Everything AI in Travel

In this episode of the Everything AI in Travel podcast, Tony Carne sits down with Bethany Reitsma from the Travel Technology Association to explore the fast-changing world of travel tech startups, AI-native companies, angel investing, and the future of innovation in travel.
Bethany shares how the Travel Technology Association evolved from representing major industry players like Booking, Expedia, and TripAdvisor into building a growing startup ecosystem focused on helping founders get connected, get advice, and get funded.
They discuss:
Why AI-native travel startups are emerging faster than ever
The challenge of fundraising in travel tech today
How angel investors are approaching AI and travel startups
Why proprietary data and integrations matter more than ever
The rise of hyper-personalized travel experiences
How Travel Tech Association helps founders connect with investors
The importance of founder communities and peer learning
Emerging startups like Drifter AI and Pintours AI
How AI is changing travel discovery and trip planning
Why travel startups can now build more with less funding
Whether you’re building a travel startup, investing in travel technology, or simply trying to understand where AI is taking the industry next, this conversation offers a valuable inside look at one of the most important ecosystems shaping travel innovation.
Guest: Bethany Reitsma
Organization: Travel Technology Association

They raised money in AI travel…which already makes Odynn one of the rare ones.
In this episode of the Everything AI in Travel Podcast, I sit down with John Taylor Garner, founder of Odynn, to unpack what they’re building at the intersection of travel, loyalty, fintech, and AI.
We get into:
Why John left a top trading desk at Merrill to start building in travel
What he learned from his first startup, Card Curator
Why dynamic loyalty pricing broke the old model
How Odynn powers travel portals, rewards, and loyalty infrastructure for banks, fintechs, and travel companies
Why the financialisation of travel is still one of the biggest opportunities in the sector
Where Hopper, Expedia, Booking, and the neobanks fit into the landscape
What Odynn is doing with its new raise, and where the company goes next
If you care about where loyalty, payments, AI, and travel distribution are headed, this is a great one.
👇 Subscribe for more conversations with the builders shaping AI in travel

In this episode of the Everything AI in Travel Podcast, I sit down with Jason Swick, a longtime Simpleview leader who spent more than 15 years deep in destination marketing before launching Swix AI.
We get into:
Why DMO teams have a capacity problem, a speed problem, and a knowledge problem
Why most AI adoption today is still tactical, not strategic
The real issue with tools like N8N and Make for most tourism teams…
How Swix is trying to make AI usable across every skill level in an organisation
The difference between chatbots, assistants, automations, and true agents
Why the future isn’t one “AI champion” inside the business — it’s shared systems the whole team can use
If you work in destination marketing, tourism ops, or travel tech, this one is a smart look at what AI adoption inside an organisation actually needs to look like.
👇 Subscribe for more conversations with the builders shaping AI in travel.
Looking for the Videreo information? You can find the case study here

Egor Karpovich built 12 AI agents in 5 weeks…
…and now they’re running parts of his travel company without sleeping.
In this episode of the Everything AI & Travel Podcast, I sit down with Egor Karpovich from Travel Code to unpack one of the most fascinating AI setups I’ve seen in travel so far.
Egor explains how he and his team went from no-code workflows to a real agent workforce inside their bootstrapped corporate travel SaaS business — including:
A lead agent coordinating the others
Legal, partnerships, sales, SEO, PR, analyst, and dev agents
Agents creating tasks for other agents
MCP servers, APIs, browser tools, and shared memory
How his team now works with agents day to day
We also get into:
Why Eastern Europe’s travel distribution model is so different
Why they pivoted away from travel agents and into corporate travel
What building a $9M GMV travel business without outside funding actually looks like
Why Egor thinks solo founders with 50 AI agents are coming sooner than people expect
If you want to understand what “agentic travel” actually looks like in the real world — not just in demos — this is the episode.
👇 Subscribe for more conversations with the makers, shapers, and buyers of AI in travel.
If looking for the Videreo information, you can find it here: https://gamma.app/docs/Creator-Marketing-gets-measured-in-Palau-oicfv54zvjq0ckb?mode=doc

In this episode of Everything AI & Travel, I sit down with Robert Cole (Rock Cheetah) — Cornell hotel grad, ex-Four Seasons marketing leader, Sabre/Travelocity-era hotel distribution veteran, and a longtime Phocuswright analyst.
We get practical on what “AI readiness” really means for travel businesses:
Why digital identity becomes the foundation for the agentic world
The difference between traveler identity vs hospitality entity identity (hotel ≠ just a building…)
Why “standards” are hard in travel (and why the tech world solved this decades ago)
How Robert uses Claude / Gemini / OpenAI (and his “reasoning gauntlet” to rip drafts apart)
What small operators should do now (security, schema, sources of truth…) before agents arrive
If you’re a hotelier, tour operator, DMO, or travel tech builder trying to understand what’s coming next — this is one to save.
👇 Subscribe for more AI-in-travel conversations
💬 Comment: what’s your biggest worry about agents + trust?