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2871 posts

European airport traffic continues to surge – for now

🏆 January 2025 saw European airports' passenger numbers rise by 6.9%, with international travel up by 8.3%. Major hubs over 40M passengers, like Istanbul (6.4M), Heathrow, Paris CDG, Madrid, and Amsterdam, grew by 7%. Yet, smaller airports, despite a 19.7% growth, remain 31.9% below 2019 levels, with only 46% fully recovering from pandemic setbacks. Domestic air travel lags by 12.5% from pre-pandemic figures, increasing by a mere 2.7%.
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Five next-gen travel innovations from SXSW 2025

🏃 SXSW, originally a music festival, now pioneers in travel tech with AI, brain tech, and more on Mar 19, 2025. "The Halo" stimulates lucid dreaming using EEG for wellness. "Pathfinder" enables GPS-free navigation via computer vision. "Posha" offers robot kitchens for personalized meals in aparthotels. "Overheard on a Train" creates immersive urban travel stories. "CrowdCompass" ensures offline communication at festivals, working like walkie-talkies. These innovations signify major shifts in mobility, hospitality, and travel experiences.
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Google hits pause on AI Trip Planner

🛫 Google indefinitely postponed the AI trip planner for Gemini Advanced, initially slated for summer 2024, with no new release date. Despite this, Google advances Gemini's AI features, integrating them with other apps for personalized travel planning. The "Gems" chatbot tools, once exclusive to advanced users, are now free. Google also experiments with "AI Mode" in Search, improving generative summaries. Travel remains a central focus in Google's AI enhancements.
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Future-ready travel: Leaders on the next era of tourism

🏖️ IMD ranks 33 travel companies, on Mar 19, 2025, for future readiness; including Booking Holdings, Airbnb, Delta Air Lines, Marriott. Financial strength, AI, personalization, sustainability, and 'Bleisure' travel are key to innovation. AI agents like OpenAI's Operator, and China’s Manu enhance booking. Report "Travel’s AI Revolution: Balancing Tech and Touch" delves deeper.
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Trust in travel: Tripadvisor’s 2025 transparency report

🔍 Tripadvisor marked its 25th anniversary by releasing its 2025 Transparency Report on Mar 19, 2025. Last year, the platform saw 80 million user contributions, a 9% increase, with reviews of experiences and attractions up by 45%. The community was highly engaged, posting 2.6 million times in forums and businesses responding 11 million times. Moderation practices led to 4.2 million reviews being manually checked. Fraudulent activities were addressed by removing 2.7 million fake reviews, 214,000 of which were AI-generated. The Coalition for Trusted Reviews was also established to ensure trustworthiness across various platforms.
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  • 3 min

10 Tips for Unlocking the Full Potential of DirectBookings — By Christin Haensel

📦 The Global Direct Booking Acceleration Study surveyed 88 worldwide hotel chains, revealing that loyalty programs contribute less than one-third of total revenue, with large U.S. brands being an exception. Mobile bookings have risen to 42% of IBE revenue, a jump from 36% in 2019. Only 9% of hotels use AI-powered personalization in their IBEs, with 51% planning to adopt it. A significant 78% of chains face rate display issues in their booking process. Just 38% of IBEs are fully integrated with central guest profiles, and only 25% offer item sales post-booking. Resource constraints affect 29% of chains in optimizing online sales, and AI adoption is low, with 27% using chatbots and just 2% using voice-activated services. On average, hotel chains identify 6.6 tasks suitable for automation annually.
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  • 2 min

What is AI going to bring hotels in 2025 — By Martin Soler

💻 AI transformation in the hotel industry by 2025: Marketing teams to produce content rapidly, tailor-made hotel GPTs for guest inquiries, natural AI-driven upselling, automated review responses, instant AI communication expected by guests, smarter AI-assisted event planning, automation of unique repetitive tasks for staff, and a gradual shift towards intuitive AI personalization. The risk for hotels is becoming obsolete by not adapting to AI advancements, which aim to enhance—not replace—hospitality.
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  • 1 min

10 Reasons Why Upgrading Your PMS is a Must in 2025 — By Ryan King

🚀 The Hotel Yearbook 2025 Annual Edition was officially published last week during ITB Berlin. Contributors were thanked for their expertise and insights. Readers are encouraged to share their articles on LinkedIn and can find various resources and links provided by the HYB team. A post-publication survey will be sent, and feedback can be sent to [email protected] Contributions to the Sustainability Tech Edition were acknowledged for adding valuable perspectives to the hospitality industry.
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Microsoft issues warning for Booking.com phishing campaign

🚬 Hospitality workers worldwide, particularly in North America, Southeast Asia, and Europe, have been targeted by a phishing campaign since December 2024, impersonating Booking.com. The "ClickFix" technique exploited by attackers involves victims manually launching malware. Malware strains used include XWorm, Lumma stealer, VenomRAT, AsyncRAT, Danabot, and NetSupport RAT. The campaign is linked to Storm-1865, a group previously targeting hotel guests and e-commerce users. Booking.com acknowledged the attacks but confirmed no system breach. Microsoft recommends caution in email handling to prevent attacks.
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GDS: Travel agencies surge ahead

🏖 In 2023, U.S. travel agency bookings soared by 28% to $109.7 billion. Leisure travel accounted for 65% of sales, with a significant 152% increase in cruise bookings. Annual growth is expected at 9% for 2024-2025. Despite higher travel costs, 72% of advisors are optimistic, predicting travel agencies will cover a quarter of U.S. travel sales by 2027.
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