Founder PhoCusWright
Ambassador BTO 2017
Years ago, a lonely entrepreneur embraced the controversial idea that quality of information would differentiate winners and losers in the then-burgeoning information age. That entrepreneur was Philip Wolf; the year was 1994.
The company he founded, Phocuswright Inc., is now the premier source for travel, tourism and hospitality intelligence, and nearly every industry presentation has at least one slide that says, "Source: Phocuswright." Now based in Truro, MA and retired from an executive role, Philip is an outspoken, provocative and well‐known travel industry figure.
He began his travel career in May 1989 heading a small agency. After two decades of analyzing and scrutinizing market trends, Philip has built a brand around his trademark catchphrase: "Strategically correct, not politically correct." He is the architect of the annually acclaimed Phocuswright Conference and has taken the stage one-on-one with many of the industry elite. A sought-after speaker around the world, he is frequently quoted in consumer and trade media.
Formerly an adjunct professor at NYU’s Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism, and Sports Management and distinguished lecturer at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, Philip serves as board director on three continents, including two listed companies: chairman, eDreams ODIGEO (MAD: EDR) in Spain and MakeMyTrip (NASDAQ: MMYT) in India, as well as Hopper (U.S.), TrustYou (Germany) and Blacklane (Germany). He is also chairman of travel consultancy Hudson Crossing (U.S.), as well as board advisor to dnata (UAE), DataArt (U.S./U.K.), RedDoorz (Indonesia) and ITB China.
In addition to the successful sale in 2011 of the company he founded in 1994, Wolf was involved in the sale of Newtrade to Expedia (2002), TravelJigsaw (now rentalcars.com) to Priceline (2010), Net Trans to Onyx Payments, the IPO of MakeMyTrip on NASDAQ (2010) and its merger with Ibibo Group (2017).
Prior to Phocuswright, Philip was CEO of a venture-funded software developer and travel booking engine pioneer. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Duke University and holds an MBA from Vanderbilt University. Decades after first espousing the power of Internet travel, Philip continues to spark industry epiphanies … and leave audiences buzzing.
