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 agency from the North & Southeast Asia region has received this honor. The event drew over 4,800 luxury travel professionals from 105 countries and included business meetings, regional conferences, marketing programs, the Travel Tech Summit, and the gala awards. The award recognizes agencies that prioritize employee well-being and inclusive workplace cultures, with only one winner selected per region. Tidesquare CEO Min Yoon said the company would build on this recognition by deepening global partnerships and strengthening Tourvis Select’s position as a trusted luxury travel brand in Korea.
Tidesquare was also the only Korean company invited to speak at the Travel Tech Summit on August 9, presenting its AI-driven work innovation case to more than 700 industry attendees. Director of Global Business Development Sunny Chang described the company’s “AI First, Human Final” approach, in which AI automates repetitive tasks, freeing up over 200 hours per team monthly, while humans retain final decision-making for work requiring expertise, judgment, and empathy, such as customer consultation and concierge service. Tidesquare plans to further expand travel-specific AI applications, combining accumulated travel data with AI to deliver personalized experiences based on factors like a traveler’s purpose, schedule, and companions, while continuing to strengthen its competitiveness in the global luxury travel market.
eviivo partners with Dida to open new APAC distribution channel
eviivo, an all-in-one property and booking management platform, announced a new integration with Dida, a leading APAC B2B travel distributor, enabling eligible independent hotels to distribute live rates and availability directly from eviivo Suite to Dida’s network of more than 40,000 travel distributors, including agents, tour operators, airlines and closed-user groups across APAC and over 200 global source markets, with bookings flowing automatically into the property’s eviivo reservation calendar. The move responds to growing APAC travel demand — Expedia Group research found 65% of travel professionals expect regional demand to increase over the next two to three years — while addressing operational complexity through eviivo’s centralized Channel Manager, which keeps distribution across OTAs, GDS and direct-booking sites aligned. Dida, which calls itself the No.1 B2B outbound player in China, offers 2.2 million travel products and more than 110,000 directly contracted properties, giving eviivo customers practical access to key markets like China, Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia and Australia; B2B guests are noted for booking earlier, staying longer, cancelling less and spending more. Executives from eviivo and Dida, along with Mechaal Saleh of The Chapter Hotels, emphasized the partnership’s value in diversifying demand without added operational burden. The Dida connection is initially available to eligible eviivo customers in the UK and Europe, with North America to follow pending tax and payment testing.
Travel disruption fuels 2X surge in refund protection uptake
Protect Group, a provider of ancillary travel products, reports that Refund Protect conversions among its travel partners nearly doubled this summer, rising from 14% to 27%, as disruption drives travellers to seek greater flexibility and reassurance when booking. The UK showed the strongest momentum, with travel and transport partners seeing a 56% increase in Refund Protect purchases even as overall UK adoption dipped slightly, while France recorded a 26% rise in conversions. Stephen Joyce, Global Strategy Lead – Travel & Tours at Protect Group, attributed the shift to travellers becoming more intentional about managing risk — protecting the highest-impact parts of their journey rather than altering plans — and predicted the trend will intensify due to growing travel complexity, evolving regulations, stricter entry requirements, and global volatility. Unlike competing refund services, Refund Protect offers a 100% refund of booking value and integrates directly into the checkout flow of OTAs, airlines, hotels and ticketing platforms, letting consumers upgrade non-refundable bookings for financial peace of mind while helping travel brands boost conversion rates and customer satisfaction.
Spotnana makes its first acquisition, buys TROOP
Spotnana, a travel infrastructure provider, announced that it has completed its acquisition of TROOP, an award-winning meeting planning and group travel logistics platform, giving travel buyers a single unified solution for meetings, events, and transient travel. The deal addresses a significant gap in corporate travel management: meetings and events spend can account for up to 40% of a company’s total travel costs, yet remains ad hoc and hard to track, with a Business Travel Show Europe survey finding over 60% of corporate travel and procurement professionals now jointly oversee travel and meetings, up from 50% in 2025. TROOP, built on Spotnana’s open APIs, simplifies organizing in-person meetings through location selection, attendee travel booking, RSVP management, agenda communication, and budget tracking, while Spotnana adds booking and servicing, traveler profiles, policy management, negotiated rates, preferred suppliers, and payments — together offering a unified view of travel spend plus integrations for HR data, expenses, and duty of care. Steve Singh, Executive Chairman and CEO of Spotnana, cited a growing trend toward consolidating transient travel, meetings, and events under one program, while TROOP CEO and Co-Founder Dennis Vilovic called the merger a milestone toward a seamless, end-to-end travel solution. TROOP will be available as a standalone product, within a Spotnana product suite, or through Spotnana’s TMC channel partner ecosystem.
Klook and Mastercard sign MoU
Klook has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Mastercard to create more rewarding and seamless travel experiences built around three pillars: enhancing cardholder value, unlocking new travel and lifestyle opportunities, and advancing innovative payment experiences. The collaboration draws on Klook’s Travel Pulse 2026 research, which found 47% of APAC consumers actively seek deals and discounts, 42% book earlier for better prices, and more than half no longer start planning with a specific destination in mind — 23% choose destinations based on a specific activity, and 73% are willing to visit a lesser-known city for a unique event. Ahead of the year-end travel period, the partnership will roll out exclusive discounts and privileges for Mastercard cardholders, laying groundwork for a growing pipeline of entertainment benefits with further announcements to come. Eric Gnock Fah, Co-Founder and President of Klook, emphasized combining Klook’s platform with Mastercard’s payments infrastructure to help travelers discover more and spend less time planning, while Peter Robejsek, EVP of Market Development, Asia Pacific at Mastercard, highlighted building personalized, seamless travel ecosystems. Looking ahead, the two companies plan to deepen data collaboration and explore next-generation payment innovations to further shape connected travel experiences.
