India-based OTA MakeMyTrip has acquired a majority stake in tour operator Flamingo Transworld to strengthen its holiday packages business. Flamingo operates group tours in regions like Gujarat and Maharashtra. The acquisition will leverage complementary customer bases and distribution to widen package options.
Business travel AI platform BizTrip AI raised $1.5 million in pre-seed funding, bringing total funding to $2.5 million. The company aims to replace fragmented booking tools with an AI assistant that dynamically recommends compliant options, reducing exceptions and improving compliance, saving costs for enterprises.
Amex GBT reported Q4 and full-year 2025 results: full-year revenue of $2,718 million, up 12%; Adjusted EBITDA of $532 million, up 11%. The company reiterated 2026 guidance for revenue growth of 19%-21% and doubled its share repurchase authorization to $600 million.
Alibaba Group Holding Limited announced it will report its unaudited financial results for the quarter ended December 31, 2025, before the U.S. market opens on Thursday, March 19, 2026, and will hold a conference call at 7:30 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time (7:30 p.m. Hong Kong Time) the same day. Participants must pre-register via the English or Chinese registration links to receive dial-in numbers, a passcode and a unique access PIN. A live webcast will be available, and a replay will be accessible for one week after the call.
Expedia Group CFO Scott Schenkel said at Morgan Stanley conference that the company is undergoing a 'radical' transformation, improving efficiency through new performance metrics, AI adoption, and cost cuts. Self-service rate has exceeded 50%, and savings will be reinvested in emerging technologies like AI.
Lonely Planet has launched a new app that combines its expert destination guides with maps, local recommendations, and trip building tools. Curated by its team of 450 travel experts worldwide, the app is currently available in the U.S., with an AI assistant planned for later. Travelers can get a year of free membership for a limited time, with paid tiers expected in late 2026. This move is part of Lonely Planet's evolution from guidebook publisher to digital ecosystem, complementing the Lonely Planet Journeys booking service launched in fall 2025.
The article introduces Ctrip Corporate Travel as a business travel management platform, highlighting its comprehensive resources, intelligent control, and global services. Serving over 3/5 of Fortune 500 companies and 1 million growing enterprises, Ctrip Corporate Travel helps businesses save an average of 30% on travel costs through integrated resources, technology, and data.
Navan has introduced Navan Edge, an AI-powered personalized travel assistant for business travelers without access to managed travel programs. It offers hyper-personalized recommendations and, with approval, can rebook flights, alert hotels about delays, and adjust dinner reservations. Currently available on iOS in the U.S., it supports hotel bookings only, with flight and restaurant bookings expected soon. Navan Edge aims to serve frequent travelers who lack corporate tool support.
European vacation rental company Holidu has acquired German portal Bestfewo.de for an undisclosed amount. Bestfewo will operate independently but integrate into Holidu's software. This is Holidu's 13th acquisition, expanding its host base in Germany and leveraging AI for fast integration.
Affiliate revenue platform Stay22 has secured a $122 million minority growth investment from Summit Partners. The company plans to invest in infrastructure and partner ecosystem, expand internationally, and grow its team. Summit Partners' Colin Mistele and Daniel Kim joined Stay22's board. Montreal-based Stay22 provides an affiliate monetization platform for travel creators, media publishers, and event organizers, using AI to improve booking and conversion.
Trip.com Group's international OTA platform bookings increased 60% YoY in Q4 2025, serving about 20 million inbound travelers. Full-year net revenue was nearly $9B, up 17%. Inbound travel is a key growth driver, currently 0.5% of China's GDP, with huge potential. AI investments and TripGenie usage surged.
Solutions for Business Travel (S4BT) has acquired Travel Centric Technology, the parent company of London-based HotelHub, for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition enhances S4BT's technological capabilities, expands its engagement across major travel markets, and broadens its global footprint, particularly into the UK. HotelHub will enable S4BT to deliver a fully integrated corporate hotel offering to TMCs. HotelHub becomes the eighth corporate travel brand in S4BT's portfolio.
Booking Holdings reported Q4 and full year 2025 results. Q4 room nights grew 9%, gross bookings grew 16% (11% constant currency), and revenue grew 16%. Full year room nights grew 8%, gross bookings grew 12%, and revenue grew 13%. The company achieved approximately $550 million in annual run-rate savings through the Transformation Program and approved a 25-to-1 stock split.
Booking Holdings announced it will release its fourth quarter and full year 2025 financial results on February 18, 2026, at approximately 4:00 p.m. ET via a press release on its Investor Relations website. A conference call to discuss the results will be held at 4:30 p.m. ET the same day, with a webcast and audio replay available for seven days.
Amex GBT announced an increase of $300 million to its share repurchase authorization, bringing it to $600 million. The company also reported strong preliminary Q4 2025 results: revenue up 34% to $792 million, TTV up 45% to $10 billion, and adjusted EBITDA up 17% to $130 million. Full-year revenue grew 12% to $2.718 billion, TTV up 17% to $36 billion. The company reiterated 2026 guidance with revenue growth of 19-21%.
Booking.com has been named the Official Travel Partner of the Route 66 Centennial in 2026. The historic route stretches 2,448 miles through eight states. Booking.com offers thousands of accommodations and car rental options along the route and will be integrated into centennial events to support road trippers.
KAYAK, part of Booking Holdings, has appointed Peer Bueller as CEO. Bueller joined KAYAK in 2016 as CFO and added COO in 2021. Co-founder Steve Hafner will become Executive Chair and take a new role at Booking Holdings focused on AI innovation. Bueller will continue to drive growth including KAYAK for Business.
Amex GBT announced the successful refinancing and upsizing of its senior secured term loan facility, reducing the borrowing rate by 50 basis points to SOFR plus 2.00%, and increasing the facility by $100 million to $1.486 billion, maturing in July 2031. This enhances financial flexibility to invest in growth, including AI.
Booking Holdings announced it will hold a conference call to discuss its fourth quarter and full year 2025 financial results on Wednesday, February 18 at 4:30 p.m. ET. The event will be webcast on the company's IR website, with audio replay available for seven days. The results release will be posted at approximately 4:00 p.m. ET on the same day.
OAG announced the appointment of Filip Filipov, its current Chief Operating Officer and a former Skyscanner executive, as its new Chief Executive Officer, succeeding Phil Callow, who steps down after thirteen years at the helm. Filipov joined OAG in 2024 and will lead the company into a new era defined by advanced data products and AI-driven intelligence. Chairman Gehan Talwatte said the appointment reflects strong succession planning and a commitment to stability, continuity, and sustained growth. Phil Callow will support the transition during the first quarter of 2026 and thereafter become an Advisor to the Board.
Perk (formerly TravelPerk) launched Perk Events, an AI-powered module automating the full team event planning lifecycle, from venue selection to travel, attendee management, and communication, supporting events from 9 to 5,000 people. Perk's research found 71% of employees have helped plan team events, with 50% doing so outside their core responsibilities; top pain points were venue sourcing, budget approvals, and travel coordination (39%, 39%, 37%). Forrester Consulting research commissioned by Perk shows 57% of companies have minimally or non-automated event processes.
Ctrip Corporate Travel launched 'Zhaocaitong', a one-stop intelligent procurement and management platform for corporate negotiated resources, offering corporate clients a full-chain solution covering procurement analysis, performance monitoring and data review. The platform has five core modules: intelligent hotel recommendations, precise procurement, online contracting, performance monitoring and insight analysis. Data from Ctrip Corporate Travel's travel report platform shows companies can save about 19% of travel costs on average by signing tripartite negotiated rates; companies can select hotels to sign negotiated rates based on their needs, with potential cost optimisation of 10%-25%.…
On December 15, 2025, Ctrip Corporate Travel and DerbySoft announced completion of phase one of a new corporate travel RFP (negotiated-rate sourcing) solution and signed a strategic cooperation agreement. The solution uses travel data visualization and intelligent analysis to automatically recommend target cities and hotels. Companies and hotel suppliers can log in through Ctrip Corporate Travel's existing entry point to view and handle quotes, while the system is deeply connected with a ticketing platform to synchronize and track RFP status in real time. The new architecture allows RFP setup and hotel configuration to be completed within one working day, with a hotel response rate of 99.7%…
Ji Chengzhou, Chief Product Officer of Ctrip Corporate Travel, spoke at the Boao CEO Innovation Business Forum in Boao, Hainan, sharing the company's global expansion and AI-driven digital management practices. Ctrip Corporate Travel's outbound strategy stems from the growing internationalization needs of Chinese enterprises; it has established localized service capabilities in more than 30 countries, providing one-stop travel management support covering itinerary, settlement and compliance for Chinese companies going global. Ji said going global is not simply replicating the domestic model but requires deep understanding of local markets. Noting the relatively low level of technology integ…
At the 2025 Ctrip Corporate Travel Partner Conference, CEO Song Tao said overseas client numbers nearly quadrupled year-on-year, with the Asia-Pacific region achieving strong results as the first step in its globalization strategy. Ctrip Corporate Travel's self-operated sites cover 16 countries and regions, and through partners its service capability covers more than 30 countries and regions. The company aims to evolve from 'efficiency improvement' to 'value co-creation,' offering differentiated travel management services for companies of different sizes.
At the 2025 partner conference, Ctrip Corporate Travel announced service assurance metrics: 99.999% information accuracy, 99.993% vehicle safety rate, and 99.992% smooth travel rate. Its intelligent system intervened in 130,000 travel risks annually, and on-site teams at 24 domestic airports completed over 2,000 face-to-face services. Vehicle products support 3-second self-service claims via app, and customer service uses AI tools to provide solutions within 5 minutes.
Ctrip Corporate Travel CTO Weng Jie said at the 2025 partner conference that the company invests over 100 million yuan annually in system stability, continuously updates industry certifications for information security, and maintains 24/7 emergency response. Its AI travel assistant 'Chengxingtu' is built on the joint iteration of 'computing power + algorithms + knowledge,' rooted in Ctrip's extensive travel and business travel knowledge base, aiming to provide business travel insights beyond general large models.
On the SAP Concur Conversations podcast, Chloe Carver, Head of Corporate Travel Consulting at Acquis Consulting Group, shared how to build a traveler-centric travel program. She recommends policies that guide behavior rather than control it, treating implementation as a key transformation opportunity, and prioritizing traveler experience as the foundation of compliance. Host Jeanne Dion emphasized that organizations should not undermine their values through over-regulation.
Perk (formerly TravelPerk), a travel and spend management platform, signed a multi-year partnership to become the Official Work Automation Partner of the future Audi F1 Team. Perk will use its AI-powered platform to automate manual tasks such as travel bookings, expense management and invoice processing, supporting the team's complex operations across 24 race destinations on five continents. Perk branding will appear on designated team assets and trackside environments. Perk serves more than 10,000 companies worldwide.
Tongcheng Travel released a press release on its Q3 2025 results: revenue rose 10.4% year-on-year to RMB5.509 billion and adjusted net profit rose 16.5% to RMB1.060 billion. Core OTA revenue rose 14.9% to RMB4.609 billion, with accommodation reservations up 14.7%, transportation ticketing up 9.0% and other businesses up 34.9%. Average MPUs rose 2.8% to 47.7 million, APUs rose 8.8% to 252.9 million, and twelve-month accumulated travelers served surpassed 2 billion. The company completed the acquisition of Wanda Hotel Management (Hong Kong) on October 16, with nearly 3,000 hotels in operation under its hotel management platform and 1,500 in the pipeline.
Tongcheng Travel reported unaudited Q3 2025 results: revenue rose 10.4% year-on-year to RMB5.509 billion, adjusted EBITDA rose 14.5% to RMB1.510 billion, and adjusted net profit rose 16.5% to RMB1.060 billion. Average MPUs rose 2.8% to 47.7 million, APUs rose 8.8% to 252.9 million, and twelve-month accumulated travelers served rose 7.3% to 2.019 billion. Core OTA revenue rose 14.9%, with accommodation reservations up 14.7%, transportation ticketing up 9.0% and other businesses up 34.9%; tourism revenue fell 8.0%, mainly due to safety concerns about travel to Southeast Asia. The company completed the acquisition of Wanda Hotel Management (Hong Kong) in October.
Alibaba Group announced results for the quarter ended September 30, 2025: revenue grew 5% YoY to RMB 247.795 billion, adjusted EBITA decreased 78% YoY to RMB 9.073 billion, mainly due to investments in instant retail, user experience, and technology. Cloud Intelligence Group revenue grew 34% YoY, with AI-related product revenue achieving triple-digit growth for the ninth consecutive quarter.
Booking Holdings announced that CFO Ewout Steenbergen will speak at the Nasdaq 53rd Investor Conference, held in association with Morgan Stanley in London, on December 9 at 4:30 am ET / 9:30 am GMT. A live audio cast will be publicly available, with a replay posted approximately 24 hours later and accessible for 12 months. Booking Holdings operates five primary consumer-facing brands—Booking.com, Priceline, Agoda, KAYAK and OpenTable—serving consumers and local partners in more than 220 countries and territories.
UOB Travel, the travel management company subsidiary of Singapore-based United Overseas Bank (UOB), has selected Amadeus as its digital transformation partner to develop an updated end-to-end travel system. UOB Travel will implement digital retailing, automation, productivity and back-office solutions, and gain access to modern distribution channels including NDC for broader travel content. UOB Travel's services span managed business travel, bespoke itineraries and cruises for its cardmembers and banking customers.
Saudi travel company Almosafer, part of Seera Group, signed a partnership with The Helicopter Company (THC) to become THC's travel partner for helicopter transfers in Saudi Arabia. Almosafer will sell helicopter transfers and tours across its B2C and B2B businesses, including premium airport-to-city transfers in Riyadh and Jeddah. Almosafer Business will provide transfers for corporate executives, delegations and government clients, while Discover Saudi and Mawasim will integrate helicopter services for inbound tourists. THC is a PIF company.
SAP Concur executives predict 2026 T&E trends: AI and predictive analytics will drive personalization but require trust and transparency; industry consolidation continues, such as the SAP Concur-Amex GBT alliance; AI may make traditional expense reports obsolete; SMBs will invest in technology for efficiency; finance departments need a 'failure-forward' culture for AI adoption.
The 2025 Tmall Double 11 shopping festival concluded, achieving the best full-cycle growth in four years (after excluding refunds). Nearly 600 brands exceeded 100 million yuan in GMV, and 34,091 brands doubled their GMV compared to last year. Fliggy's GMV grew over 30% YoY, and 88VIP members exceeded 53 million.
Saudi travel company Almosafer and Amadeus announced an expanded partnership at the TOURISE Summit in Riyadh, focusing on AI and data analytics for hyper-personalized offers, enriched content distribution, machine-learning-driven hotel curation via Amadeus Value Hotels, AI-enabled airport services, and virtual card payments through Amadeus Outpayce. The partners will also scale NDC retailing, with Almosafer aiming to create a flagship regional use case supporting Saudi Vision 2030.
Booking Holdings announced that Brigit Zimmerman will become CEO of Priceline effective January 1, 2026. Zimmerman has served as Priceline's Chief Commercial Officer since 2022 and previously held senior vice president roles in flights, packages and hotels. Current CEO Brett Keller, who has been at Priceline for 26 years and CEO since 2016, will continue as Special Advisor to the CEO until May 1, 2026.
Almosafer and VisitBritain expanded their strategic partnership at WTM London to promote Britain as a top destination for Saudi travelers. The collaboration will develop high-value packages showcasing Britain's nations and regions. VisitBritain forecasts 404,000 visits from Saudi Arabia to the UK this year, with spending of £975 million in 2025, up 26% on 2024. Britain remains a premium destination for Almosafer across leisure and business segments.