The 2026 Iran conflict scenario is used to assess systemic vulnerabilities in Middle East tourism, with $600M in daily losses and a 2-4 year setback to Saudi Vision 2030, alongside three strategic recommendations for investors.
Marriott's Google AI Mode partnership lets guests book directly inside Google's interface, bypassing OTA commissions, but cedes discovery data and risks paid "priority" placement fees as the product matures.
Mews CEO Matt Welle weighs the trade-offs between open, best-of-breed tech stacks and consolidated operating systems, arguing the right choice depends on property size, data ambitions, and tolerance for integration complexity.
ISHC is accepting nominations until 14 August 2026 for its Rising Star Award Asia Pacific, open to under-35 professionals with at least five years in hotel development or investment in the APAC region.
The author argues that major events compress rather than create demand, and that destinations need "Destination Intelligence" to orchestrate disconnected systems into a unified visitor experience.
RBH becomes the first UK management company to operate across eight major global brands, adding Hyatt to its portfolio with the 276-room Hyatt Place London City East.
We didn't go to HITEC 2026 for the demos. We went for the conversations. We sat down with exhibitors right there on the show floor. No script, no prepared questions, just one starting point: tell us what you do, in plain language. This is where it went with Ricky Daniels, Co-Founder of Trybe.
Hotel operators who hit labor budgets may still suffer hidden inefficiencies; the article argues that labor precision and real-time demand alignment matter more than payroll control alone.
UBTech's consumer humanoid robot launch signals a shift in guest expectations that hospitality must address, as home companion AI sets a new relational benchmark hotels are unprepared to meet.
Doug Kennedy's free July 24 webcast covers proactive hotel sales prospecting habits, CRM use, and warm-calling tactics, with future sessions on humanification and upselling.
Wednesday brought a sharp argument that hotel chains have built AI tools to defend direct bookings while the discovery journey has already moved to ChatGPT and Google AI, two Oracle and Alliants interviews from the HITEC floor, and Trip.com data showing coolcation searches up 74% as European summer heat reshapes demand. STR's alternative hotel demand indicators and the RFP season's structural shift rounded out a content-heavy midweek session.
Choice Hotels appoints CVS Health's Ali Keshavarz, a data and AI expert with McKinsey and Aetna backgrounds, to its board to support AI-driven growth across its franchise portfolio.
We didn't go to HITEC 2026 for the demos. We went for the conversations. We sat down with exhibitors right there on the show floor. No script, no prepared questions, just one starting point: tell us what you do, in plain language. This is where it went with Tanya Pratt, Global Vice President of Strategy and Product Management at Oracle Hospitality.
Survey of 1,250 APAC travel professionals finds 65% expect demand growth over the next 2-3 years, with India and Australia most confident, but payment complexity, legacy systems, and content gaps risk slowing momentum.
A practical guide for independent hoteliers explaining AI booking discovery, hallucination risks, GEO, and how connectivity to AI platforms determines whether bookings land direct or via OTAs.
A conference recap from HSMAI 2026 in San Antonio covering four recurring themes: resilient consumer spending, commercial team alignment, AI-driven hotel discovery, and the return to hospitality fundamentals.
AI is not replacing search but expanding it, and hoteliers must adapt by optimizing for conversational queries, structured data, and AI-driven recommendation engines alongside traditional SEO.
WTTC and UNEP signed an MoU running through June 2028, committing to joint action on circular economy, plastic pollution, food waste, and biodiversity across the global travel and tourism sector.
STR analysis finds credit utilization and income band data outperform GDP and inflation as demand predictors for luxury and economy hotel segments, pointing to increasingly fragmented demand drivers by chain scale.
Major chains have built AI tools to defend direct booking conversions, but the discovery journey now starts on ChatGPT and Google AI, platforms brands cannot see, measure, or control.