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.
Klook, Korail
Klook has partnered with Korea Railroad Corporation (Korail) to offer real-time rail booking for South Korea’s national network, including high-speed and regional trains. The integration enables international travelers to check availability, book tickets and pay in multiple currencies and languages, with digital tickets and instant confirmation.
The partnership also aims to simplify rail travel and improve access beyond Seoul to regional destinations. Demand for multi-city trips is rising, with places like Busan and Jeonju growing in popularity. By easing nationwide rail access, the partnership supports broader tourism distribution and strengthens Klook’s transportation offerings in South Korea.
Spotnana, Air Canada
Spotnana has partnered with Air Canada to integrate its travel platform with the airline’s systems. Travelers can use Air Canada Flight Pass credits—prepaid one-way flight credits—directly within Spotnana to book flights without agent assistance.
The integration also supports the full travel process, from searching and booking to changes and cancellations. Features include seat selection, loyalty point accrual, continuous pricing, negotiated fares and credit management. By connecting directly through NDC technology, the partnership simplifies booking and servicing, reduces manual steps and provides a more streamlined corporate travel experience with greater flexibility and control.
Wizz Air, Hopper Technology Solutions
Wizz Air partnered with Hopper Technology Solutions (HTS) to add disruption assistance to its website and app, making it the first European carrier to offer HTS’ rebooking service.
Travelers can add the product when booking and receive proactive alerts for same-day cancellations or delays of at least two hours. Eligible customers can rebook on any airline for free up to a cap or receive a full refund while still taking their original flight.
Roomex launches comparison tool
Roomex launched Best Rates Display, a comparison tool for U.K. workforce travel customers that shows accommodation prices across as many as 30 supply channels at booking.
The feature surfaces the lowest available rate and flags options with free cancellation or breakfast, alongside more than 2,000 directly negotiated hotel rates. Roomex said the tool is aimed at reducing overspend tied to fragmented booking processes, poor spend visibility and short-notice workforce travel across dispersed locations.
12Go launches ChatGPT app
12Go launched a ChatGPT App that allows travelers to search and compare buses, ferries, trains and multimodal routes across Asia through natural-language prompts.
The app brings 12Go’s ground and sea transport inventory into ChatGPT, with booking completed after users are redirected to 12Go’s website or app. Parent company Travelier said the integration should help make Asia’s fragmented, often offline transport options more searchable for travelers.
Bookingkit names COO
Bookingkit appointed Megan Frydel as chief operating officer, with a focus on improving operations, aligning the leadership team and adding artificial intelligence (AI) and automation across the business.
Frydel most recently served as chief of staff at 9H Digital, where she worked on operational alignment and growth across multiple markets. She previously held roles at Hotjar, gaining experience in customer-centric, product-led growth. bookingkit said Frydel will help scale the business through systems rather than headcount.
Travel Foundation rebrands to Travel Forward
Travel Foundation is rebranding to Travel Forward to reflect its broader focus on collective action to support destination wellbeing as tourism faces climate impacts, record arrivals and widening inequality.
The independent global charity will expand work on climate risk, unmanaged growth and fairer distribution of tourism benefits.
Datalex, Air Macau
Datalex said Air Macau has expanded use of its Stellex Offer Shopping & Pricing Engine since activation in September 2024, supporting the airline’s push into modern airline retailing.
The technology has been deployed across seven online channels, including Air Macau’s website, mobile app, Douyin and MPAY, with more integrations planned. Datalex said Stellex gives Air Macau stronger shopping and pricing capabilities, richer content, better fare control and faster response times while supporting connecting itineraries across Air China Group subsidiaries.
Kayak unveils Ask AI
Kayak introduced Ask AI, a conversational trip-planning tool that lets travelers search by chat while flight, hotel and rental car results update live alongside the conversation.
The launch comes as World Cup travel interest rises, with KAYAK reporting a 23% increase in searches to U.S. host cities compared with last summer. KAYAK also launched a World Cup Trends Dashboard tracking search demand, price shifts and destination spikes.
Fareportal launches business line
Fareportal, the travel company operating CheapOair and OneTravel, launched Fareportal Enterprise Solutions, a business line that lets partners add end-to-end travel services without building travel infrastructure.
The offering extends the platform, combining flights, hotels, rental cars, packages, ancillaries, tours and activities with modular technology, payments, fulfillment and servicing. Fareportal said the product is aimed at travel companies, financial institutions, retailers, marketplaces and employee benefits programs seeking branded, scalable travel offerings with control over customer experience, economics and data.
Duffel launches Duffel Cars
Duffel launched Duffel Cars, adding car rental to its API travel services alongside flights and stays.
The product lets partners embed rentals from 40 providers across more than 40,000 locations in 200 countries through the same Duffel API. Duffel said the launch responds to rising demand for embedded travel among nontraditional brands.
HotelMinder, Lighthouse
HotelMinder has added Lighthouse as a preferred partner, bringing Lighthouse’s revenue management and market intelligence tools into its hotel technology marketplace. The partnership expands HotelMinder’s commercial strategy technology category, which includes technology for revenue optimization, market intelligence and demand planning.
The companies said the move is aimed at hotel commercial teams navigating shorter booking windows and shifting demand patterns, as hotels invest more heavily in tools to support pricing and revenue decisions.
PKFARE, Wano, AirAsia MOVE
PKFARE, Wano and AirAsia MOVE have launched a flight-and-hotel packaging partnership, with PKFARE providing the technology to combine flight inventory, hotel supply and real-time pricing into dynamic travel bundles. The deal marks PKFARE’s expansion into hotel packaging services.
Under the partnership, Wano will manage flight distribution and AirAsia MOVE will drive consumer demand, while PKFARE powers the packaging engine. The companies said the offering is designed to help hotels tap airline-driven demand and give travelers more connected booking options.
WEX, Extend
WEX is working with Extend to enable virtual card payments inside SAP Concur’s Concur Invoice platform, allowing WEX corporate card customers to generate and settle supplier payments without leaving Concur.
The integration lets Concur Invoice users create single-use virtual cards tied to their WEX commercial accounts to pay vendors, with automated authorization, remittance and reconciliation. The companies said the move is aimed at streamlining accounts payable workflows and reducing reliance on checks and manual payment processes.