Here are some of the stories that caught our attention over the week with some of our takeaways.
Travel Forward: Data, Insights and Trends for 2025: Phocuswright recently published Travel Forward, a report that provides broadscale insights into the $1.61 trillion global travel market.
Some of its key findings include:
- Online gross bookings are estimated to reach $1.0 trillion in 2024 and climb to $1.2 trillion by 2026. By that time, nearly 65% of global travel gross bookings will be made online.
- Global online gross bookings for hotels are projected to account for 55% of the market in 2024 and increase to 58% by 2026.
- 50% of travellers expect to utilise GenAI for leisure travel in the next 12 months.
Perplexity partners with Tripadvisor to source hotel info from real people: The Verge reports that the AI search engine will now display hotel images, highlights, and ratings from Tripadvisor.
It says that now, when you search for places to stay, Perplexity will present you with a neatly organised list of hotels, alongside summaries of why it chose them using information sourced from Tripadvisor.
Gen Z travellers drive Buy Now, Plan Later bookings: Travolution reports on data from Fliggy, a fast growing Chinese OTA owned by the Alibaba Group, with over 400 million registered users and an estimated market share of 16.5% in China’s OTA landscape.
The report says the booking volume for BNPL travel products in 2024 has increased by over 20% compared to the previous year – and that this growth is largely driven by a younger demographic, with Generation Z leading the way. Planning travel through BNPL is now a mainstream method of travel consumption.
Hotel booking sites caught overcharging travellers from Bay Area: SF Gate reports on an unusual finding. The most popular hotel booking sites raise their prices substantially when San Franciscans use their online booking platforms — and most Bay Area travellers at large likely have no idea.
It says SFGATE compared hotel room rates for five different sites (Kayak, Booking.com, Trivago, Expedia and Hotels.com) and found that Bay Area travellers are charged more based on their IP address.
So if this were to happen here in the EU with the stronger anti-competitive legislation including the Digital Markets Act (DMA), what could have happened?
I am pretty sure that it will be in potential violation of EU competition law and consumer protection regulations.
And this type of geographic price discrimination, particularly targeting specific regions based on perceived affluence, is likely to violate existing legislation on abuse of market dominance. Ans also very likely conflicts with the DMA’s requirements for fair and non-discriminatory access to digital platforms.
The DMA requires transparency in algorithmic decision-making. Any chance of us really finding out which algorithms were at play here? Or for that matter these companies charged with fines of up to 10% of global turnover?
Easyjet’s Great British Holiday Audit 2025: Easyjet recently published a Nationwide report revealing how Brits will travel in 2025.
Some key highlights and discoveries include:
- A surge in international travel, with a focus on new destinations and luxury at lower costs.
- AI-powered itinerary planning is gaining popularity, alongside trends like “country ticking” and “holiday hopping.”
- Increasing importance of multi-generational trips and holidays based on personal interests, such as TV shows, music, and sports.
- Despite economic pressures, Brits prioritise holidays, showing strong booking numbers for 2025 and beyond.