Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Quick Takes. Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. Well, it's
Speaker 1: not easy to be a company connected with the global
Speaker 1: travel and hospitality industry during a pandemic, like we saw
Speaker 1: tim travel stocks rallying a big way. Cruise lines, we
Speaker 1: certainly saw the airlines, but it's been vaulatile depending on
Speaker 1: the COVID headline. It's been a tough eighteen months. And
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter whether you're an airline, whether you're a
Speaker 1: cruise company, whether you're a hotel or even a casino,
Speaker 1: or perhaps even a service that people used to book
Speaker 1: these which is exactly what Travago is. And lucky for
Speaker 1: us back with us, as Axel hea for he see
Speaker 1: of the online travel platform in search site Travago. He
Speaker 1: is on the phone in Germany, Axel, good to have
Speaker 1: you back with us. How are you. I'm good. I'm
Speaker 1: good given the circumstances, obviously, I know I feel like
Speaker 1: it depending on when we're talking to you, it's I
Speaker 1: feel like over the summer we were starting to feel
Speaker 1: more optimistic. I think we've talked with you at the
Speaker 1: end of July and things felt a little bit better. Um,
Speaker 1: how are things going for you and your team? Um?
Speaker 1: We we've been watching the headline, certainly at a Germany.
Speaker 1: You guys deal with you know, Europe in a big way. Um,
Speaker 1: what are you seeing? What are you hearing both when
Speaker 1: it comes to folks using your site and also internally
Speaker 1: your own team kind of managing through another round of this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean the it's it's it's a very interesting point
Speaker 1: in time because the situation got a lot worse, and
Speaker 1: particularly in some of our core markets in Europe, with
Speaker 1: infections on record highs in Germany and in many other markets.
Speaker 1: On the other hand, UM, we continue to believe that
Speaker 1: the the outlook and the spring will be very very
Speaker 1: strong and that we will be through the pandemic more
Speaker 1: or less by the middle of next summer. So UM,
Speaker 1: right now very tough and um sometimes also a bit depressing,
Speaker 1: but the outlooks are very positive. Well in terms of
Speaker 1: outlooks there in the earnings report that you reported back
Speaker 1: in November. On November one, Trevigo said that it does
Speaker 1: not expect full rebound and travel over the winter. When
Speaker 1: do you expect a full rebound and travel? I do
Speaker 1: think that that we will see a very strong spring. Um.
Speaker 1: I mean, like like this year, um we and and
Speaker 1: also last year, we've seen that coming out of a
Speaker 1: winter with high infections, with restrictions in many places, um,
Speaker 1: people want to travel and want to actually see friends
Speaker 1: and family, want to get out and then get a
Speaker 1: break and um, and we expect exactly the same pattern. Um.
Speaker 1: Having said that, what will be different from our perspective
Speaker 1: in two versus twenty one, and for sure obviously twenty
Speaker 1: is that there is a signatantly greater number of people
Speaker 1: vaccinated twice or even three times, and to be honest,
Speaker 1: also a significantly greater number of people that God's sick
Speaker 1: already and have antibodies because of that. One thing I
Speaker 1: wanted to go back to is a Thanksgiving weekend. How
Speaker 1: did that go for you guys? And is that an
Speaker 1: indicator of maybe what we'll see through the rest of
Speaker 1: the winter season. I mean, it went well. In the
Speaker 1: US overall is is still much much more stable than Europe,
Speaker 1: to be honest, um, and there is one very big
Speaker 1: benefit in being in the US. You don't have to worry,
Speaker 1: um that much about travel restrictions being in post between
Speaker 1: states um, which is a problem in Europe, and it's
Speaker 1: something that adds a lot of uncertainty to your travel plans. Um.
Speaker 1: There are there is a regular flow of new restrictions,
Speaker 1: change and restrictions, testing requirements, etcetera. And this distriction is
Speaker 1: what what is is concerning people and holding them off
Speaker 1: from traveling. UM. In terms of looking forward, it is
Speaker 1: very very difficult to say, Um, the new variant is
Speaker 1: obviously adding uncertainty. UM. And like in the past, some
Speaker 1: governments think that you can stop a virus from entering
Speaker 1: the country by imposing very strict travel restrictions, which obviously
Speaker 1: only works for so long. It sounds like you disagree
Speaker 1: with that assessment. I mean, it's it's very difficult to say,
Speaker 1: to be honest, and I don't want to be a
Speaker 1: politician in in in times like we are in today.
Speaker 1: But um, it is it works to slow down the
Speaker 1: spread of a virus, which in particular in winter can
Speaker 1: make sense if your hospitals are full already. But um,
Speaker 1: the general idea of of locking out the virus in
Speaker 1: today's world and in the kind of global economy that
Speaker 1: we're living in is just theoretical. And you know, every
Speaker 1: every new virus variant will make it eventually to every
Speaker 1: single country. Look, I gotta tell you my colleague, and
Speaker 1: I'm only going to read this because he tweeted about it.
Speaker 1: Andre Pierre Duplessy, who works with me on Quick Take,
Speaker 1: just got back from South Africa over the weekend. He
Speaker 1: flew into Newark, and he wrote that nobody asked to
Speaker 1: see his COVID test, nobody checked his temperature, nobody told
Speaker 1: him of any quarantine rules, and he wasn't even given
Speaker 1: a CDC pamphlet like he had previously gotten in Florida.
Speaker 1: So coming back, none of that over the weekend and
Speaker 1: he was come back South Africa. That's pretty interesting. Do
Speaker 1: you think that's going to change, though, Axel? Depending on
Speaker 1: the numbers in terms of COVID cases. I mean, the
Speaker 1: we we don't know that much about the very end yet,
Speaker 1: but it seems to UM. It seems to be sufficiently
Speaker 1: different so that it can spread more easily amongst vaccinated people.
Speaker 1: So I do think it's not unlikely that it will
Speaker 1: be the dominant variant very soon, pretty much everywhere. And
Speaker 1: the key question is it more dangerous than delta or
Speaker 1: isn't it UM? I guess that's what what the scientists
Speaker 1: are currently working on to find out. Okay, sit tight,
Speaker 1: We're gonna do some news and then come back because
Speaker 1: we also want to get into a partnership that you
Speaker 1: have with Huawei, because we really find this interesting and
Speaker 1: I know our audience will as well. We're gonna come
Speaker 1: back with Axel. Heifer, the CEO of Travago, on the
Speaker 1: phone from Germany, will continue getting the outlook and again
Speaker 1: talk about some of the partnerships that they are doing
Speaker 1: as that platform continues to evolve. Here to hear from
Speaker 1: him the breakdown of what he's seeing on the platform
Speaker 1: when it comes to geographies, because the company does get
Speaker 1: revenue a lot from the United States, blocks from Germany,
Speaker 1: the UK, Brazil and Australia. So how are people in
Speaker 1: different places using the platform differently right now? And I
Speaker 1: have to say, for me, when I go to travel,
Speaker 1: like I get a little overwhelmed by there's so many
Speaker 1: different travel platforms and I'm always like, how do I
Speaker 1: get the best deal? And it's just kind of crazy. Anyway,
Speaker 1: we're gonna come back with Axel. In just a moment.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week, Carl Master, Tim Stanovic.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Radio. Just get back to Axel. He
Speaker 1: for he's the CEO of Travagos. Do with us on
Speaker 1: the phone from Germany. Hey, Axel, tell us about the
Speaker 1: thing you're doing, the partnership with Huawei. It's a strategic partnership. Um.
Speaker 1: What is that all about. Yeah, it's it's actually very interesting. UM.
Speaker 1: So Huawei is building basically UM their own ecosystem with
Speaker 1: Harmony os and their own services, and the most important
Speaker 1: services from our perspective our obviously search, pedal search and
Speaker 1: Pedal maps. And we are partnering with them to help
Speaker 1: them to bring similar services to their customers that exist
Speaker 1: already on other search engines like Being or Google UM
Speaker 1: and the leveraging our supply of hotels worldwide. I'm curious
Speaker 1: about way Huawei. I mean, anyone who listens to our
Speaker 1: program regularly or follows the news knows that Whale has
Speaker 1: been under scrutiny by governments around the world and certainly
Speaker 1: engaged in a spot with the US government. So take
Speaker 1: us in your thinking here. Yeah so so, UM, I
Speaker 1: mean we are we are interested in basically helping every
Speaker 1: search engine UM to compete more effectively with Google and
Speaker 1: UM and we are. We also in discussions with others,
Speaker 1: but it is it's for sure one of the big
Speaker 1: search engines that is up and rising, given that they
Speaker 1: have a huge installed base of devices UM that will
Speaker 1: be powered by their new search UM over the next years. Hey,
Speaker 1: how important our partnerships UM alliances in terms of your
Speaker 1: platform and figuring things out going forward. I do think
Speaker 1: in general to work with with partners strategically in the
Speaker 1: long term is is the right approach, And I mean
Speaker 1: the the business approach that some platform flip platforms have
Speaker 1: been taking of basically taking care of themselves and not
Speaker 1: really considering their partner's interest. UM is not a sustainable
Speaker 1: strategy from our perspective. But more specifically for US, UM
Speaker 1: partnerships are very important because they allow you to UM
Speaker 1: to deliver better service to your users UM and realize
Speaker 1: economies of scale UM without them on a activity. No,
Speaker 1: I think it's really key. You know. I have to
Speaker 1: be quite honest with you. In the break, Tim and
Speaker 1: I were talking and I'm saying that sometimes I just
Speaker 1: get overwhelmed by the amount of travel platforms that are
Speaker 1: out there, and so how do you and and truth
Speaker 1: be told, I am now looking for ease, you know,
Speaker 1: and platforms that are really clear. UM, So how do
Speaker 1: you think about how you want to evolve so that
Speaker 1: you can catch your users attention or more users attentions? So, UM,
Speaker 1: you're absolutely right, I mean they we are in a
Speaker 1: situation where there are too many platforms and UM, in
Speaker 1: particularly in the pandemic, we've seen that size matters a lot,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't only matter in terms of economics, but
Speaker 1: also in terms of quality of service, because that the
Speaker 1: more users you are having on your platform, the better
Speaker 1: your data is and the better your product is. And
Speaker 1: so what we started to do, and the Huawei partnership
Speaker 1: is UM one of the first partnerships in that direction
Speaker 1: is we started to develop business to business solutions where
Speaker 1: we help actually other companies to serve their customers better
Speaker 1: m by accessing our back end services and basically benefiting
Speaker 1: from our our size and our scale UM for their
Speaker 1: own benefit. Actually, because tree Vago offers people who use
Speaker 1: the service weekend stays, cars, flights packages, you have this
Speaker 1: unique insight into how people are feeling and booking at
Speaker 1: any given moment. I did want to ask you just
Speaker 1: about what you're seeing on the platform in real time
Speaker 1: right now, because this is a global platform. You serve
Speaker 1: custom mers and get revenue from the U S, from Germany,
Speaker 1: from Brazil, Australia, the UK. What can you tell us
Speaker 1: about what people are doing on the platform right now
Speaker 1: that does or does not reflect any sort of trepidation
Speaker 1: about Ankron. Yeah, so the US is relatively speaking UM stable,
Speaker 1: to be honest, So there is not that much concern
Speaker 1: um about the new variant yet. UM Europe has been
Speaker 1: hit by a combination of of really increase in in
Speaker 1: delta cases UM a significant increasing delta cases and concerns
Speaker 1: about the new variants breathing, and then in asure UM
Speaker 1: you see a decline in overall activity predominantly coming through
Speaker 1: through the new variants. So it's a bit a mixed
Speaker 1: back as as you would expect across the globe. But
Speaker 1: generally speaking, people are nervous and they are nervous about
Speaker 1: making travel plans because they have seen in the past
Speaker 1: that any new variant is likely to lead to travel
Speaker 1: restrictions at some point in time. Yes, so you do
Speaker 1: think about it if you're gonna make some plans, whether
Speaker 1: you go local right so that you don't have to
Speaker 1: worry about maybe borders shutting down once again. Hey, um,
Speaker 1: just quickly, there were some notes that you shared with
Speaker 1: our producer just got about thirty seconds. The metaverse or
Speaker 1: meta is there a role for you and all of that? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I I don't know. I mean, I mean for sure,
Speaker 1: if the future is the metaverse, there will be a
Speaker 1: future for comparing prices, um, even in the metaverse. UM.
Speaker 1: I to be honest, I I don't know yet. UM.
Speaker 1: I mean it's um. It's it's very visionary and very
Speaker 1: far reaching um and um. And if successful that I guess.
Speaker 1: There are also some some questions that politicians would need
Speaker 1: to answer. All we have society need to answer. Um.
Speaker 1: But but there will be a place for Foretel price
Speaker 1: comparison in any possible future wild Um. Great to be
Speaker 1: able to bounce that off of you. Excel Um. The
Speaker 1: best to you and your team, and thanks for finding
Speaker 1: time for us as you always do. Accell He for
Speaker 1: his chief executive officer at Travago on the phone from Germany. Um, wife,
Speaker 1: book a hotel, a real hotel when you can book
Speaker 1: one in the metaverse. You know my dark scenario that
Speaker 1: with climate change will be able to go outside. So
Speaker 1: you're going to have to be traveling in the metaverse. Sorry, world,
Speaker 1: but I think I know, I know. Let's just get
Speaker 1: it right already