travel planner startup

6 Travel Startups to Watch in 2024: Newcomers in Travel Tech!

The travel industry has transformed with technological advancements in recent years, paving the way for innovative startups. I'll take you through all the exciting new travel startups and how it's reshaping how people explore the world! 

The travel industry has grown bigger, better, and faster thanks to modern-day technology. Recent tech advancements have brought many advantages, both for businesses and travelers.

New startups are changing how we plan, book, and experience our journeys. They offer many services and solutions catering to modern travelers' needs. 

Travel startups include everything from budget-friendly itineraries to sustainable accommodations. Today, I'll take you into some up-and-coming travel startups changing how we travel. Having worked for a handful of travel startups myself, I can take you through the ins and outs of these exciting new companies. Let's go! 

What is a Travel Startup? 

New to the game? Don't worry, I've got you sorted. Let's get straight into the basics. 

A travel startup is a new company that uses innovative technology to provide products or services for travelers. These startups generally try to improve travel experiences by addressing modern travel needs. 

Travel startups can cover a range of areas within the travel industry, including: 

• Booking platforms
• Itinerary planning
• Accommodations
• Transportation 
• Sustainable travel
• Experiences
• Travel tech startups

Nowadays, lots of people are looking for tech jobs that travel. Navan, Sabre, Tracki, Expedia, and G Adventures are some of the best travel tech companies to work for. 

Categories of Travel Startups 

If you're considering working at a travel startup, you may wonder what types of jobs there are. The category of travel startups can range considerably. Here are examples of different categories to expect when working at a travel startup:

Online Travel Agencies (OTAS) 

These platforms allow travelers to book flights, hotels, rental cars, and more through a single website or app. This is useful for those looking for a hassle-free, all-in-one experience. 

Travel agency startups use technology to provide unique and personalized experiences. They offer everything from  planning a trip  and booking services to equipment. Here are some of the key features and trends in travel agency startups:

• Online platform 
• Personalized itineraries 
• Local experiences 
• Streamline booking for flights, accommodations, activities, etc. 
• Sustainable travel 
• Real-time assistance 
• Social sharing 

Group Travel 

Group travel startups streamline the process of planning and coordinating group trips. This makes traveling together easier for families, friends, or colleagues. If you've ever planned a group trip, you'll know startup travel companies like these are game changers. 

Accommodation Services 

Startups in this category hone in on unique and alternative lodging options. They might offer vacation rentals, boutique hotels, or home-sharing platforms. 

Transportation Services 

Startups provide innovative transport options and solutions. These could include ride-sharing, car-sharing, and peer-to-peer car rental services.

Activities and Experiences 

These startups connect travelers with local experiences, tours, activities, and events. Generally, these startups offer experiences that go beyond traditional tourist attractions.

Travel Planning and Itineraries 

Travel startup companies help travelers to plan and organize their trips. Often, they use AI to create personalized itineraries. Many top tech travel startups are using AI and machine learning-based platforms. 

Sustainable Travel 

Sustainable travel startups are focused on promoting eco-friendly and responsible travel practices. Startups in this space include carbon offset programs, sustainable accommodations, and environmental conservation.

Digital Nomad Services 

Digital nomad travel companies address the needs of remote workers and digital nomads. They offer services like co-working spaces, accommodation, and networking opportunities.

Travel Startups to Watch in 2024!

Now that you know the basics, let's explore some top travel startups that's looking to disrupt and change the way we'll travel in the near future!

Pilot is a social travel hub (AI-Powered) that helps groups discover, plan, book, and share trips together in one platform.

Pilot helps save time and money, helping people make the most of every trip.COVID made people realize they crave more experiences in the real world, not more social media. Travel is a great way to deliver that, as purchase behavior focus continues shifting from assets to experiences.

The abundance of marketplaces and travel blogs have created a fragmented UX that underserves traveler needs.

Today, the trip planning process is tedious and costly (time/money/stress), especially as most people travel in groups (2+ people). Travel is inherently social, yet no one is doing collaborative planning well. Yet, competitors continue to put paywalls on basic features like file uploads, or feel like checkout carts. Tools like TripAdvisor’s planner (which most don’t know about) aren’t flexible enough to replace Google docs/sheets.

Unlike competitors, Pilot is personalized, flexible, fun and free, monetizing via bookings & related services rather than charging the user directly. Starting with a social trip planner, Pilot will learn and adapt to you, enabling you to go on more trips with friends and family while making more in real life memories togehter!

Founding year:  2020

Location:  Canada 

Category:  Trip planning / Social Travel / Consumer Software

TravGeo  taps into the power of geo-tourism. This lets travelers explore a location's unique natural, cultural, and historical features. TravGeo offers guided tours and experiences focusing on the environment of a place.

Location:  USA 

Category:  Travel tech  

YouLi is reinventing group travel! If you've ever tried to assemble a group trip, you'll understand how challenging it can be. This travel startup company streamlines the process of planning group trips. It offers a centralized platform known as the "member's area."

Organizers can manage bookings, payments, and communication in this virtual space. YouLi also offers a lot of group discounts and deals. This makes group travel easy and enjoyable for families, friends, and corporate teams.  

Founding year:  2016

Location:  Australia

Category:  Group tour management 

TravelPerk 

TravelPerk  is a not-so-new startup that's tailored to corporate travel management. It offers real-time booking, managing, analyzing, and everything in between. With TravelPerk, corporate travel is made easy. It also offers event organization, refundable bookings, flexible options, and travel assistance. 

Read more about them in our review of TravelPerk here!

Founding year:  2015 

Location:  Spain 

Category:  Travel tech 

Roadsurfer 

Roadsurfer  rents out customized camper vans in 13 different European countries. On top of the rental service, this travel startup offers additional options for each trip. You can choose from a large fleet of well-equipped Class B RV rental options with different styles, sizes, and models. 

Founding year:  2016 

Location:  Germany  

Category:  Transportation 

Tracki  is a tech travel startup that offers real-time GPS tracking solutions. It provides services for families, individuals, and businesses. 

Tracki's product range includes pet, asset, and GPS trackers. All of these can be monitored through an easy-to-use mobile app or website.  

Founding year:  2005 

Interesting Facts About Travel Startups 

Want to learn more about travel startups? Here are some lesser-known facts about travel startups that might surprise you!

• There have been more than  1009 digital travel startups  established since 2015.
• More than  $27 billion  worth of investments were poured into travel companies from 2020 to 2022.
• Before the COVID-19 pandemic, there were approximately 65 million digital nomads worldwide. It is expected that in 2035, their quantity can rise up to  one billion .
• Startups providing services for short-term rentals, such as Airbnb or AvantStay, accounted for  55% of hospitality startup funding  in 2021.

Travel Startups and Beyond!

Now that you're up to speed on travel startups, you can start to craft your ideal travel experience for you, your family, and your friends. Give Pilot a try for free!

Disclosure : Pilot is supported by our community. We may earn a small commission fee with affiliate links on our website. All reviews and recommendations are independent and do not reflect the official view of Pilot.

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The 12 Travel Startups to Watch Out For In 2021

No one could have anticipated what 2020 had in store for us. When COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, back in March, the travel and hospitality industries were among the sectors that were hit the hardest, having to navigate one of the worst crises in history. Several travel corporations and startups went through difficult layoffs in the weeks and months to follow - most notably Airbnb and TripActions. The industry as a whole quickly realized that this pandemic would have lasting effects and change the way we travel for the foreseeable future.

The good news is that there are signs of recovery as we near the end of 2020 and look ahead to 2021. On the startup front, Airbnb’s long-awaited IPO is sure to give travel industry partners a tailwind, proving that despite a global pandemic, “getting away” is not just a luxury, but has rather become a necessity for many. Adding to this, the growing concept of “working from anywhere” is changing how we think of accommodations - being more than just a place where we sleep and get away for the weekend.

Do you want to meet a curated selection of startups in travel? Get in touch with us

In the travel industry, 2020 has been a year where many companies have raised funds to "survive" the current pandemic - if they even had the ability to raise. The latest data from Crunchbase shows that both the number of funding rounds and the average dollar amounts raised by venture-backed travel startups have declined this year. Early-stage startups were the hardest hit with less fresh venture capital money going towards backing companies at this stage.

However, “in the midst of every crisis lies an opportunity,” and we, at Plug and Play, are firm believers that there will be many winners born out of the pandemic. We’ve listed out 12 travel startups below that are redefining the travel and hospitality space and that we think are worthwhile to keep an eye on in 2021 .

Purchasing international data plans when traveling can be frustrating. Buying a local SIM card can be a tedious process and carriers like AT&T tend to charge a huge fee to use data plans abroad. Airalo is here to change that, as the world’s first eSIM store. Almost all new smartphones are being offered with an eSIM, a SIM that’s already embedded inside the device. Airalo is an eSIM marketplace that smartphone users can use to buy temporary mobile data plans when traveling abroad. Airalo’s mobile data plans are completely separate from your standard mobile data plan and run on a local network.

“Contactless” has been the theme of 2020 and will continue to be for at least the first part of 2021. Ditto is a distributed database for cross-platform apps to sync even without an internet connection. With Ditto , your apps can sync directly with each other during outages, crashes, or in mobile not-spots. Since the pandemic hit, Ditto has seen a surge of interest from airlines.

Amenitiz is an all-in-one platform for the hospitality industry. This travel startup ’s solution centralizes all the tools that any hotelier would need to run its property into a single, easy-to-use platform: a PMS, a website builder with a fully-integrated booking engine, and a channel manager. The main value proposition is the platform’s convenience, allowing hotels to increase direct bookings, save costs, with a great UX. The company has more than 1,200 clients across Europe.

Meetings and events planning have become increasingly complicated. Troop aggregates thousands of data points, enabling corporate travel managers and meeting planners to select event destinations based on objective intelligence rather than just opinion. The platform of this travel startup optimizes destination selection based on cost, travel time, ease of travel, visa requirements, and carbon footprint, among other factors. Now, Troop is adding functions to surface safety and security information to address the risk side that becomes part of the equation.

Facial recognition and biometric identification technology could play a pivotal role in how “immunity” or “health passports” might work. One of the leaders in this space is Yoti , who allows consumers to take control of their digital identity by creating a reusable ID on their smartphone that can be shared multiple times with organizations on the Yoti platform. It is a GDPR/CCPA compliant solution, available in 6 languages and accepts passports and photos from 165 countries.

The Hotels Network

In today’s environment, hotel brands need to take innovative approaches in order to increase their direct bookings. The Hotels Network enables hoteliers around the world to increase direct bookings by using predictive personalization to offer each guest a unique user experience. The company has developed a predictive algorithm for hotels, capable of analyzing the visitor's interactions in real-time and predicting the action they intend to take on the website before they do so. This enables hotel owners and marketers to change the messaging on their websites in real-time, personalizing the experience for website users. The Hotels Network works with more than 5,000 hotels across 96 countries.

Smooss helps travel companies (especially airlines) to increase revenue and improve customer experience thanks to tailor-made solutions designed on top of reservation systems. This travel startup currently has two main products: an upselling platform and a disruption recovery solution. Smooss enables easy rebooking with its universal “Disruption Recovery” solution and enables a personalized revenue opportunity through its Smooss Ancillary Platform.

As more employees work remotely, companies are finding it difficult to recognize and reward them. Blueboard solves this problem, offering a rewards and recognition platform that is providing a curated experience that employers can bestow on their employees and top performers. Virtual cooking classes, skydiving, snorkeling, you name it, Blueboard’s concierge service is here to handle all of the logistics.

Port is another travel startup that will shape 2021 . Curious travelers want to experience and learn about different places in the world, however, there are many tour and travel experiences not within reach if you are unable to travel (for financial, time or physical reasons). Port enables travelers and working professionals to book on-demand remote guides around the world and receive live, interactive video calls to experience new destinations or attend events that they can't physically go to.

It’s safe to say that COVID-19 has changed the world of events with everything moving online. Hopin is an interactive web events company that allows hosts to create events where through video, quality connections can be made. Whether it’s a 50 person event or 50,000 person conference, you can customize your event to fit the requirements and even have attendees move in and out of rooms. It was recently announced that Hopin (founded just in 2019!) closed a $125M Series B at a $2.125B valuation.

Butler Hospitality

Butler takes over restaurants inside of hotels and transforms them into delivery hubs that provide virtual room service to nearby full, limited- and select-service hotels. Butler designs its own menu of elevated, accessible luxury food, prepares it in its own kitchens, and delivers it to hotels throughout New York City in under thirty minutes. By partnering directly with hotels, Butler delivers food directly to the hotel room and charges the guest’s credit card on file unlike other delivery services.

Calling air cargo demand “one of the few bright spots” in the global airline sector, IATA chief economist Brian Pearce said that requirements for air freight had been supported by the transport of medical equipment and essential supplies. We expect this to continue as unlike passenger demand, air freight requirements are following a fairly typical recession/recovery cycle. cargo.one is a digital platform for freight forwarders to search, compare and book air freight capacities across airlines. These airlines benefit from a fully digital and data-driven distribution channel, attracting new business at lower cost and higher operational efficiency.

In 2021, travel startups will not only play a large role in helping us adjust to the new normal and restore confidence in travel, but also challenge the fundamental ways of how we’ve thought about travel, which presents an exciting prospect - especially for early-stage investors. If 2020 was about surviving, we have our fingers crossed that 2021 will be about thriving.

Innovation in the travel industry is happening. Don’t be left behind.

At Plug and Play's Travel accelerator we are in touch with corporations and startups that are changing the world as we know it. Join our platform today.

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16 Less-Known Travel and Tourism Startups Around the World

Explore the unconventional with these 16 unique travel startups globally. Discover new places, experiences, and innovative solutions reinventing the tourism industry. Start your journey here!

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Travelers are ready to get out and explore, according to a new report by the World Travel & Tourism Council . Venture capitalists recognize the opportunity – over the last ten years, they have fueled travel startups with $19 billion in funding.

We choose top disrupting travel and tourism startups to provide aspiring entrepreneurs with insights on what it takes to hit it big in the industry. Rather than including top-tier players like Tripadvisor 🌴, we aim to explore some lesser-known startup travel companies which are gaining market traction lately.

Check out our list of innovative tourism startups that make big waves now.

1. Touch Stay

Whether you have 5 properties or 500, Touch Stay digital guidebooks help you easily create and share property information to deliver the best guest experience. From practical accommodation information and inspirational content, to automated (and free!) SMS and email messaging, Touch Stay guidebooks give guests everything they need to know before, during and after their stay. Spend less time answering guest questions and focus on growing your short term rental business with Touch Stay.

Touch Stay was founded by Andy McNulty and Joe Jones – two serial travellers who kept on encountering the same issue over and over again: an absence of clear communication with their rental accommodation hosts.

2. Beyond Pricing

Beyond Pricing is a revenue management solution for short-term rental managers and owners to get, grow, and keep revenue, established by Ian McHenry and David Kelso in San Francisco in 2013.

The startup provides vacation rental owners with an automated AI-based pricing solution. The service analyzes market data in real-time and adjusts pricing recommendations to maximize revenue. Beyond Pricing claims their solution to increase revenue by up to 40%.

The company has raised $3.5 million in investments. They were funded by Plug and Play, Amicus Capital, Resolute Ventures, and Bullpen Capital, among the others.

• Beyond Pricing was included in Phocuswright’s 25 hottest startups list for 2019.
• The startup was covered by The Wall Street Journal, Time, CNN, Forbes, Bloomberg Businessweek, Mashable.

3.  Coindrum

Coindrum is converting foreign coins into duty-free vouchers.

A self-service machines provider founded by Lukas Decker in Dublin.

The startup offers a neat solution for those travelers who find themselves left with pockets full of basically useless coins after leaving the currency zone. They are offered to deposit foreign change into one of the Coindrum machines placed inside the airport area. In exchange, a tourist gets a voucher to spend in a duty-free zone. This also benefits duty-free retailers by making the non-spenders spend.

Coindrum received $2 million in funding. Among their investors were co-founders of Ryanair and Hostelworld.

• Coindrum won the 2018 top travel startups award.
• Last year, the startup was selected for the Retailtech Hub program in Munich to provide their machines to Germany’s key retailers.

4. Crowdvision

CrowdVision  is a leading automated pedestrian analytics and insights company.

A UK-based early-stage company founded by Fiona Strens and Anders Johansson in 2011.

Crowdvision provides an automated real-time computer vision technology that analyzes crowds at the airport using video cameras and machine learning. The solution allows to prevent bottlenecks and achieve smooth passenger flow throughout the terminal.

• In 2018, Crowdvision received an investment of an undisclosed amount from Amadeus Ventures. Prior to this, the startup was backed by Oaktree Capital, Plug and Play Tech Center, Angel CoFund, and Beacon Capital.
• Among the airports using Crowdvision technology are London Heathrow, London City, Stansted and Jersey airports, as well as Tokyo’s Narita and Chicago O’Hare airports.

5. Culture Trip

Culture Trip is your trusted shortcut to booking travel that’s good and makes you feel good.

One of the hottest travel startups geared towards those who are looking to dive deep into the local culture. The company was founded in 2011 by Kris Naudts in London. In subsequent years, they expanded their presence to New York and Tel Aviv and established a network of over 300 local authors across the globe.

Culture Trip is a hybrid of a magazine and a travel platform that delivers exclusive local content, recommendations, and overviews on culture and art. They aim to inspire travelers to explore the world through local cultures and creativity.

In 2016, the startup secured $20 million in funding from PPF Group. A further investment of $80 million boosted the company’s growth in 2018.

• Forbes named Culture Trip as one of the fastest-growing startups.
• In 2018, they were awarded by Red Herring Top 100 Europe, British Media Awards, the Sunday Times Fast Track Disrupters to Watch awards.
• This year, Culture Trip was named among the hottest startup travel companies by the Europas Awards.

Doerz is a real-life experience with the city locals.

The company is in business since 2016. Doerz was launched by Tomi M. Virtanen in Turku, Finland.

The startup was born from the idea of exploring the foreign city from the inside – by doing stuff and going places with the locals. Doerz is a social platform where verified local experience providers offer to share their daily real-life activities. You can find yourself ice-fishing on a forest lake, cooking pea soup in a Finnish student dorm, composing a song with a local musician – the list goes on.

• Currently, their ambassadors’ network covers 14 cities in Finland, Estonia, Germany, France, and Italy.
• Doerz has raised €127.448 on Seedrs.
• The startup is in partnership with Finnair and Viking Line.

7.  Evaneos

Evaneos is the leading online marketplace for tailor-made tours. Plan your trip with the expertise of a local travel agent in the destination.

Evaneos is a French tours and travels startup founded in 2009 by Eric La Bonnardière and Yvan Wibaux.

The startup has created the world’s first online platform aimed to connect tourists directly with local travel agents. Evaneos platform provides access to 1,300 local agencies and features 8,000+ ready-made, customizable itineraries to 160 destinations. The startup serves over 30,000 tourists across the globe.

• Evaneos has raised about $109 million in funding. Among the investors are Serena Capital and Fonds Ambition Numérique.
• Their solution has received positive reviews by National Geographic, Daily Mail, Wanderlust, TechCrunch, The Guardian, and other media.

Itinari is helping travelers tread off the beaten track.

A Brussels-based trip startup aimed to help people around the world discover and share some lesser-known local attractions. Italy-born entrepreneur Nicolas Casula founded the company in 2017.

Itinari is a media platform featuring exclusive travel articles that reveal some hidden gems across the globe. The contributors’ network covers more than 40 European countries. Here you can also find articles on some niche local activities like horseback riding in Kazakhstan or Parisian pet cemetery exploration.

The startup has raised €830k in funding.

Hopper’s innovative technology helps travelers save up to 40% every time they travel.

Take Skyscanner startup idea, add some advanced predictive analytics, and you’ll get Hopper. This cheap flights startup was co-founded by former Expedia engineers Frederick Lalonde and Joost Ouwerkerk in Montreal, Canada.

Hopper is a mobile app designed to automate travel-related prises monitoring. Its AI-driven algorithm processes million of prices daily and predicts how prices will change up to a year in advance. The user then gets a suggestion on when they should book a trip or wait, and when there will be the best time to make a purchase.

The startup has raised over $184 million and is valued at $780 million. Among their investors are Citi Ventures, Brightspark, OMERS Ventures, and Accomplice.

• As of today, Hopper app has exceeded 40 million installs, becoming one of the fastest-growing travel booking startups .
• In 2019, the startup was featured in the world’s most innovative companies list by Fast Company for the second year in a row.
• Hopper is the 2018 People’s Voice Webby Award They also won the 2016 Google Play Award in the category of Standout Startup.

Grabr is a monetize your free luggage space.

A San Francisco-based startup is on the market since 2015. The project was launched by Russian-born spouses Artem Fedyaev and Daria Rebenok.

The startup idea was to create an “Uber for international shopping”. As a result, they have developed an international peer-to-peer courier service linking shoppers and travelers.

On Grabr, you can drop a link to the desired item from Amazon or any other online store and get a delivery offer from a traveler heading to your destination. As a tourist, you can pick delivery requests at your destination and earn some money for delivering their items.

• In total, Grabr has raised about $14 million. The company was backed by SignalFire, Founders Fund, and Foundation Capital.
• The startup was recognized by the EyeforTravel’s Startup Awards .

11. LuggageHero

Luggage Hero is a luggage-storage startup co-founded by Jannik Lawaetz and Kristian Loekkegaard in Copenhagen (2016).

LH business model is as simple as can be – book online, then drop your suitcase at the nearest LuggageHero partner store in your destination. Today, their network of luggage storage locations covers 45 cities across the US and Europe, with more cities joining in 2022.

• The startup has secured $1.45 million in its 2019 funding round. Their investors include Nordic Eye, Danish Growth Fund, and Innovation Fund Denmark.
• LuggageHero was covered by the New York Times, Forbes, Evening Standard, Lonely Planet.

Panzly is the first flight insurance for delays or cancellations with automatic and immediate payouts.

Panzly is a young Ukraine-born travel insurance startup headquartered in London. The project was created by Ukrainian developers Alex Gayduk and Anton Nesterenko in 2018.

Plane cancelation is never fun, but Panzly founders have decided to make it less stressful. They developed the first flight insurance app with an immediate claim-free payout to the passengers whose plane has been canceled. The service triggers compensation automatically in the event of a two-hour delay.

• Panzly was featured in the 2019 top innovative travel startups by British Airlines, and 2019 top most promising new travel startups by Insurance post.
• They also entered the top 5 Disrupt Launchpad & Awards at 2019 Travel Technology Europe (London).

Questo turns city exploration into a game.

A Romanian travel app startup was established by Alex Govoreanu in 2017 in Bucharest.

Questo is an app that makes real-world city exploration even more fun by mixing traveling and casual gaming. It enables tourists to discover new places while solving augmented puzzles, quests and completing story missions. You can choose either outdoor urban quests or indoor quests in the local castles, museums, etc.

The game is available in 40 cities across Europe.

The startup has secured a seed round of funding from investors, bringing its valuation to $1.5 million.

14. Routehappy

Routehappy finding the comfiest flight.

RH is a NY-based flight booking startup founded by Robert Albert in 2011.

There’s more to a good flight than an affordable price and a convenient schedule. Legroom and a reclining seat, Wi-Fi, snacks and drinks, outlet access, and other small things make a big impact on your comfort during a flight.

Routehappy holds an exhaustive dataset of plane types, seat layouts, and other assessments for flights over the world. You can choose the most comfortable option according to your preferences or based on the overall “happiness points”.

15. SeeVoov

SeeVoov is the first interactive video trip planning platform.

An Israeli travel planning startup co-founded by Asaf Toker and Yosi Golan in 2016.

The startup has raised $400,000 in funding from investors.

• In 2019, SeeVoov was among the top 10 travel technology startups for the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) startup competition.
• The company won the ITB China 2019 Tourism Innovation Startup award.
• Their partners include Samsung, SmartAir, Israir, Pruvo.

16. TravelPerk

TravelPerk is the next-generation business travel platform pioneering the future of business travel.

An award-winning corporate travel startup designed to handle all the business trip management issues. The company was founded in 2015 by three experienced entrepreneurs – Avi Meir, Ron Levin, and Javier Suarez. They are headquartered in Barcelona.

TravelPerk has delivered a free tool that enables users to book and manage travel fast, within the corporate policy, and under budget.

• TravelPerk has gained €65.3 million in funding. The startup is backed by investors from Slack, Trello, Twitter, and Spark Capital.
• Among their partners are Lufthansa, Uber, TransferWise, Farfetch, etc.

🔔 Hire top PHP developers in Ukraine .

You may have noticed geographic diversity in our best tourism startups list. These flourishing travel tech startups represent 12 countries across the world. It looks like blurring international boundaries is at the very core of the tourism startups scene.

If you’re looking to join the travel startups 🦄 unicorn club with your own project, you may consider going offshore and offloading a part of web or mobile development of your project to remote developers. Contact us with your business-related question and our expert team would be happy to provide you with professional assistance on hiring the best tech talent and setting up a remote team in Ukraine.

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Tags: adventure , booking , destinations , experiences , hospitality .

IT Entrepreneur

Hello. I’m Julian from Bali, Indonesia. I have a concept/idea for rural tourism in Indonesia. Pandemic covid19 makes many small-medium enterprises, especially in the tourism sector, get a big impact. I’m looking for a team that can help us to develop our platform. I have 365 members (tourism players), and many rural spots for tourism (diving, surfing, agriculture, culture experience, etc). Also, I want to join the travel startups unicorn club. Thanks!

Hi Julian, Are you thinking to implement this idea in India?

We are young Egyptians we going to start up a new tourism service online. I would like to know how and the way to transfer our business from just a start up company to bring investors to invest in ?

Hello, thanks for the interesting write up. I’m not sure how often you update this blog but we’ve just launched another interesting travel planning and booking platform, http://www.travelplanbooker.com . We’d appreciate all the feedback you can about our site but in general our aim was to simplify travel planning and removing the time consuming process of booking on Silo travel websites. We like to think our platform is user-friendly, adaptable and best of all it enables customers to book transportation, accommodation as well as rental cars and attractions, from a variety of suppliers, all in one place. Please check it out

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10 Top Travel Startups to Watch in 2023

Are you looking for the latest advances in the travel sector? Explore the innovative solutions from the 10 hand-picked startups that we feature in this Travel Startups to Watch in 2023 article. They work on AI travel assistants, low-carbon travel, VR-based tourism, luggage protection, and much more!

Global Startup Heat Map highlights 10 Travel Startups to Watch in 2023

Through the Big Data & Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered StartUs Insights Discovery Platform , covering over 3 790 000+ startups & scaleups globally, we identified 3 845 Travel startups. The Global Startup Heat Map below highlights the 10 travel startups you should watch in 2023 as well as the geo-distribution of all 3 845 startups & scaleups we analyzed for this research. Based on the heat map, we see high startup activity in the US and India, followed by Europe. These 10 hand-picked startups work on solutions ranging from AI-powered travel assistants and carbon-compensated travel to luggage locker networks and location-sharing apps.

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• Tousifair – AI Travel Assistant
• Neolight.ai – AI-based Guest Management
• ExpeditionsPro – Virtual Reality (VR) Tour Platform
• Imvizar – Augmented Reality (AR) Tourism Platform
• SQUAKE – Carbon Compensated Travel
• Travel Neutral – Environmentally Conscious Travel
• Lugbee – Luggage Locker Network
• IONAGE – Unified Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Management
• Ok Away – Location Sharing Application
• ZIM Connections – eSIM Marketplace

Tousifair develops an AI Travel Assistant

Tourisfair is a german startup that makes Pandi , an AI-driven travel assistant. It matches travelers with tourism activities based on their expectations and constraints. The assistant filters out unavailable activities and also ensures the availability of all recommended activities for the trip duration. This eliminates the need for extensive research, saving time for travelers. Moreover, Pandi allows travelers to modify their plans, add or remove activities, and change their itinerary at any time. This way, Tourisfair connects travelers with personalized experiences tailored to their interests, budget, and schedule.

ExpeditionsPro offers a Virtual Reality (VR) Tour Platform

Australian startup ExpeditionsPro offers a VR tour maker platform. It allows travelers to access a large collection of pre-existing 360-degree photo and video content. The startup also enables users to create and share immersive VR tours using their own content or existing tours from the Google Expeditions platform. The platform is compatible with Google Cardboard, tablets, and PCs, making it accessible to users with low-spec hardware. With its easy-to-use, drag-and-drop interface, ExpeditionsPro’s platform enables users to create their own 360-degree tours and share them with travelers around the globe.

Imvizar provides an Augmented Reality (AR) Tourism Platform

Imvizar is an Irish startup that develops an AR tourism platform. It enables users to create, upload and stream AR experiences for cultural and tourism purposes. Travelers use the startup’s companion smartphone app to access a variety of AR experiences. This enhances their visits to attractions, towns, and cities around the world. Imvizar also utilizes 3D scanning, photogrammetry, and spatial audio to create realistic and immersive AR content. Further, the startup allows users to share their own AR experiences with other users. Thus, Imvizar provides a new way for users to learn about different cultures and explore new places.

SQUAKE enables Carbon Compensated Travel

German startup SQUAKE develops an application programming interface (API) plug-in for carbon-compensated travel. It provides accurate carbon calculations and compensations for various forms of travel and transport activities, such as flights, car rides, hotel stays, and more. Its representational state transfer (REST) API enables travel and transport companies to calculate and compensate for their carbon emissions according to national and international standards. This helps companies achieve their sustainability goals by offering sustainable travel alternatives like replacing fossil jet fuel with sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The API also integrates precise carbon calculations and compensation into travel booking flows, offering customers green choices, and reducing environmental impact.

Neolight.ai delivers AI-based Guest Management

Croatian startup Neolight.ai offers an AI-based guest management platform. It enables hotel operators and travel agencies to collect and analyze guest preferences and behavior data. The platform also allows them to communicate with travelers via chatbots on instant messaging platforms. Further, it manages reservations, check-ins, check-outs, and housekeeping in a single dashboard. To provide travel recommendations, the platform leverages natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML). The platform offers an efficient solution for the travel and hospitality industries to ensure personalized experiences for their guests while optimizing operations and marketing efforts.

Travel Neutral empowers Environmentally Conscious Travel

Travel Neutral is a French startup that offers all-inclusive travel packages to minimize carbon emissions. It provides low-carbon vacations that are respectful of people, nature, and tradition. The startup does this by providing low-carbon transportation options, such as trains or electric vehicles (EVs), and eco-friendly accommodation choices, like solar-powered hotels or campsites. The startup also calculates and offsets the remaining carbon footprint of each trip by investing in verified environmental projects. This way, Travel Neutral allows travelers to discover new destinations without compromising on sustainability.

Lugbee builds a Luggage Locker Network

Indian startup Lugbee provides an online platform for travelers to find and book secure luggage locker options. It connects travelers with nearby cloakrooms that are available 24/7 and allows them to pay only for the hours they need. After storage, the startup seals the luggage with tamper-proof seals to ensure the safety of each bag. It also verifies and validates the stores that offer luggage storage, and offers 24/7 customer service. This way, Lugbee solves the problem of finding a reliable place to store luggage during travel excursions.

IONAGE provides Unified EV Charging Management

IONAGE is an Indian startup that offers a unified EV charging platform and charger networks. The startup’s app allows travelers to discover charging stations near them or along their route. It also enables them to plan their trip based on vehicle range and battery status. The platform enables them to charge their vehicles seamlessly with a unified payment system. Additionally, IONAGE has an intelligent trip planner that shows if an EV trip is possible with the range of the user’s vehicle. It provides details such as distance, time, cost, and battery status. IONAGE thus provides reliable and convenient access to charging infrastructure for travelers who use EVs.

OK Away makes a Location Sharing App

Australian startup Ok Away makes a location-sharing mobile app. It enables travelers to view each other’s mapped locations, addresses, local times, and phone battery levels on their devices. They also receive smart notifications for arrivals, departures, inactivity, and emergency events. Additionally, the startup promotes a missing pages initiative. It runs awareness campaigns for travelers missing worldwide using social media paid advertising. This way, OK Away enhances the safety and connectivity of travelers.

ZIM Connections builds an eSIM Marketplace

ZIM Connections is a UK-based startup that offers an eSIM marketplace for travelers who need a data connection when they arrive at a new destination. It allows users to choose from different providers, purchase a plan, and activate their new eSIM. Available in over 120 countries, it eliminates the hassle of swapping physical SIM cards and losing data coverage. Thus, ZIM Connections’ eSIM marketplace provides travelers with an easy and quick way to connect anywhere at any time.

Discover All Emerging Travel Startups

The travel startups showcased in this report are only a small sample of all startups we identified through our data-driven startup scouting approach. Download our free Travel Innovation Report for a broad overview of the industry or get in touch for quick & exhaustive research on the latest technologies & emerging solutions that will impact your company in 2023!

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The new travel startup that wants to plan trips around workcations

Despite continuing spikes around both COVID and oil prices, that isn’t stopping many people from traveling this summer. And for many of those travelers, they’ll be trying to make the most out of their time away from home, often booking extended stays and working remotely on top of taking personal time off.

There are a number of new terms around this trend , sometimes referred to as “ workcations ” or “ bleisure ” (business and leisure) travel. Whatever you want to call it, this is a trend that might become a permanent practice for some professionals, and there’s a new luxury travel app tapping into the market right away.

Founded by two tech executives, Origin is a new travel company that creates completely personalized trips with expert support—all in one app through on machine learning based on the user’s interests, values, and connections with other travelers.

Based on a rising demand from travelers, Origin has created more itineraries that address adding work days to leisure trips. In response to the complexity of travel during the pandemic, Origin launched a “Where Can I Go” feature on the app, which helps users decide where to travel based on their interests and COVID restriction preferences.

Cofounder and CEO Eli Bressert recently shared more with Fortune about launching a new travel business as the world opens up again and trends to watch out for this summer.

The following interview has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.

Could you share a bit about your professional background before launching Origin?

Most of my professional experience is in machine learning, A.I., and product. At Apple , I led the Siri platform science and insights team. Before that, I was at Convoy, where I helped transform the trucking industry with data science and its impact on automation, economics, human-in-the-loop optimization, and scaling. I was also the data engineering and analytics manager at Netflix where I helped reinvent entertainment by leveraging data, algorithms, and engineering for Netflix Originals, recommendations, UI design, optimization, and messaging. At Stitch Fix, I led the research and development division on algorithms that created a high-touch service and style of clothing that we made hyper-scalable by using machine learning, and that’s what we’re doing at Origin.

The travel industry is certainly rebounding, but between the ongoing pandemic (and constantly changing travel requirements) and inflation (and a possible recession looming), it might not seem intuitive to launch a travel company right now. What inspired Origin?

I couldn’t agree more! Travel is now more complex than ever, with travelers spending about two to three days of planning and booking for each week of vacation with limited help and advice. It’s clear that for the last three decades technology has helped make travel more searchable, but there has been a growing lack of planning and personalization—exactly what Origin is tackling. 

My cofounder, Tamar van de Paal, and I created Origin because modern travel has become extremely complicated and we believe that transformational travel allows people to live out their dreams. The barrier of travel planning, the time it consumes, and insider knowledge on destinations are holding people back from maximizing their travel experiences. Origin removes all those obstacles and makes the end-to-end experience a breeze. It was also conceived during a time of endless lockdowns, a desperate need for a change of scenery and a renewed craving for culture and exciting outdoor experiences.

We found that travel planning has always been a puzzle and a time trap. With locations open again, Origin curators will make the most of trip planning, they are available for constantly changing local travel regulation and COVID testing requirements, as well as cancellations policies. Standard online travel agencies do not offer this level of agility and support. Origin also allows members to unlock self-service support all within the app, helping members avoid the necessity of always doing phone calls and old fashioned self help tools.

Part of why Origin has gained attention is that it is touted for planning trips around “workcations,” or mixing working remotely with vacation time. How would this look in practice? And what are the benefits of mixing work and vacation time?

With remote work becoming more and more the norm, workcations are popular trips that Origin services on a regular basis now. Destinations and experiences vary, as well as time spent. Origin has seen clients request a quick weekend getaway with the following week set for work in a remote lodge, while others have sought out trips of 40 days+ to travel and work hand-in-hand.

As a remote-inclusive company, Origin is uniquely positioned to propose the best workcations designed by curators who are encouraged to work from anywhere around the world. 

Workcations consist of a trip that is seven days long or more, with scattered morning and evening activities and plenty of time in the day to focus on work. Our curators select hotels especially for workcations to ensure they meet our criteria: spacious rooms or suites with floor to ceiling windows looking out to stunning views; a comfortable chair and wide desk; high-speed Wi-Fi of at least 100Mbps all around the property grounds; 24-hour room service; a fully-stocked coffee-station with healthy snacks in-suite. We make sure to include morning wellness sessions like a private yoga class or a surf lesson, prior to the blocks of time dedicated for work. 

Many travel industry experts have been forecasting a busy summer ahead for the travel industry, and anyone who has been to a major airport lately can already confirm. What do you think will be some of the top travel trends this summer?

We’re seeing a spike in island hopping and yacht rentals in the Mediterranean this summer. People are running into availability issues at hotels on land and don’t want to miss out on the summer fun in the Greek Islands or the Amalfi Coast so they take to the waters with private boats and yachts. It’s going to be a busy summer on land and at sea!

Destination weddings and multi-destination honeymoons are very popular this summer. This trend is a result of being on lockdown for so long, not being able to travel and wanting to be with family and friends again in the same place. Travelers are requesting small wedding ceremonies to be arranged in stunning locations and then honeymoons with many stops. These adventure honeymoons are merging their celebration of love with their passion for culture and nature.

How is the company funded? Is it self-funded or have you reached out to investors? What has the financing process been like?

Origin has raised over $5 million in funding from top investors including Project A, Cavalry Ventures, and notable angels like David Rosenthal (cohost of Acquired), Brad Klingeberg (CAO of Daily Harvest and previously Stitch Fix), John Johnson (cofounder of Buzzfeed). We did our seed round in December last year and we are exploring the best moment for our Series A round. 

Looking forward five years, how do you want to Origin to grow? What kind of services do you want to add in the future?

The future is bright for Origin. I have a few ideas in mind that we’re already working on. Some of these include:

• Continue to invest in our app to deliver seamless and augmented travel experiences. I’d like to see more pre- and post-trip user experiences to enhance features, and integrate with third party services to make Origin the one place on the user’s device that facilitates their whole trip.
• We’re currently focusing on the premium travel market. Once we develop our technology platforms to support this, we want to bring seamless travel experiences to all travelers of all budget segments.
• Today we offer our services and travel content in English. Five years from now, we plan to support five or more languages on the app.
• Arranging trips, passing along details to partners, and booking lodgings/flights with the right preferences is hard. The tools out there today are not user-friendly or unintuitive. We are creating our own platform to superpower our travel team and partners with A.I. and machine learning. This will, in effect, guarantee the best personalized travel experiences possible. 

This is an installment of  Startup Year One , a special series of interviews with founders about the major lessons they have learned in the immediate aftermath of their businesses’ first year of operation.

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30 Top Travel Startups to Watch in 2024

• Top Startups to Watch

Last Updated: March 13, 2024 By TRUiC Team

The travel industry was hard hit by the pandemic, with travel startups facing sharp declines in demand at pivotal stages of their business. The companies that are thriving today are those that have quickly adapted to meet the ever-evolving needs of travelers.

From work retreats to staycations, innovation is the name of the game. These top travel startups are promoting tourism by making it more convenient, more eco-friendly, and simply more fun. There are plenty of opportunities for any entrepreneur, particularly as the public gets their second wind to get back out there and start exploring.

Recommended: Learn how to launch your own company by reading our comprehensive guide on how to start a startup .

Best Travel Startups to Follow

Every year, new startups pull to the forefront of their industry through exciting innovation and industry-disrupting business models. We’ve rounded up the top travel startups of 2024 that startup lovers, investors, and aspiring entrepreneurs should follow.

Disclaimer: With so many exciting travel companies launching and growing worldwide, we aren’t able to cover them all. Furthermore, the startups that are listed below are not officially ranked and are listed in no particular order.

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• Location: San Francisco, California
• Founder(s): Francis Davidson, Lucas Pellan, Martin Picard
• Founded In: 2014
• Funding: Post IPO-Equity, $839.6 Million
• Investors Include: Principal Global Investors, BlackRock, Moore Capital

Sonder taps into a growing demand for unique places to stay. The company has a number of luxury properties in popular destinations around the world. What makes the company even more special is that the staff has adapted services based on how people travel today. Travelers can check-in, request towels, and get recommendations on what to do — all from their phones.

2. TravelPerk

• Location: Barcelona, Spain
• Founder(s): Avi Meir, Javier Suarez, and Ron Levin
• Founded In: 2015
• Funding: Series D, $530.3 Million
• Investors Include:  SoftBank Vision Fund, Greyhound Capital, General Catalyst

TravelPerk is a travel platform that helps business travelers manage their travel and expenses as well as book business trips with ease. The platform suits businesses of all sizes and streamlines the process of finding, booking, and planning business travel.

• Location: Singapore
• Founder(s): Ahmet Bahadir Ozdemir
• Founded In: 2019
• Funding: Series A, $67.3 Million
• Investors Include: Plug and Play , GO Ventures, Rakuten Capital

Airalo is providing a more flexible phone alternative no matter what country you’re in. Their eSIM store is the first of its kind, offering affordable, local rates for eSIM compatible phones, tablets, or PC computers. Customers never have to worry about carrying several SIM cards, changing their phone number, or losing communication capabilities with Airalo eSIM cards.

4. Tripsider

• Founder(s): Olga Bortnikova, Ivan Bortnikov
• Founded In: 2018
• Funding: Seed, $1 Million
• Investors Include:  Liqvest, Mission Gate, Starta

Next on our list of top travel startups is Tripsider , an app that matches people with the right trip based on everything from their interests to their budget. The company compares the algorithm to that of a dating app, taking into account values, past experiences, and goals to match people with a travel expert via text or phone call. Experts have resources to help travelers officially confirm their bookings, removing one more thing for vacationers to worry about.

5. BabyQuip

• Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico
• Founder(s): Fran Maier
• Founded In: 2016
• Funding: Seed, $10.7 Million
• Investors Include: Moai Capital, How Women Invest, SBI Investment

BabyQuip is a travel startup with a new take on the gig economy – providing a platform for baby gear rentals for traveling families. BabyQuip delivers all the necessary gear to wherever a family needs it – the airport, a hotel, or even the grandparents’ house. The company will tailor the equipment to each client’s needs, whether it’s a full-size crib, car seat, stroller, or anything else.

6. The Hotels Network

• Founder(s): Juanjo Rodriguez, Laura Martinez Celada, Marc Rollan Serrano
• Funding: Series B, $15.2 million
• Investors Include: Seaya Ventures, Elaia, 4Founders Capital, NFX

The Hotels Network is a platform that serves as a method of growth for hotels using technology to attract and convert online visitors to paying customers by creating a unique, personalized, and predictive user experience. Hotels can use the platform to compare reviews, pricing, analytics in order to create more impactful marketing campaigns.

• Location: London, United Kingdom
• Founder(s): Steve Domin, Tom Bates, Vincent Pastor
• Founded In: 2017
• Funding: Series B, $56.2 Million
• Investors Include: Index Ventures , Benchmark , Kima Ventures, Blossom Capital, et al.

Duffel is an online platform for travelers to find, book, and manage flights from a myriad of airlines. Working in tandem with airlines to provide a better customer experience, Duffel provides travelers with real-time pricing and availability to make booking a trip easier than ever.

• Location: Madrid, Spain
• Founder(s): Dennis Vilovic, Leonard Cremer
• Funding:  Series B, $11 Million
• Investors Include:  All Iron Ventures, Durable Capital Partners, Madrona Venture Group

Troop is a travel technology company that utilizes data to help corporations plan in-person meetings. Leveraging the power of science and technology, Troop makes planning in-person meetings for their Fortune 500 companies sustainable, safe, and secure.

9. roadsurfer

• Location: Munich, Germany
• Founder(s): Christoph Niemann, Markus Dickhardt, Susanne Dickhardt
• Funding: Series Unknown, $28.9 Million
• Investors Include : Lawrence Leuschner, Heartcore Capital, 10x Group, et al.

roadsurfer rents RV campers to outdoor lovers in Europe and America. The company stands for freedom and offers a number of perks to its customers, including unlimited mileage, a free second driver, road assistance, and flexible rebooking options. For anyone who dreams of getting away from it all and experiencing van life for a few months, this company is connecting people to the vehicles they need to hit the road.

10. Pickyourtrail

• Location: Chennai, India
• Founder(s): Hari Ganapathy, Srinath Shankar
• Funding: Venture, $3 Million
• Investors Include: Kumar Vembu, Vinay Ahuja, Girish Mathrubootham, Kunal Shah

Pickyourtrail is India’s largest online holiday booking platform for DIY travelers. People come here to customize their vacations by building unique itineraries from the ground up. The platform takes into account people’s interests, timelines, and budgets before crafting travel that will mesh with the individual’s tastes. The company also works with a number of tourism boards in popular locations, such as Iceland, Japan, and New Zealand, to create more streamlined experiences for all customers.

• Founder(s): Johannes Siebers, Michael Siebers, Rasmus Porsgaard
• Funding: Series E, $199.8 Million
• Investors Include: Venture Stars, Prime Ventures, EQT Ventures, et al.

Holidu is a website where vacationers can book accommodations at the lowest price. It was started by the founders after trying to find a place to stay in Portugal, only to find that many of the same properties were listed on different sites at different prices. Their platform makes it possible to search and book rental properties without having to worry if there was a better deal out there.

12. Whimstay

• Founder(s): Alexander Alioto, Ben Jamshahi, Kamesh Jasani, Noel Russell
• Funding: Seed, $10 Million
• Investors Include:  Talent Resource Ventures 

Whimstay is designed for last-minute travelers who want great deals. The app and website helps property owners and hosts match their unsold nights with travelers, so everyone can benefit from the search engine. The company is built on the premise that many of our favorite travel moments are entirely unplanned, and the platform boasts up to 60% savings off the original costs of rental properties.

13. Scenset

• Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Founder(s): Eli Bressert, Tamar van de Paal
• Funding: Seed, $5 Million
• Investors Include:  Cavalry Ventures, Project A Ventures

Next on our list of the best travel companies is Scenset . Most people take just under 3 weeks to book a trip, and while some people may love piecing it all together, most just want to just get it over with. Scenset personalizes your vacations with end-to-end planning with the help of travel curators. The team is there so travelers don’t have to skip from site to site, and these experts often deliver experiences that travelers would never have without their interference.

14. Boom Supersonic

• Location: Englewood, Colorado
• Founder(s): Blake Scholl, Joe Wilding, Joshua Krall
• Funding:  Series Unknown, $700 Million
• Investors Include:  Momentum Ventures, Prime Movers Lab, Caruso Ventures

Boom Supersonic is attempting to cut down on travel time by as much as half with supersonic jets. Travelers have the option of going from Tokyo to Seattle in as little as 4.5 hours (compared to 8.5 hours in a standard passenger plane). The company offers more than 500 transoceanic routes, allowing more people to test their boundaries and explore the world.

• Location:  Paris, France
• Founder(s): Aziza Chaouachi, Mario Moinet, Yassine Ben Romdhane
• Funding: Convertible Note, $22 Million
• Investors Include: Prime Ventures

Leavy allows people to live anywhere they’d like, if only for 24 hours or less. Though it was founded before the pandemic, the company is tapping into the idea of travel and affordability. The platform pairs customers with people willing to share their homes and pays cash to anyone who will open the door. While accommodation amenities vary, the barebones feature of Leavy is opening the door to people who might not have been able to afford travel otherwise.

• Location: Bucharest, Romania
• Founder(s): Alexandru Govoreanu
• Funding: Seed, $1.8 Million
• Investors Include: Early Game Ventures, Sparking Capital

Questo is a gaming app for travelers designed to help them explore cities and towns in an unusual way. So if an individual in London wanted to hunt down Jack the Ripper, they’re whisked away on an exciting quest, gathering clues in real time while learning about history at the same time. Games range depending on destination, so you can uncover the Midici conspiracy in Florence or discover the ghosts of Glasgow.

• Location: Berlin, Germany
• Founder(s): Naren Shaam
• Founded In: 2013
• Funding: Series E, $476 Million
• Investors Include: Lazard Asset Management, Stack Capital, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, et al.

Omio is a transportation app that gives travelers an easy way to travel long distances. It’s not designed for getting around a city but rather suggests nearby airports and train routes that would make it possible to cover serious ground at the drop of a hat. It helps travelers visualize the best routes to take based on everything from speed to price. Travelers can also access tickets on their phones for trains and planes, adding an extra layer of convenience.

18. Surf Air Mobility

• Location: Hawthorne, California
• Founder(s): Cory Cozzens, David Eyerly, Liam Fayed, Reed Farnsworth, Scott Craig Porter, Sudhin Shahani, Wade Eyerly
• Founded In: 2012
• Funding: Debt Financing, $563.7 Million
• Investors Include: IVP, Troy Capital, Sway Ventures, et al.

Surf Air Mobility is an environmentally friendly company that’s introducing the world to zero-emission flying with the help of electric vehicles. With more than 910 million tons of carbon on the line, the company is starting with existing aircraft. The staff replaces the standard engine with an electric version as a means to decarbonize the travel industry.

19. SafetyWing

• Location: Silicon Valley (Palo Alto, California)
• Founder(s): Hans Nyvold Kjellby, Lona Alia, Sarah Beyahte Sandnes, Sondre Rasch
• Funding: Series B, $47.1 Million
• Investors Include: Creandum, Alma Mundi Ventures, Kinnevik, et al. 

SafetyWing describes its products as insurance for nomads, by nomads. The company makes it possible for people outside their home country to get the medical help they need, including treatments needed for COVID-19, should they become ill or injured while abroad. People can even purchase insurance while they’re in a foreign country.

20. Wanderlog

• Founder(s): Harry Yu, Peter Xu
• Funding: Seed, $1.7 Million
• Investors Include: Y Combinator , Abstract Ventures, General Catalyst

Wanderlog is a free travel app that makes it possible for travelers to build and map their vacations. Designed for trips of all kinds, including the open road, it’s a way for people to keep all of their details organized so they know where they are, what they’re doing, and where they’re going at all times. Drive times, reviews, and reservations can all be tracked in one handy place, making it less likely that something will go wrong along the way.

• Founder(s): Oskar Bruening, Ruzwana Bashir
• Funding: Series C, $119.9 Million
• Investors Include : Eric Schmidt, 12 BF Global Ventures, Cathay Innovation, et al.

Peek helps tourism businesses book more people by offering handy software to take payments, market their services, and manage reviews. So far, the company has powered more than $1 billion in experiences (e.g., paddleboards, pottery classes, rafting, etc.). Their customers love the easy-to-use platform that makes it possible to both generate and track business.

• Location: New York, New York
• Founder(s): Anthony Menna, Greg Ramey, Mike Petrakis
• Funding:  Series A, $17 Million
• Investors Include:  Pritzker Group Venture Capital, Corazon Capital, Alumni Ventures

Batch  is designed specifically for bachelor or bachelorette parties. It helps the core planner track the details of the trip, so everyone can have a smooth experience. Trying to coordinate anything on a group trip like this can be an exercise in futility, but the app accounts for any number of scenarios, making it possible for people to have more fun before, during, and after the trip.

23. Sēkr

• Location: San Diego, California
• Founder(s): Breanne Acio, Jessica Shisler
• Founded In: 2020
• Funding: Seed, $3.1 million
• Investors Include: Crescent Ridge Partners Ventures, Storyteller Overland, Backstage Capital, et al

Sēkr is a mobile platform for outdoor lovers, making it easier, safer, and more communal to plan a trip and dig into the Great Outdoors. The company has more than 50,000 campsites included in its platform, making it the nation’s largest database of free campsites and local events. People can use it to learn more about what they can really expect at each site, and to connect to virtual friends with similar interests.

24. Point.me

• Founder(s): Adam Morvitz, Tiffany Funk
• Funding: Series A, $12 Million
• Investors Include:  Thayer Ventures, RiverPark Ventures, Plug and Play

Next up on our list of top travel startups is Point.me . With so many different types of airline miles and points out there, it can be difficult for travelers to keep track of all their rewards. As a result, they often end up losing out on their benefits, or cashing them in for a fraction of what they’re worth. Point.me scours the internet to find the absolute best deals for travelers who want to get the most from each and every point.

25. AvantStay

• Location:  Los Angeles, California
• Founder(s): Reuben Doetsch, Sean Breuner
• Funding: Private Equity, $686 Million
• Investors Include: Saluda Grade, Bullpen Capital, Capital One Ventures

AvantStay is a booking platform with unique properties that can be used for personal or commercial use alike. These are luxury rentals that feature unique amenities, including stunning interior design for groups. Excellent for family and company retreats or just a fun weekend trip between friends, AvantStay makes it possible for travelers to hammer down accommodation details and organize additional excursions as well (e.g., spa treatments, wine tastings, etc.).

26. Spotnana

• Founder(s): Sarosh Waghmar, Shikhar Agarwal
• Funding: Series B, $116 Million
• Investors Include:  ICONIQ Growth, Durable Capital Partners, Blank Ventures

Spotnana designs software to connect partners, suppliers, and providers, all in service of improving the booking experience for travelers. The idea is to unbundle travel, making it possible for travelers in the future to get anything they need without the hassle. The core values are freedom and trust, reintroducing choice to the traveler so they feel comfortable making any and all of their arrangements online.

27. Life House

• Founder(s): Rami Zeidan, Yury Yakubchyk
• Funding: Series C, $230 Million
• Investors Include: Tiger Global Management, Sound Ventures, Global Founders Capital

Life House is a vertically integrated operating system built for boutique hotels. It specifically supports three functions: hotel technology for operators, hotel management for owners, and hotel branding and positioning. With Life House's powerful software, boutique hotels gain a suite of tools that can help streamline processes and increase their profitability.

28. Kindred

• Founder(s): Tasneem Amina, Justine Palefsky
• Founded In: 2021
• Funding: Series A, $22.8 Million
• Investors Include: Andreessen Horowitz, New Enterprise Associates, Bessemer Venture Partners

Kindred is a home-swap platform that connects travelers with other members to trade spaces or travel with credits they can earn by using the platform. With Kindred, hosts receive complimentary hosting essentials like towels, sheets, and lockboxes as well as free professional cleaning before and after guest stays. 

29. Hotelverse

• Location: Mallorca, Spain
• Founder(s): Rafael Bover, Fermin Carmona
• Funding: Seed, $3.92 Million
• Investors Include: Sabadell Venture Capital, Plug and Play

Hotelverse leverages technology to create an innovative booking experience for travelers. On the platform, users can explore hotel facilities, customize their room, do a flyover of their hotel, and book a room — all virtually using a realistic, 3D model. 

• Location: Vancouver, Canada  
• Founder(s): Connor J. Wilson 
• Founded In: 2020 
• Funding: Angel Investment, CA$1.1 Million

Pilot is a travel planning platform powered by artificial intelligence (AI). Using its free app, travelers can plan and collaborate with friends on trips by creating itineraries, planning routes, importing travel documents, and obtaining travel visas — all on one platform. Plus, the app works both online and offline thereby ensuring travelers can access important travel information at any time. 

Recommended:  Check out our full list of the  top startups to watch in 2024 !

What are travel startups?

Travel startups today are largely companies that lean on innovation to get noticed in a saturated landscape. Because we’re more reliant than ever on our devices, many of the companies on this list have tech that will drive tourism across the globe.

Whether by reducing carbon emissions, offering health insurance by phone, or making it easier to split costs, travel startups are tackling the small and big issues that stop travelers from fully committing to a trip.

What does the future of the travel industry look like?

The future of the tourism industry will be controlled by everything from global emissions to public health. However, based on the most popular startups today, one of the major trends is based on how people book their travel and how the details are managed. Travel is likely to become more customizable, more affordable, and less damaging to the environment.

What are some travel startup ideas?

Travel startup ideas are often born from personal experiences that people have with their own bookings. So maybe you have a difficult time scheduling a trip on a regular weekend. This leads to an idea that helps vacationers travel without having to take vacation time from work.

Or maybe you take your inspiration from global headlines. If gas prices rise drastically in your area, you can start an app that helps people take a staycation they’ll never forget.

How do you start a travel startup?

Beginning a travel startup will mean sketching out a business model with details about how you’ll monetize your idea and how much capital you’ll need to get started. You’ll need to know what kind of staff you’ll need, how much you can pay them, and what kind of collaboration will be needed to hit your milestones. From there, you’ll likely need to approach investors and secure funding.

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The TRUiC Team

TRUiC’s team of researchers, writers, and editors dedicate hours to ensure startupsavant.com’s articles are actionable and accessible for both startup founders and startup enthusiasts. From launching a startup to growing your venture, you can trust that our information is an up-to-date and reliable source.

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Are you thinking of launching a trip planning startup or actively working on one? Travelers use dozens of websites and apps while planning their trips, frantically brainstorming ideas, comparing prices and compiling options into spreadsheets. There simply must be a better way, right?

Trip planners have been the holy grail of travel entrepreneurs for decades and Phocuswright has received thousands of pitches for them. With so much passion and effort poured into this space, why hasn’t there been a stand-out winner? Why have so many companies failed? And as travel embraces artificial intelligence, does AI hold the keys to future success?

Hear from Mike Coletta, Manager of Research and Innovation at Phocuswright and Gilad Berenstein, investor and former founder of Utrip, on their personal experiences with trip planning startups and what Phocuswright’s startup data tells us about success and failure. This webinar recording is a must-watch event for all entrepreneurs working on startups in the inspiration, itinerary or content areas of the travel industry.

Download the webinar deck here.

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Top 20 travel startups to watch out for in 2024

1. travelperk.

• Headquarters : Barcelona, Spain
• Other office locations : Boston, Chicago, Miami, Berlin, Birmingham, Edinburgh, London
• Number of employees : 1,142 
• Funding : raised a total of $408.2M over 9 rounds

Start saving money on business travel for your company today!

2. timeshifter.

• Headquarters: New York, USA
• Other office locations: Southampton, NY, Water Mill, NY
• Number of employees: 861
• Funding: raised a total of $3.5M over 3 rounds

3. GetYourGuide

• Headquarters: Berlin, Germany
• Other office locations: Zurich, Sydney, Vienna, Paris, Hong Kong, Rome, Dubai, San Francisco, New York City, Cape Town, Barcelona, London, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo
• Number of employees: 928
• Funding: raised a total of $5.9 billion in venture funding by 2022
• Headquarters: Saudi Arabia
• Other office locations: N/A
• Number of employees: 16
• Funding: seed round closed in February 2023

5. Lighthouse (OTA Insight)

• Headquarters: London, UK
• Other office locations: Singapore, Denver, Belgium, Sao Paolo, Dallas
• Number of employees: 411
• Funding: $80 million Series B 

6. SafetyWing

• Headquarters: California, USA
• Number of employees: 145
• Funding: raised a total of $47M over 4 rounds

7. Coindrum

• Headquarters: Dublin, Ireland
• Number of employees: 10
• Funding: raised a total of $2.9M over 2 rounds

8. Luggage Hero

• Headquarters: Copenhagen, Denmark
• Number of employees: 30
• Funding: raised a total of $3.9M over 5 rounds

9. Blacklane

• Other office locations: New York, San Diego, Miami, Dubai, Paris, Brisbane
• Number of employees: 343
• Funding: raised a total of $103M over 10 rounds
• Headquarters: USA
• Other office locations: Singapore
• Number of employees: 300+
• Funding: raised a total of $67.3M over 3 rounds

11. Roadsurfer

• Headquarters: Bayern, Germany
• Other office locations: 70+ locations 
• Number of employees: 263
• Funding: $31.3M (Series Unknown)

12. PickYourTrail

• Headquarters: Chennai, India 
• Number of employees: 5
• Funding: $4.74M over 5 rounds from 12 investors

13. Tripsider

• Headquarters: San Francisco, California, USA
• Number of employees: 50
• Funding: $1M in seed
• Headquarters: Cedarhurst, New York, USA
• Number of employees: 100 
• Funding: Undisclosed

15. Tourisfair

• Headquarters: Saabrücken, Germany 
• Number of employees: 10 
• Funding: £500-800K
• Headquarters: Austin, Texas 
• Number of employees: 12
• Funding: $4.25M in seed funding in 2023
• Headquarters: London, UK 
• Funding: $236M in funding across 35 funding rounds

18. Katanox

• Headquarters: Amsterdam, Netherlands 
• Other office locations: Manchester, Delaware, Seattle, New York 
• Number of employees: 25
• Funding: $5.7M raised by 2022

19. Greether

• Headquarters: Zurich, Switzerland  
• Number of employees: 34
• Funding: $2.2M in seed funding (July 2023) 

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Paris Hilton Backs New AI Trip Planner and Jet Engine Startup Raises $116 Million

Justin Dawes , Skift

December 1st, 2023 at 2:48 PM EST

Paris Hilton is backing a new trip planner that combines AI and social media, shortly after another social media-based travel app announced backing by John Legend.

Justin Dawes

Travel Startup Funding This Week

Each week we round up travel startups that have recently received or announced funding . Please email Travel Tech Reporter Justin Dawes at [email protected] if you have funding news.

Seven travel tech startups have raised more than $171 million over the past two weeks. 

>> Layla , a new generative AI trip planner app, has announced its launch and a seed fundraise of $3.3 million (€3 million).

Investors include Paris Hilton, Booking.com co-founder Andy Phillips, and Skyscanner co-founder Barry Smith. The funding round was led by Firstminute Capital, which was established by Lastminute.com co-founder Brent Hoberman, as well as the fund M13.

Users can access the trip planner chatbot through the Apple and Android apps, or by messaging the Instagram account @justasklayla .

Berlin-based Layla said that the chatbot can deliver a personalized travel plan following a series of prompts and responses. The itinerary could include relevant videos and information about accommodations, flight prices, cultural insights, and weather. The app also enables users to book flights and lodging through Skyscanner and Booking.com.

The startup said the chatbot is informed in part by social media-based travel content, which is where many younger travelers turn to get travel advice. 

Layla was created by Jeremy Jauncey, founder of travel media brand Beautiful Destinations, and Saad Saeed, co-founder of European grocery delivery service Flink. 

“Travel discovery has been broken for decades,” Jauncey said in a statement. “People today get inspired by short-form videos on social media first and foremost, but there is no way to turn this inspiration into a trip. We want to help users discover the perfect places by bridging the gap between social media, planning and booking.”

ZeroAvia: $116 Million

ZeroAvia , which is developing a hydrogen-electric jet engine, has raised $116 million in series C funding.

It was led by the UK Infrastructure Bank, with support from previous co-leads Airbus, Barclays Sustainable Impact Capital, and NEOM Investment Fund, as well as Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Horizons Ventures, Alaska Airlines, Ecosystem Integrity Fund, Summa Equity, AP Ventures, and Amazon Climate Pledge Fund. 

ZeroAvia has now raised over $256 million, according to Crunchbase. The latest funding amount , in September, was undisclosed. 

Headquartered in the UK and California, ZeroAvia said it is developing hydrogen-electric engines that use hydrogen in fuel cells to generate electricity. That electricity is then used to power motors that turn the aircraft’s propellers, with water being the only byproduct during flight.

The company is focusing first on engines that support a 300-mile range in aircrafts of nine to 19 seats by the end of 2025. The next focus is on engines that support a range of up to 700 miles in aircrafts with 40-80 seats by 2027. The company said it has signed engineering partnerships with major aircraft manufacturers and has nearly 2,000 engine pre-orders from airlines. 

 The funding will go toward certifying the startup’s first engines and advancing research and development around engines for larger aircrafts. 

“Aviation and hydrogen are sectors that need significant private investment to get to net zero,” said Ian Brown, head of banking and investments at the UK Infrastructure Bank, in a statement. “By providing confidence to investors, our equity has helped to crowd in the private investment needed for the continued development of this cutting-edge technology and should help stimulate the development and deployment of hydrogen technology across other hard to decarbonise sectors.”  

Scapia: $23 Million

Scapia , which offers a credit card and app dedicated to Indian travelers, has raised $23 million in a series A funding round.

It was led by Elevation Capital and 3STATE Ventures, with support from Matrix Partners India and Tanglin Venture Partners. 

The Bangalore-based company released a co-branded Visa credit card in partnership with Federal Bank near the time it announced a $9 million fundraise in June. 

Benefits of the card include no foreign exchange fees, unlimited domestic airport lounge access with a minimum monthly expenditure, no annual or joining fees, and 10% rewards for all purchases. 

The credit card app includes a tool that enables customers to instantly redeem points for flight and hotels, bookable through the app, the company said. 

The capital will go toward growing the startup’s customer base, adding more banking partners, and strengthening the software product. 

@hotel: $4 million

@hotel , a consumer booking platform for hotels, has raised $4 million. 

Investors include former Booking Holdings CEO Jeff Boyd, Booking Holdings chairman Robert Mylod, PAR Capital, Shopify executive Luc Levesque through his fund 20GROWTH, Facebook executive David Fischer, Instagram lead Morgan Brown, and others.

Formerly called Tripscout, the startup raised a $10 million series A funding round in June 2022.

The Chicago-based startup has a strong focus on selling its product through social media, particularly Instagram, with more than 100 accounts focused on different destinations. The accounts receive more than 2 billion views each month, according to the website. 

Maison Sport: $3.9 Million

Maison Sport , an online platform connecting skiers with professional instructors, has raised $3.9 million (£3.1 million).

Investors include Skyscanner co-founder Gareth Williams and Checkatrade founder Kevin Byrne. 

London-based Maison Sport said it offers lessons at more than 400 resorts with more than 1,300 instructors in France, Switzerland, Italy, and Austria.

The funding will go toward adding lessons for skiing and snowboarding, as well as partnering with more travel agents, who can get a commission by selling lessons to clients. 

BeCause: $1.9 million

BeCause , which helps travel companies manage sustainability data, has raised $1.9 million (€1.8 million) in seed funding. 

The round, which is still open, has been co-led by Ugly Duckling Ventures and Superangel.io, with support from individual investors Sean Brown, Sean Evans, and Patrick Patrong.

“We have retained the possibility of adding another investor to this round and hope to find a partner that has experience with high-growth startups in the impact space, particularly those with a background in B2B SaaS models, travel and big data API, to help accelerate our mission even further,” said Frederik Steensgaard, BeCause co-founder and CEO, in a statement.

Demark-based BeCause said its AI-powered platform acts as a centralized hub for all sustainability data between travel company partners.

The company said its network includes more than 20,000 hotels, more than 50 certifiers, and 15 travel booking marketplaces. Clients include Booking.com, easyJet, Google, Radisson Hotels, and TUI, the company said.

The funding will go toward strengthening the product and expanding into other travel sectors, like corporate travel, tours and activities, and meetings.

WeRoad: $19.6 million

WeRoad , a tour operator based in Europe, has raised $19.6 million (€18 million) in series B funding led by H14.

Milan-based WeRoad is developing its travel booking platform, meant for millennials who want to travel with groups. The company plans to advance its technology and scale in Europe before moving to other regions.

( See Skift’s story .)

Skift Cheat Sheet

Seed  capital is money used to start a business, often led by angel investors and friends or family.

Series A  financing is typically drawn from venture capitalists. The round aims to help a startup’s founders make sure that their product is something that customers truly want to buy.

Series B  financing is mainly about venture capitalist firms helping a company grow faster. These fundraising rounds can assist in recruiting skilled workers and developing cost-effective marketing.

Series C  financing is ordinarily about helping a company expand, such as through acquisitions. In addition to VCs, hedge funds, investment banks, and private equity firms often participate.

Series D, E, and, beyond  These mainly mature businesses and the funding round may help a company prepare to go public or be acquired. A variety of types of private investors might participate.

The Daily Newsletter

Our daily coverage of the global travel industry. Written by editors and analysts from across Skift’s brands.

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Tags: booking holdings , funding , hilton , instagram , skyscanner , vcroundup

Photo credit: Pictured: Plane flying with ZeroAvia prototype hydrogen-electric engines. ZeroAvia

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When should you start planning vacations? 1 in 5 begin before their current trip ends!

NEW YORK —  Wanderlust seems to be a permanent state for many Americans, as a recent survey reveals that one in five (21%) are “always” planning their next escape — even while still enjoying their current vacation! The survey of 2,000 adults who travel also finds another 27 percent say this feeling sets in within a week of taking a vacation.

The average person spent 11 days on vacation in 2023. Looking ahead, the average American wants to spend 15 days on vacation in 2024, and if they had unlimited personal time off (PTO), they’d want to spend 18 days. Although just a quarter of respondents say they travel more than the average person they know, 46 percent want to be known as a frequent traveler by others in their lives.

Conducted by OnePoll for the timeshare brand Club Wyndham, the survey reveals that 89 percent of respondents report that vacationing reduces their stress levels, albeit temporarily, and 84 percent acknowledge that a vacation can relax them and decrease stress for up to two weeks after returning.

A majority of respondents say that they consider vacations as a form of self-care (86%). Similarly, eight in 10 would be interested in a “do-nothing” vacation where they sit by the pool, beach , or inside reading a book or relaxing.

“According to the survey, more than 70 percent of potential travelers count down to their vacation, and a majority long to travel again just one week after returning home,” says spokesperson Annie Roberts, Senior Vice President of Club and Owner Services at Club Wyndham, in a statement. “With today’s travelers often putting a great deal of time and thought into the trip planning and dreaming stages to ensure a vacation that is well tailored to their interests, it’s not surprising that they want to experience the ‘vacation glow’ again and again.”

To make sure they get what they’re looking for, those surveyed go to great lengths to plan their vacations. Respondents want to steer clear of discomforts like sharing a bathroom with others (27%) and avoid situations where they would have difficulty sleeping (27%).

Nearly a quarter of travelers say sharing a hotel room isn’t ideal, and the same percentage says small hotel rooms are a dealbreaker (23% each). Most Americans surveyed say that when on vacation with others, they prefer having their own or extra space to spread out (79%), including 82 percent of parents.

If they had their dream hotel room, respondents would make sure there is Wi-Fi (55%), a private balcony or outdoor area (41%), a large bedroom (37%), a large bathroom (33%), and a full-sized kitchen or kitchenette (32%).

“With nearly a third of respondents (29%) spending most or all their time at their hotel or resort while on vacation , it’s clear that travelers deserve more than just a place to sleep,” says Roberts. “People want to ensure their vacation decisions bring them quality, consistency and peace of mind for their entire experience. Accommodations that actually enhance your vacation, like separate bedrooms, bathrooms and full-sized kitchens, offer travelers a special luxury—the chance to gather comfortably to enjoy shared moments that become lifelong memories.”

Survey methodology:

This random double-opt-in survey of 2,000 Americans who travel was commissioned by Club Wyndham between March 22 and March 28, 2024. It was conducted by market research company OnePoll , whose team members are members of the Market Research Society and have corporate membership to the American Association for Public Opinion Research ( AAPOR ) and the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research ( ESOMAR ).

Summer 2024 travel boom expected: Start planning now with these money-saving tips

by Melanie Hastings

WASHINGTON (7News) — If you're thinking about a summer vacation, you better hurry.

The best time to book your trip is two to three months in advance, according to Hopper . And the summer of 2024 is predicted to break travel records.

"People are traveling with a vengeance ever since the pandemic ended. The last few months the phones have been ringing off the hook. And everybody wants to travel," said Gwendolyn Kinlaw, an Expedia vacation consultant.

From a family road trip to an all-inclusive resort to a cruise, or a bucket list international destination, there is something for everyone at every price point.

"Very popular are the Caribbean islands, Mexico. Alaska is another top one. Many are looking to book for Hawaii as well," Kinlaw said.

But if you're looking for a deal, try going when it's not so crowded.

SEE ALSO | Over a third of Americans willing to take on debt for summer vacation

"It's more expensive to travel in the summer. I would say the months of July and August are very much more expensive," Kinlaw added.

The average summer airfare is $325 for a domestic trip and $1,000. for international flights, according to Hopper.

Book your flight two to three months in advance for a U.S. trip, or five to six months in advance for an overseas flight.

Right now some cruise lines are offering deals.

''A lot of the companies are offering buy one get one free. They're offering guests three and four, travel for free. Some of them are offering the kids for free, and 60% off the first and second passenger," Kinlaw said.

But you might find better deals if you hold off until mid to late August when the kids are back in school.

Experts advise booking refundable rates on airfare and hotels, being flexible with your dates, and choosing off-peak times.

Setting a fare alert to make sure you're getting the best deal, and monitoring flash deals on resorts, hotels and airfare are also good ideas.

You can also use credit card points and miles to get great deals.

Lastly, if you find a better deal online, ask your provider if they can match that rate.

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How to plan your dream vacation

Sometimes you crave a vacation — but actually taking one feels out of reach. Maybe you're struggling to find the time or save up the money. Or maybe you just can't seem to launch those plans out of the group chat. Overcome that planning inertia and take the big trip of your dreams. Here's where to start your search, organize your logistics and enjoy yourself.

MARIELLE SEGARRA, HOST:

You're listening to LIFE KIT...

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SEGARRA: ...From NPR.

Hey, everybody. It's Marielle. You remember the early part of the pandemic when the days of isolation stretched into months? At night, I would lay on the floor of my apartment with my eyes closed and listen to guided meditations, to try to take myself to a happier place. One time the prompt was something like, picture yourself doing something that brings you great joy. The first thing that popped into my head was an image of me wandering the cobblestone streets of some small European village, probably in France. The sun was shining, and every step I took was a feast for the eyes. Medieval houses, colorful flowers resting in vases on outdoor tables, patisseries with gorgeous pastries in the window, just waiting to be eaten.

I didn't realize until that moment just how much I missed traveling and how badly I wanted to look at something outside of my four walls or the blocks of my neighborhood. The next year, I took a three-week trip to the U.K. and France, and I ate those pastries and wandered until my feet hurt and filled a hole that had been growing inside of me.

Big trips can do that. Lale Arikoglu knows what I'm talking about. She's the articles director at Conde Nast Traveler.

LALE ARIKOGLU: On a really basic level, I think it's just being able to have a break from the crush of regular life, whether that's work or childcare or school, wherever it may be, you know, the opportunity to just take yourself out of your routine and be somewhere else and get to immerse yourself in that place to me is, like, the main draw of it.

SEGARRA: Now, when we talk about a big trip, that could mean different things depending on your travel style and your budget. You know, it might be a long road trip or an extended stay at a cottage in the woods or a multi-city tour on another continent. But it's typically something you save up for and plan months in advance. Lale has a big trip coming up. She's going to Peru.

ARIKOGLU: I've been waiting to do it for a long time. The reason to go there is for a friend's wedding. And now I'm building a trip around it, and it's going to be about ten days long with multi-stops, you know, having to choose multiple places to stay. And logistically, you know, it's actually taking some thought and some planning. One of the things that we're going to do when we're there is hike Machu Picchu. There's a group of us going. And Machu Picchu - it's a dream to see and experience.

SEGARRA: Now, it's easy to get bogged down in trip planning. And it might stop you from booking the thing entirely, but Lale says, do it. It's worth it.

On this episode of LIFE KIT, Lale shares her best tips on planning the big trip of your dreams. We'll talk about where to start your search, what logistical questions you should ask yourself and how to actually relax and enjoy yourself once you're there.

SEGARRA: Let's say I do want to take a big trip, right? I'm feeling that itch to travel, but...

ARIKOGLU: Right.

SEGARRA: ...I don't have a destination in mind yet or a duration. I'm really starting from scratch. Where does the planning start?

ARIKOGLU: When you start the planning, you've really got to think what you want to get out of the trip. You know, If you really just want to decompress and relax and rest, then you probably don't want to do some like multi-stop European city trip, right? You probably don't want to hike Machu Picchu. Perhaps it is that you're incredibly bored of your surroundings, and you need adventure and you need excitement. And therefore, you're going to be thinking of some really different destinations. It might be that you're traveling alone for the first time. You've decided to do a solo trip. You know, where is a place that might feel comfortable for you as a solo traveler, but still feels like it's taking you out of your comfort zone? So I think it's sitting with yourself and thinking, OK, what is, like, the goal here? That's takeaway one. Ask yourself what do you want to get from this? Set the mission of your trip.

It feels like another really important detail at the beginning is budget, right? Like, how much money do you realistically want to spend on this trip or can you afford to spend?

ARIKOGLU: And, you know, that's going to look different for everyone. If we're talking big trips, rarely are they spontaneous, right? You're planning for a long time. So that also allows you to save and finance for it. No, there's lots of great savings apps that can just, you know, that take a little bit of money out of your paycheck every few weeks, and you can kind of start, like, a travel fund that way. I think that's quite a nice way to do it. But I think, you know, you can do a big trip on a budget. It doesn't have to be, I think, a lavish, international trip. I mean, you know, we're going into spring and summer, there are so many incredible national parks to see, there are so many amazing, very diverse, different cities. There's, like, so much on your doorstep, so I think you can really argue, you don't have to cross continents to have a big trip. And so if that feels a more affordable way to get away for a couple of weeks, then, you know, look in your backyard.

SEGARRA: Right. I wonder, too, like, part of budget, besides money, is also time. Like, how much vacation time do you have? Do you have any tips for people who don't have that much vacation time?

ARIKOGLU: So I think if you look at the calendar and you look at where the holiday weekends fall, There are some tricks to being able to kind of, like, turn your limited number of vacation days into - kind of you can stretch it out if you bookend it with a holiday weekend or something like that. But on the flip side, it's also most expensive time to travel, right? There is an argument for choosing shoulder season, so that's not traveling to a destination when it's at its peak. And this is great for your own personal experience, but it's also in terms of helping that destination deal with overtourism, overcrowding. If we're talking about Europe, for example, the summers are getting hotter. So avoiding those really intense, hot, summer seasons can actually be really advantageous for your own travel plans.

SEGARRA: Yeah. That seems like maybe the next thing to consider as you're planning a big trip before you start looking at destinations is what time of year are you looking to travel?

ARIKOGLU: Definitely. And that's more of a luxury for some people because If you're having to navigate school holidays, then you're a little bit more limited. But again, it's sort of when you're thinking about carving out those goals and what you want to get out of the trip. Maybe it's the seasonality that's really important. Maybe it's all you want is hot weather and a beach. You know, if you're planning some summer travel, you could totally flip things on its head and go experience winter somewhere. I went to Patagonia when it was entering into their fall in Chile, and it was a really magnificent time to be there, and it was when New York City was going into spring. It felt like upside-down land to be choosing to do that, and it was so wonderful. It was great.

SEGARRA: Yeah. I think there's a lot of room for creativity there. And also, as you said, like, it opens up more possibilities if you consider going places during the shoulder season.

ARIKOGLU: And you get to be in a place and actually be in the place with the people who live there. One thing in August, if you go to Europe, everyone who lives there has, you know, gone off somewhere else on vacation to escape the heat and the tourists, and so, you know, you're in Rome with just all the other tourists and none of the Romans.

SEGARRA: All right, so takeaway two. Before you land on a destination, think about your constraints. What time of year do you plan to travel? For how long? What budget are you working with? If you're short on time, you can make use of holidays or pick a destination closer to home. If you're short on money, think creatively. You know, maybe you do a road trip through some parks or cities nearby.

SEGARRA: It seems like another thing to consider here is, how much do you like crowds? Because for me, it kind of ruins a trip or an experience if everywhere I go is super crowded. I get very overwhelmed by that and overstimulated.

ARIKOGLU: And it's also, you know, who are the crowds? Because there's been times when I've gone somewhere and I've gone and done the same bucket list site that everyone else is, and you're sort of standing there and you're thinking, What am I actually here for? Well, what is the purpose of this? What am I getting out of it? What am I giving to this destination other than just being another member of the crowd?

SEGARRA: Yeah. I think that's an important question, right? 'Cause, like, we have been talking about what are you looking to get out of it, for the most part. But there's another side to this - right? - and it's what am I giving? And also, what am I taking? Like, am I taking too much from this place?

ARIKOGLU: I think about that a lot. When you're planning, be really thoughtful about where you're spending your money. When you're choosing a hotel, is it a hotel that is locally owned? What restaurants are you booking? Where are you shopping? Where are you buying your souvenirs? You know, I think there's lots of ways to be really thoughtful about, you know, how you spend your money, and that can go into your budgeting, as well.

SEGARRA: I know there are certain places that at a certain time, at least, they said, please, tourists, like, please stop coming or stop coming during this time.

ARIKOGLU: Yeah. When a destination says that, I mean, it's something to be taken so seriously because they're usually destinations that have an infrastructure or an economy that really relies on tourism. So things have to have gotten pretty bad for a destination to say, take a beat, not right now, and listen to that, and, you know, the place will be better for it when you do go see it.

SEGARRA: I picture it as if you were, like, going to - going over, like, a friend's house uninvited, or, like, if they were like, please, today's not good. Like, our whole family's sick, like, we're all throwing up, and then you were still banging on the door, like, hey, what are you doing? Can I come stay over?

ARIKOGLU: I think that is a perfect analogy. Perfect. And no one wants to be that person.

SEGARRA: No.

ARIKOGLU: I'd hate to be that person.

SEGARRA: That'd be weird behavior.

ARIKOGLU: Yeah.

SEGARRA: Takeaway three, travel responsibly. Research the places you're interested in, and make sure they want tourists at the time you're looking to visit. When you're booking, consider putting your money toward the local economy rather than international chains. Also, learn about whatever destination you choose. Be open to the cultural practices and languages there. And be a respectful visitor.

Anything else that people would want to figure out before they start narrowing down or looking at destinations?

ARIKOGLU: I think it's also thinking about who you want to travel with. Someone can be your best friend, but they can be your worst roommate. I think travel's kind of the same, so kind of finding someone to travel with or a group of people to travel with who you're aligned with in the planning stage, rather than when you get there and then you suddenly discover you all want to do different things. So I think communicating right off the back what you all want out of the trip and what you're excited about and also being really honest with each other about finances.

If you're on a group trip, I mean, it's like splitting the bill, but a thousand times worse. And so I think if you can kind of, like, set some parameters at the start and be really honest about what you feel comfortable spending money on because inevitably, there is going to be some people on the trip who want to spend more money on some things than others.

SEGARRA: Yeah. And it seems like that conversation, there should be some form of that before you book anything.

ARIKOGLU: Yes, 100%. And, you know, I think even if you don't feel comfortable doing it, speaking up if something just feels too expensive.

SEGARRA: All right. So takeaway four, figure out who you're traveling with. You might prefer to travel alone, or if you're going with friends, partners, or family, just make sure you're on the same page about what you want from the trip - the pace, the activities and how much money you can spend.

SEGARRA: OK. So it sounds like we've given people a lot of things to consider before they choose a destination. Once they've done this soul searching, how can they start to find destinations that fit those desires and limitations?

ARIKOGLU: For me, part of the fun of travel planning is doing the research, whether it is a trusted travel publication or reading some books you love or going on to - you know, there's, like, a ton of just, like, online communities of people who love swapping travel tips and actually, I think, can be really helpful.

SEGARRA: Yeah. I think it can be helpful maybe to in the brainstorming stage to just, like, not go in too deep but just make a list of places that seem exciting to you and that might fit your parameters. Like, I have a Google Doc, and it's just, like, places that I would be really excited to go.

SEGARRA: When you are considering a destination, how helpful is social media - is - like, seeing where your friends are going or where influencers are going? Is it a good idea to follow those trends?

ARIKOGLU: I think it can be useful in picking things you want to do once you're there, particularly if it's, like, based around, like, big events or openings. You know, we have our best places to go list that runs every year. It could be, like, new train routes, new hiking routes, new museums that have opened, things that are happening in destinations centered around an anniversary. So, you know, kind of consulting those sorts of lists and rounds up as well can be very helpful. But I think, you know, going back to what we were talking about in terms of over tourism or overcrowding - you know, on social media, you will see people at the same spots time and time again. And they're usually spots where just around the corner, there's also something equally beautiful to see.

SEGARRA: Yeah. Like, I remember when Santorini was really popular. And it's like, whew - like, if you could actually see what was going on behind that photo, like, you would hate being there because it's so - it's just way too many people...

ARIKOGLU: Right. Right.

SEGARRA: ...All lining up to take a picture in - against that beautiful backdrop.

ARIKOGLU: Exactly. And, you know, it's Santorini. It's all beautiful. It's all amazing.

SEGARRA: OK. So takeaway five is to choose a destination. And cast a wide net when you're brainstorming 'cause you never know what's going to catch your eye. Also, Lale says, do your best to think outside of the current travel trends. Though you can use them for inspiration.

So once you've got a destination in mind, how can you start to sketch out the details of the trip? And I guess I should say, how much detail do you really need to figure out?

ARIKOGLU: So I was going to say, don't overschedule yourself, and don't overbook yourself. I think I've been guilty of doing that before, and then you realize that you have no downtime. It might seem like you're being really efficient, but you need a little bit of spontaneity on your trip. Don't overschedule. If there are a few key things you really want to do that you feel you will be crushed if you don't get to do it, then book it. Make sure that's arranged all in advance. So maybe it's finding one thing on each day of your trip. That's what you center your day around and you can frame your itinerary around that, but I wouldn't overschedule.

SEGARRA: Yeah. And then I think when you look at these things potentially sketched out on different days, then you say like, you know, that seems too busy. What's the most important to me here? Like, which of these activities do I want to book ahead?

ARIKOGLU: Right. You know, if you're suddenly realizing - you're like, I am cramming a lot in if I try to go to these three places, then choosing which one to let go.

SEGARRA: Yeah. 'Cause that's always a consideration, too. Like, if you're flying somewhere far, you might think, well, I'm already going to Poland, should I also do Germany?

SEGARRA: There's that impulse, you know? Or I'm going to Poland, so I want to see all of Poland. But that can make for a very frenetic kind of trip.

ARIKOGLU: And you wouldn't tell someone who was visiting America to be like, well, you've come all the way to America, so if you're going to New York, then you also need to go to New Orleans.

SEGARRA: Right, right. Exactly. That's Takeaway 6 - keep your schedule light and malleable. Lally recommends picking only one activity to do for each day of your trip and then building a flexible itinerary around those.

You know, it occurs to me that another element of a big trip when I'm going into them - I know that something's going to go awry during it.

ARIKOGLU: Always (laughter).

SEGARRA: Yeah.

SEGARRA: I remember being in Barcelona when I was in college. I went by myself for, like, a week. And I speak Spanish, but it wasn't fluent at the time. And I just got - I just missed being able to easily say what I wanted to say, and I went into, like, a Wendy's or something because I just wanted something kind of American. And I got some chicken nuggets. I couldn't think how to say nuggets in Spanish. Like, I was like, is that even a word, like, in Spanish, or did they just say nuggets? And I just broke and started speaking in English because I was trying to only speak Spanish. And I was like, I give up. Like, can I get some chicken nuggets, please?

ARIKOGLU: The true American in you comes out screaming at chicken nuggets in a foreign McDonald's.

SEGARRA: Yeah, yeah, give me my nuggies.

ARIKOGLU: (Laughter).

SEGARRA: Yeah, I just - like, sometimes you just need to go roll up into a ball and eat your chicken nuggies and be by yourself for a minute and then come back out, you know?

ARIKOGLU: Yeah. I mean, like, travel so much of the time is sort of, like, infantilizing because you're so powerless. But it's, like, the same in an airport. You're just sort of powerless at a certain extent when things go wrong. And I think my approach to it - to sort of very taxing and challenging air travel schedules, with connections and potential miss flights and lost luggage and all the things that come with that - is to sort of just give myself up to the airport gods, and just as soon as I'm, like, through TSA, just be like, what will be will be. I'll get there eventually and just, like, I'm powerless. And that's been, like, for me, quite liberating. And it also means that I'm not the person screaming at some poor gate agent when things go wrong.

SEGARRA: Yeah, it's a moment of - it's actually an opportunity for mindfulness. Like, I think that could even be helpful going into a big trip, to tell yourself, like, something is going to go wrong. Yeah, just keep that in mind.

ARIKOGLU: Oh, my God, so much of travel is about being tired and hungry.

SEGARRA: We're really selling this.

ARIKOGLU: I know.

SEGARRA: (Laughter).

ARIKOGLU: I'm like, my whole job is to travel. It's great.

SEGARRA: Isn't it terrible? Yeah.

SEGARRA: I try to remind myself, like - what is the point? - like, go back to those goals. What is the point of this? It's to have a good experience, to meet those needs, to give myself what I've been craving.

ARIKOGLU: Exactly. And I don't know. This sounds a little cheesy and a little trite, but anyone who gets to travel is really lucky. Ultimately, it's a real privilege that you get to do it. And it's such a freedom and it's such a special thing.Don't make it stressful.

SEGARRA: That's our final takeaway. Something on your trip is bound to go wrong. So once you're there, sit back and try to surrender. After all, traveling in the first place is a treat.

SEGARRA: OK, jet-setters, time for a recap. First, figure out what you want from this vacation. Decide your budget and time constraints. Commit to traveling ethically. Make sure you're aligned with the people you're traveling with. When you choose a destination, cast a wide net and have fun with the research. Don't overschedule yourself, and once you're there, relax and roll with the punches. For more LIFE KIT, check out our other episodes. We've got one on how to find cheap flights and another on how to pack your suitcase like a pro. You can find those at np.org/lifekit. And if you love LIFE KIT and you just cannot get enough, subscribe to our newsletter at np.org/lifekitnewsletter. Also, we love hearing from you, so if you have episode ideas or feedback you want to share, e-mail us at [email protected].

This episode of LIFE KIT was produced by Margaret Cirino. Our visuals editor is Beck Harlan and our digital editor is Malaka Gharib. Meghan Keane is our supervising editor and Beth Donovan is our executive producer. Our production team also includes Andee Tagle, Clare Marie Schneider and Sylvie Douglis. Engineering support comes from Robert Rodriguez. I'm Marielle Segarra. Thanks for listening.

Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Insider Q&A: Avelo Airlines CEO Andrew Levy describes the challenges of starting a new carrier

It’s not easy to break into the U.S. airline industry, which is dominated by four big carriers and a sprinkling of other niche players, but that didn’t scare away Andrew Levy.

Neither did a pandemic that briefly caused air travel to plummet more than 90%.

In April 2021, while COVID-19 still raged and billions of dollars from taxpayers were propping up big airlines, Levy launched Avelo Airlines with flights between Burbank, California, and Las Vegas.

The airline saves money by flying older Boeing 737 jets that can be bought at relatively low prices. It operates out of less-crowded and less-costly secondary airports, and flies routes that are ignored by the big airlines.

Levy was involved in the launch of ValuJet, which became Allegiant Air, and he also did a stint as the chief financial officer of United Airlines before starting Avelo (it rhymes with yellow).

He spoke with The Associated Press about the challenges of starting a new airline, how the carrier is doing, and plans to sell shares to the public. The answers were edited for length and clarity.

Q: Why did you think you should start a new airline?

A: Shortly after I left Allegiant in 2014, I actually started thinking about about doing this. The market had become very consolidated, and there was a lot of opportunity that was out there that wasn’t being served by the existing, incumbent carriers. You have these four behemoths that are massive, that are protected by the government it seems, because certainly they’re stronger than they have ever been, after the pandemic. My view was we had room for more.

Q: What have you learned?

A: While there are these four behemoths, the toughest challenge, quite honestly, might even be the regulatory regime. For smaller companies like ours, it imposes these really substantial burdens on us. I’ll give you an example. For the (Department of Justice) lawsuit (against) JetBlue and Spirit, we had to go spend a ton of money on our end to produce documents for something that we really didn’t care how it ended up. And they’re trying to get us to do the same thing for Alaska-Hawaiian, which again, we could care less if Alaska and Hawaiian merge.

Q: How do you get people to fly on a new airline?

A: Number one, you have an awareness issue. You want people to know that you exist. So that’s one challenge, which is more of a marketing challenge. The other challenge is of course getting people to trust you. Like, ‘Who are these people? Are they going to really get me there? What’s the airplane going to look like? Is it safe? Is it reliable? What happens if something goes wrong?’ All those questions that most consumers may have when they think about choosing an airline that perhaps they’re unfamiliar with. You just have to focus on doing a really great job. Obviously not every flight is on time, but as time goes on I think people recognize that, hey, you know what? These guys offer a lot of value. We offer great convenience.

Q: Where does the name, Avelo, come from?

A: There’s no great story there. I wish I could tell you it was. It was a play on two words: velocity, which is swift in Latin, and convenience.

Q: Avelo reported a profit for fourth quarter 2023 but gave no details. Was that on a GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) basis? And how much was it?

A: We actually have cash that generates interest income nowadays. Those are GAAP numbers where we have audited financials from Ernst & Young. These are real numbers with no adjustments or anything else. I’m not going to give you the numbers because we are a private company and so we have no real need to provide that kind of information. I’ll tell you that we made money in the first quarter as well.

Q: You've talked about your cost advantage as a startup. Is that sustainable?

A: Most costs creep up over time for every airline because our labor costs are tied to pay scales, but it is very sustainable. It’s based on how we designed the business. We distribute our product directly to the customer so we don’t use third-party intermediaries. We go in to smaller, more convenient, less-expensive airports. Your taxi times are lower; you’re not burning gas. We spend money on things that matter, and that includes our people. Our pilot pay is very competitive. It’s not the same as United Airlines, but it’s extremely competitive. We operate older equipment also — midlife (Boeing) 737 NGs, and those are certainly less expensive than brand-new aircraft. They burn a little bit more gas, but not much, and we like that trade.

Q: Do you plan to sell stock to the public, and when?

There’s obviously two issues. The single biggest one is one we don’t control, which is when are the IPO markets going to be actually open and vibrant, and they’re not right now. Beyond that, we have to be ready as a company. We put two straight quarters of profits ... so we expect every quarter this year to be profitable. We hope that we’ll have a company that people would want to own, and hopefully by year end or sometime next year. There’s no magic to being public for us. It’s just that historically that is typically the best way to access the capital markets for companies like ours. It is a very capital-intensive industry.

Q: What advice would you give to somebody else looking to start a business?

A: There’s nothing more rewarding than taking control of of your destiny. Just make sure you know what you think you know about whatever it is you’re going to start. I think you have to be wired a certain way to want to do something like this because it’s unbelievably difficult. I’ve been at this now for almost six years. When we get to a certain point, I’ll look back and feel really good about what we’ve done. We’re not there yet, but we’re getting close.

A Gen Xer who got $250,000 in student loans forgiven said he can now finally start saving for retirement — and consider his dream of studying in India

• Joel Lambdin, 49, received $250,000 in student-loan forgiveness in January.
• It's a result of the Education Department's one-time account adjustments.
• Lambdin said the relief would allow him to save for retirement and consider long-term dreams.

Joel Lambdin finished graduate school in 1998 — but as a professional musician, he was hardly making enough money to pay off his student loans and other bills.

So Lambdin, now 49, said his only option to make ends meet was to put his student loans in forbearance — in which he was not making payments but interest was still accumulating .

"It was just so that I could subsist, so that I could survive," Lambdin told Business Insider. "With the hope that at some point, I would be making enough money that I would be able to take them out of forbearance and start paying them down."

But he grew to realize that the only way he could make a significant dent in his student loans was by switching careers. He didn't want to do that because he loved working in music, so he decided to keep his larger student loan in forbearance and begin paying off his smaller loan with a lower monthly payment.

He continued making those payments until the pandemic pause on student-loan payments , at which point he and his wife started making a plan of action to tackle the larger debt once the pause ended. That led them to discover the Education Department's initiative allowing some borrowers a one-time account adjustment . It lets the department evaluate borrowers' accounts and update payment progress toward forgiveness on income-driven repayment plans and Public Service Loan Forgiveness, including any payments made during a forbearance period.

That account adjustment led to a letter Lambdin received on January 31, reviewed by BI, from his student-loan servicer Aidvantage. It said: "Congratulations! The Biden-Harris Administration has forgiven your federal student loan(s) listed below with Aidvantage in full."

For Lambdin, that letter meant his $249,255 outstanding student-loan balance was effectively wiped out.

"It had started to feel like my fate was being decided for me by the cold hand of finance," Lambdin said, "and that was a weight that I didn't realize was there until it wasn't there."

He added: "The feeling was much more like putting down a backpack that was really full of books that you got used to. And then you put it down, and you're like, 'Oh, man, that feels so much better.' It's more like that, rather than sort of a jump-for-joy kind of situation."

While Lambdin is still working to determine what exactly the relief will mean for him and his wife, he said, discussing retirement is "a much more present conversation now" because contributing to savings is viable after the relief. He can also begin to look into buying a home.

Related stories

The Education Department continues to cancel student debt through its one-time account adjustments, a process it plans to complete this summer. Most recently, the department wiped out $7.4 billion in student debt for 277,000 borrowers , some of whom benefited from the adjustments.

Beyond financial goals, Lambdin said the relief was also allowing him the freedom to pursue some of his long-term dreams, including taking a sabbatical to study with his meditation teacher in India.

"It's something that I wouldn't have been able to even consider doing if we had to pay off student loans, but without them, it's something that I can really seriously consider doing," he said. "And so those are the kinds of things that I think get really lost in the monetary side of the conversation about debt relief."

'I've been really lucky'

While Lambdin said he felt as though he earned the relief given his decades of payments, he recognized that it's not that easy for many other borrowers.

For example, as BI has previously reported , some borrowers who might qualify for relief through different repayment programs may not have gotten it yet because of paperwork backlogs and administrative errors. On top of that, funding for federal student-loan servicers is strained — meaning many borrowers face hourslong hold times and cannot get clear answers from customer service regarding their payment progress.

"There are some real horror stories out there, and I've been really lucky in that I haven't experienced the kinds of shenanigans that other people have experienced," Lambdin said. "So I actually feel very lucky that things have transpired the way they have."

Some of those horror stories include inaccurate payment projections and delayed billing statements . When it comes to student-loan forgiveness, some borrowers told BI that their servicer made a mistake with the forgiveness , reinstating their payments months later.

The Education Department has said it's aware of the challenges borrowers face and has established an accountability framework to punish servicers when they fail to fulfill their contractual obligations.

The department is also in the process of crafting its new plan for student-loan forgiveness — it recently released the draft text of the rules , which included relief for borrowers with unpaid interest and those who have been in repayment for at least 20 years.

As for Lambdin, he's still figuring out how to approach life without student debt hanging over his head. But now he can consider various options, and he can thank the loan forgiveness for that freedom.

"There's a certain amount of waiting for the other shoe to drop because it's not that I don't trust that it's happening but just that the debt has been with me for so long, and then it's not there," Lambdin said. "And it's something that I think really takes some getting used to."

Watch: Biden announces who can have $10,000 erased in student loans

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Congestion Pricing Will Start on June 30 in New York City, M.T.A. Says

Transit officials announced the start of the program, which they have said will ease some of the nation’s worst traffic.

By Ana Ley and Winnie Hu

The first comprehensive congestion-pricing program in a major U.S. city will begin in New York on June 30, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced on Friday.

The plan remains contentious, however, and with months to go before its scheduled rollout, legal and political clashes could still dilute or stop it altogether. A growing number of opponents — including Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey, influential unions and some elected New York officials — recently ratcheted up their effort to block it.

The program is meant to ease some of the worst traffic in the nation, improve the city’s air quality, increase mass transit ridership and raise money to modernize the city’s subway, bus and commuter rail system. Congestion-pricing tolls are expected to generate $1 billion a year, with the revenue earmarked by law for capital projects, not operating costs.

The authority, which operates the mass transit system, also said on Friday that it had opened a portal for applicants seeking the program’s coveted discounts and exemptions. A website will guide drivers on who qualifies and how to apply.

Under the program, most passenger cars will be charged $15 a day to enter a so-called congestion zone below 60th Street in Manhattan. Trucks would pay $24 or $36, depending on their size. Taxi fares would increase by $1.25, and Uber and Lyft fares would rise by $2.50.

The program is widely unpopular by many measures. A survey of about 800 New Yorkers conducted this month by Siena College found that 63 percent opposed it. Still, out of more than 25,000 public comments about congestion pricing submitted to the transportation authority from late December to mid-March, roughly 60 percent expressed support, the authority said.

M.T.A. and federal transportation officials are defending it against six lawsuits in federal courts in New York and New Jersey that seek to halt the plan. The courts, which are expected to rule before the program starts, could possibly delay or block it.

“They are proceeding at their own risk in arrogant disregard of pending court cases,” said Jack L. Lester, a lawyer for a group of city residents who filed one of the suits.

This month, a federal judge in Newark heard arguments in a suit brought by New Jersey officials who argue that the congestion-pricing plan would shift traffic and pollution to some communities in the state as drivers try to avoid the tolls.

“We are awaiting a court ruling as early as next month on whether the M.T.A.’s unprecedented congestion-pricing scheme can go forward,” said Randy Mastro, a lawyer for the state of New Jersey, adding that “the jury is still out on this hugely flawed plan.”

The tolling rates, which the authority’s board approved last month , are still being reviewed by the Federal Highway Administration, which has already signed off on an exhaustive study of the program and is expected to approve the tolls.

Congestion pricing is expected to lower the number of vehicles coming into the zone by about 17 percent, according to a November report by an authority advisory committee. The report also said the program would reduce the total number of miles driven by motorists in 28 counties in the metropolitan region.

The fees are also supposed to discourage drivers from jamming roads and idling in gridlock, which contributes to soot and other harmful air pollutants. But some of the program’s harshest critics have pointed to evidence that certain neighborhoods could end up with dirtier air as a result of the traffic that is diverted. In response, the authority has vowed to work to diminish such potential harm .

Other cities that have adopted congestion-pricing programs, such as London, Singapore and Stockholm , have reported sharp drops in traffic and congestion.

David I. Weprin, a Democratic state assemblyman from Queens and a longtime congestion-pricing opponent, said of the plan that the authority was “trying to aggressively ram it down the public’s throat.”

“I don’t think the public wants it and I think it’s really unfair for people who have to drive and have no choice,” Mr. Weprin said. He has joined a lawsuit filed by Vito Fossella, a Republican and Staten Island’s borough president, and the United Federation of Teachers that seeks to keep the tolling plan from proceeding.

Danny Pearlstein, a spokesman for the Riders Alliance, an advocacy group, said in a statement that the start of the program “cannot happen soon enough.”

Congestion pricing, he said, “will be a win-win-win for all New Yorkers, commuters and visitors and will bring better public transit, cleaner air, and freer moving traffic.”

Ana Ley is a Times reporter covering New York City’s mass transit system and the millions of passengers who use it. More about Ana Ley

Winnie Hu is a Times reporter covering the people and neighborhoods of New York City. More about Winnie Hu