The figures are extraordinary, in many respects - there was a 55% increase year-over-year ($5.7 billion) in the amount of money going into travel startups.
Furthermore, the 2018 level of funding accounts for nearly one-third of the total $19.7 billion that has been raised by travel startups since 2009.
PhocusWire's sister brand Phocuswright, which has tracked the digital startup landscape since 2009 (latest report here), believes one of the key reasons for the funding boom is the global online travel outlook and frenzied late-stage investor support for new business models that have the potential to scale in specific regions or globally.
The growth in funding has been fairly relentless, despite a few flatter periods here and there - essentially, good news for existing businesses looking for later-stage investments and entrepreneurs with big ideas that are waiting for financial support.
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But there are a few issues to consider that may dent the financial ecosystem that backs so many of the brands that have emerged or want to emerge in the industry.
At a macro level, there is the threat of a slowing down of the global economy ("sleepwalking to a financial crisis," as one commentator put it) - something that naturally sees the brakes applied on the startup sector as investors become more cautious with their money.
This is the cyclical nature of the worldwide financial system but, as previous slowdowns have shown (2000-2001 and 2009-2010), things usually bounce back fairly quickly in the startup and travel sector.
What is certainly an unknown is how the investment and startup communities might be affected in the long-term as a result of a number of high profile controversies.
The first one surrounded Uber, the ride-hailing business that needed to oust its founder and CEO in 2017 and replace him with the infinitely wiser and urbane ex-Expedia Group boss, Dara Khosrowshahi.
The period before that leadership switch blew the lid on the so-called "brogrammer" culture in Silicon Valley - something that hopefully will have long-lasting effects on how companies operate.
Move forward two years and the wider startup community is digesting the fallout from the WeWork saga that emerged over the course of the summer.
In the space of a few weeks, the buzzy co-working business managed to find itself without its long-awaited IPO and its founder (and family) under huge scrutiny for the way the business was run.
That the company's investors and wider leadership team did not provide the same level of scrutiny that it faced from the press and commentators over the summer is a worrying sign that the insular nature of the startup community could still be rampant.
The ramifications of the WeWork situation are yet to be felt in the travel industry. But it seems almost inevitable that the rather relaxed (to put it mildly) attitude to oversight and operations that held sway there could eventually filter down to changes in many investment houses and the businesses that they support.
This is a good thing. But in the mean time it could, crucially, lead to a cooling of enthusiasm that some investors have on backing risky businesses.
Finance and Startups at The Phocuswright Conference 2019
Hear from Altimeter Capital, Certares, RBC, Morgan Stanley, UBS and Deutsche Bank. Network with many others Founders Factory, Highgate Ventures, General Catalyst, Nomura Securities, Thayer Ventures, SIG and Cambon Partners.