Global Business Travel Group（Amex GBT）宣布，其被Long Lake Management以全现金交易收购已完成，公司估值约63亿美元。该交易于2026年5月4日公布，并于2026年8月3日经股东特别大会批准。根据合并协议，Amex GBT股东每股获得9.50美元现金，较合并协议签署日30日成交量加权平均价溢价65.1%。交易完成后，Amex GBT普通股停止交易并从纽约证券交易所退市，公司转为私有。Amex GBT首席执行官Paul Abbott表示，此次交易将Long Lake的AI工程团队引入公司，加速塑造商旅管理的未来，从代理式客户工具到AI赋能的…
BCD Travel发布差旅经理指南，提出通过五个步骤影响旅客可持续差旅选择：选定一个决策点、找到决策时刻、将指引嵌入预订流程、衡量结果、学习调整。指南引用BCD调研数据：34%旅客将供应有限和信息不足列为可持续选择的障碍；50%差旅采购方使用在线预订工具消息，但仅28%旅客记得看到过。指南还提供90天试点路线图，分三阶段推进。
The 2026 TravelDaily Summit and 2026 Business Travel & Digital Tourism Expo were held at Shanghai International Convention Center on September 22-23, drawing nearly 1,800 industry experts and corporate representatives. Direct Travel, a top-three global business travel services provider, made its first appearance as an exhibitor at a China-based industry summit, presenting its self-developed core products Anyicheng™ and Avenir as a full-chain solution covering China and global travel scenarios. DT's top Asia-Pacific management attended, including APAC Managing Director Ali Hussain, Greater China and Singapore-Malaysia Managing Director Kelly Jones, China Managing Director Qu Ning, and APAC M…
A TravelDaily Research survey shows 36.5% of business travelers reported increased travel frequency in 2026, mainly up 5-20%, driven by professional services, finance, technology, internet services and healthcare, as well as central SOEs, local SOEs and foreign-invested enterprises in China. 61% of companies have taken cost optimization measures, and 80.7% have asked TMCs to improve quality while reducing fees. About 55% of respondents had international travel experience, with 43% reporting growth. 38.7% of companies have started AI pilots, but ROI and data security are key barriers.
During the 2026 TravelDaily Summit, Ctrip Corporate Travel won the Most Trusted Travel Management Company (TMC) award at the TravelDaily Business Travel Awards (CBTA), voted by corporate travel managers and business travelers. Meanwhile, the Ctrip Corporate Travel AI Ecosystem won the AI Product Track Excellence Award at the 2026 DTA Digital Travel Awards. Launched at the April 2026 Global Partner Conference, the AI ecosystem covers the full travel and procurement workflow with seven AI Agents: travel Q&A, itinerary booking, travel approval, travel insights, compliance and risk control, financial settlement and resource procurement.
Travel data specialist Travelogix has partnered with Brisbane, Australia-based Kudos Travel Technology, with the two working as preferred technology partners to offer a more connected technology ecosystem. Current and prospective customers of both companies gain access to their respective platforms, and mutual customers can move seamlessly between platforms via new single sign-on capabilities tested with joint customer Sanford Travel, an Australia-based TMC. TMCs do not need to be customers of both providers to access shared capabilities, though doing so incurs an additional cost. The agreement initially focuses on preferred territories across the UK, Europe, Africa and Asia, while establis…
AI corporate travel assistant SkyLink has completed a roughly 18-month substantial upgrade, gaining resources from its Amadeus acquisition to scale globally. The upgrade enables real-time interruption and multi-instruction handling within conversations, adds more agentic capabilities such as exchanges, rebooking and multi-month trips, and includes robust analytics providing an auditable decision trail. Founded in 2021, SkyLink is an LLM-based tool integrated with enterprise chat channels including Microsoft Teams and Slack, with publicly identified clients McKinsey & Company and Sony, and sees TMC productivity as a growth area.
Commerce media technology provider Koddi has integrated Sabre Sponsored Listings into its Koddi Demand platform, connecting GDS ad inventory into enterprise travel marketing workflows. Hotel marketing teams can programmatically manage sponsored placements inside the Sabre Mosaic Agency Workspace alongside consumer channels such as OTAs and metasearch, while Koddi's automated campaign delivery, budget pacing, forecasting and attribution tracking apply directly to Sabre GDS ad inventory. The integration delivers targeted property ads into booking workflows used by corporate travel management companies (TMCs) and travel advisors across 190+ countries, replacing manual, platform-specific GDS ad…
Perk has formed a strategic partnership with lodging distribution and payments platform Katanox, giving Perk access to Katanox's platform to streamline how hotel bookings are made, paid for, reconciled and settled. The two companies will also collaborate to broaden Perk's hotel partner network through Katanox. Katanox uses account-to-account payment infrastructure that reduces the need for card-based payments for hotel bookings, and its platform connects hotels and travel agents to bring together payments, reconciliation, settlement and distribution. Katanox began pursuing TMC partnerships in 2022, positioning itself as a challenger to global distribution systems, with TMC partners includin…
Shiji Information's Baoku travel management system announced a full AI upgrade, embedding AI travel assistant, AI admin assistant, AI operations assistant, AI reimbursement review, invoice verification and integration assistant capabilities across the travel workflow. The upgrade covers eight AI capabilities, including real-time multilingual translation (English, Japanese, Korean) and an enterprise-grade AI knowledge base. Employees can generate request drafts via natural language, administrators can query configurations and travel standards, and TMC operations staff can retrieve procedures from the knowledge base.
The 2026 TravelDaily Summit & Digital Travel Show was held on September 22-23, 2026 at the Shanghai International Convention Center under the theme of change, drawing more than 1,700 senior executives from OTA, hotel, airline, cruise, TMC, destination, travel technology, cultural-tourism consumption and investment segments. Sessions covered AI-driven industry change, shifts in global travel consumption and the restructuring of travel supply chains. TravelDaily CEO Li Chao said that as AI enters travel search, planning, customer service, development and operations, competition will return to the industrial base: real supply, inventory and pricing, fulfillment efficiency, experience design, c…
On September 17, Trip.Biz held its Transform 2026 summit in Singapore for overseas enterprises and partners, drawing 200 senior leaders from travel, procurement, finance and HR. The summit examined Asia-Pacific travel-management pain points and launched Agent ONE, an AI tool for overseas markets. Agent ONE comprises four collaborating agents covering itinerary planning, booking, approval and travel insights, providing end-to-end support; it is now live across all Trip.Biz overseas markets.
BCD Travel's 2026 research highlights a gap between corporate sustainability ambition and travel-program action: 86% of surveyed travel buyers said their company has published sustainability goals, but only 47% reported travel-related goals; 61% of travelers knew of company sustainability goals, but only 33% knew of travel-related ones. 59% said sustainable-travel communications happen never or rarely. The report argues that carbon reporting alone does not change booking behavior and that sustainability should be embedded into travel policy, approval, booking, communications and supplier management, focused on a few measurable priority behaviors.
American Express Global Business Travel has appointed Michael Esquibel as chief technology officer, leading the travel management company's technology and AI strategies. Esquibel has been with Amex GBT for eight years, most recently as SVP of technology and platform engineering. He will work to embed AI across the company, strengthen data infrastructure and develop AI tools for both TMC operational efficiency and the travel experience, while overseeing client onboarding, technology integration and the TMC's sales, servicing and mid- and back-office platforms. Previous chief information and technology officer David Thompson left the company in May.
TravelDaily announced its 2026 TravelDaily Summit will be held September 22-23 at the Shanghai International Convention Center, with registration closing soon. Organisers say more than 1,600 travel industry executives have confirmed attendance, and the attendee directory lists over 1,800 mid-to-senior industry professionals, 70% at director level or above. The summit features three forums, over 100 speakers from leading companies and 30+ core sessions spanning corporate buyers, hotels, airlines, car rental, destinations, TMCs and travel agencies, and travel technology, with exhibition, standard and VIP ticket tiers.
After attending 2026 industry events including SAP Concur Fusion, ProcureCon and the GBTA Convention, executives from BCD Travel and Advito identified five shifts likely to shape managed travel in 2027 and beyond: AI discussions moving from experimentation to adoption and governance; competitive advantage increasingly coming from people and change management; insufficient industry focus on the human side of front-line service; hyper-personalized traveler engagement; and resilience replacing prediction as a planning strategy. Both leaders said travel managers should prioritize adaptability, governance, stakeholder alignment and traveler engagement in 2027 planning.
Lufthansa City Center launched LCC Nexus, a booking tool built on Atriis Technologies capabilities, for its partner agencies' SME clients. The platform provides a single interface to book flights, hotels, rail, and airport shuttles, combining content from multiple reservation systems including NDC direct connections. It includes a desktop tool for agents and a mobile app for travelers, and integrates with Midoco, Umbrella Faces, and Squake. A dozen partner agencies have used it since June.
Perk (formerly TravelPerk) announced the expansion of its Spend platform into the United States, a region that already accounts for 30% of the group's new business globally. Perk says its US customers already spend over $1 billion a year on work travel and team events, and Perk Spend is built natively alongside its Travel and Events modules. Features include Bring Your Own Corporate Card (BYOC), direct reimbursement, global customizable per-diems, native integrations with ERPs including NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics, QuickBooks and SAP S4, and a forthcoming Perk Card. Perk cites research finding 1 in 4 US companies have no formal spend tool and nearly a third of workers still submit expenses…
At the 2026 Feishu Future Unlimited Conference and Doubao Work launch event on Sept 15, Ctrip Corporate Travel presented its latest integration of travel-management AI capabilities with the Doubao Work platform. Enterprises need no extra development and employees need no redirects; by conversing with Doubao Work they can invoke Ctrip Corporate Travel's travel AI for policy inquiries, itinerary planning and booking. Ctrip Corporate Travel connected its travel Q&A Agent and travel booking Agent to Doubao Work as connectors; the former covers over 93% of travel Q&A scenarios, while the latter supports itinerary planning and one-click ordering. Ctrip Corporate Travel says traditional flight-and…
Travel management company Gant Travel Management has added an AI assistant to Gant360, the self-service platform it launched last month as a single point for travelers to access trip information, profiles, invoices, disruption information and trip support. The assistant supports conversational self-service tasks such as searching and booking travel and managing reservations, applying company policy and the traveler's profile. Gant says testing showed the assistant could handle a flight booking from search to completion in under five minutes. Through Gant's membership in American Express Global Business Travel's GBT network, joined earlier this year, Gant360 has access to content from more t…
VantisCorp launched a white-label corporate travel automation platform for TMCs, unifying hotel and flight booking, approvals, multi-entity compliance workflows, tax-compliant invoicing and payment integration, with contracted clients live in India, the UK and Saudi Arabia. The EU General Court rejected Booking Holdings' appeal against the European Commission's decision to block its €1.6 billion acquisition of Etraveli Group, upholding the EC's finding. Spotnana announced a direct integration with Marriott International covering 10,000+ properties and the industry's first verified Marriott Bonvoy loyalty linking. Laters.com (formerly Fly Fairly) raised a $1.5 million seed round, offering 10…
Business travel platform Navan announced it has acquired BoomPop, an AI-powered platform for planning corporate meetings and events. The acquisition is the latest move in Navan's consolidation strategy, bringing meetings and events spending into the same platform where companies already book travel and manage expenses. Navan declined to disclose the acquisition price. Navan had partnered with BoomPop earlier this year, repeating a playbook it used with Smartrips.
Skift founder Rafat Ali argues that general-purpose personal AI assistants like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are incorporating travel booking into their capabilities, posing a greater threat to the travel industry than dedicated AI travel products. These assistants can directly access emails, calendars, and more, simplifying trip planning and booking, potentially disrupting traditional OTAs and TMCs.
The article compares native integrated travel and expense platforms with stitched solutions (pure expense + TMC or TMC + expense). Native platforms have self-owned supply chains, pre-booking controls, unified data, clear responsibility, and all-inclusive annual fees, suitable for mid-to-large enterprises with annual travel spend over 2 million RMB; stitched solutions suffer from post-hoc controls, lack of negotiation power, and data fragmentation, only suitable for small businesses.
Direct Travel China announced the deep integration of its two flagship business travel platforms, ANYICHENG and Avenir, into a coordinated, self-controlled global digital service capability matrix. The company said this is not only data interconnection but a system-level response to uncertainty in multinational travel programs. Based on this, Direct Travel is delivering to Chinese enterprises an ANYICHENG x Avenir global integrated travel solution, built on a TaaS (Travel as a Service) architecture with open API interfaces to connect with existing enterprise systems and provide unified response to domestic and international travel needs.
Fenbeitong released a 2026 guide to selecting business travel platforms, analyzing corporate travel management pain points and industry trends. It categorizes platforms into pure TMC/OTA, pure expense management, and integrated travel-expense solutions, comparing their pros and cons. It recommends TMC with per-order fees for companies with annual travel spend below 2 million RMB, and annual-fee integrated platforms for those above, providing eight evaluation dimensions.
This article deeply compares traditional TMC and integrated travel-expense platforms, noting that traditional TMC focuses on booking with weak expense control, while integrated platforms offer full-chain management and no-advance-payment reimbursement. It recommends TMC for annual travel spend below 2M RMB and integrated platforms above, emphasizing price comparison on actual routes.
This article addresses travel management needs of large global groups, highlighting five core capabilities: unified control, local adaptation, cross-border compliance, multi-currency accounting, and finance-business integration. Four case studies demonstrate how Fenbeitong solves data fragmentation and compliance gaps of traditional TMCs and overseas expense systems, achieving cost reduction and efficiency.
Amadeus and Talma Travel Solutions have signed a multiyear global agreement, establishing Amadeus as Talma's preferred technology and booking platform across key international markets including the U.S., UK, Asia Pacific, and Germany, supporting its international growth strategy.
BCD Travel announced that Marcus Eklund, former global managing director at FCM, will join the company on September 14 as global chief commercial officer. Current global chief commercial officer Mike Janssen will remain until his retirement at the end of 2026. Additionally, Craig Bailey, president of the Americas, will retire on June 30, 2027, and will be succeeded by Dave Mitchell, who will assume the role on January 1, 2027. BCD stated these changes result from years of thoughtful succession planning to ensure continuity.
BCD Travel emphasizes that resilient travel programs need visibility and intelligence. Visibility understands current situations; intelligence helps anticipate change, evaluate options, and respond quickly. Practices include real-time traveler tracking, proactive travel monitoring, market monitoring, destination risk intelligence, data-driven insights, and automated workflows. Intelligence extends beyond traveler safety to supplier performance and market shifts.
BCD Travel states that resilient travel programs are built on flexible policies, strategic supplier relationships, cross-functional ownership, and connected digital experiences. Supplier strategy is key; over-reliance on few suppliers increases risk. Diversify supplier portfolios, build contract flexibility, maintain alternatives in key markets. Continuously evaluate supplier performance, not just annual sourcing cycles.
BCD Travel has launched a business travel solution tailored for office managers, operations managers, and executive assistants, aiming to simplify booking, reduce manual coordination, and provide direct traveler support. The solution integrates booking, communication, and support in one place, handles VIP and guest travel, and helps organizations without a dedicated travel manager manage travel efficiently.
BCD Travel has launched a business travel solution for IT teams, integrating travel with existing systems such as expense, HR, and finance tools, eliminating data silos and reducing manual handoffs. The solution helps organizations scale travel without adding complexity and improves data reliability and visibility.
Perk (formerly TravelPerk) announced it is the first platform to let customers book and manage trips, submit expenses, and create team events from AI assistants like Claude and ChatGPT. Its MCP server turns from an insight tool into an action engine, tackling shadow work. Out-of-policy bookings and expenses go to the company's approval flow. Perk Agent for Slack is coming in September.
Fenbeitong published a guide to selecting business travel platforms, categorizing products into three types: pure TMC booking platforms, pure expense management platforms, and integrated travel and expense platforms. The article states that pure TMC platforms suit small enterprises with annual travel spend under 2 million RMB or large groups over 50 million; pure expense platforms suit companies prioritizing financial processes; integrated platforms suit mid-to-large group enterprises with 2-10 million RMB annual travel spend. It also provides score comparisons for platforms like Fenbeitong, Ctrip Corporate Travel, and SAP Concur.
Fenbeitong article points out that small enterprises (20-150 employees, annual travel spend under 1.5 million RMB) should not blindly choose integrated travel and expense platforms due to feature redundancy, complex implementation, and high costs. Their core needs are unified booking and basic control, which lightweight pure TMC platforms can satisfy. A case study shows a 72-person tech company saw a 62% reduction in over-budget orders after choosing a lightweight TMC.
Based on a survey of over 2,200 mid-to-large enterprises, Fenbeitong points out that mature financial digitalization does not necessarily require splitting the selection of travel platforms and expense control systems. Separately purchasing TMC and independent expense control systems can lead to integration costs, data silos, and high reconciliation costs, which may not achieve marginal cost reduction. The article compares pure travel booking platforms, pure expense control platforms, and integrated travel-expense platforms, arguing that integrated platforms offer advantages in data unification, cost control, and upfront control, making them more suitable for enterprises seeking full-chain…
Fenbeitong's research indicates that 'no-advance, no-reimbursement' is a high-frequency keyword in travel platform selection, but not all platforms can truly achieve it. Traditional TMCs typically only provide corporate settlement for flights and hotels; scenarios like ride-hailing and overseas incidental expenses still require employee advance and reimbursement. Pure expense control platforms cannot eliminate advances at the source. Integrated travel-expense platforms natively connect booking, settlement, receipts, and accounting to achieve full-scenario no-advance, no-reimbursement, and support overseas receipt recognition. Enterprises should distinguish between 'partial corporate settlem…
Fenbeitong's research indicates that enterprises often view TMC per-order pricing as the best value, but overlook hidden costs. While per-order pricing has no fixed annual fee, achieving a full expense control loop requires integrating third-party systems, incurring development, maintenance, and finance labor costs. Integrated travel-expense platforms charge a fixed subscription fee but reduce hidden costs through native full-chain capabilities, potentially lowering overall TCO. The article emphasizes that evaluating value requires considering both explicit service fees and implicit management costs, not just the pricing model.