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