Online Booking tips

Travel distribution platform TBO Tek made its debut in the Indian stock exchanges Wednesday, and raised a little more than INR 15.5 billion ($180 million) from its IPO subscription last week.

Indian online travel agency MakeMyTrip will be resuming its attractions and activities product for travelers, a feature it had paused during the Covid pandemic.

India-based hotel aggregator and operator Oyo plans to increase its U.S. footprint by adding over 250 hotels in 2024. This would represent a 150% uptick compared to the previous year’s addition of 100 hotels.

Indian online travel agency EaseMyTrip.com on Monday confirmed an investment in business-to-business (B2B) travel portal ETrav Tech.

Asian travel marketplace Klook has confirmed its first strategic partnership for 2024 – a deal with Krungsri, the Bank of Ayudhya PCL in Thailand. 

The American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA) and American Airlines are going head-to-head in a complaint before the U.S. Department of Transport (DOT). Skift reached out to ASTA for the group’s latest position following a response from American Airlines last month.

American Airlines has responded to the American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA) complaint about the airline’s ticket distribution through the New Distribution Capability (NDC), calling it “a frivolous compilation of rhetoric and unsupported allegations.” 

American Airlines’ multi-year changes to its ticket distribution have had contentious implications for travel agents. The American Society of Travel Advisors in August filed an unfair trade complaint with the U.S. Department of Transportation, accusing American of causing “substantially higher air ticket prices for consumers and frustrated travel management companies.”

Disney has increased a variety of ticket and annual pass prices for both Disneyland and Disney World. 

Today’s travelers are in pursuit of emotional engagement, meaningful connections, and memorable moments, and AI is going to be a pivotal tool in fulfilling these desires.

TUI Group has consolidated its digital activities in Portugal by opening a new tech center in Porto.

Adventure booking platform TourRadar has added two new partners, Local Adventures and TRAVLR, to its business-to-business tool for selling organized multi-day adventure travel.

Meta’s WhatsApp will be introducing a new service called Flows aimed at businesses worldwide for creating personalized experiences directly within chat threads.

Bookings have surged for Klook, one of Asia’s leading online marketplaces for travel experiences.

India-headquartered online travel agency Yatra Online plans to launch its initial public offering (IPO) on September 15. The company, which is listed on the Nasdaq since 2016, had filed a draft red herring prospectus on March 25 last year with the Indian regulatory body Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) with a goal of raising up to INR 7.5 billion.

Most of the big travel companies — Priceline, Tripadvisor, Booking.com, and more — have released AI trip planning tools on their websites. 

Good morning from Skift. It’s Friday, February 17. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Tour operators need to make serious inroads into tech adoption to capitalize on the forced digital offshoots created by the pandemic. A Skift 2023 Megatrend forecasts that the global tours and activities software market is set to skyrocket, with a projected value of $1.2 billion by 2026. 

Hotels.com is turning to celebrities to provide sales pitches in a campaign appearing on its own digital channels instead of TV.

TUI Musement continues to carve its place in the growth flywheel of parent company TUI Group, with the launch of its digital TUI experiences platforms to take the brand beyond Europe and into the world.

Spirit Airlines Inc has agreed to pay up to $8.25 million to settle a class action lawsuit by passengers who said the low-cost carrier blindsided them with surprise carry-on bag fees on tickets bought through third-party travel services.