Latest News

Latest News

Stay up to date with the latest travel technology news, startup updates, and industry developments from across the global travel ecosystem.

Google goes guerilla with Rio content site - no Olympic Rings to be seen
News / Distribution
Google goes guerilla with Rio content site - no Olympic Rings to be seen
By Marisa Garcia | August 4, 2016
Google's in-house creative agency The Zoo has added new features to its "All of Brazil Plays" to coincide with a significant global sporting event taking place in Rio de Janeiro over the next few week... Read More
Be afraid - TripAdvisor is playing the long game with Instant Booking
News / Technology
Be afraid - TripAdvisor is playing the long game with Instant Booking
By Martin Cowen | August 4, 2016
TripAdvisor's second-quarter results highlight how it plans to improve its Instant Booking product now that the global roll-out is complete and more than half a million properties can be booked this w... Read More
Direct now cheaper than agencies for majority of hotel searches
News / Distribution
Direct now cheaper than agencies for majority of hotel searches
By Kevin May | August 4, 2016
Maybe the regulatory restrictions are starting to get through, or something else - data-crunching has shown that 53% of rates are now cheaper on hotel websites than intermediaries. Checks on over 2... Read More
Skyscanner brings travel search bot to Skype group chats
News / Distribution
Skyscanner brings travel search bot to Skype group chats
By Kevin May | August 3, 2016
Travel search service Skyscanner has created what is one of the first bot-type search tools for mass-market messaging platform Skype. The Microsoft-owned platform has worked with Skyscanner, initia... Read More
Adobe finds more evidence desktop dominates US travel booking despite mobile growth
News / Technology
Adobe finds more evidence desktop dominates US travel booking despite mobile growth
By Juliana Shallcross | August 3, 2016
A new study from Adobe shows that the scale of mobile travel search growth over the past few years is not reflected by a similar increase in bookings. The Adobe Mobile Travel Report, released today... Read More
Icelandair and Travelaer build airline industry's first Facebook Messenger booking bot
News / Distribution
Icelandair and Travelaer build airline industry's first Facebook Messenger booking bot
By Marisa Garcia | August 3, 2016
Travelaer has linked up with Icelandair to develop the airline industry's first search and booking Facebook Messenger bot. The conversational interface encourages flyers to search for the flights w... Read More
Pokémon Go activity becomes another way to search for accommodation
News / Online
Pokémon Go activity becomes another way to search for accommodation
By Kevin May | August 3, 2016
It was only a question of time before a travel search service started allowing users to find accommodation based on a property's proximity to Pokémon Go activity. The mobile gaming app's extraordin... Read More
Startup pitch: Tripshelf's package holiday meta for India has $250K to get going
News / Distribution
Startup pitch: Tripshelf's package holiday meta for India has $250K to get going
By Martin Cowen | August 2, 2016
Metasearch or price comparison sites have come a long way since the early days of Kayak, Travelsupermarket, Trivago and the other early adopters. The suppliers' relationship with the price comparis... Read More
To thrive, DMOs need Synchronized Content Management
News
To thrive, DMOs need Synchronized Content Management
By PhocusWire | August 2, 2016
What should destination marketing organizations (DMOs) do to remain relevant despite shifting digital trends? That's the focus of the latest Tnooz Report, How Destination Marketing Organizations Can A... Read More
Distil Networks, the bot mitigation company, raises $21 million
News
Distil Networks, the bot mitigation company, raises $21 million
By Sean O'Neil | August 2, 2016
Distil Networks, a provider of bot detection and mitigation services who says that about 30% of its business is with travel companies, today said it has closed $21 million in Series C financing. Si... Read More
Sabre posts 20% revenue climb in the first half of 2016
News
Sabre posts 20% revenue climb in the first half of 2016
By Sean O'Neil | August 2, 2016
In the first half of 2016, Sabre saw revenues across the group increase by 20.3% to $1.704 billion, compared to the first half of 2015. That level of growth represents a big jump from the approxima... Read More
IHG claims rewards revamp is shifting growth to direct from OTAs
News / Technology
IHG claims rewards revamp is shifting growth to direct from OTAs
By Martin Cowen | August 2, 2016
InterContinental Hotel Group's half-yearly results have a couple of asides around its tech and digital performance among the details around signings and pipelines, currency fluctuations and medium-ter... Read More
CreateTrips ends after founder split, TripElite emerges from ashes
News / Technology
CreateTrips ends after founder split, TripElite emerges from ashes
By Kevin May | August 2, 2016
Here is an example that perhaps says something about how easy it is to create a trip planning app, and yet how hard they are to make work. TripElite is a new mobile app that - as many will have hea... Read More
Independents' day - chain hotels are losing their appeal
News / Distribution
Independents' day - chain hotels are losing their appeal
By Patrick Landman | August 2, 2016
Reading the industry press over the past couple of months, I could not help but notice all the upheaval and the mergers and acquisitions activity at the big hotels chains. And after Marriott acquired... Read More
Airbus taps Google's ITA for A380 flight search engine
News / Distribution
Airbus taps Google's ITA for A380 flight search engine
By Marisa Garcia | August 2, 2016
Airbus has beta-launched IFlyA380.com, a search engine powered by Google's ITA Software which prioritises flights on the A380 superjumbo. The announcement, which came at last month's Farnborough Ai... Read More
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