Travel tech this week: Aussie founder dedicates start-up to support bushfire-affected businesses

For travel tech this week, speaking of making lemonade out of lemons; one start-up in Australia has transformed itself into a travel tech platform that aids businesses affected by the fire to attract customers.

In other travel tech news, know how much digital skills are required in a job in the travel industry and Europe-based ride-hailing Bolt adds a new feature on its app.

Start-up supports bushfire-affected businesses

Inspired by people who want to support fire-stricken communities, Zoë Manderson, co-founder of travel start-up Alpaca Travel, has turned her travel tech platform to highlight businesses affected by the bushfires and encouraged tourists to take their dollars there.

Alpaca allows brands and tour operators to create maps and plot routes, tours and itineraries for prospective travellers. The site, Roadtrip for Good, also invites people to plot their own journeys, based on the information.

Roadtrip for Good is partly intended as a way for them to show they’re open for business again.

While seeing the platform make a difference in the short term is satisfying, Manderson stresses this is a long-term solution. In the coming weeks and months, she will be working on directing people to Easter and winter roadtrips.

Roadtrip for Good will try to encourage people who had summer trips planned in January to re-book their travel in autumn and beyond.

Digital skills required (not much)

For many, the start of a new year is the perfect incentive to make important changes in their life. One aspect a lot of Brits will tend to focus on is their job – as they look to move to another company or even pursue an entirely new career path.

In fact, recent research by workplace accreditation body Investors in People found that 24% of Brits will actively seek a new role in 2020.

Interested in the employment market, The Knowledge Academy analysed the latest findings from Gov.uk, who analysed over 8 million job adverts, to discover the UK industries that most and least require job applicants to have specific digital skills.

The research found out only 27% of roles in accommodation and food services need applicants to have specific digital capabilities.

In order to land a job of your dreams, look at the required digital skills on the job specification of the roles you are interested in and then list them – this provides a focused approach towards what you should be aiming to learn.

Bolt adds stops

Bolt has announced the addition of new functionality in its ride-hailing app allowing users to request rides with stops at up to three locations with an estimated fare for the entire journey.

The multiple destinations feature is being rolled out globally to Bolt users on Android and iOS this month. It caters especially to groups of passengers requiring different final destinations along a route and for customers collecting people on the way to a shared final stop. Bolt offers an XL category in London with access to vehicles suitable for groups of up to six passengers.

Customers create additional stops by selecting the small plus sign on the right side of the address box when searching for a destination in the latest version of the app. The driver will see the route with all the stops in their Bolt driver app after the ride has commenced.