Business travel Daily · Thursday, 5 November 2026

On November 4, 2026, Expedia Group published its Q3 financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2026, in its official newsroom: total gross bookings of $34.008 billion, up 11% year over year; revenue of $4.938 billion, up 12% year over year; B2B business grew 19%. On the same day, PhocusWire reported that Expedia Group is participating in testing OpenAI's advertising products; CEO Ariane Gorin said she is willing to accept that early returns may be lower than mature products, but did not confirm which specific products are involved; the report mentioned that Sponsored Agents, launched by OpenAI in September, allows users to click an ad and then converse with a merchant-sponsored AI agent. There is currently no earlier performance data or subsequent update available for comparison.

On October 30, 2026, reports said the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was preparing to take enforcement action against Booking Holdings and its subsidiary Priceline over misleading search ads that direct travelers from hotel official websites to lookalike third-party domains such as Guest Reservations, with reported potential fines exceeding $500 million. On November 4, Booking Holdings disclosed in its third-quarter financial filing that, because the Priceline brand may face an FTC complaint, it had recorded a $900 million revenue reduction and a $100 million loss, totaling $1 billion; the filing said Priceline is discussing resolving the potential complaint with the FTC but has not reached a settlement, and the FTC may seek more than $1 billion in damages and fines. Earlier reports said potential fines exceeded $500 million, and later reports said the FTC may seek more than $1 billion in damages and fines. On the same day's earnings call, Booking said travelers using the Priceline and Agoda AI assistants have a conversion rate about twice that of non-users, and Agoda assistant users' average booking amount is about 20% higher. The matter remains at the stage of a potential complaint and settlement negotiations, with no final outcome yet.

On October 22, 2026, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at the third-quarter earnings call that travel is one of the key application scenarios for the Muse AI agent, and that users can plan itineraries through Meta's apps. Muse is currently available through WhatsApp and is planned to expand to Meta's AI glasses, but it does not yet cover the combined 3.64 billion daily active users of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. Zuckerberg also said he is considering taking a commission from this scenario. On October 23, Klook announced a partnership with Meta's Muse to integrate its experience products into Muse, and Muse simultaneously launched in Japan for the first time; travelers can search, compare, book and pay for Klook experiences within a single conversation with Muse, and Muse gives recommendations based on Klook's 426,000 bookable products covering more than 4,600 destinations, and seeks confirmation before placing an order and initiating payment. On the same day, another report said that Muse's launch in Japan is its first market outside North America, supporting iOS, Android and the muse.ai website. On October 28, Agoda announced that it would connect to Muse as a connector, becoming the first travel platform in the region to connect to Muse, and the connector is currently live in Singapore and Japan; the same-day report mentioned that Expedia had previously connected when Muse launched in the US, and that Meta lists Expedia as its hotel booking partner and Duffel as responsible for flights. An October 29 report said that Muse launched in Singapore, after its global release in September, and connects to local services including Shopee, Grab, Singapore Airlines, Agoda, ShopBack, Klook, Trip.com and Lazada. A November 2 report again confirmed that Muse launched in Singapore, supports iOS, Android and muse.ai, offers most features free with a paid subscription option, connects to the above local services, and can assist with price-comparison shopping, planning dining and travel bookings.

On 4 November 2026, the European Commission published the first EU sustainable tourism strategy, with the goal of enhancing the competitiveness, sustainability and resilience of the tourism industry. The strategy sets out ten action areas around three pillars—competitiveness, sustainability and resilience, and raising the profile of European destinations—with flagship actions including the EU Tourism Academy, the EU Tourism Observatory, the common European tourism data space, the tourism simplification initiative and advancing a seamless European travel area, accompanied by an EU tourism management model, a Council recommendation, a balanced tourism toolbox and an EU tourism crisis coordination network. A Q&A published the same day explained that the strategy does not harmonise national laws but provides a common framework for cross-border coordination, SME support, data and transport connectivity; the relevant tools will be discussed with member states and are to be ready before next summer. The Commission said tourism accounts for 10% of the EU's total value added, supports more than 20 million jobs and 5 million businesses, 99% of which are SMEs; Europe accounts for about 40% of global international tourist arrivals. Subsequent reporting said the strategy will bring together national and local bodies, tourism businesses and stakeholders through an EU tourism alliance; under the current multiannual financial framework, tourism involves 15 funding programmes and is expected to receive about €18 billion in support by the end of this programming period. A report on 5 November stated that the strategy hopes to spread visitors to less-visited destinations and across all seasons, but allocates no new funding and sets no quantified targets, and noted that an average of 42% of overnight stays are concentrated in the destination's busiest three months.

On November 2, 2026, PhocusWire reported that an unauthorized access incident occurred in a system operated by Amadeus, with multiple airlines reporting that passenger booking data was exposed, and some cases involving passport numbers and contact details. Cathay Pacific said the unauthorized party used credentials assigned to an Amadeus system account to access booking data. The access timeframes disclosed by Japan Airlines and Cathay Pacific span from August 2023 to September 2026. On November 5, TravelDaily China reported that Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, ANA and other airlines disclosed that their passenger booking records were leaked due to unauthorized access to the Amadeus system, involving bookings during the period from August 2023 to September 2026. The reports currently do not disclose the specific number of affected passengers, the complete list of affected airlines, or the progress of incident handling.

On November 4, 2026, GBTA released a forecast stating that 2026 European business travel spending will reach €404 billion ($453.9 billion), up 7.0% year on year; business travel trips originating in Europe will be about 600 million, growing only 0.7%. Over the same period, global business travel spending is expected to grow 7.2% to €1.52 trillion, with trips growing 1.3%, and Europe accounting for 27% of global business travel spending. By country, Germany ranks first in Europe with €79.9 billion, followed by the UK, France, Italy and Spain; the five countries together account for about 62% of 2026 European business travel spending. The above are GBTA forecast data for 2026, not realized statistics. A November 5 report said that the GBTA and VDR Europe Conference 2026 was held in Vienna from November 2 to 4, with nearly 1,400 delegates from 41 countries attending, including 350 travel buyers, 75 exhibitors and 130 speakers; the report also mentioned the above 2026 European business travel spending forecast.

On October 30, 2026, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) released global air passenger data for September 2026. Measured in revenue passenger kilometers (RPK), total global passenger demand for the month fell 0.5% year-on-year; total capacity measured in available seat kilometers (ASK) fell 0.2% year-on-year; the load factor was 83.2%, down 0.3 percentage points year-on-year. The report did not disclose regional breakdowns or the specific reasons for the year-on-year changes.