Protect Group aims for $10B after record 2025
Protect Group says it exceeded its 2025 target by offering protection on more than US$8 billion in bookings, up from its original US$7 billion goal, and is now aiming to surpass US$10 billion in protected booking offers in 2026, representing projected growth of about 25%. The company attributes the increase to expansion of its partner network across travel, OTAs and major-event ticketing, with new partners including Peek, Total Ticketing and Cityline, alongside collaborations with Jettzy, Travelwings and CellPoint Digital. To support international growth, Protect Group also strengthened its leadership team with new hires across customer experience, sales and business development in APACME and the US. In late 2025, it launched a web-based platform allowing offline travel agents to sell refund protection without technical integration, opening up new ancillary revenue opportunities, particularly in cruise, where over 80% of bookings are agency-led and refund protection has historically been limited to online channels.
PerkSpot launches travel booking portal with Hopper tech
PerkSpot has launched a new travel booking portal, PerkSpot Travel, powered by Hopper Technology Solutions (HTS), expanding its employee discount offering into travel. The portal allows PerkSpot members to book from hundreds of thousands of hotels, earn PerkPoints on hotel bookings, and manage trips within the platform or mobile app. Key features include hotel search with map and filter tools, a Low-Rate Guarantee from HTS that refunds the price difference if a lower rate is found within 24 hours, and access to rewards that can be redeemed beyond travel, such as gift cards and everyday services. The partnership brings HTS’s travel booking and pricing technology into PerkSpot’s broader rewards ecosystem, with plans to add more travel categories and booking options over time.
YouTrip adds Global eSIM to its travel toolkit
YouTrip has launched a global eSIM that provides mobile data coverage in more than 140 countries, with prices starting from S$1, allowing users to purchase, activate, manage and track roaming data directly within the YouTrip app. The official rollout follows an early-access launch in November 2025, which saw strong demand for destinations popular with Singaporeans, including China, Japan and Malaysia, with one in six early users buying Malaysia eSIMs for short trips to Johor Bahru. Usage data also showed increased take-up of Asia Pacific and Europe bundles toward the end of the year, reflecting multi-country travel. YouTrip says its eSIM is priced competitively against other providers, with Japan plans offering savings of up to 72% on a 5GB data tier and is offering a limited-time 50% cashback on first eSIM purchases from 28 January to 10 February 2026, capped at S$5 for the first 2,500 eligible users.
OTAs gain ground as direct bookings lose share in experiences market
New research from Arival shows the global tours, activities and attractions sector has moved beyond recovery, with operator revenues exceeding pre-pandemic 2019 levels in both 2024 and 2025, based on responses from more than 5,000 operators worldwide. Growth has been uneven across regions. Asia Pacific is expanding fastest after a delayed reopening, Europe continues to see strong demand, while the US faces a more uncertain outlook following a drop in inbound tourism in 2025. At the same time, the industry is entering a more competitive phase shaped by changing traveller behaviour, rising costs and digital disruption.
One of the clearest shifts is in distribution. Online travel agencies now account for 37% of all bookings, up from 33% in 2024, while direct bookings via operator websites have fallen from 29% to 25%. Arival attributes this in part to higher digital marketing costs and AI-driven changes in search that are making customer acquisition more challenging. AI adoption is also accelerating, with half of all operators now using or testing AI tools, compared with one-third last year; uptake is highest among enterprise operators, 68% of whom are using AI across areas such as content, operations and customer-facing tools like chatbots.
Booking.com maps Lunar New Year travel trends in Singapore
As the Lunar New Year holiday period from 14–22 February approaches, new Booking.com data shows strong appetite across Asia Pacific for travelling during the festive break, with both regional favourites and long-haul destinations seeing increased international search interest. Japan continues to dominate, with cities like Tokyo, Osaka and Sapporo ranking highly in searches across multiple markets, both domestic and international, while Thailand and South Korea remain consistently popular across the region. Travel behaviour is split: three out of seven APAC markets—Japan, Australia and Vietnam—recorded domestic destinations as their top searches, suggesting travellers are staying closer to home, while Hong Kong, China and South Korea skewed more strongly towards international travel. China was the only market where a European country ranked as the top searched destination. Meanwhile, growing interest in long-haul travel is evident in Singapore, where cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Dubai featured among the top searches, indicating travellers are using the extended break for trips beyond Asia.
