Hotel direct bookings remain stable despite rise of AI
Direct bookings are “holding steady” for hotels, a recent report from SiteMinder revealed.
The company's annual Hotel Booking Trends report found that, in 2025, revenue share stayed within 1.5 percentage points of the previous year in 95% of surveyed markets. This was despite predicti [...]
10 truths for luxury hotels in 2026
Overheard at ILTM Cannes this month were these delicious quotes about luxury hospitality from Julia Perowne, who is the CEO of the PR firm Perowne International. (Thanks to Arnie Weissmann from Travel Weekly for the coverage)
“Travellers are spending more than ever before, hotel rates are at an [...]
From Europe to the US to Asia: A time-led strategy in experience travel
GetYourGuide’s expansion from Europe into the US — and now a renewed focus on Asia Pacific, where the company’s journey began — spans markets with very different travel behaviours, holiday patterns, and sensitivities around price. Yet, according to Emil Martinšek, Chief Marketing Officer of [...]
Holding the line, shaping the future: Agoda’s Omri Morgenshtern on AI, trust and why Asia will define the next travel era
Phocuswright 2025 opened with a quiet but unmistakable shift in narrative: for the first time in its history, the conference handed its opening spotlight to a brand from Asia. And on centre stage stood Omri Morgenshtern, CEO of Agoda, a company celebrating 20 years and increasingly shaping how the f [...]
Why Accor is rethinking personalisation, partnerships and guest loyalty
When you’re operating across MEA and APAC, “data hygiene” quickly becomes more than a buzzword. Speaking in the WiT Studio, Kerry Healy, Chief Commercial Officer (Premium, Midscale & Economy MEA & APAC) at Accor, unpacked how the group is working toward a single, connected guest id [...]
Rebuilding air distribution: Can we make it about the customer again?
Selling an air ticket from Point A to Point B should be as simple as hailing a ride on Grab or Uber, shouldn’t it? After all, it’s been nearly 60 years since the first Global Distribution Systems took flight. Yet, in 2025, the experience is arguably more complicated, fragmented, and confusing th [...]
Find your people: How these travel founders connected the dots
When Formula 1 Mercedes boss Toto Wolff farewelled seven-time world champion driver from his team after 12 years, his advice was memorable: “It’s most important to remember one thing: find your people,” Wolff advised Hamilton. “When you find your people, you don’t just beat the world – y [...]
Booking Holdings’ Rob Ransom on disruption, distribution and the next travel unicorn
At Phocuswright, in a conversation that oscillated between realism and optimism, Rob Ransom, Chief Strategy Officer of Booking Holdings, laid out how the world’s largest online travel company is thinking about the most consequential shift since the dawn of online travel: the rise of AI-powered dis [...]
Asia’s most adaptable hotels outperform peers by 59%
As regional travel increases, data shows that culturally fluent strategies now define the region’s top-performing properties.
Digital travel platform Agoda released its latest research report, Tailored to Win: Capturing Asia’s Tourism Boom, showing that nearly all hotels adopting advanced lo [...]
Hotel CEOs on AI, distribution, and the next battle for direct
For years, hotel CEOs have talked about the power struggle between brands and online travel agencies (OTAs). But now, a new force is reshaping that battleground – Artificial Intelligence.
During the “Views from the Boardroom” panel at the HICAP conference held in Singapore in October, leader [...]
