Travel Weekly Group Ltd

🎵 Over 90% of children plan to watch Eurovision this year, with 66% of adults saying it influences youth to learn about cultures and visit new places. Spain, Italy, and Switzerland are top 'adopted' countries for British kids. 60% learned about European geography through Eurovision, 55% want to visit countries featured, and 43% are motivated to learn new languages. Italy (36%), Spain (27%), and Switzerland (26%) are most desired travel destinations. Google searches for ‘Bara bada bastu’ soared after KAJ's 2025 song debut. 70% of children became Eurovision fans following UK's Sam Ryder 2022 performance. easyJet, as the Official Airline and largest in Basel, will fly over 47,000 visitors to Eurovision's semi-finals and Grand Final on May 13, 15, and 17, increasing seat capacity by 6,000 from last year.

📌 Protect Group aims to protect $7 billion in travel/event bookings by end of 2025. Its Travel, Tours & OTAs vertical saw 54% year-on-year growth. The core product, Refund Protect, offers ticket refunds under unforeseen circumstances. Protect Plus includes services like flight delay compensation and eSIM solutions. AI-driven Pulse platform enhances customer experience. Chief Product & Marketing Officer Jason Walsh emphasizes the balance of customer experience and revenue growth.

📌 JTB Business Travel, a Canadian company, announced a new brand identity, including a new logo and color palette, as part of a global transformation led by JTB Corp. This follows JTB Corp's rebrand in 2022 aimed at unifying business travel entities. Geert de Boo, VP of Global Business Travel at JTB USA, emphasizes the brand's 100-plus years of history and its vision for future business travel. The phased rollout will culminate at the Business Travel Show Europe in June 2025, reflecting a balance of technology and human service in travel management.

📍 ATPCO has partnered with 3D SeatMapVR by Renacen for an immersive aircraft shopping experience. Users can virtually tour aircraft interiors during the booking process for insights into seat features and layout. This service, part of Routehappy Visuals, is available to Routehappy airline subscribers also subscribed to Renacen. AmTrav, part of TravelPerk Group, is the first to integrate this content, showcasing Virtual Tours for Gulf Air, Iberia, and Iberia Express, with more airlines to be added. This initiative aims to boost traveller confidence and ancillary revenue opportunities.

✈ Sabre activated Air France and KLM's NDC content in its travel marketplace, offering Sabre-connected travel agencies access through various tools like Sabre Red 360 and Launchpad™. Sabre now provides more NDC content from airlines than any other global distribution system. Air France-KLM EVP Angus Clarke highlighted the benefits, including improved fares, promotions, extra options, and innovative offers such as Seat and Extra SAF Bundles. Sabre EVP Roshan Mendis emphasized the shift to a flexible distribution environment and the vision for a marketplace with personalized offers at scale.

💰 Focus Travel Partnership, a UK business travel consortium, partnered with Arbitrip, an innovative hotel booking platform. This is Arbitrip's first consortia agreement in the UK, aiming to enhance hotel content and booking experiences for Focus TMC Partners. The collaboration showcases Focus Travel Partnership's confidence in Arbitrip, as they will use it for internal staff travel, and represents a commitment to innovation and competitive benefits for TMC Partners. The collaboration is viewed as a milestone by Arbitrip, marking its entry into the UK market and intending to drive revenue growth and hotel attachment rates for TMCs.

📍 First Class Travel Group, a UK-based long haul tour operator, partners with Nezasa to unify its brands—First Class Holidays, First Class Cruise, African Pride, Knighton Reeve—under TripBuilder, an AI-powered platform. The collaboration aims to enhance automation, operational efficiency, and multi-channel offerings for a better customer and travel agent experience. CEO Daniel Gathercole highlights the move as a key step in the group's digital transformation, streamlining operations and speeding up market response. Nezasa's CRO Alex Farmer notes TripBuilder's adaptability to various business models and its scalable, API-centric architecture as pivotal for the group’s growth.

🏨 Ireckonu, a middleware and customer data platform provider for the hospitality industry, opened a new office in Singapore in January. They announced the expansion to support existing APAC customers, including Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group since 2015, and to seek new business opportunities. The APAC operations are led by Sam Samsudi, with a local team across sales, customer success, and support, aiming for 24/7 global coverage.