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PODCAST

Travel Tech Insider

Gilad Berenstein and Cara Whitehill

Travel Tech Insider is a podcast for those building the future of travel.Hosted by operators and investors, it’s where the smartest minds in the space go to hear bold takes, nuanced ideas, and practical insights from the people doing the work. If you’re tired of press release PR and trade-show buzzwords, this is your seat at the table.Co-hosted by industry veterans and investors Gilad Berenstein and Cara Whitehill, they are joined by guest experts from all corners of the travel & hospitality

technology

All Episodes

57:49

Adventures in FinTech: Stablecoins, Blockchain and...

Travel Tech Insider ·

2025/12/02

Fintech has quietly become one of the most transformative forces in the travel industry — shaping how we pay, how we earn and redeem loyalty, and increasingly, how companies manage global transactions behind the scenes. From B2B payment flows between hotels, OTAs, and suppliers to B2C innovation in digital wallets, loyalty currencies, and embedded finance, fintech is no longer just an enabler — it’s a strategic differentiator. Fintech also plays a role in the expanding agentic AI space. After...

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64:00

The AI Effect (Part 3): Agentic AI & Future of...

Travel Tech Insider ·

2025/11/25

Show Notes Agentic AI is the latest buzzword in travel tech — but beyond the hype, it raises big questions about how travelers will discover, plan, and book their journeys. Will the power of agentic AI reinforce the dominance of OTAs like Expedia and Booking, or will it open the door for smaller travel brands to compete on equal footing? In this episode, we explore what agentic AI means for personalization in travel retailing and service delivery: how it could reshape loyalty, rewire customer...

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57:44

Agentic AI (Part 2): The Emerging AI Tech Stack

Travel Tech Insider ·

2025/11/11

Generative AI is not only impacting how travel is bought and sold as we heard in Part 1 of our AI Effect series, it’s also impacting how companies are building and delivering the travel services that are bought and sold. Companies used to stockpile servers, engineers and access to bandwidth, all of which required considerable capital. In this new AI era, anyone can use Replit or Lovable to spin up their own travel app in a matter of hours. Companies no longer need teams of expensive engineers...

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48:44

The AI Effect (Part 1): The Future of Travel...

Travel Tech Insider ·

2025/11/04

Generative AI has upended just about every part of the travel lifecycle for both buyers and sellers of travel services. From the consumer perspective, the resources available to inspire, research, plan, book and share your favorite trips have simultaneously expanded the possibilities for consideration and curated that consideration set to a handful of suggestions — all in a matter of seconds. From the perspective of those selling travel services, that path to reach your buyers has become expo...

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51:17

Social Commerce: Dead or Alive?

Travel Tech Insider ·

2025/10/28

With all the debate over agentic AI and its impact on the traditional search ecosystem, we seem to have forgotten all about that other massive acquisition channel — social commerce. TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, Twitter, and other popular commuity sites around the globe all continue to garner a significant share of top-of-funnel attention and mid-funnel intent. This is acutely true for the Gen Z and younger millennial cohorts when it comes to travel planning and even more so for Gen Alp...

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61:51

Vacation Rentals in Flux

Travel Tech Insider ·

2025/10/21

The vacation rental industry has transformed from a scrappy alternative to hotels into a global powerhouse—but is the model starting to strain under its own weight? In this episode, we explore how the ecosystem is evolving, and where fault lines are beginning to show. Can tech keep pace with rising guest expectations? Will hosts, managers, and platforms ever find equilibrium in their tug-of-war over economics, control, and trust? And what happens when regulators and communities push back agai...

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61:06

SALON: The New Era of Investing - Lessons Learned for...

Travel Tech Insider ·

2025/07/29

In this emerging AI era, what’s different this time when it comes to tech investing? We’ve seen major disruptions before, both business model (eg, internet > mobile > social > AI) and cultural/structural/economic (eg, ZIRP, gig workers, Covid, remote working, cloud computing). Prior eras followed a similar playbook: irrational exuberance leading to the trough of despair, followed by the emergence of a handful of market leaders with escape velocity and long tail of minor players, all ...

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56:20

SALON: The State of VC in Travel: APAC Edition

Travel Tech Insider ·

2025/04/15

In our first two seasons we took a deep dive into the venture investing scenes in both the US and European markets, comparing and contrasting the startup trends, approaches to risk, and styles of investing that are taking hold. Now we shift our focus east, and take a look at the state of the APAC VC ecosystem. Given the multitude of different countries, cultures, and currencies the region encompasses, it has a far more diverse customer base to tap into than the US or EU. How does that impact ...

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73:36

Season Finale | What’s on Tap for 2025

Travel Tech Insider ·

2025/01/28

Wrapping up season two of the Travel Tech Insider podcast, we turn the tables on our favorite trade media voices to hear what they’re keeping an eye on for 2025. What are they most excited to cover? What under-the-radar trends do they think will have an outsized impact on the ways we plan, shop, book and experience travel? And how do they go about their day-to-day jobs in the media world, identifying stories and cultivating their sources to find their unique angles and insights? We’re jo...

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74:51

M&A Part 2: The Exit | Founders Perspectives

Travel Tech Insider ·

2024/12/24

In part 1 of our exploration of M&A trends in the travel sector, we talked to the bankers and advisors who have a front row seat to the circus that is the M&A process. Given this is their job day-in and day-out, they have a deep understanding of the steps involved in buying or selling a business, can anticipate the gotcha’s and stumbling blocks, and are primed to help their customers avoid pitfalls that can unexpectedly snag a deal.Now we turn to the other side of the table and talk t...

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75:37

What’s Cooking with Food & Beverage Innovation?

Travel Tech Insider ·

2024/12/17

Dining out, room service, fine dining, continental breakfasts, a fancy cocktail, and food and drink in general have always been a part of the travel experience and hospitality offering. Today more than ever before Michelin Stars, hidden gems, street eats, food tours, cooking classes, Agriturismo, and gastropubs are the central aspirations of an enormous percentage of the traveling public.As we learned from 100’s of millions of travelers at Utrip, for most Americans, and everyone else too, mos...

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59:20

M&A Part 1: Buyers, Sellers and the State of the Market

Travel Tech Insider ·

2024/12/10

We’ve spent a lot of time on the pod talking about startups, and now we’re going to shift gears to talk about the finish line, and what the climate is looking like for exits. The IPO market has been virtually non-existent the past couple years, and M&A activity (particularly for Big Tech) has been stagnant.That said, there is a ton of capital sitting on the sidelines, seemingly ready to jump in when conditions improve. Coupled with the volume of early-stage companies that have matured fro...

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55:15

The Travelization of Finance with Bilt Rewards and...

Travel Tech Insider ·

2024/12/03

The fintech sector has expanded massively beyond its origins as a way to modernize and connect the plumbing across the various segments of the financial services world. The intersection of fintech and travel — the “Financialization” of the travel sector — is leading to some incredibly interesting applications that help consumers find value and help merchants more efficiently serve those consumers. Alternative forms of payment, loyalty program extensions, creative new approaches to funding tra...

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54:28

Aviation Innovation: What’s Up in the Air

Travel Tech Insider ·

2024/11/26

It might be hard to tell at times, but we’re in the midst of a renaissance when it comes to the air travel experience. Everything from the aircraft we fly to the routes they take to the in-flight experience is getting a major redesign. The pandemic and subsequent Infrastructure Act provided the downtime and funds for our airports to get badly needed investment, enabling them to modernize their operations and overhaul the passenger experience into something that is actually pleasant. While it’...

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56:55

The Future of Travel: Digital Identity & Universal...

Travel Tech Insider ·

2024/11/18

We’ve talked a lot on the pod about the mythical Connected Trip concept, and the vision for a unified travel experience across all the different touchpoint throughout the journey. One that is personalized and understands the context of the trip — is it for work or for fun, with family or solo, international or local — and what type of support we might need throughout the journey.One key foundational element of this vision is the concept of identity: who you are, what are your preferences, and...

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69:42

The State of VC in Travel: Europe Edition

Travel Tech Insider ·

2024/11/12

Last season we took a deep dive into the venture investing scene here in the US, including the different approaches taken by corporate ventures teams and institutional funds, and the growth of new platforms like studios and accelerators.Now it’s Europe’s turn. We’ll take a look at the European venture scene and what investors are seeing on that side of the pond. Valuations, M&A activity, implications of governmental regulation, and fundraising trends for both VCs and startups.The ecosyste...

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52:29

Are Ancillaries Becoming the Main Dish? With Elad...

Travel Tech Insider ·

2024/11/05

Ancillaries! It’s such a nebulous term for the travel industry that it’s incredibly hard to figure out exactly how big the market is — but we know it’s massive and getting bigger by the day.In some cases, what we refer to as ancillary products are actually the primary reason for the trip to begin with! Think Disney park tickets or the surfing lessons you booked for that major milestone birthday trip.In other cases, they’re things we used to get for free before folks like RyanAir realized they...

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57:50

Innovation in Corporate Travel with Steve Singh

Travel Tech Insider ·

2024/10/29

Corporate travel has been ripe for disruption for quite some time, so why is it taking so long?Road warriors hate the tools they are compelled to use (and frequently bypass), travel managers hate the cat-and-mouse games they have to play to enforce policy on their employees and to police rates and configuration rules with their TMC partners. Suppliers hate the complexity involved in getting the right offers to the right customers. TMCs hate the goat rodeo of program leakage and shoe-horning n...

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54:32

Salon: The State of Innovation - VC, Corporate VC and...

Travel Tech Insider ·

2024/06/18

Following up from our Season 1 episode on the investor perspective in travel tech, we bring you the latest from the front lines of venture capital and corporate innovation.What, if anything, has changed for the ecosystem in the past year? Are we bullish or bearish on where the innovation market is heading for travel, hospitality and mobility? If you’re a startup in this space, how should you be thinking about fundraising now? And if you’re heading up innovation within a corporate enterprise, ...

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79:37

Season 1 Finale

Travel Tech Insider ·

2024/03/12

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