The event VivaTech 2019which opened in Paris on Thursday, once again put the spotlight on innovation in the broadest sense, with no fewer than 2,000 start-ups gathered in the 56,000 m² of exhibition space at Porte de Versailles. While the cameras were often focused on the VIP appearances organised at the Dôme de Paris (Emmanuel Macron, Jack Ma, Garry Kasparov, Usain Bolt...), the players in the business travel have also made their mark, in particular by supporting start-ups that could change the way business travel is done in the future.
WhileAccor aims to develop a enhanced hospitalityThe French group was hosting a number of start-ups on its stand, each of which, in its own way, can enhance the customer experience. These included Starbolt offers flexibility and freedom to travellers by multiplying mobility solutions. By reserving a space in a hotel car park for its fleet of electric bikes, scooters and cars, Starbolt aims to offer an alternative to taxis, enabling travellers to quickly book a scooter or bike to get to their appointments.
Among the start-ups supported by the hotel group at VivaTech 2019, OnePark presents itself as the "Car park booking. This reservation platform has 100,000 spaces in 1,500 locations, including Accor hotels, Effia car parks and private buildings under agreements with social landlords, offering parking solutions in residential areas. Of course, OnePark has a strong presence in the vicinity of airports and stationsOnePark is already focusing on international expansion. After Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Spain, OnePark has recently set up in Portugal, with Luxembourg in the pipeline.
Also a partner of the hotel group, Eelway has been developing in France since 2016 a solution that was already very popular in Asia: the transfer and transport of luggage between home or hotel and airport or station. The start-up founded by Fabien Coeur-Uni and Julien Alary now intends to offer its white-label solutions to the tourism industry, with Eelway also partnering the SNCF, Air France, VIParis and Vinci Aéroports. As such, Eelway is extending its offering by providing hotels and their guests with a solution for the return of items lost at the hotel. Without having to make numerous phone calls or send emails, the distracted traveller can use the application to check the status of his lost passport or forgotten wedding ring. Another possibility is to offer alternatives in the event of delays; for example, to find a locker close to the meeting point if the traveller no longer has time to drop off their suitcase at the hotel.
La personalisation technology is opening up new possibilities for providing guests with the little extras that make all the difference. At a time when travellers' expectations are on the rise, but their teams are smaller, the Asian start-up Neoma has developed an assistant based on artificial intelligence, which has already been tested by the Peninsula Hong Kong and Macao casino operator Melco. Its solution, called Gaiais based on a multitude of sensors communicating with a connected room card. The system geolocates guests' movements in the hotel anonymously, but when they are in front of the staff, they have access via an app to relevant information, starting with their name, or their favourite table, in order to meet their expectations. Conversely, if the app indicates that they have already been asked to book a taxi, this avoids another unnecessary request.
These new types of service are in line with Accor's internal development. On the occasion of the announcement of the renewal of the Ibis brandthe group presented a hotel management system accessible via an Android application that allows staff to manage their own hotel.reaching out to travellers for mobile check-in. While 1,000 of the group's hotels, Ibis and Novotel in particular, will be offering this experience by 2021, Accor is also increasing the number of channels for communicating with its customers, whether via WhatsApp or chatbots. Other new features include the roll-out of the simultaneous translation with the Google Assistant Interpreter mode, which enables guests to converse with concierges or receptionists across language barriers, currently in 26 languages, and the long-awaited smartphone room key, available via the group's app.
"Smart Station and 5G under study
The desire to provide travellers with a better welcome through technological solutions is not limited to the hotel sector. So how can making stations more attractive for travellers, but also more reliable, more economical and less energy-consuming? SNCF Gares & Connexions presented at VivaTech 2019 a project to Smart Station This includes the deployment of sensors in stations, building information modelling (BIM) with 3D visualisation, and connected tools. For example, 90 % escalators and a third of lifts are already equipped with IoT ("Internet of Things"), enabling faster interventions. This technological development will make it possible to better manage passenger flows, improve the efficiency of the work of agents and limit service interruptions to improve customer satisfaction.
As part of this Smart Station project, a B2B platform will be launched early next year. Open source, with a view to co-construction, it aims to integrate innovative solutions, for example by promoting intermodality through data exchanges with new mobility solutions. This could also pave the way for new services with station shops, such as meal delivery at the foot of the train.
At the same time, with a view to extending the concept of smart citythe SNCF is also exploring the potential of the 5Geven before this standard for ultra-fast data exchange was deployed. The company has made Rennes station recently renovated its first Living Lab in partnership with the city, Orange and Nokia. The experiment is based on a 5G architecture with a frequency of 26 Ghz. Without wishing to pre-empt the results of this test, and all the applications that 5G will open up for the station of the futureThe SNCF sees the possibility of passengers downloading ten episodes of their favourite series in a matter of seconds before boarding the train or, in a more operational context, retrieving data from trains as they arrive for predictive maintenance.
Improve operations and run more trains at higher speeds, develop autonomous trains, as the company is aiming to do by 2023, and on which a host of other players are also working, including Thales the high-tech revolution in the world of railways is accelerating. In this context, Hyper Poland was at VivaTech 2019, on the Engie stand, to present its vision of theHyperloopa futuristic train born from the mind of Elon Musk and travelling at the speed of sound. Supported by the airline LOT and the University of Warsaw, the Hyper Poland start-up aims to make the rail world ultra-fast by developing infrastructure in three stages. Firstly, by converting existing tracks to magnetic levitation in order to double the current speed of trains, from 150 km/h to 300 km/h. In a second phase, Hyper Poland plans to cover the tracks with tunnels to pass 600 km/h, before creating real tunnels to reach 1200 km/h.
This is no longer science fiction. It's fact.
VivaTech 2019 therefore put the spotlight on futuristic modes of transport, such as this flying car presented by the Slovakian company Aeromobila vehicle that can spread its wings on demand and switch to aeroplane mode in just three minutes. While a host of major players are working on their flying taxis such as Airbus or Uber, that Volocopter has already flown its first models in Dubai, French start-up HoverTaxi presented its 100 % electric model at Porte de Versailles, a kind of large drone capable of carrying two passengers for flights of 5 to 20 minutes over congested cities, but also protected tourist areas, such as the Port-Cros nature park or the Cassis creeks.
For the moment, in the French sky, it is logically towards Airbus the focus of attention. The aircraft manufacturer had already made a name for itself at the previous edition of the showwith the presentation of Pop.Up Nexta modular vehicle developed with Audi and ItalDesign. Airbus has done it again this year in the field of flying taxis, with the announcement of a partnership with RATP ahead of ViaTech 2019. The aim is to study the integration of flying vehicles into urban transport. " In addition to mass transport, which remains our core business, it is important for the Group to RATP make the most of its human and technical expertise to develop new forms of mobility and new services for the intelligent city of tomorrow. And we're delighted to be working with Airbus, the world leader in aeronautics, which will be contributing its unique expertise in the air transport sector. "explains Catherine Guillouard, CEO of the RATP group. " Airbus is currently developing autonomous and unmanned technology demonstrators to connect people faster. This is no longer science fiction. It's a fact of life. "says Guillaume Faury. The Executive Chairman ofAirbus adds: " Today, we have all the technical building blocks. But they need to be harmonised so that they can be integrated into everyday life without jeopardising our priority of protecting the environment. security. RATP is a major international player in urban mobility solutions. Its knowledge of users, their needs and associated services makes it the ideal partner for Airbus ". So the idea of flying taxis in the Paris skies is gaining ground, and the next stage could come very quickly. In just over a month's time, another major event will take over from VivaTech: the Paris Air Show will open its doors, providing another opportunity for specialists in the field to refine their flight plans.
