead of buying individual tickets from regular line companies, they can join together and rent a bus for their journey. Promoting group buying effects and competition among service providers within the market, Buser enables travelers to save up to 60% on their trips. Brazil
- CheKin: helps vacation rental managers streamline and automate rental contract processing. The system captures identification information and registers guests with local authorities according to laws. Spain
- CityGuyd: offers travelers an augmented reality tour guide, creating a personalized experience in a convenient, accessible format, and in multiple languages. The system tracks GPS signals to ensure users receive only relevant content for the sites they choose to visit. Additionally, CityGuyd serves as an in-house studio creating personalized AR tour content for groups such as tourism boards, museums, conferences, airlines, and others. United States
- Dream Drive: builds customized vans that can accommodate two to four people and can be used to explore Japan. The vans come with hotel-quality bedsheets, towels, stove and kettle, cutlery, and are insured with unlimited mileage. Japan
- Entrada Insights: leverages and optimizes complex data to provide a full range of data science, benchmarking, and analytics services for global destination management organizations to use in marketing, community development, and sustainability efforts. United States
- Kyte: distribution for airlines with a radically new approach to connect with their customers and become modern resellers. Kyte Direct Connect is a NDC-based network solution where airlines control their offering, product, and relationship with the consumer or third-party distributor. United Kingdom
- Maidbot: provides automated cleaning robots for hotels, rentals, and other commercial spaces. Maidbot’s “Rosie” robot can clean guest rooms, hallways, casinos, airports, airplanes, and more. The system collects data to improve cleaning schedules and alerts operators to Wi-Fi or climate issues. United States
- Pace: provides data-driven revenue management for hoteliers. Pace uses machine learning to assess real-time demand and respond with optimal prices for each category. Hoteliers can set views on any data, share them with stakeholders, and receive updates. United Kingdom
- Rebound Travel: refund management platform created to address issues raised during the pandemic. Through Rebound, airlines offer customers the choice between cash refunds and non-cash offers such as vouchers, airline miles, or free flight coupons. Rebound provides an intelligent formula so airlines can offer the optimal deal, allowing them to retain cash. United States
- SanSee Systems: hygiene certification and screening company serving the tour and attraction sector. The company issues its SanSee Shield after conducting a 100-point screening that uses CDC, WHO, OSHA, other health authority recommendations, and an internal team of biologists, epidemiologists, lawyers, and veterans from SanSee. Thailand
- Sebiya: all-in-one guest experience system designed to provide vacation rental companies with the technology needed to deliver full-service digital travel experiences to their guests. United States
- Smooss: helps travel companies increase revenue and improve customer experience with its booking system-based solutions. Smooss enables easy reservation change with its universal Disruption Recovery solution and offers a personalized earning opportunity through its “Smooss Ancillary Platform”. France
- Space Perspective: human spaceflight company created to give everyone, not just astronauts, the opportunity to see Earth as a planet from space. The company is developing a high-performance balloon and a pressurized capsule that will gently transport people to and from the space edge for a six-hour period, in a relaxed environment with plush reclining seats and a bar. United States
- Tentrr: connects private landowners interested in sharing their property with campers seeking unique private camping experiences. The platform offers two options for users: sites brought from home or “Tentrr Signature” sites equipped with a canvas tent on a platform, queen bed, table and chairs, fire pit, barbecue, and more. Tentrr campsites are among the offerings on Airbnb, Booking.com, and Glamping Hub. United States
- Tripkicks: integrates with corporate online booking tools so travelers can see insights and alerts in real time as they book their trip. United States
- Troop Travel: platform designed to help travel and event coordinators make informed decisions about the best destination to gather their distributed teams worldwide. The system aggregates thousands of data points to compare travel costs, ease of travel, visa requirements, carbon footprint, safety, and more, so decisions can be made based on objective intelligence rather than simple opinion. Since the start of the COVID crisis, it has added filters based on infection rates and travel restrictions. Spain
- Trueface: provides on-site computer vision solutions that automatically interpret camera data and turn it into actionable information, for tasks like facial recognition, age verification, and weapon detection. United States
- Volara: provides customized voice solutions to the hospitality sector, using its proprietary software that creates a tool for the hotel business running on hardware such as Amazon Echo and Google Nest Hub, among others. The system is used by property managers, creative agencies, and tech integrators to enable large-scale memorable voice-based experiences. United States
- Vouch: provides hotels with a chat-based, app-free digital concierge that uses artificial intelligence to provide 24/7 services for hotel guests. The system can be used for pre-arrival communications, health declarations, scheduled check-ins to reduce crowding, booking facilities like gyms, pools, and restaurants, request cleaning and in-room dining, and gather guest feedback. Singapore
- Wayaj: promotes a sustainable tourism industry by providing resources and tools that travelers and travel operators can use to inform their decision-making and choices. Wayaj developed a carbon footprint calculator designed for hotels and a certification program, along with supporting sustainability consulting and marketing services. United States
- Zamna: builds GDPR-compliant digital identity platforms for the aviation sector. Zamna enables airlines to verify a passenger’s identity before arriving at an airport, creating a better experience for passengers and increasing security. The technology uses modern cryptographic approaches and distributed ledger technology to securely connect data and individual verifications, creating a scalable blockchain solution for aviation and governments. United Kingdom

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