Predatory OTA ads. Singapore booking ahead. SITA acquires Collins. General-purpose AI.
Singaporeans booking regional trips further ahead
Supplementary data from Traveloka’s SEA Index Q3 2026 shows Singapore travelers increasingly planning nearby Southeast Asian getaways at least 30 days in advance. In Q3 2026, the combined share of flight and accommodation bookings made through Tra [...]
Fighters-TripToJapan alliance. ‘Tigerhop’ launch. Bangkok Eurovision surge. Volaris disruption assistance. Biometrics coalition.
Fighters Sports & Entertainment partners with Iceland-based TripToJapan.com to boost inbound tourism
Fighters Sports & Entertainment (FSE), operator of Hokkaido Ballpark F Village and ES CON FIELD HOKKAIDO, entered a capital and business alliance with Takanawa Travel, the Iceland-based oper [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Vietnam travel surges. China OTAs under pressure. Cloudbeds’ new RMS. Zeal CRM debuts. Airbnb names Asia director.
Vietnam leads growth as Southeast Asians increasingly traveling within the region
Agoda's H1 2026 data shows Southeast Asian travellers are increasingly booking trips to neighboring countries, with Vietnam the standout destination; accommodation searches rose across every regional market, from 20% [...]
F1 boosts SEA travel. Booking loses Etraveli appeal. Laters.com raises $1.5M. VantisCorp’s TMC platform. More
VantisCorp debuts white-label automation platform for TMCs
VantisCorp launched a white-label corporate travel platform, aimed at Travel Management Companies (TMCs) still relying on spreadsheets, email approvals, and manual invoice reconciliation; it unifies hotel and flight booking (with TMC-specif [...]
Google AI books hotels. Eurovision taps Agoda. Heat influences travel decisions. Acai Desk launched.
Google AI Mode adds direct hotel booking, flight price tracking
Google has fully launched agentic hotel booking in Search's AI Mode in the U.S. (following a recent pilot), with inventory partners including Expedia, Booking.com, Hilton, Hotels.com, Choice Hotels, IHG, Priceline, Marriott, Wyndham an [...]
Tourvis Select wins big. Surge in refund protection. Spotnana buys TROOP. eviivo and Dida’s new channel.
Tourvis Select wins 2026 Virtuoso 'Best Agency Culture Award,' first for North & Southeast Asia
Tourvis Select, the luxury hotel platform run by Korean travel tech company Tidesquare, won the "Best Agency Culture Award" at the 2026 Virtuoso Travel Week gala in Las Vegas, the first time an agenc [...]
Google buys Spirit Airlines’ data. KLIA amps security. Spotnana x Singapore Airlines. Atlas’ open-source flight booking.
Google buys Spirit Airlines' data for $10 million
Google agreed to pay $10 million for the data assets of defunct Spirit Airlines, outbidding AI-training firm Mercor's $7.5 million offer, according to an Aug. 14 court filing tied to Spirit's court-supervised liquidation (Spirit shut down May 2, 202 [...]
Thankless travel planners. GlobalTix x Myrealtrip. Fliggy’s next-gen agent. Saudi’s investment appeal. More.
GlobalTix partners with Myrealtrip
GlobalTix, an Asia-based reservation and distribution platform, announced a partnership with South Korean travel platform Myrealtrip to make GlobalTix's network of over 180,000 experiences available to Myrealtrip's 10 million users, giving GlobalTix's global opera [...]
