Here's our roundup of the people, product and partner news from the global travel industry this week.
This roundup was created with the assistance of ChatGPT.
TourRadar AI update
TourRadar has provided an update on its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered products as it bets conversational AI will play a larger role in discovery.
In the past year, the company announced a ChatGPT app, a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, an Instagram trip discovery tool and an AI support chatbot. TourRadar said the products are tied together by its booking, payments and data infrastructure, plus a human trust layer built on reviews, video and hosted trips.
CEO Travis Pittman is set to speak at Phocuswright’s Travel Marketing AI Summit on March 24.
ESky launches AI assistant
ESky has launched My AI Assistant (known as eSky MAIA), an AI-powered travel assistant, in its mobile app.
The company said MAIA helps users move from inspiration to personalized recommendations and search results while also answering questions on topics such as visas, weather and family travel. ESky Group said the launch is part of its broader AI push, with future plans including after-sales support and voice-based customer service tools.
SAP Concur partnerships, AI updates
With the SAP Concur Fusion event this week, SAP Concur shared multiple updates on partnerships and AI updates.
Among its stream of updates, the company said it has extended its partnership with HRS through a multi-year agreement focused on corporate lodging, payments and AI-powered hotel program management.
Additionally, SAP Concur and Amex GBT are expanding their co-developed Complete solution with new AI-enabled capabilities aimed at improving content access, servicing, payments and expense integration for business travelers.
SAP Concur has also integrated Engine, allowing Concur Travel users to access Engine’s network of more than 900,000 hotel properties through the Hotel Connector.
In addition to partnership news, the company outlined a broad push to embed AI across travel, expense and invoice management, including deeper integration with Microsoft 365 Copilot, new Joule agents for expense automation and auditing and expanded travel capabilities in Concur Travel and TripIt Pro.
TPConnects adds MCP integration
TPConnects Technologies said it has added MCP integration to its Astra NDC platform, which it described as an AI-ready orchestration layer for airline retailing. The company said the technology normalizes multiple NDC schema versions into a single interface, aiming to reduce integration complexity for airlines and travel sellers.
TPConnects said the MCP layer, paired with its Astra ConvertEngine, is designed to support AI agents, lower search volumes and help carriers manage the growing technical and economic demands of AI-driven retailing.
HTS extends fintech into hospitality
Hopper Technology Solutions (HTS) has launched Cancel for Any Reason for hotels, extending its fintech flexibility products beyond air into hospitality.
The company said the product is already live with partners including Tripadvisor, Cloudbeds and Aven Hospitality, covering hotels in more than 190 countries. HTS said the offering lets travelers choose added refundability while creating a new revenue stream for hotel partners.
S4BT, SQUAKE
S4BT and SQUAKE have formed a strategic partnership to help companies measure, report and reduce CO2 emissions across business travel programs.
The companies said the integrated offering covers air, hotel, rail and ground transportation, giving corporate customers access to consolidated emissions dashboards, reporting tools and insights on how to cut both emissions and costs. The partnership is structured around a phased approach spanning measurement, analysis, action and climate contribution as companies face rising regulatory and ESG pressure.
SITA launches Bag Radar
SITA has launched SITA Bag Radar, a cloud-based baggage analytics platform that uses historical, real-time and AI-driven predictive insights to help airlines, airports and ground handlers spot baggage issues earlier.
The company said the tool draws from existing baggage data sources to flag risks such as missed connections, mishandled bags and bottlenecks before they escalate. SITA said the platform can be deployed without major infrastructure changes and is designed to improve operational efficiency while reducing baggage-related costs.
Blacklane, CLEAR
Blacklane has partnered with CLEAR to offer an airport experience that connects chauffeur service with terminal assistance.
The partnership is designed to create a smoother home-to-gate journey by pairing Blacklane’s rides with CLEAR Concierge services. The companies said the offering will begin rolling out in April to select Blacklane guests and CLEAR+ members, with broader expansion planned later this year.
Access Hospitality names CTO
Access Hospitality has named Aravinda Gollapudi CTO, tasking her with leading its global technology strategy and advancing agentic AI across the platform.
Gollapudi joins from Sage, where she led platform and technology teams, and brings experience from Intuit, Ellie Mae and VeriSign. Gollapudi was named as one of Channel Insider’s 2025 Top 50 AI Leaders in the Channel and is a Stevie Award winner.
Amadeus, Tata Consultancy Services
Amadeus has formed a global strategic partnership with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to support travel technology projects across airlines, hospitality, airports, payments and distribution.
The first phase will focus on Amadeus’ Nevio platform, with TCS helping speed implementations and develop the Nevio Service Center interface for airline customer support teams. The companies said the broader partnership will also explore AI, cloud and data-driven capabilities aimed at helping travel providers modernize operations and improve the traveler experience.
Mews, Turneo
Mews and Turneo have launched a native integration that lets hotels using Mews’ PMS add bookings for tours, wellness, rentals and other non-room experiences directly to guest profiles, folios and analytics. The integration feeds reservation context and bookable experiences into AI, which allows AI to recommend treatments, tours and more to guests.
Turneo now integrates natively with both Mews and Oracle OPERA.
NextTrip appoints senior media executives
NextTrip has appointed Casey D’Ambra as vice president of media and distribution and named Assaf Blecher and Nir Haklili managing directors of NextTrip Media as it expands its JOURNY travel network and broader media-to-commerce strategy.
The company said the hires support its push to combine travel storytelling with booking infrastructure as it scales distribution globally. JOURNY is expected to reach about 250 million connected TV, mobile and online viewers, with advertising impressions projected to grow sharply later this year.