Ground Transportation

PhocusWire's in-depth coverage of the ground transportation sector, featuring news, analysis, interviews, research and more on car rental, ride-hailing, taxis and rail. 

Report: Relevance is the key to unlocking sustainable growth in travel
From Our Partners / Distribution
Report: Relevance is the key to unlocking sustainable growth in travel
By Rokt | March 31, 2025
Find out about best-in-class strategies for ancillary revenue growth, harnessing data and insights to deliver relevant cross-sell and upsell offers and to reduce friction at checkout. Read More
Airlines expressed economic concern. Should online travel giants be worried?
News / Online
Airlines expressed economic concern. Should online travel giants be worried?
By Morgan Hines | March 27, 2025
Wall Street and travel industry analysts weigh in on how factors such as trade wars, economic woes and travel warnings could impact consumers' desire to travel. Read More
Bolt introduces flight tracking for airport pickup
News / Technology
Bolt introduces flight tracking for airport pickup
By Morgan Hines | March 26, 2025
Bolt has added the capability for users to input their flight details so airport pickups can be automatically adjusted if arrival times change. Read More
Asia’s full rebound meets AI revolution: Leapfrogging into the future
News / Technology
Asia’s full rebound meets AI revolution: Leapfrogging into the future
By Yeoh Siew Hoon - WiT | March 26, 2025
For Schubert Lou, chief operating officer at Trip.com, 2025 marks a defining moment for the travel industry, given the full return of Asia and AI acceleration. Read More
Perplexity partners with Selfbook, Tripadvisor to offer hotel booking
News / Technology
Perplexity partners with Selfbook, Tripadvisor to offer hotel booking
By Morgan Hines | March 25, 2025
Users can make a natural language query for hotels with Perplexity, and the platform can then surface relevant, bookable properties based on Selfbook data and reviews from Tripadvisor. Read More
Bolt acquires Denmark’s electric ride-hailing service Viggo
News / Online
Bolt acquires Denmark’s electric ride-hailing service Viggo
By Morgan Hines | March 24, 2025
Bolt, which was founded in 2013 and operates in 600 cities in 50 countries, already has a presence in Denmark with its e-bike rentals in Copenhagen. Read More
Dance raises €12M for e-bike fleet expansion
News / Online
Dance raises €12M for e-bike fleet expansion
By Morgan Hines | March 13, 2025
With the funding, the Berlin-based company plans to develop its software and hardware and to expand its fleet, offering e-bikes in Paris, Berlin, Hamburg and Munich. Read More
Northeast Asia online travel bookings to break $30B by 2026
News / Online
Northeast Asia online travel bookings to break $30B by 2026
By Phocuswright Research | March 11, 2025
Northeast Asia's booking pathway is online. New demand, demographic and strategic dynamics will further reshape travel across the decade.  Read More
Corsair Capital acquires majority share of IDnow
News / Technology
Corsair Capital acquires majority share of IDnow
By Morgan Hines | March 7, 2025
IDnow, which was founded in 2014, creates artificial intelligence-powered identification verification technologies that cater to brands across sectors including the travel sector. Read More
Travel websites littered with accessibility issues
News / Online
Travel websites littered with accessibility issues
By Morgan Hines | March 6, 2025
The 2025 Digital Accessibility Index found an average of 297 accessibility issues per webpage during Q4 of 2024 across 400,000 pages on 15,000 websites in different industries including hospitality. Read More
Alexa+ could earn “top-of-the-funnel” spot in travel research
News / Technology
Alexa+ could earn “top-of-the-funnel” spot in travel research
By Morgan Hines | March 4, 2025
Travel brands including Tripadvisor and Uber have partnered with Amazon for the debut of its reimagined voice assistant. Read More
Trip.com Group reports Q4 bookings growth for international and inbound travel
News / Online
Trip.com Group reports Q4 bookings growth for international and inbound travel
By Linda Fox | February 25, 2025
The China-based online travel agency said outbound bookings have recovered to 120% of pre-COVID levels. Read More
Snowfall announces reset, relaunches as Junction
News / Technology
Snowfall announces reset, relaunches as Junction
By Andy Hoskins, BTN Europe | February 7, 2025
The company, whose difficulties have been documented in recent months, said Korelya Capital was helping to fund the relaunch, while other unspecified “existing and new investors” are also providing... Read More
How "Operator" changed the travel shopping game
Opinion / Online
How "Operator" changed the travel shopping game
By Christian Watts - Magpie | February 6, 2025
OpenAI's "Operator" has the potential to remove much of the manual work from travel search and booking as well as enable deeper research and more flexibility. Read More
BlaBlaCar to lobby for fair distribution through European rail group
News / Distribution
BlaBlaCar to lobby for fair distribution through European rail group
By Linda Fox | February 3, 2025
The organization, which also includes Omio, Kombo and Trainline as members, is seeking transparency of rail data fares and a more competitive and connected rail market for European passengers. Read More
The Phocuswright Conference 2026