All published updates

Expensify Visa Commercial Card Adds Proactive Spend Controls

Expensify announced the expansion of Expensify Card spend rules to 14 countries, allowing businesses to control card usage before purchase. Admins can set rules such as locking to subscriptions, capping one-time purchases, setting expiration dates, restricting merchants or categories, and limiting currencies. The card enforces policy at the point of sale, not after-the-fact review. Available countries include the US, UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Spain, and more.

Airbnb-CarTrawler Partnership Details Revealed

Airbnb's car rental partnership with CarTrawler, launched a month ago, is generating about 500 bookings per day across five markets: the US, France, Italy, Spain, and Australia. CarTrawler controls the top-of-page display, monetizing through marked-up wholesale rates and split commissions, and tilts toward suppliers with volume incentives. However, data sharing raises concerns: CarTrawler receives extensive customer data even when users merely click a link. Expedia's pending acquisition of CarTrawler heightens conflict-of-interest stakes, though Expedia asserts strict data separation.

Spain Travel Advice Updated: Nitrous Oxide Fines and Gibraltar Travel Information

The UK FCDO updated its travel advice for Spain, adding information about fines for the sale or consumption of nitrous oxide (laughing gas) in some areas and updating information on traveling between Spain and Gibraltar. Travelers planning to transit through France or Gibraltar are advised to check the respective travel advice.

Impact and considerations

For business travelers, awareness of local regulatory changes (such as nitrous oxide fines) helps avoid legal issues, and updated Gibraltar travel information impacts cross-border itinerary planning.

Spain's Eclipse: A Three-Year Tourism Strategy Built Around Two Minutes of Darkness

After a punishing summer of heatwaves and deadly wildfires, Spain faces a new test with the total solar eclipse crossing the country on August 12. Rather than promote the event aggressively—given acute overtourism concerns and record projections of 100 million visitors this year—Spanish tourism leaders are treating the eclipse as an opportunity to disperse demand toward lesser-known interior and northern destinations away from the saturated Mediterranean coast. Data shows strong momentum: hotel bookings up as much as 76% and prices nearly 90% ahead of last year, with growth concentrated in the "totality corridor" (León, Burgos, Bilbao, Valencia, the Balearics) and northern coastal cities. W…

U.S. State Dept: Spain Level 2 - Exercise increased caution due to terrorism and unrest

The U.S. State Department issued a Level 2 travel advisory for Spain, advising increased caution due to terrorism and unrest. Terrorists may target tourist locations, transportation centers, hotels, and other public places. Demonstrations are common. Travelers should reconsider travel to Ceuta due to unrest.

Impact and considerations

For business travelers, Spain faces risks of terrorism and demonstrations, potentially impacting safety; companies should monitor and prepare contingency plans.

Startup Waltru aims to replace generic travel itineraries

Waltru is a Barcelona-based startup offering a personalized travel companion that generates itineraries based on traveler preferences and pace, and narrates each place's story via audio. Currently in beta, it plans to expand to Madrid, Paris, Rome and London. The business model is pay-per-trip via in-app purchases, with B2B2C distribution planned. The founding team consists of three Argentines with software and travel backgrounds.

Expensify Launches Corporate Card in Europe

Expensify has launched its Expensify Visa Commercial Card in the UK and select European markets including Spain, Ireland, Poland, and the Netherlands. The card offers real-time spend visibility, auto-categorization, spend controls, virtual cards, daily or monthly settlement, VAT support, and accounting integrations. Issued by Transact Payments, it supports GBP, EUR, or USD business bank accounts with no minimums, deposits, or credit checks. Users can save up to 50% on Expensify subscription.

Booking.com Summer Report: New Travel Trends Among Brits

Booking.com's Summer Getaway Report reveals 71% of Brits plan to visit new destinations, with Shanghai as the fastest-rising global destination (+88%). Interest in 'extreme' day trips is high, with 58% willing to travel round-trip in a day. Child-free escapes are rising, with 30% of parents preferring holidays without kids.

Winners of the 2026 Global Startup Pitch announced

Eight travel tech startups were named winners of the 2026 Global Startup Pitch at Phocuswright Europe in Barcelona. Winners from Asia Pacific, emerging markets, Europe, and North America will showcase at WiT Singapore in September.

Perk survey: 1 in 5 employees regularly misrepresent expenses, 8% use AI to fake receipts

Perk research shows 20% of employees regularly misrepresent expenses, and 56% have done so at least once. 31% still submit manually via email or spreadsheet, with manual processes more prone to misrepresentation. AI-generated receipts account for 8%, highest in Germany. Perk suggests expanding corporate card access, reducing friction, and implementing proactive guardrails.

2026 Solar Eclipse Drives Surge in Travel Bookings to Spain and Iceland

Amadeus Travel Intelligence data reveals a surge in travel demand for the August 2026 solar eclipse, with Spain and Iceland seeing significant interest. Flight bookings to airports along the eclipse path increased 25% year-on-year, with Bilbao (+366%), Asturias (+292%), and Valencia (+137%) leading. Hotel occupancy rose 16% and ADR increased 36%. Short stays (1-5 days) grew 57%, and solo travel increased 48%. Top long-haul markets include the USA, Japan, Argentina, and Canada.

Perk secures $300M credit facility for product, tech and AI investment

Perk, the corporate travel and spend management platform formerly known as TravelPerk, has secured a $300 million private credit facility led by Neuberger Specialty Finance, with participation from Blue Owl Capital, Hercules Capital and Liquidity. The facility increases and replaces Perk's $134 million credit facility from mid-2024. Perk said it exceeded $300 million in annualized revenue and grew revenue 48% in 2025. Funds will support product, technology and AI investment; AI deployment has helped lift gross margins from 40% to the mid-70s in three years.

Spain fines Amadeus €14.4M over traveler profiling pilot

Spain's data protection authority AEPD has fined Amadeus IT Group €14.4 million over a pilot project that used passenger booking data from its GDS to profile travelers. The penalty was reduced from an initial €18 million after Amadeus made a voluntary payment without admitting liability. The investigation followed an anonymous complaint in September 2023. AEPD cited violations of GDPR Articles 14 and 6. Amadeus disagrees and plans to contest the fine in court.

Spain's Digital ID rollout goes live as hotels remain cautiously optimistic

Since April 2, hotels and other businesses in Spain are legally required to accept the new MiDNI mobile identity app as valid identification. This is part of Europe's eIDAS 2.0 framework, making Spain one of the first major live test cases for digital identity in hotel operations. The industry response is mixed, with compliance as the main driver, but fragmented technology and guest adoption remain challenges.

Spain's surge signals a structural shift in global travel demand

Phocuswright research shows Spain is the strongest-performing market in Europe, with 96.8 million international visitors in 2025, up 3.2% from 2024, and tourism revenue growing 7%. The war in Iran is redirecting international travelers to perceived safe European destinations, benefiting Spain, Italy, and France. Spain ranks second worldwide in international visitors, behind France, but first in tourism expenditure. The article also discusses tourism saturation and the challenge of redistributing demand from overcrowded destinations to northern and inland regions.

Amadeus Reports Q1 Revenue, Operating Profit Increases

Amadeus reported group revenue of nearly €1.7 billion in Q1 2026, up 3% year over year; operating income increased almost 3% to €475 million, and adjusted EBIT was up 4.5% to €500 million. The company said growth slowed in March due to the Middle East conflict. Amadeus plans to acquire biometric technology specialist Idemia for €1.2 billion, expected to close mid-year. The company also emphasized investments in AI and biometrics, aiming to become an orchestrator of an AI-enabled travel ecosystem.

eDreams Introduces AI Trip Planner and ChatGPT App

eDreams ODIGEO announced AI updates including a proprietary AI trip planner and a ChatGPT app. The planner, integrated into mobile apps, uses natural language in English to generate day-by-day itineraries and allows booking directly. The ChatGPT app enables conversational flight search, redirecting users to eDreams for purchase. Additionally, the company scaled its agentic voice AI to handle 90% of inquiries in five languages, reducing transfers by 33% and improving resolution velocity by 15%.

Travel Foundation CEO: Sustainability Action Lags, Regulation to Drive Change

In an Earth Day interview, Travel Foundation CEO Jeremy Sampson said consensus on tourism's impact has created a 'false sense of progress,' with system change lagging and climate impacts accelerating. He expects regulation to drive change and destinations to gain more control. He praised the Canary Islands' RegNext regenerative tourism initiative as a model of industry-government collaboration. Sampson also discussed how framing sustainability as economic resilience helps bring stakeholders on board.

ACI World Opens Submissions for 2026 Airport Innovation Awards

ACI World opened submissions for the 2026 ACI World Airport Innovation Awards on 31 March 2026, inviting airports worldwide to showcase innovation in passenger experience, operations and sustainability. Now in its sixth year, the awards cover four categories: passenger-related processes, operations and installations management, individual innovation leadership, and airports handling 5 million passengers or fewer annually. Submissions close on 16 June 2026 and will be judged by an international expert panel; winners and top-five finalists per category will be announced at the ACI Airports Innovate event in Barcelona from 23 to 25 November 2026.

Spain to enforce €64 million Airbnb fine

Spain's High Court of Justice of Madrid has denied Airbnb's request to halt a €64 million fine, which Airbnb must now pay. The fine was issued in December for advertising unlicensed short-term rentals, incorrect licenses, or misleading advertising. The ministry said the fine was six times the profit Airbnb gained from illegal listings, identifying around 65,000 violations. Airbnb has removed the listings and is collaborating with Spain's Ministry of Housing on the new national registration system.

Vueling Adopts Navitaire Edge Shopping to Reduce Look-to-Booked Ratios

Vueling is deploying Navitaire's (an Amadeus company) Edge Shopping solution to tackle high look-to-booked (LTB) ratios. The solution uses a distributed cache to reduce database transactions, automatically adjusts to demand, alleviates system pressure, and improves the shopping experience.

UK FCDO updates travel advice for Andorra

The UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) has published travel advice for Andorra under its Warnings and insurance section, current as of 8 September 2026 and last updated on 10 December 2025. The latest update concerns new information about dual nationals returning to the UK under the Entry requirements page. The FCDO notes that all travel to Andorra is through France or Spain and advises checking the France or Spain travel advice before travelling for updates that may affect the journey.

Impact and considerations

This is official UK travel-risk guidance. It makes clear that Andorra has no independent access route and must be reached via France or Spain, so affected travellers need to monitor both countries' advice as well.

TravelPerk Rebrands to Perk, Uniting Travel and Spend Management

TravelPerk announced its rebrand to Perk, launching an AI-native platform that unites travel and spend management, with a mission to eliminate 'shadow work' — the invisible, non-core tasks employees do outside their main job. Forrester Consulting research commissioned by Perk found shadow work costs businesses $1.7 trillion a year across six major economies (US, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Netherlands), with employees losing about seven hours per week on average. Perk says its platform automates two thirds (67%) of the most frustrating non-core work and adds an AI-native spend management module plus Perk Pay physical cards. The company has crossed $300m in annualized revenue and established…

EASA Publishes First ReFuelEU Aviation Annual Technical Report: SAF Share 0.6% in 2024

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) published its first ReFuelEU Aviation Annual Technical Report. In 2024, fuel suppliers reported that 0.6% of aviation fuel supplied at EU airports was Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), equivalent to 193 kilotonnes, avoiding around 714 kilotonnes of CO2 emissions. The mandatory target for 2025 is 2%. The average SAF price in 2024 was €2,085/tonne, far above conventional jet fuel at €734/tonne. 25 fuel suppliers provided SAF to 33 airports across 12 Member States, but 5 Member States accounted for 99% of supply. Almost all SAF was biofuel, with 81% from used cooking oil.

Aeroitalia expands Navitaire collaboration to deploy new solutions

Italian carrier Aeroitalia is extending its collaboration with Navitaire, an Amadeus company, planning to deploy a suite of solutions to simplify operations and enhance customer experience. Central to this is continued use of New Skies, a reservation and retail platform for low-cost and hybrid carriers whose single-order architecture manages both offer and order across the customer journey, supporting personalised promotions, dynamic offers, seamless check-in, real-time disruption management and omnichannel distribution. Aeroitalia also plans to adopt Navitaire Dynamic Pricing, Navitaire Loyalty and the SkyLedger revenue accounting system. Launched in 2022, Aeroitalia operates 15 aircraft o…