Hotels reply fast, resolve slow. Polar travel surge. UK likes refund-protected bookings. AI transforms tourism. More.
Hotels are fast to reply but slow to resolve
A new analysis of reservation workflows by Lobby, an AI platform that automates booking operations for travel and hospitality suppliers, challenges the industry's focus on response times and conversion rates. Lobby found that hotels often answer quickly [...]
Kazakhstan’s super app has cornered a $538 billion KZT travel market
Central Asia's online travel scene is booming, but the winners aren't who you'd expect
Central Asia's digital economy is moving fast. E-commerce volume hit $14.7 billion USD in 2024 (up 32% year over year), and AI adoption is climbing, with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan all ranking in the [...]
CarTrawler, Tiqets integrated: Expedia’s Alfonso Paredes on keeping focus in B2B long game
It may be a couple of months since the World Cup final, but Alfonso Paredes, Expedia Group’s President, B2B & Chief Commercial Officer, is still euphoric about his home country’s win.
Speaking to me from his Madrid office, he said, “Spain won not because they had the best individual playe [...]
Qantas Loyalty partners with Expedia Group, focusing on its Hotels & Holidays booking experience
Qantas Loyalty has announced a strategic technology partnership with Expedia Group, tackling the digital booking experience and technology capabilities across the Qantas Hotels & Holidays and Jetstar Holidays platforms.
Under the agreement, Expedia Group B2B will power Qantas’ end-to-end tr [...]
Asia’s developers are granting Al more autonomy but retaining human accountability
Agoda releases Al Developer Report 2026
Digital travel platform Agoda has released a new study showing that software developers across Southeast Asia and India are rapidly transitioning from using Al assistants for individual tasks to deploying autonomous Al agents across the software-development l [...]
The leap of faith Instinct can’t book
I suppose it is fitting that I used Instinct to book tickets for the movie Odyssey. A robotic agent that can accomplish tasks in seconds, buying tickets to a three-hour film about one man’s arduous, perilous journey over the seas – fighting the wrath of Poseidon – to return to his family afte [...]
India travel rebound. Trip.Biz AI launch. Cloudbeds-Klook partnership. Japan tourism MOU. F1 hotel surge.
India's travel market cools in 2025, eyes fare-driven rebound
India's travel market grew just 1% to $41.7 billion in 2025 (down sharply from 10% growth in 2024), as air travel was hit by operational disruptions at IndiGo and Air India while car rental surged on road-trip demand.
Online booking [...]
Asia Pacific’s airlines are growing fastest in the world, while their route maps shrink
Why the Asia-Pacific region is the next proving ground for connected travel
Asia-Pacific posted the fastest international traffic growth and highest load factors of any region in 2025, with IATA forecasting 3.8% long-term annual growth versus 2.5% for Europe and 2.8% for North America. Yet paradoxi [...]
Asia Pacific airports lead the world in connectivity as Chinese hubs complete their post-pandemic recovery
Eight of the top 20 most connected airports globally are in Asia Pacific; Kuala Lumpur tops both the international and low-cost carrier rankings
OAG, an intelligence partner for global travel, released Megahubs 2026, its annual ranking of global airport connectivity. Asia Pacific dominates the inde [...]
AI wave, local reckoning: Four trends cruise can’t ignore
Confession first: the woman opening a cruise conference is not, by her own admission, a cruiser.
“I am not a big cruiser,” Yeoh Siew Hoon told delegates at Cruise World Asia in Singapore on Wednesday morning, before explaining why she was on stage anyway – WiT, the travel platform she found [...]
