Steller Wins TravelTech's 2024 AI Innovation of the Year

Steller was recognized for Trips, its innovative travel planner combining the human narrative with AI. 

KIRKLAND, Wash., May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Steller, the travel platform that allows travelers to discover, connect, and book based on experiences shared by their favorite creators, has been honored in the 2024 TravelTech Breakthrough Awards, securing the top spot for AI Innovation of the Year. 

The TravelTech Breakthrough Awards program recognizes excellence and innovation in travel and hospitality technology. With a mission to conduct thorough evaluations of leading technology companies and solutions, it serves as a benchmark for industry excellence. This year's program saw a remarkable response, with thousands of nominations, highlighting the reach and impact of the awards. 

In January, Steller launched Trips, a travel planning tool that combines the power of human storytelling with cutting-edge AI technology to address a market need identified by the company. 

"The travel industry today isn't built for the way Millennials and Gen Z explore and book travel. Their booking journey is collaborative, begins on social media and involves multiple searches for information. It's a deconstructive approach to traditional planning and commerce, focused more on personal experience and planning collaboration than the travel industry has seen before," said Pete Bryant, CEO of Steller. 

Steller integrates the entire journey into one ecosystem: short-form video linked to travel information, an itinerary builder, and a video-infused map for navigation and discovering nearby places, all seamlessly connected to commerce, and built upon a human perspective and narrative. 

"We are very passionate and support this unique approach to collaborative commerce in our user experience," Bryant stated. "The travel industry lost the importance of this human perspective in the pursuit of the transaction; we believe the human narrative is the most important piece of travel planning, it has a tremendous impact on the when, where, and how elements of travel planning." 

Travelers are using Steller to: 

1. Build unique itineraries – Trips adapts to the traveler: people who plan every detail, those who want a general list, and those who want to find something to do in the moment.
   
   
2. Explore and save trips and recommendations by real travelers – Travelers explore destinations from multiple POVs through experiences shared by others. 
   
   
3. Watch thousands of hours of travel video content – Steller houses unique, user generated videos from across the globe. 
   
   
4. Book unique experiences and hotels directly from itineraries.

"The traction we're seeing is exciting. Trips has made a significant impact on the way the two largest generations explore and book travel. Additionally, it created a way for suppliers to connect their video content to commerce. Steller is truly shaping the travel industry on both the supply and demand sides," said Bryant. 

Bryan Vaughn, Managing Director of the TravelTech Breakthrough Awards, said, "We want to recognize Steller's truly innovative tool with our 'TravelTech AI Innovation of the Year' award. Most consumers start their travel planning on social media but videos on social don't come with the context needed for trip planning. Steller's tool combines human insights with AI to make trip planning simple and personalized." 

About Steller
Steller, founded in 2014 and headquartered in Kirkland, Wash., is the market-leading travel discovery platform that guides travelers from inspiration to booking through the authentic experiences of other travelers. Steller's player distributes experiences in more than 2,000 destinations to a worldwide travel audience through their partnerships with leading search engines and travel booking sites. Nearly 5 million hotels and experiences from around the globe can be found and booked on the Steller app. Learn more at www.steller.co.  

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SOURCE Steller