LAS VEGAS -- From a small but ambitious startup in 1996 to
an expansive enterprise with more than 18,000 employees and $71 billion in
gross travel bookings, Expedia Inc. has come a long way in the past 20 years.
Now, the OTA's leadership is looking to what the next 20
years and beyond will bring, and what they see is continued growth in travel
sales and the technology that drives it.
Future growth and what technologies like artificial
intelligence (AI) and virtual reality bring were hot topics at the Expedia
Partner Conference earlier this month at the Bellagio here. Expedia, initially
a division of Microsoft, was founded by a group led by Rich Barton to pursue a
big idea, said Dara Khosrowshahi, Expedia's CEO: "To empower travelers
with technology."
Barton, who attended this year's Partners Conference, said
he built what was essentially a startup within a large corporation. In 1999, he
raised $100 million in an initial public offering for Expedia and spent it on a
branding campaign that helped introduce more consumers to the concept.
Now, Expedia has set a goal of becoming the world's first
$100 billion travel agency, something Khosrowshahi said the OTA is on track to
achieve in the next few years by continuing its strategy of mixing organic
growth with acquisitions.
He expects the company will see both domestic and global
expansion. Globally, Asia-Pacific will be a priority, a key region to further
tap into.
Technology will also be key: Khosrowshahi said Expedia is
investing in mobile as well as technologies such as AI, natural-language
searches and speech-recognition technology.
Aman Bhutani, president of Brand Expedia (which includes Expedia.com as well as Travelocity and Wotif), predicted
that over the next five years, voice technology -- think Apple's Siri, Amazon's
Alexa, Microsoft's Cortana or Google Assistant -- will significantly advance. "Mobile
still has its challenges where it's difficult to type in your credit card
information and details," he said. "Wouldn't it be easier to just
talk to your device?"
Bhutani said he believes voice and chat-based communication
technologies are on "parallel tracks," as both use facets of AI, and
that many users will ultimately turn to voice when its technology is more
developed, given the ease of saying commands as opposed to typing. Expedia is
experimenting with both technologies: It offers a chatbot for Facebook and a
skill for Amazon Echo.
Virtual reality and augmented reality are also on Bhutani's
mind. During the first general session, he donned a virtual-reality headset
while the audience watched his adventures at the Space Needle projected on a
screen behind him -- an example of virtual reality in the inspiration phase of
travel, something Khosrowshahi has discussed in the past.
While virtual reality's place in travel isn't totally clear,
and it currently faces challenges such as price and clunky equipment, Bhutani
said the technology is changing quickly. And while "we don't know which
technology is going to win," it's important for Expedia to invest in it
now.
Once technologies emerge as winners, they "blow up
very, very quickly," he said, and it becomes too late to invest in them.
Or, as Expedia chairman Barry Diller put it, "Putting
your hand on the railroad track in front of technology is to get at least your
hand, if not your body, busted. These things are going to happen. The effects
are unknown."