How does one show confidence in their team and product? The Tratok Team challenged Mohammed Altajir to conduct a live demonstration of the 2nd Generation Travel Ecosystem. Let's see how it went: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLkQsQka39E
A courtesy update for all our stakeholders and partners: While the regulator reviews our latest application for a fourth license, Tratok has been asked to co-operate with the exchanges to temporarily halt trading activities while the auditors complete their due diligence. We apologize for the temporary inconvenience, but Management believes that this is the best time to conduct such activities before the rebound in travel activities begin. It is better to get this out of the way now, when activity is limited, rather than when activities resume to normal.
As summer approaches, everyone is keen to see what form these holidays, the longest for the year in many countries, will take. Uncertainty about the re-opening of borders, the availability of international flights, has triggered large scale campaigns, both at country government levels, as well as at hotel levels, for staycations – visiting and discovering one’s own country. For example, the French government, a country which traditionally relies on heavily on large international tourist numbers, has mobilized the government media to promote a different region or village of France after the daily 13:00 news, one of the peak television viewership. Sensitizing the population to the diversity and the beauty of their own country, the initiative, beyond offering a holiday solution, aims at driving business to regions to be able to…
As a result of the corona pandemic, 100’s of thousands of hotel properties find themselves in financial distress. But as hotels properties are hard to repurpose, they have no choice but to re-open and redefine the dialogue between the hotel owner and operator to find a way forward together. Hotel owners are the hardest hit in this crisis and need to assess the possibilities of restructuring the debt of their properties. Key to this will be benchmarking: How is the hotel performing compared to your comp set? What are the prospects of recovery? What is the quality of the Team running the property? Do we believe in the Team or do we need to replace them? We believe that demand will return in June, initially domestic travel but with further…
Seven out of ten hotel rooms in the United States are empty, and the industry has lost nearly 4 million jobs and more than $21 billion in revenue. Where does the hospitality sector go from here? The road to recovery is going to be a long one according to Hilton CEO Christopher Nassetta. “A full recovery will take time and it could take several years to return to the hotel demand levels we experienced in 2019,” he said in an earnings call last week. Hilton posted revenues of $1.9 billion in the first quarter, down 13% from last year, and net income fell to $18 million from $158 million. “COVID-19 has created challenges that our industry has never encountered before,” Nassetta added. Other major hotel companies including Marriott, have noted the…
On the third day of deconfinement in France, glimpses of a post COVID life start appearing, within the rules of social distancing still required by the government. What is interesting is where the lines seem to be drawn: Restaurants are imposed 2 meters between each guest, which effectively cuts the restaurant capacity in half at any given time. Trains, trying to maintain the 2 meters between each passenger, sell one seat out two, and one row out of two. Even at the station, X’s mark the spot where passengers are allowed to stand to wait for the train. Flights require you to wear a mask and continue to operate as normal. The rationale behind this is purely economic: any plane is only profitable operating at a minimum 75% capacity.…
In our previous article, we showcased Warren Buffet’s decision to sell all his airline stocks in the face of the pandemic. To many, the decision of this investment guru to give up on the travel and tourism industry, came as a sign of defeat. It may have scared you. At Tratok, we prefer to look at the word crisis in its original definition, from the Greek “turning point in a disease”. We believe in the future of travel, but we know the present diseased model needs to be disrupted, revolutionized for it to succeed. As one of the fastest-growing industries, travel and tourism had already provided US$ 2.6 trillion to Global GDP in 2016 and indirect contributions amounting to an excess of US$ 7.6 trillion – that is 292 million…
Following the advice of our Legal General Counsel in reference to AML-CFT Law16.1(b); AML-CFT Decision24.2-4, 27.7, 28.1-2, 29.4, 37.1-3 as outlined by the central bank of the UAE, Tratok Ltd is locking decentralized exchanges out of the Tratok ecosystem. Having contributed less than 0.04% of activity on average over the last 12 months, we do not expect this to have much of an impact. This was a decision taken by Group Risk following a careful review of the law's application as well as previous case studies where the law has been neglected. As a licensed entity, Tratok has a responsibility of "going concern" as a business and will continue to adhere to all applicable laws and regulations
The desire to travel is one which is innate to man: a desire to learn, to grow one’s self and one’s knowledge. Tratok was developed to be able to democratize travel and tourism and offer this, so far unique, privilege to as many as possible, while offering travel service providers a much-needed respite from the inefficiencies of previous economic models. Our strong and vibrant community, all believers in making the world a fairer and more accessible place have already adopted this and act, every day, in solidarity with a suffering travel and tourism industry. As more than half of the world is confined due to the Covin19 epidemic, cities and cultural spaces have had to re-invent themselves and mobilize their resources to allow people to continue to travel and to…
In a historic address to the nation on Monday, the President of France Emmanuel Macron highlighted the importance of knowing how to renew oneself in the face of the changing realities of the world. In his explanation to the French people and the international community in general, he addressed the mistakes we have made, and the inefficiencies we had tolerated and how we needed to use this time wisely to correct these, to be able to evolve into a cleaner and better world. Nowhere is this reality greater than in the travel and tourism industry, the greatest victim of the international travel bans and closure of airspace. In business, when the market is great, it's a good time to engage in commerce and business generation. When the market is terrible…
