As we head towards 2025, we look back on the travel companies and topics that made headlines this year.
It has been another fascinating year in the world of artificial intelligence and developments from both established travel companies and startups across every segment of the industry have been interesting to observe. There has also been an acknowledgement that we're still in the hype phase and only scratching the surface of what the technology might eventually deliver.
Other trends and topics that have caught our attention this year include hospitality technology and the gradual convergence between what hotels and what rental properties might need from a tech stack.
And, we've been keeping an eye on the large online travel players, the regulatory environment, moves in the airline distribution world and corporate travel more widely.
Below are some of the companies, topics and trends PhocusWire has identified as the headline makers in the past year — and who are bound to be among those to watch in the year to come, in alphabetical order.
All things AI
It was the hottest topic of
last year, and again this year and most likely next year. Artificial
intelligence in all its forms — generative AI, large language models,
autonomous agents, natural language processing and more — is permeating every
industry. Specifically in travel AI is shaking up functions such as distribution, marketing, revenue management and operations for suppliers and for travelers,
how they find inspiration, conduct searches and bookings, plan itineraries and even how they experience a destination.
So travel technologists have
been busy keeping up with product updates from multiple players in 2024, such
as OpenAI, which launched its multimodal GPT-4o model, SearchGPT search engine
and Sora video generation software. Google has also made headlines with the full
rollout of AI Overviews in May, enhanced functionality of AI in travel search and in
Google Maps and Project Astra AI assistant to name a few. And of
course there are numerous other AI-based solutions coming from brands such as
Microsoft, IBM, Anthropic, Perplexity, Amazon, Meta and others.
Meanwhile, brands across
every sector of travel are integrating the technology. Expedia Group, an early adopter of ChatGPT, updated its trip planning solution in May, while Booking Holdings touted the benefits of AI for
streamlining its internal processes and for moving it closer to offering a
“connected trip” for travelers and Trip.com Group predicting AI will
“revolutionize” travel. Savvy entrepreneurs are also jumping in, with several
startups on PhocusWire’s Hot 25 Travel Startups for 2025 list making news,
including iWander, Mindtrip, Obvlo and Levee.
Looking ahead to 2025, we’ll
be closely following news about autonomous agents that will perform functions
such as search, booking and payment on behalf of travelers. And as consumers
become more comfortable with chatbots and other AI tools, we
expect to see usage increase — up from 18% in Phocuswright’s 2024 report.
Airbnb
As in past years, Airbnb has been constantly in the news in 2024. The short-term rental giant has continued to push back against regulation changes, launched its Icons program and also repeatedly emphasized its plans to extend beyond its core.
The launch of the Icons program — a mix of a promotional strategy and a move to entice consumers to create Airbnb accounts — created quite the buzz after its May reveal. In November the company revealed the Icons offering and its new group travel tools had together generated more than 1.7 million new profiles on the site.
At ITB in March and again at The Phocuswright Conference in November, Airbnb chief business officer Dave Stephenson discussed the company's plans to move beyond short-term rental hosting, and CEO Brian Chesky has also talked up growth in new lines of business and new markets. In October the company launched a new co-host marketplace and Stephenson hinted a host marketplace could be in the works.
“Take the Airbnb model and we're going to bring it to a lot of different categories,” Chesky said.
“I anticipate, every year we launch two to three things that could eventually generate a billion dollars annually in revenue.”
And after quietly reopening its platform to new Experiences in the fall, Chesky said Airbnb will reveal the complete "reimagining" of Experiences in 2025.
“Experiences are going to be, I think, one of many new offerings that can increase the frequency, that can make Airbnb go from an annual app to a monthly usage app, or even for some people, a weekly usage app,” he said.
Airline distribution trends
Distribution has been an attention grabber in the airline industry for years. And in 2024, it saw increased interest after experts predicted it would be a landmark year for modernization, specifically for IATA’s New Distribution Capability (NDC).
Plenty this year has happened in relation to distribution. In April, Delta joined the NDC movement and partnered with Accelya.
In addition, Sabre unveiled SabreMosaic, its offer and order retailing system built with Google’s artificial intelligence technologies. And as the technology develops, there’s been more discussion around how airlines need to take AI into account with their offer and order strategy.
A further reason for the increased focus on distribution was down to American Airlines’ NDC push: In 2023, the airline moved 40% of its lowest class of fares, making them available on its own channels and on NDC channels only.
While efforts from other carriers made headlines in past years such as Lufthansa’s 2015 move to add surcharges for GDS bookings, American’s move had everyone talking when it didn’t work out.
In May, American announced its chief commercial officer Vasu Raja would be leaving the company and not long after said it would be reversing its NDC strategy sparking further debate - and skepticism around NDC’s future.
Earlier this month, industry heads were still talking about American’s NDC challenges - and Cory Garner, a former AA executive who who now runs airline distribution consultancy Garner, said at The Beat Live event in New York City that “it’s the time to adjust,” while diving into what he described as the “three eras” of airline distribution.
Booking.com and the DMA
Booking.com was finally designated a gatekeeper under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) in Europe in May.
The company had signaled back in July 2023 that it would likely meet the threshold at the end of the end of the year.
In the meantime, Glenn Fogel, president and CEO of Booking Holdings, had already made his view clear earlier this year when he called for "smart regulations."
Speaking during a session at ITB in Berlin in March, Fogel said he doesn’t believe Booking.com should be part of the DMA.
“Again, as I pointed out, we may be a larger company than many in the travel industry but a very, very small company compared to the others. When you see the size of Google or Meta or any of the others, we're a tiny little minnow, and I'm not sure what problem they're trying to solve. What exactly is the problem? Is there not enough competition? This is the most competitive industry in the world,” he said at the time.
The company had six months from May to comply with the regulation and unveiled its remedies in November. Those included the elimination of parity requirements, a tool to provide travelers with better control of their data and improved access to data for partners.
The European Commission is now reviewing Booking’s compliance report taking into account submissions from other parties.
Crowdstrike
July's global outage at cybersecurity company Crowdstrike was seventh in Google's Top 10 global news trends of 2024 — an indication of the chaos it caused worldwide, particularly for airlines and their passengers.
According to the company, the outage was triggered by a software update by its systems deployed for Microsoft Windows. The company quickly found and deployed a fix for the issue but that didn't prevent the grounding of thousands of flights.
The pain was greater for some carriers than others with Delta taking the longest to recover and estimating the incident it cost $380 million in lost revenue and a further $170 million in customer and crew-related costs. The two companies are now in the midst of suing one another.
The meltdown also rippled through the corporate travel community, serving as a stark reminder of risk management and duty of care obligations for travel managers within corporations and travel management companies.
The financial costs aside, the incident demonstrated the vulnerability of global IT systems but industry experts said there are steps travel companies can take to avoid such catastrophic failures in the future.
Expedia Group
It’s been a big year for Expedia Group in terms of both people and product news. 2024 began with word that CEO Peter Kern would step down from the role to be replaced by company veteran Ariane Gorin. The transition officially took place at the company’s Explore customer event in May, when there was also a slew of product news, notably the launch of Romie — Expedia.com’s updated AI travel assistant — and Travel Shops, storefronts in the Expedia app where influencers and brands can earn commission from their travel recommendations.
This year the group also launched its own media network for advertisers, leveraging its first-party intent data from Expedia, Vrbo and Hotels.com to help brands target travelers. And it's also been a big year for Expedia Group’s B2B business, which now powers travel distribution for more than 60,000 partners around the world, accounting for 100 million room nights in 2023 and an 18% jump in revenue in Q3 this year compared to last year.
Along with these signs of progress, the company also had a setback in May with the ouster of CTO Rathi Murthy due to “a violation of company policy.” In October Expedia Group announced Ramana Thumu would join as CTO, coming from a role as chief product and technology officer at Fanatics. And earlier this month the company named Shilpa Ranganathan as chief product officer — marking the re-establishment a role that has been absent since 2016. And looking into 2025, Expedia Group will be hiring a new CFO as Julie Whalen departs by February.
Google antitrust
The Google antitrust suit reached a partial conclusion earlier this year when a judge ruled the company had used its market power to create a monopoly in online search.
The ramifications of that decision, which Google is appealing, in travel and beyond will not be seen until the judge rules on the steps to be taken by Google to address its monopoly. They could include changes to business practices or even being forced to sell off parts of the business.
The decision won't come until spring 2025 but the Department of Justice (DOJ) in the United States said recently that it is pushing for Google to sell off its Chrome browser.
The DOJ suit is not the only fire Google is fighting from regulators currently. The company was also fined €2.4 billion recently when it lost its appeal in an European antitrust case over preferencing its own shopping services over competitors.
And, the company is making changes to achieve compliance with the Digital Markets Act in Europe. It recently said it had updated search in the region to be in line with the requirements of the act.
M&A in corporate travel
Consolidation in corporate travel has been a hot topic in 2024 with small, medium and large travel management companies swallowed.
Acquisitions make sense. It's a tough environment to operate in with slim margins, the challenge of airline distribution changes such as New Distribution Capability and the march of generative artificial intelligence.
The deals that stood out in 2024 include American Express GBT's plan to acquire CWT for $570 million. Although the deal was announced in late March, it is not over the line. The Competition & Markets Authority in the United Kingdom is scrutinizing the deal. It has concerns around a smaller pool of travel management companies (TMC) for global multinational customers to choose from as well as reduced innovation in the segment.
A second large deal saw Spain-based TravelPerk strengthen its position in the United States with the acquisition of AmTrav. At the time, it was said the deal would make the U.S. TravelPerk's top revenue generator. The AmTrav brand remains, as do its founders Jeff Klee and Craig Fichtelberg who serve as CEO and COO, respectively.
Gray Dawes Travel Group has also been acquisitive in 2024 with the U.K.-based TMC buying up Australia's Verve Travel in November. The acquisition was the sixteenth for Gray Dawes in recent years and brings its annual turnover to £600 million. In January, the group announced it had acquired Netherlands-based VCK Travel.
Mews
Mews has spent 2024 on two sprees: Landing funding and acquisitions.
In March, the property management solution provider raised $110 million. That funding brought the Amsterdam-based company’s value to $1.2 billion with total funding reaching $335 million at the time. The investment was directed to Mew' expansion strategy.
Less than 10 months later in September, Mews brought in an additional $100 million in a finance deal to further push its M&A agenda.
The company has picked up four hotel technology specialists in 2024. In January, Mews acquired cloud hotel management software company Frontdesk Anywhere. In May, Mews announced the acquisition of property management system HS3 Hotelsoftware. Then, in early November, Mews acquired Quotelo, a groups and meetings booking technology company. Just a few weeks later, Mews announced the acquisition of revenue management software provider Atomize.
"Mews' focus on simplifying and automating operations for hoteliers is truly aligned to our vision of revolutionizing and rehumanizing event hospitality," said Tristan Gibausset, co-founder and co-CEO of Quotelo, in November upon acquiring Quotelo.
PhocusWire Hot 25 Travel Startups for 2025
Every year, PhocusWire selects 25 travel startups to include as part of its list of Hot 25 Travel Startups for the coming year.
The selection process is lengthy and challenging with countless startups creating solutions for the industry ripe for consideration around the globe.
This year, PhocusWire worked for months to select an impressive group who make up the Hot 25 Travel Startups for 2025, sponsored by Allianz Partners. This group represents a bright future for the travel industry with their innovation, resilience and determination. We will be following them in the coming years and recommend others do the same.
Survival for SPACs?
Going public via blank check or special purpose acquisition companies (SPAC) was a big trend in travel in 2021-2022 with companies including Inspirato, Mondee, Selina, Sonder and Vacasa using the vehicle to raise capital.
Even back then there were concerns that the ride would be short particularly as regulatory and economic challenges presented themselves.
Fast forward to 2024 and a number of travel SPAC companies have had to face those challenges head on and make some difficult decisions.
Both Sonder and Vacasa faced delisting in 2023 and announced job cuts and reorganizations this year. Interestingly, Sonder may now have found a potential way forward following a licensing deal with Marriott.
The partnership sees 9,000 Sonder units join the Marriott portfolio and a further 1,500 to be added at a later stage. It also provides $146 million to help get Sonder to profitable growth.
Others, such as Selina have found different routes out. The company announced in July that it was looking for buyers and Singapore-based Collective Hospitality came to the rescue about a month later.
Mondee, which went public via SPAC in 2022, is the latest to run into choppy waters. The company announced in late November that it did not plan to appeal a non-compliance notice from Nasdaq or any subsequent delisting.