Justin Dawes travel tips

Executives of Amex GBT had an investor call Monday shortly after it announced plans to acquire CWT for $570 million.

Amex GBT plans to acquire CWT for about $570 million, a deal that would combine two of the industry’s largest corporate travel companies. 

Mobility is the theme for this week’s travel startup funding roundup.

Accor’s hotel tech subsidiary, D-Edge, has acquired LoungeUp as a way to expand its group of products. Price and terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

Despite reports of a public offering in limbo and more potential private investment, the CEO of Oyo said Wednesday the company has no need to raise more money right now. 

There’s a big demand from Indian tourists to visit the U.S., but there’s not as much demand the other way around.

Busbud, an online marketplace for intercity bus and train tickets, is expanding its presence in Brazil through the acquisition of Buson. 

Seven travel startups from a variety of sectors have raised over $150 million in the past two weeks.

Amadeus envisions a future where its facial-recognition technology could be used throughout a passenger’s journey at the airport: check-in, bag drop and tracking, boarding, border control, and more.

Amadeus has acquired Voxel, which provides digital products that travel companies can use to complete payments from consumers.

Kayak this week released a tool that it says can read flight fare information from a screenshot and then search for a better price. 

Despegar and Kayak both released travel planning and booking tools this week meant to integrate generative AI more comprehensively. 

Miami Beach has long been a primary destination for college students on Spring Break. Each March, rowdy crowds descend upon the beach destination to make it their playground for a week, perhaps forgetting that not everyone there is on vacation. 

Executives at companies like Airbnb and Booking Holdings have been talking for over a year about plans to implement the latest advances in artificial intelligence.

There’s a lot of money pouring into next-generation flight technology. This week, there was an investment into renewable jet fuel and a propulsion system for flying taxis.

TravelAI has purchased and relaunched Casai.com, the domain of the short-term rental operator startup that closed last July after raising more than $48 million. 

Culture Trip, the travel media company that raised roughly $155 million, sold its website and group tour business to the U.S. News & World Report.

American Airlines plans to implement Amadeus’ cloud-based accounting system to track passenger sales.

Our Megatrends series continues today as Skift Editor-in-Chief Sarah Kopit is joined by Skift Travel Technology Reporter Justin Dawes, and Colin Nagy, a Skift contributor and host of The Skift Ideas Podcast, to tackle three of Skift’s Megatrends for the year.

Three travel startups have announced fundraises of nearly $90 million over the last week. 

Air Canada is being forced to refund a passenger who said he got bad advice from a chatbot on the airline’s website.