AI technology provider Grapevine has been announced as the
winner of the 2021 Business Travel Innovation Faceoff at Business Travel Show Europe.
Grapevine landed the award following a six-way battle
against other technology and service providers, who all presented their
business travel inventions during online sessions at the event. The other
contenders included Climate Neutral Group, Element Travel Technology, Hubli,
PayPense and PredictX. Grapevine has won a trophy, PR support and a place at
the judging table at next year’s competition.
Judges for this year’s Business Travel Innovation Faceoff
were Norm Rose, president, Travel Tech Consulting; Steve Clagg, travel
technology manager, Microsoft; Suzanne Boyan, meetings and travel manager, ZS
Associates; and Ron Shah, founder and CEO, Bizly.
Grapevine, which launched in early 2020, is an AI engine
designed to improve how TMCs engage with travellers and drive revenue. The
white-labelled service’s AI engine Marvin integrates with TMC data sources,
identifies booking opportunities and retargets travellers with ‘right time,
right channel’ personalised and bookable recommendations, providing total trip
value to the traveller and increased booking commissions to TMCs.
The company has partnership agreements with Advantage Travel
Partnership and the Advantage Global Network (formerly WIN Global Travel Network)
and Gray Dawes.
The judging panel commented: “The most amazing thing about
Grapevine is its ability to pivot when the market changes – that is the
cornerstone of innovation.
“Grapevine identified a weakness in the marketplace – the sale
of ancillary services – and uses past behaviour to drive future results, which
sounds so basic, but we haven’t been doing that in travel. They provide
travellers with information that’s not only timely but impactful in making
their trip more successful and the use of AI and machine learning is really
driving that.”
Jack Dow, founder and CEO of Grapevine (pictured), said: “Thank you so
much to Business Travel Show Europe. It really means a lot to us, and it’s
great recognition of the hard work the team has put in over the past year and a
half. It also highlights the increasing recognition of the part technology can
play, not just in the recovery from a very challenging 18 months, but also in
reshaping the future of travel, providing consumer-grade experiences, which are
long overdue in the industry. We’re really excited to work with TMCs,
corporates, travellers and bookers in the coming months and years.”
Meanwhile, PredictX was presented with a high commendation
by the judges, who said its Scenario Builder has “…great potential to help
corporate travel programmes to make stronger data-driven decisions”. The tool allows
travel managers to take their historical programme, remove parts that are no
longer valid, project future volumes and merge them with fare and rate data as
it happens, allowing them to instantly see where the programme is trending and
to explore the impact of change.