All published updates

Amadeus Research: Brits Still Rely on Friends and Family, but AI Use Grows 60%

Amadeus released a global study covering 2,000 UK travellers. Friends and family recommendations remain the top source of inspiration for UK travellers (36%), but generative AI use grew 60% year-on-year, travel influencers 33% and social media ads 27%. AI use grew 146% in China, 82% in Singapore, 64% in Spain, 53% in India and 30% in the US. Among UK travellers, 70% would consider biometrics and 64% would use door-to-door baggage services. 80% agree provider quality emerges in disruption handling, and 81% would rebook with providers who handle disruptions efficiently.

Amadeus research: traveler appetite for AI and travel tech skyrockets in 2025

Amadeus released its Connected Journeys: How Technology Will Transform Travel in the Next Decade study, surveying 9,500 travelers across China, France, India, Singapore, Spain, the UK and the USA. Generative AI usage rose 64% year over year; 42% valued time savings, 37% personalized recommendations and 36% discovering new destinations. 64% would pay for an in-trip AI travel assistant, and 17% would pay up to five percent of total trip value. However, 25% encountered outdated or inaccurate AI information and another 25% found AI unable to capture personal preferences. 90% of air travelers reported some anxiety, 69% favored biometric gateways and 66% showed interest in remote baggage check-in.

H1 2025 International Business Travel: Volume Up, Fares Steady

SAP Concur analyzed international air bookings in Concur Travel from Jan 1 to Jun 30, 2025, comparing with the same period in 2024. Global international business travel volume rose 2.6% year over year in H1 2025, up 4.5% in Q1 and 0.6% in Q2. U.S. business travelers paid the most for international flights at $2,675 per ticket on average; Japanese travelers about $1,950; Italian travelers $719. The U.S. remained the top global destination, accounting for 15.3% of international business trips.

Amadeus and UN Tourism Report: Central and Eastern Europe Emerges as New Travel Frontier

Amadeus and UN Tourism jointly released the Travel Insights 2025: Focus on Europe report, based on Amadeus Navigator360 data. Among the top 30 tourism destinations, Azerbaijan was the fastest growing with a 26% increase in air bookings, while Kazakhstan grew 7% and the Czech Republic 6%. Classic destinations still dominate, with the top ten booked destinations in Europe accounting for 70.9% of all trips from May 2024 to April 2025, led by Spain, the UK, Italy, France, and Germany. Western Europe hotel occupancy rose from 67% to 68%, with ADR increasing from $198.32 to $204.24; Northern Europe occupancy rose from 73% to 75%, with ADR from $197.77 to $200.74. Worldwide passenger traffic to Eu…

Spain - Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution

The U.S. Department of State reissued its Spain travel advisory after a periodic review with minor edits, keeping the country at Level 2 (Exercise Increased Caution) due to terrorism and civil unrest. Terrorist groups continue plotting possible attacks in Spain, which may occur with little or no warning and target tourist locations, transportation centers (airports/train stations), markets and shopping malls, local government facilities, hotels, clubs and restaurants, places of worship and educational institutions, parks, and major sporting and cultural events. Demonstrations are common and may occur over political or economic issues, on politically significant holidays, and during internat…

Impact and considerations

Spain is a major European destination for business travel, MICE, and tourism. The Level 2 rating signals both terrorism and demonstration risks. Employers should monitor security at major events and transport hubs and note that demonstrations may disrupt urban transport and itineraries.

SAP Concur Podcast: How IT Strategy Supports Corporate Travel and Expense Management

The SAP Concur Conversations podcast features Joaquín Buscarons, IT enterprise architect at ESTEVE, an international pharmaceutical company based in Spain, speaking with Jeanne Dion, Vice President of the Value Experience team at SAP Concur, about the strategic role of IT. The discussion covers cloud computing, evolving job descriptions, the importance of pilot projects, and how technology supports business objectives. ESTEVE uses one-to-two-month pilot projects to test new technologies and has begun hiring digital experience specialists.

SAP Concur Launches Global Tax Management Solutions Amid E-Invoicing Mandates

SAP Concur has launched global tax management solutions to help companies keep up with rapidly evolving tax regulations. The solutions support various phases of the tax management process, from expense report creation to approval, payment, and reconciliation, and leverage AI and machine learning to maximize tax recovery. Digitized receipts and e-invoice mandates are already in place in countries such as China, Japan, and Mexico. SAP Concur's solutions currently support France, Spain, Japan, China, Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand, with support for Portugal, Belgium, and Switzerland coming soon.

SAP Concur Launches Receipt Digitization to Meet Local Regulations

A SAP Concur blog introduces its receipt digitization feature. Many countries have strict legal and tax requirements for digital receipt images, such as France requiring integrity and authenticity, and Spain requiring official certification. SAP Concur automates the process: after taking a photo of a paper receipt with ExpenseIt, back-end processes ensure the image is digitized and managed according to local legal standards, displaying a blue 'certified' icon and automatically adding it to the expense report workflow.

GW University Uses SAP Concur to Make Travel Safer and Easier for Students and Faculty Abroad

The George Washington University (GW) operates in more than 100 countries, creating a large volume of student and faculty travel and expense management. Manual reimbursement processes and siloed data previously made it hard for security teams to track travelers. After adopting SAP Concur solutions, students and faculty can photograph receipts and auto-generate expense reports, improving finance approval efficiency; the security team uses Concur Locate to consolidate location data, proactively monitor risks, and send notifications to affected individuals.

TripIt Launches COVID-19 Travel Guidance Covering 200+ Countries

TripIt launched a COVID-19 travel guidance feature providing all users with the latest COVID-19 travel guidelines, restrictions and requirements for destinations, sourced from partner Riskline. The feature covers more than 200 countries and territories and 79 airlines, with regional breakdowns for some countries (Australia by state, Canada by province, the US by state, France by region, Spain by autonomous community). Users can view vaccination rates, vaccine requirements, approved vaccines, testing requirements, quarantine rules, infection rates, and airline-specific cleaning procedures, health documentation requirements and testing scheduling. TripIt Pro users can also search destination…

Impact and considerations

For travel managers, real-time, destination-level COVID-19 entry and health requirement information is fundamental to travel decisions and duty of care. TripIt consolidates multi-country policies and airline requirements into a single app, helping reduce compliance risk and improve travel preparation efficiency.

SAP Concur President Reflects on 2017 Industry Trends

The president of SAP Concur reflects on 2017, noting key industry trends: duty of care became a priority for customers; digital transformation accelerated, such as e-Fapiao in China and e-Bunsho in Japan; the end-user became a key stakeholder; global solutions need to be local; and businesses became more accepting of spend outside preferred channels, managed via TripLink and the NDC standard.

SAP Concur Releases 2018 and Beyond Business Travel, Expense and Invoice Predictions

SAP Concur experts released predictions for business travel, expense and invoice trends in 2018 and beyond. Predictions include: paper receipts becoming obsolete as e-receipts standardize and countries such as France, Spain, China and Japan deregulate paper receipt requirements; non-traditional payment technologies like blockchain and vCards changing transactions and reimbursements; cloud technology enabling small businesses to adopt enterprise tools faster; predictive analytics and personalization transforming business travel; duty of care remaining a C-level priority; and employee-initiated spend becoming the largest unmanaged spend category.