Innovation

✈ UK Tour Operator Holiday Best partners with travel technology provider intuitive to implement the iVector reservation system and DealFinder cache solution. The collaboration aims to enhance booking processes and offer dynamic and packaged holidays. The partnership enables Holiday Best to support contracts for hotels, flights, transfers, and excursions, including third-party suppliers, improving flexibility and customer choice. The integration of intuitive’s technology is designed to streamline Holiday Best’s operations and maintain competitiveness in the fast-paced travel market. CEO Hakan Kavalci expresses confidence in improving customer booking experiences.

🛫 Travelsphere and Just You, group touring specialists, established an Expert Advisory Team with up to 12 agents from the UK, to gather feedback and shape future tours. Meetings will occur three times annually. A 2024 agent survey with over 400 participants revealed the need for firsthand experience, prompting the largest fam trip programme in 2025. Enhanced regional airport offerings were launched earlier this year, responding to agent input. Agents can apply to join the team by emailing agencysales@travelsphere.co.uk.

🌐 Pogo introduced Pogo Plus, enhancing app functionality with AI to create personalized trip itineraries. The MAGIC technology considers user interests, tourist attraction times, travel routes, and weather. Pogo Plus members receive up to 20% discounts on hotels and flights, can edit itineraries, and access new features like updated Map View and custom categories. Available now on iOS, Android release forthcoming. Founder Scott le Roi promises further developments.

🏨 Modern hotels integrate technology to enhance guest experiences, enabling personalized offers and efficient operations. Automation, like Plusgrade's automated front desk tool, streamlines tasks without replacing human interaction, allowing staff to provide memorable service. Data-driven technologies deliver timely, relevant offers through preferred guest channels, balancing digital convenience with personal recognition. This synergy aims to boost guest satisfaction and hotel ancillary revenue, while reinforcing human connections and service quality.

🪰 Minor Hotels Europe & Americas aims to cut scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 46.2% by 2030 from 2019 levels and reduce company-wide emissions by 90% by 2050, aligning with the Paris agreement. The group, with over 350 buildings in 30+ countries, utilizes the Deepki ESG platform to track environmental performance and streamline sustainability efforts for net zero transition, approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). The platform aids in automating data collection and enhancing energy efficiency.

📒 A hotel restaurant POS can increase operational efficiency, guest satisfaction, and revenue. A bustling restaurant at a hotel can lose over $290 for every 10 minutes of staff bottlenecks, impacting annual revenue. Advanced POS features and 83% of consumers consider positive online reviews important, which can be boosted by satisfying guests with a seamless POS experience. Key POS features include integration capabilities, cloud-based systems, table management, menu management, inventory tracking, and mobile ordering. Lightspeed, a global POS and payments platform, partners with Cloudbeds to provide such solutions to enhance hospitality businesses.

💰 Major franchise companies roll out new brands targeting growth and consumer loyalty, with five notable launches in the past 24 months. The extended-stay segment outperforms, leading to the introduction of ECHO Suites by Wyndham, Hyatt Studios, and StudioRes by Marriott. Hilton's Spark brand, launched January 2023, has 43 open hotels and over 100 expected by year-end. IHG's Garner hotels, debuted September 2023, opened four properties with 12 in the pipeline and global expansion planned. ECHO's first hotel opened in 2022 in Spartanburg, South Carolina, with 270 deals signed. Marriott's StudioRes broke ground in Fort Myers, Florida, with a spring 2025 opening expected.

💾 Google announced it will soon add a digital U.S. passport to Google Wallet, allowing use at select TSA checkpoints. Google Wallet, which launched in July 2022, also stores credit cards and tickets and is available on Android devices and online. In contrast, Apple has been accepting state IDs since 2022 and plans to add California, but has not announced a digital passport. Finland was the first country to enable digital passports in 2023, with Poland, South Korea, and the UK following suit. The U.S. digital passport will use existing TSA tech standards, with no additional tech needed. Google has more than doubled its Wallet users for commutes in the last 18 months and is adding transit tickets for cities like Hamburg, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

📊 High-profile leaders featured include Alexandre Lebrun, CEO of Nabla; André Martins, VP of AI Research at Unbabel; Aureliusz Górski, Founder & CEO of CampusAI; Börje Ekholm, President & CEO of Ericsson; Benedict Macon-Cooney, Chief Policy Strategist at Tony Blair Institute; and Daniel Ek, Founder and CEO of Spotify, among others, representing fields like AI, technology, policy, and commerce. These individuals hold pivotal roles at their respective organizations, influencing tech and AI sectors.

📍 Corendon Airlines partners with IBS Software to transform commercial operations, expecting to handle over 37 million passengers. They'll use iFly Res for unified seat/tour operator inventory and advanced Revenue Management. The deal includes dynamic optimisation and real-time data for improved operations and competitive pricing. Corendon will enhance customer experience via NDC-based distribution offering dynamic, personalised options. First phase roll-out in December, second phase in March 2025. Corendon is the third Turkish airline, after Sun Express and Freebird, to adopt IBS's solutions.