WEBVTT - Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel Talks Travel Demand

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<v Speaker 1>Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.

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<v Speaker 2>All right, and we're also keeping an eye on Booking

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<v Speaker 2>Holdings today reported earnings, and the soap is up pre

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<v Speaker 2>market after it posted a strong fourth quarter. It did, however,

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<v Speaker 2>forecast a week or start to twenty twenty five due

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<v Speaker 2>to currency had when certainly something that we've been hearing

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<v Speaker 2>a lot of this earning season. Let's break it down

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<v Speaker 2>now with Glenn Fogel. He is the CEO of Booking Holdings.

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<v Speaker 2>Great to have you back with us. Glenn. Let's start

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<v Speaker 2>with the broad picture here, because you mentioned on the

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<v Speaker 2>earnings call that you're seeing healthy demand for leisure travel

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<v Speaker 2>in specifics, but I'm wondering if you could break it

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<v Speaker 2>down in terms of where people are actually traveling, which

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<v Speaker 2>regions are really showing the most strength right now.

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah, well, thank you for having me.

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<v Speaker 4>We talked about last night what a wonderful fourth quarter

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<v Speaker 4>we had, and we did point out actually the strength

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<v Speaker 4>was across the board globally, and we're an extremely global

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<v Speaker 4>company and we were really excited to see that.

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<v Speaker 1>All parts of the world are actually increasing in travel.

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<v Speaker 1>So there's no area that I point out more one

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<v Speaker 1>than the other.

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<v Speaker 3>I mean, we did break down a little bit seeing

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<v Speaker 3>in the fourth quarter.

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<v Speaker 1>You know, our slowest growing area was actually still rather fast,

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<v Speaker 1>which was the US, which is a double digit number,

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<v Speaker 1>ten percent increase. The fastest area was a thing we

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<v Speaker 1>call the rest of world, which is what's going twenty percent,

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<v Speaker 1>and so what's rest of world will The other two

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<v Speaker 1>areas besides rest of world and US are Asia which

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<v Speaker 1>was a mid teen growth rate, in Europe which was

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<v Speaker 1>a low double digit growth rate.

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<v Speaker 3>So all across the board, wonderful numbers.

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<v Speaker 1>Greatly to come in and give our shareholders a nice

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<v Speaker 1>little earnings.

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<v Speaker 5>Discussion here in the US Glen, A lot of people

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<v Speaker 5>are worried about the consumer picture and whether inflation or

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<v Speaker 5>other forces are going to bite more into consumer wallets.

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<v Speaker 5>What evidence do you have that you can continue to

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<v Speaker 5>see strength from the consumer going into the travel categories

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<v Speaker 5>more often into this year with concerns about where inflation

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<v Speaker 5>is headed.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so you know, we've been dealing with this for

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<v Speaker 1>a number of years now, where coming out of the pandemic,

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<v Speaker 1>prices were very high for travel and people were getting

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<v Speaker 1>a bit of sticker shot, but they wanted to travel,

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<v Speaker 1>and those numbers coming out of pandemic were fantastic. Yes,

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<v Speaker 1>today people will still say, hey, seems expensive.

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<v Speaker 3>But people want travel, they want to go and.

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<v Speaker 1>See the world, So sometimes what they'll do is they'll

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<v Speaker 1>sacrifice something else instead. I'm not that concerned about people

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<v Speaker 1>saying I'm not going to travel because the prices are

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<v Speaker 1>too high. In fact, our numbers and we talked about

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<v Speaker 1>last night, we're very positive about how travel's going right now.

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<v Speaker 6>I went with my wife to Singapore last month and

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<v Speaker 6>we used chat GPT quite a bit to help us

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<v Speaker 6>find and schedule places to visit. How are your customers

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<v Speaker 6>going to be using artificial intelligence on your platforms?

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah, no, it's one of the most exciting things right now.

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<v Speaker 1>Are these new types of technologies like JTVT you know,

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<v Speaker 1>which is operated by open ai, and you may have

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<v Speaker 1>heard we made an announce it one of the founding

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<v Speaker 1>partners with open Ai in their new thing called Operator,

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<v Speaker 1>which is another way to use a large language model

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<v Speaker 1>and be able to come up with ways to go

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<v Speaker 1>and travel. We have our own things in our own site.

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<v Speaker 1>We have a thing at booking dot com that it's

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<v Speaker 1>called our Ai Trip Planner, and over a price line,

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<v Speaker 1>we have a thing called Penny which is also another

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<v Speaker 1>similar type large language model that helps people discover and

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<v Speaker 1>then be able to book. It's absolutely crucial that we

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<v Speaker 1>continue to work on developing these new technologies so that

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<v Speaker 1>as people want to change over time from the way

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<v Speaker 1>they used to plan, discover, and book, that we're where

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<v Speaker 1>the customer wants to be.

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<v Speaker 3>I'm very positive on how we're doing this.

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<v Speaker 1>And one of the great things is a critical thing

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<v Speaker 1>is Data is the biggest travel player in the world.

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<v Speaker 3>World.

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<v Speaker 1>We have such an amount of resources in terms of

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<v Speaker 1>knowledge and that coach of the data is a tremendous

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<v Speaker 1>number of AI experts. We have all things that we

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<v Speaker 1>can put together and make sure you, as a traveler,

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<v Speaker 1>have the best way to come up with what is

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<v Speaker 1>the highest value and where you.

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<v Speaker 3>Want to go.

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<v Speaker 2>Well, Glenn, let's build on that. Because I didn't go

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<v Speaker 2>to Singapore, but I went to New Orleans with my

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<v Speaker 2>husband and we all see awesome. It was a lot

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<v Speaker 2>of fun. We also use chat GBT to find a

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<v Speaker 2>lot of recommendations. And my question for you is, you

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<v Speaker 2>are developing these tools, but how do you compete because

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<v Speaker 2>it feels like people are kind of developing the muscle

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<v Speaker 2>memory of just asking chat GBT things.

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<v Speaker 1>So it's interesting about that where yes, some people are

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<v Speaker 1>exploring CHATTBT and such and we are working with them, etc.

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<v Speaker 3>But it's still a very small number.

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<v Speaker 1>And our job is to make sure that people when

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<v Speaker 1>they're booking, don't forget We get paid when people book

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<v Speaker 1>and that is for them to be using all of

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<v Speaker 1>our systems and services. And one of the critical things

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<v Speaker 1>for a consumer is trust. And sure you may be

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<v Speaker 1>using chat TOBT or maybe using Google or Bang or

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<v Speaker 1>any way to learn and discover etc. In the day,

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<v Speaker 1>though you want to have something that's going to be

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<v Speaker 1>a one stop shot. They've put together what are truly

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<v Speaker 1>the best value for you, and god forbid anything goes wrong,

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<v Speaker 1>you want somebody to be able to fix it right away.

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<v Speaker 3>That's really what we're.

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<v Speaker 1>Doing, and AI is a great way for us to

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<v Speaker 1>bring it all together in a much better, seamless frictionalist

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<v Speaker 1>way that enables you to feel more comfortable and more

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<v Speaker 1>confident that you're going with someone that's going to give

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<v Speaker 1>you the most value. And look at our numbers right now,

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<v Speaker 1>if they're.

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<v Speaker 5>Great, I'm also curious here about how it's going to

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<v Speaker 5>impact your bottom line at the end of the day.

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<v Speaker 5>You have a lot of businesses here where obviously internet

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<v Speaker 5>is first point of contact. But what does AI mean

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<v Speaker 5>in terms of your workforce moving forward, your need to

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<v Speaker 5>employ more people in order to get this information to customers.

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<v Speaker 5>Do you think it's going to make it differ?

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<v Speaker 1>Well, certainly, we're looking for efficiencies and one of the areas,

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<v Speaker 1>for example, is customer service, and we're seeing benefits already.

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<v Speaker 1>We're a customer service agent at the end of the

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<v Speaker 1>conversation with a customer has to put together a summary.

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<v Speaker 1>Well with now with AI, that summary can be done automatically,

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<v Speaker 1>giving more time to the customer service person to actually

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<v Speaker 1>spend time with the customer.

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<v Speaker 3>But then it goes beyond that and someday, someday we're

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<v Speaker 3>going to be.

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<v Speaker 1>Able to do and we're seeing some initial things where

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<v Speaker 1>you don't need as a customer to deal with an agent.

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<v Speaker 1>You can do it all with what is essentially a

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<v Speaker 1>generitive AI agent that solving the problem right there, That

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<v Speaker 1>of course enables us to spend our money somewhere else

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<v Speaker 1>in that may be getting more AI specialists to help

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<v Speaker 1>build better products and services. I agree they're going to

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<v Speaker 1>be changes in terms of where the jobs are because general,

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<v Speaker 1>AI is going to be either a supplement or replacement

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<v Speaker 1>for certain things that are currently done completely by humans.

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<v Speaker 1>But over time, I'm not concerned about there not being

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<v Speaker 1>enough employment. I don't see that ever being an issue.

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<v Speaker 3>Glenn.

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<v Speaker 6>Great to get your thoughts on this changing industry at

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<v Speaker 6>Booking Holdings Glenn Fogel there on the CEO