These companies employ some of the best-educated, hard-working, and entrepreneurial talent in the world, with skills ranging from IT to human resources and, of course, financial acumen. Could some of that talent be transferred to the travel technology sector, now in recovery and, for some, booming?
Spencer Hanlon, Global Head of Travel Payments at Fintech Provider Nium, talks about the potential benefits for the Travel Fintech space:
"It is quite ironic that perhaps the sector most affected by COVID, travel, is now booming and can benefit from the layoffs that are currently taking place in the financial sector. However, within the travel sector, perhaps One of the fastest growing and most exciting areas right now is travel fintech, as companies faced with staff shortages and the need to keep costs down are turning to fintech solutions to automate processes that haven't changed in decades. I hope some of these profiles, especially those with back-office knowledge of payment systems, will show up in travel fintech very soon."
For his part, Morgann Lesné, of the travel investment bank Cambon Partners, adds: "COVID slowed down mergers and acquisitions, but now that the sector is booming again, everyone wants to recover the ground lost for three years:
"COVID slowed down M&A, but now that the industry is booming again, everyone wants to make up for three lost years, so this year will be more important than ever. Personally, I know a lot of travel companies, especially of travel tech, eager to hire people with M&A-related banking profiles, or tap the capital markets to finance those activities, so I'm sure we'll see some of these financial talents now losing their posts quickly transition to travel."
Simon Lehmann of vacation rental consultancy AJL Atelier also discusses the outlook for M&A in the travel industry:
"Within travel, the Short Term Rental (STR) and Vacation Rental (VR) industry continues to grow at an even faster rate and is also headed for consolidation, so many of these companies are in need of high-end talent." level with experience in going to the capital markets and in M&A activities, just the kind of people who this week may be polishing up their résumés in quite unexpected ways.
Mark Ross-Smith of customer loyalty technology provider StatusMatch discusses the potential benefits for airline loyalty programs:
"Recent layoffs in financial services (and tech companies, too) present a huge opportunity for airlines to drive loyalty program innovation. Many former financial and technology services employees were high-flying frequent flyers in their previous positions, so now that airlines are hiring again, there is an opportunity to attract these people to airlines that come from such valuable innovative and strategic backgrounds." Airline loyalty programs have lagged behind innovation in recent years, but now that the good times are back, it's the perfect time for loyalty programs to take advantage of the abundance of high-caliber talent that now exists in the market".
Finally, Anthony Hunt, Vice President of Strategy and Product at the leading hospitality technology provider Shiji Group, reflects on the possible drive for technological innovation in the sector:
"Modern financial institutions are highly reliant on technology and are far more innovative than you might think. Their employees' skills are in many ways transferable and as such valued by tech companies in any industry. Getting the best Tech talent has always been a struggle for any industry, but financial institutions have often been able to afford the highest salaries, while travel has been at the bottom end of the pay scale.So for once, the tables are turned. they could have changed a bit and our sector could benefit from this situation, at least temporarily."