When and how did your incubator emerge?

Le Welcome City Lab was founded in July 2013. It was the first incubator in the world completely dedicated to innovation in the tourism, travel, hospitality sectors.

What opportunities do you provide for startups and what are the terms to join?

We provide 4 services:

1. We coach startups in all fields important for their success (marketing, digital strategy, sales, communication, distribution, management, international, legal context, finance, fund raising).
2. We help startups experiment their products and services and find a experimentation terrain in Paris or elsewhere, in order for them to get a proof of concept (POC).
3. We organize academy sessions for startups, to give them an opportunity to meet their future clients (major groups in tourism and travel) and learn from the best consultants.
4. We provide our startups with regular analysis on the trends in tourism innovation, so they can have an insider view over the most up-to-date trends on their own market.

What can you tell about local travel tech scene? How busy is it?

The Paris travel tech scene has made a tremendous leap for the past 4 years. The number of startups is booming. They now can have an easy access to venture capital and to a rich ecosystem.

Could you share few examples of prominent startups which went through your incubator or are part of it now?

Here are 3 examples of successful startups incubated in our offices:

1. PayinTech provides connected wristbands that enable cashless transactions through an easy-to-use object. They are becoming the leading company in Europe.
2. Guest to Guest is now the world leading home exchange website, with 300,000 homes registered. They purchased Homexchange, the American historic operator.
3. Optionizr enables tourism companies to suggest the possibility to opt for an option, and thus keep their clients if they need more time to make up their minds.

What opportunities do you provide for startups and what are the terms to join?

We provide a stunning shared workspace overlooking the River Thames and Tower Bridge, a bespoke business and professional support programme and brokered relationships with over 400 world leading travel and tourism businesses. Our startups who chose to base their business from our Lab form our membership base. At any one time, we have about 35 members who can access our facilities and curated support programme. With an intention to promote collaboration across the membership, our policy is that no member can directly compete with another to ensure they feel confident and open to collaborate with and support each other.

However, as the Lab itself has grown we have become the recognised epicentre for those working at the intersection of travel and technology and so we set out to engage with a wider, global community of innovative businesses to facilitate further interactions and support across the community. As an example, we created the hashtag 'TalkTravelTech' across social media to cultivate a community of over 900 startups who use this tool to connect to each other and our opportunities.

What can you tell about local travel tech scene? How busy is it?
As the second most visited city in the World, London is synonymous with travel. Further, as one of the world’s leading technology hubs with an estimated ecosystem value of 44 billion dollars, London is the largest startup ecosystem in Europe. These incredible strengths in both travel and technology meant London should be the natural 'home' for travel and technology.

Specifically, our active community as a whole has seen phenomenal success since we opened the Lab in 2015 and continues to thrive.

Cumulatively, our 72 members that have been through the Lab have:

• Raised over 20 million pounds in investment;
• Won over 15 awards, including the prestigious Travel Technology Europe’s Travel Disrupt Award (2 years in a row!) and TechCrunch Disrupt Award Finalist; and
• Have had the opportunity to attend over 80 events which have enabled them to network with and connect to senior industry leaders.

From your own perspective what areas in travel tech space do you see having most potential today?

Many of the innovations that have come through our lab mirror the trends in travel which have emerged over the last five years, such as:

• Mobile and how it can improve visitor experiences. The Bureau of Labour Statistics predicts that travel agent employment will decline by 12 per cent from 2014 to 2024, attributing the drop to the increased ease and popularity of online booking, notably on mobile devices. And these large travel businesses are increasingly looking to understand how they can identify and engage with startups to support this adaptation further.
• Or authenticity where travellers desire real, authentic experiences which enable them to explore cities like a local.TripBarometer demonstrated that 69% of global travellers, of all age groups, were planning to try something new in 2016. This has allowed our startups offering real, authentic experiences to shine.
• More recently we have seen a growinghealth and wellness trend. With an estimated 17 million travellers identifying themselves as being 'health and wellbeing' focused and 40% of these travelling regularly the scope to cater for this group is huge.