Kate Harden-England1

✈ European low-cost airline Ryanair has partnered with Trip.com, a leading travel service provider, to expand its "Approved OTA" program. Trip.com Group's platforms, including TrainPal and Vayama, now offer Ryanair's low-fare flights. This follows Ryanair's previous partnerships with lastminute.com, On the Beach, Tui, Loveholidays, Kiwi.com, and Etraveli earlier in the year. The deal ensures Trip.com customers have direct access to bookings and essential flight information without extra verification. Bookings through Trip.com will begin in the coming weeks.

💸 Profitroom is offering free digital health checks for hoteliers amid 100,000 hospitality vacancies as reported by the Office for National Statistics. The "Profitroom On Tour" events run from September 9-12, targeting areas with high job vacancies like hospitality, trailing service industries, human health, social work, wholesale, and retail trade. Stops include St Michaels Resort, Cornwall (Sept 9, 5pm); Woolacombe Bay Hotel, Devon (Sept 10, 5pm); Stratton House Hotel, Cotswolds (Sept 11, 5pm); The Great House, Sonning (Sept 12, 6pm). Insights from tech experts aim to help optimize digital presence and boost operations against staffing challenges.

🏨 BWH Hotels, encompassing WorldHotels, Best Western Hotels & Resorts, and SureStay Hotels, partners with Canary Technologies to implement an AI-driven Guest Management System. The system integrates tools like Smart Checkout, Mobile Check-In, and Guest Messaging to personalize and enhance the guest experience. Larry Cuculic, president and CEO of BWH Hotels, aims to modernize guest services aligning with today's tech-savvy travelers. Harman Singh Narula, CEO of Canary, emphasizes the necessity of digital touchpoints in hospitality.

📌 Tripadvisor teams up with travel tech specialist DerbySoft to test display advertising for DerbySoft's 6,000 hotel partners on Tripadvisor's platform. This collaboration aims to target location-specific audiences and enhance campaign tracking with incremental measurement. The initiative is in the testing phase, seeking to boost visibility and clicks by reaching consumers further up the purchase funnel, complementing existing products like Sponsored Placements and Business Advantage. Key figures Toni Marti and Christine Maguire express confidence in the partnership's potential to drive hotel success and platform efficiency.

📅 In its 25th anniversary month, iSeatz launched LXP, a travel loyalty technology platform designed to enhance agility and efficiency for businesses. LXP, notable for partnering with Delta in 2007 and American Express Travel in 2012, supports bespoke client services with an API-first microservices framework, promising adaptable solutions to meet market demands and improve customer experiences. Founder and CEO Kenneth Purcell emphasizes iSeatz's commitment to customer-centric innovation.

✈ Sabre has renewed its distribution deal with Delta Air Lines for multiple years, including NDC content. Delta announced its selling and servicing transformation with NDC earlier in the year. Sabre-connected travel agents gain access to traditional EDIFACT and NDC Delta content, with an aim to integrate NDC into Sabre’s marketplace. Delta’s Jeff Lobl and Sabre’s Roshan Mendis emphasize the benefits of the extension and collaboration for optimal travel experiences tailored to customer needs.

✈ Greater Bay Airlines (GBA), Hong Kong's newest carrier, is now accessible through Travelport+ platform, catering to seven destinations in the Asia-Pacific region. This multi-year partnership aims to facilitate GBA's expansion by connecting it with Travelport’s global travel retailer network. Agencies can book GBA fares and ancillary services, utilizing Travelport’s content and branding merchandising solutions. COO of GBA, Stephen Loh, and Damian Hickey, Travelport's global head of travel partners, emphasize the enhancement of traveler experiences and retailing processes.

📱 TourReview, an AI-driven tours and attractions review platform, has partnered with software provider Fareharbor to integrate their booking system through an API connection. This allows TourReview's customers to collect reviews directly from tourists booking on tour operators' websites. The integration offers tools for improving online reputation and business, including sentiment analysis, geo-localization analysis, instant translations, and exportable reports. Juana Muro, COO of TourReview, expressed enthusiasm about the collaboration's potential to drive sales.