Last month, we met Sam Amrani at the RISE Summit in HK and had a quick chat with him on the usage of beacons in the travel industry. Sam, who is the executive chairman at Tamoco, a London based leader in mobile proximity technology and analytics had some interesting insights on how he thinks the beacons will shape up the future of travel. We think beacons are going to be big in this part of the world and we should see a wide-scale adoption from airports to hotels in the coming days. There is an initial awareness challenge that the industry faces that can be potentially overcome with some adoption stories of beacons and how they’ve been used across different verticals.

Here is a short video of our conversation with Sam Amrani from our series TravHQ Talks. To watch out our other video stories, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel.

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When was the last time you walked up to a random stranger at the airport waiting area and struck a new conversation? Or perhaps during that bus journey or with someone during your last flight? Most of the times we are so occupied with our mobile devices that we hardly acknowledge the world around us. Even if we feel like talking to a stranger and striking a conversation, we are unsure whether the other person would reciprocate.

Even in flights, we spend time tinkering with our smartphones in flight mode. During our recent visit to HongKong for the RISE conference, we came across two startups that are trying to enable conversations via their chatting apps specifically designed for such situations. These apps won’t take your device away from you but will help you socialise with strangers nearby. Neither of the apps require a data connection so when you are disconnected from the social media feed and messaging apps, you can try to discover interesting people near you.

AirTalk

‘Social Networks are built around friends, AirTalk around strangers’ is what their promo-flyer says.

Airtalk is an app by Tokyo based OFF Line Corporation that would let you talk to strangers when you happen to be near them. This is an exciting proposition which adds a new dimension to the whole concept of proximity based chatting apps. You don’t have to look up for people or add friends to your network to have a conversation. If there are people around you using AirTalk, simply leave a message and maybe you will be able to start a conversation around some interesting topic. The messages are backed-up on cloud and the profile builder offers the option of integrating with Twitter account which allows the messages to be shared with twitter followers as well.

With AirTalk you can communicate with people within 100m radius without an active internet or data connection – If they do have an iOS device. You can record users who pass each other in a 3km radius and search for other users as well as their posts. The app has a very slick interface and has an intuitive design which makes the overall user experience a great one. Having said that, currently there is little or no awareness of the app in South-East Asia including India and its major user-base seems to be from Japan.

We believe that with some refinements, the app has a great potential for travellers in countries such as India where internet penetration and consistency of data connection continue to be a challenge. Imagine, going to the rain-forests in Coorg for a hike or probably going to areas where there is no 3G connectivity at all. An app like AirTalk can help you to stay connected with your fellow hikers and exchange messages even if there’s no cellular or a data connection.

FlightChat

Another startup that offers an app for connecting with people during flights or at the airportis FlightChat. Designed by Giinger Pte Ltd. in Singapore, FlightChat enables you to trigger chat with people who are on the same app and stay anonymous at the sametime.

FlightChat’s single line description says “Bored while travelling? FLIGHTMODE ON? CHAT ON A PLANE FOR FREE !”

Unlike AirTalk, FlightChat is available to download for Android as well as iOS platform. To start a conversation, you can join an existing group or start a new one. You can create your avatar and during a private chat, you can choose to reveal your identity. User discovery is not just limited to your flight when you are offline but you can discover new users before reaching the airport using an internet connection. To add more fun, they have added some mini games that you can play with other travellers while waiting to board your flight. To make sure that you can stay connected with your new friends after the flight as well, the app synchronises the chats once you are back on-ground.

Our take

Both these apps use connectivity options like Wi-FI or Bluetooth PAN to connect with other app users. While the idea is interesting, such apps require a strong community outreach program to gain initial traction and adoption beyond their countries of origin. For such apps, the growth rate usually goes up as more users join for obvious reasons. They need to target wide geographical areas and make it relevant to travellers.

We don’t see the app being downloaded by users who don’t fly or travel frequently. To make sure they have the app(s) when they do travel, the developers might have to explore the option of adding other features that are relevant to such people. FireChat is a similar app when it comes to basic functionality but they are trying to target a different segment of users with a very different marketing message.

These apps are very fresh in the market at the moment and will take a while to build up momentum. We might see them adding more innovative features to lure more users. We would love to hear more use-cases of such apps from you in comments below.

You can find more updates from RISE here.

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If you have been following the Travel Startups section on TravHQ, by now you would have observed that the online travel industry isn’t just about the OTAs & Airbnbs of the world. There are many travel startups that are shaking various segments of the industry such as trip planning services, hotel bookings apps or even exploring offbeat destinations with locals.

We interacted with an exciting lineup of travel startups on Day 1 at RISE 2015. Our experience on Day 2 with few others, further echoes our belief that this industry is poised to grow at a revolutionary pace, faster than one would imagine.

These startups are solving unique problems either on the consumer side or on the business side. Like most startups, this ride is not going to be a cakewalk as they will face questions about scale, competition and even whether consumer actually needs their services. However, events like RISE, do provide the right platform for these startups to do a self check, understand what they are doing right or wrong with mentorship from peers in the industry. We are enthralled to have connected with so many young startups who are determined to make it big. We have interviewed many of them on Periscope and will very soon have a YouTube feed for you.

Here is a round-up of the travel startups we met on the Day 2 of the RISE Conference.

Singapore based travel startup Travelog offers smart mobile city guides to plan your trips

Hotel Quickly saves travellers time and money by offering dynamic deals at the best hotels in Asia-Pacific

Ireland’s Weestay is a mash-up of CouchSurfing + Airbnb with no cost. In a nutshell, it helps you to find free stay.

Singapore’s Nothing to Hide wants to revolutionise the untapped hotel review segment by providing hoteliers free WiFi in exchange for hotel reviews.

Operating from Hong Kong, Klook is your gateway to find out the best activities to do in Asia.

We will be digging into some of these startups, taking them for a spin and come back with our detailed review sometime soon.

For those who missed the RISE Conference this year, here is why you should definitely attend the next one in 2016 and the Web Summit later this year.

• RISE is your passport to meet like-minded folks such as investors, mentors, potential job seekers and competing startups and the media to share your story  In addition, such events give you the perfect opportunity to identify right partners with whom you can explore collaboration and expand your array of services.
• Other than the exhibiting startups, there are separate tracks such as the Marketing track, Development track and more depending on your industry interests. While 2 days aren’t enough, try to learn and absorb as much as you can.
• Post event networking parties are again a great way to meet more people and talk over some drinks.
• Lastly, it happens in Hong Kong which is located just about 5 hours from India

You can find more updates from RISE here.

The post We are in love with RISE Conference & these Travel Startups appeared first on TravHQ.

Welcome to Hong Kong where we are reporting live to you from the RISE Summit, which is currently being organized in the picturesque venue of Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre. While we were a little late to join the party on Day 1 and actually made it to the summit not before lunch, once we did step in, it was all crazy indeed.

For those of you who don’t know, RISE Summit is brought to you by the awesome bunch of people who organise the “Web Summit”. In its inaugural edition, we have a completely sell-out crowd with over 5000 people attending it from 70+ countries. There is so much happening at the summit, that 2 days do not seem to be sufficient

Here are some really interesting Travel startups that exhibited on the first day. As you would expect from the travel industry, we had exhibitors from Japan, US, Australia and many other countries at the summit.

From an app that allows you to chat with fellow flyers even when your phone is on airplane mode to an app that uses beacons to enhance your on-road travel experience, we had them all!

Here is a short photologue of some of them, more updates & reviews to follow.

Guillaume Panot, CEO of FlightChat app that allows flyers to chat with each other without the need of a bluetooth connection

Malaysian startup Seeties, helps you to explore Asian cities like a local

TripVerse from United States, aims to be the one-stop trip planning app for your next vacations

Singapore based Triplynr helps you to plan that perfect trip by making it easy to search best itineraries

Representing the home country Hong Kong, Sam the Local is an online market place that connects explorers to locals who take them on the best experiences

Odigo is the trip creating and sharing platform to help you plan your visit to Japan

Representing Western Australia, down-under JamJar helps you to explore bars, beans, art, music & food in Western Australia

You can find more updates from RISE here.

The post In Focus: Travel Startups on Day 1 at RISE Conference appeared first on TravHQ.

Last week, we had shared our list of travel tech startups who are coming to the RISE Conference. In addition to a fantastic bunch of global startups from across verticals, RISE also has a line-up of exciting speaker sessions where you will get to hear some stories on their initial days of struggle, challenges and growth.

Here is our pick of some sessions, that you certainly can cannot afford to miss.

Opening remarks by Paddy Cosgrave & Casey Lu

We are big fans of Paddy & rest of the team behind RISE and Web Summit. While RISE is being organised in Hong Kong, the Web Summit happens in Dublin and we’ve just got the word that there is an India edition called SURGE planned for next year in Bengaluru. These initial “5” minutes would set the tone for your 2 days at RISE. Be there and hear the guys behind the world’s biggest tech summit on the concept of RISE.

From West to East: Outside Making an Impact

Recent trends indicate the emergence of many startups in Singapore & Hong Kong whose entrepreneurs are from international markets such as Russia, France, UK and even US. Starting up in a different country has its own challenges in-terms of understanding the culture, the geography and the demands of the consumers. This panel session featuring Nathan Huey from SoftLayer, Sam Halse from Adyen, Allan Grant from Hired and James Griffiths from South China Morning Post will focus on How to make an impact in Asia when you are not from the region.

Line them up: Replicating Success Across Borders

This one should be a classical talk for all travel startups looking to expand beyond the geographies of their origin country. We have been meeting many startups specially in the travel planning segment who are providing offbeat experiences to their consumers. Hear LINE’s new CEO Takeshi Idezawa on how they travelled beyond Japan to countries such as Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Mexico, and the US and reach 560+ million registered users.

Searching for the Best User Experience

Travel startups which are in the space of destination marketing should focus on optimising their websites. Once users do land on their website or mobile app, the real challenge is to delight their users with visual experience. If you have a new mobile app or a website, you will learn how to improve user’s experience in this session by Shay Banon from Elastic & Jeremy Ben Sadoun from Algolia.

The key to millennial engagement

Travel or no travel, ultimately all of us are looking to reach out to our consumers. So how do you tap the digitally savvy millennial generation? Learnt it all from the cracking line-up of speakers which features Ray Chan from 9GAG, Michael Wolf from Activate & James Griffiths from South China Morning Post.

Does the best product win?

This session featuring Dave McClure from 500 Startups, Brian Koo from Formation 8, Hugo Burge from Momondo Group and Pamela Ambler from Thomson Reuters will give an overall insight from investor perspective to the attendees.

Oh wait! If you thought these are only sessions of interest, check out the entire schedule of both Days. Day 2 of the summit has some amazing tracks on 3D-control technology , wearable technology, robotic control and on branding aspects.

We can’t wait to get to RISE. If you are interested, rush to the registration page for any last minute spots

You can find more updates from RISE here.

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