Expedia Acquires AI Travel Planner Layla, Hotel GMs Share What AI Actually Taught Them, Business Travel Hits Record $1.71 Trillion
Tuesday brought Expedia Group's acquisition of Layla, an AI-native conversational travel planning platform, to accelerate personalized trip discovery at scale, a World Panel viewpoint on what hotel GMs are genuinely learning from first-hand AI deployment, and GBTA's forecast putting global business travel spending at a record $1.71 trillion in 2026. Radisson's long-stay proposition launch, Pyramid Global on brand as AI's last defense, and a renovation-heavy properties day rounded out the session.