70% of Chinese travel TTV comes via influencers

Even I needed to do a double take on that stat which came out of an incredible deep dive by WIT’s Yeoh Siew Hoon.

The article was filled with nuggets that had the video-first social commerce founder in me literally squealing with joy such as “video isn’t a trend, it’s the new language of travel.” and “In the past, we say a picture says 1,000 words, but now a video is like a million words.”

The article comes with specific advice for hoteliers such as:

1. Shoot, then aim. Then become a sniper. 

2. Don’t wear a business suit to a music festival. 

3. Embrace ‘flawsome’

These are all good tips if you want go it alone, but as the saying goes; together we go further. But you aren’t inhibiting speed by partnering up with Videreo as we now are offering a new service specific for hotels where we can place your best video offering into the storefronts and therefore recommendations of Videreo’s creators.

No waiting for someone to come and film. No comped room nights not knowing if there is an ROI at the other end. Just recommended traffic straight to your direct site. Use the Contact Us button on the brands page if wanting to join the beta (chains and independents equally welcome)

Yeow’s article finished with “The travel funnel has flattened. The scroll is the search. The creator is the agent…. influencer marketing is no longer just branding. It’s infrastructure.”

Videreo is the infrastructure for (Western) brands and creators to meet & create a new sales pipeline together. Come join us.

Check out more here to join brands already in the vector database like global hotel meta-search business Vio.com or see Videreo in action from creator Mely in Paris.

Contact Adrian for more details on how to get your travel product loaded or have a chat with him at PhocusWright Europe.

This content is provided by the (interim) newsletter sponsor Videreo.com

“You don’t need to re-platform. But you do need to act.”

A great article and piece of advice here from Gam Dias, author of the book Agents Unleashed.

Dias turns his eye to travel companies specifically for this piece and gives further advice on exactly how to execute your next set of actions within your own business to the rapidly changing world.

“Start with a map. What services could be made callable—availability, pricing, loyalty, booking? Which of those are already structured internally?

Pick one. Wrap it with MCP. Stand up an A2A listener. Run a controlled test. The goal isn’t scale. It’s clarity. Learn how well your systems perform when called by an agent, not a person.

Track the right metrics: task success rate, resolution time, match quality.”

This maps perfectly with the advice we are sharing also with our consultancy clients.

“Agents don’t start with a website. They start with an instruction.” says Dias and this is critical as is getting your head around Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Agent-to-Agent (A2A) communication. These are new acronyms on which commerce is based. You need to know these the same as you have understood SEO and SEM from the last phase.

Gam will be coming on the podcast shortly to give more depth - so be sure to look out for that one.

Saudi dropping $800B on tourism, much of it on AI

An article this week outlined some new ambitions from the Saudi Kingdom as they transition from an energy-based economy and into other things, but mainly tourism.

The Saudi’s are “aiming for 150 million visitors and the addition of 362,000 new hotel rooms by 2030” which will be “expected to contribute around 10% to Saudi Arabia’s GDP”

The article explains “Local tourism agencies were heavily investing in digital platforms powered by AI to offer customers seamless journeys tailored to their preferences.” giving the specific example of Almosafer who “integrated ChatGPT technology to provide smarter, more responsive booking assistance. This came as part of a 2023 partnership with the Saudi Tourism Authority (STA), aimed at boosting inbound tourism through innovative digital engagement.”

Of course, we saw the US President in Saudi recently also getting some AI deals done for his friends.

“Additionally, the launch of Sara — the world’s first augmented reality (AR) powered virtual travel assistant — provided real-time insights into attractions and offered customized recommendations, enhancing the visitor experience further.”

Deloitte seem to be playing a major role in all of this 💰️ and there is some mention about sustainability (of turning deserts into tourist hotspots through massive computational power… no doubt it will win some sustainability awards)

4 scenarios of our agentic future

One of my favouritie thinkers in travel, Mario Gavira from Kiwi this week penned an excellent article about the 4 possible endings to our current AI journey.

The 4 scenarios were plotted on a matrix with disintermediation on one axis and trust on the other.

“Will customers trust and allow AI agents to autonomously handle their entire customer journey, from planning to buying? Will OTAs adapt and protect their control over the distribution landscape, or will AI agents bypass OTAs connect directly with travel suppliers?”

I won’t spoil the ending for you. You need to go read it for yourself or wait for NETFLIX to buy the rights and make a production out of it (it’s that good).

Trip.com, RateGain and Flipkart all boom on the back of AI

A few notable earnings calls reported on this week. All were strong and all put that strength at the feet of AI.

Rategain reported a 44% surge in FY25 profit. Bhanu Chopra, Founder and Chairman, stated, “In FY25, we started building for the future with an AI-first approach focused on solving new customer problems.”

“RateGain launched several AI-based tools, including UNO VIVA—an AI voice agent integrated with central reservation systems—and Smart ARI, an engine to reduce overbooking and rate parity issues. Airlines also benefit from AirGain AI Digest, which offers dynamic pricing insights.” which seemed to have captured market attention &/or curtailed churn.

Meanwhile inbound booking over at Trip.com “surged by approximately 100% year-over-year with South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia emerging as some of the fastest-growing source markets, said Trip.com Group Co-Founder and Executive Chairman James Liang at an earnings call on Tuesday.”

China is back baby!

“Artificial intelligence is also playing a key role in Trip.com Group’s growth strategy” including “over 80% of post-sale inquiries are now handled by AI-driven chat and self-service tools.” Check that number again - 80%!

Finally not an earnings call but rather a pre IPO (India) announcement, Flipkart is riding two things into its public offering - AI + Travel. Two things we love here! Right!

“Flipkart has increased its investment in artificial intelligence six-fold this year, as it integrates AI into areas such as supply chain, customer experience, and personalization.”

More surprising for the Walmart owned company was it’s focus on travel with the article claiming “the travel segment led by Cleartrip is gaining traction, particularly among India’s Gen Z consumers, with growing demand for hotels, international trips and holiday packages.”

Reviews are key to you showing up in AI search results

That is the finding (unsurprisingly 😅 ) from review site Feefo in a study, the results of which they released this week.

Self-interest aside, the results were interesting especially in that “Perplexity delivered the highest rate of review-based sources, with reviews included every single time – evident thanks to its efficient ‘sources’ tool that directly links users to relevant sites.”

For Gemini its was 56% of the time and ChatGPT 58% of the time. Still not bad.

“The study analysed data collected from 250 identical queries across 3 AI platforms, designed to reflect the typical research journey of a typical traveller seeking advice.” according to the article.

There is a break down of different types of queries from informational to transactional to show the different % in which reviews played a role in the LLM response.

The one flaw I see in this and another analysis I saw this week, this time around Google AI searches specifically is around the queries they were testing. The first went for things like ‘Flights to Dubai’ and the second "hospitality marketing agencies," but even Google themselves are telling us that is not what people are typing in anymore.

Queries are getting longer now we understand the more detailed the query, the more precise or detailed the answer. I personally would be typing in "hospitality marketing agencies with very happy customer reviews” and hoping I got an answer back.

If you think someone (or everyone) you know or work with could grow from being more informed on the topic of ai + travel (or could use the training above) then please forward this email to them and they can click the button below:

Marketplace Spotlight: MyTrip.ai

MyTrip.AI provides generative AI tools and services ranging from free, easy to use writing tools, to advanced high quality, high volume AI content creation services, to AI Assistants who assume different roles and assume different tasks in your travel company.

Their flagship service is a custom made AI Sales and Service Assistant that greets your users on your website or Whatsapp, helps them plan their trip using your website contents and sales process and works together with your sales and service team.

If you have a B2B business underpinned by AI and looking for people to notice you, you can sign up to the marketplace for peanuts (top right corner, 5 mins, bring your logo).

I’ve priced for bootstrapped startups but also accepting larger companies too.

Luxury advisors getting on board with AI

News out of Virtuoso this week with CEO Matthew Upchurch saying “In the midst of another tech inflection – or as some call it, a disruption – with AI, I love how optimistic Virtuoso members are about its potential.”

Upchurch also came with this line: “At Virtuoso, we’ve long embraced what’s now called ‘prompt engineering’ as the art of asking the right questions.”

And that of course is the door that everyone is running to. Can AI get the questions right and the nuance right to really deliver back the experiences the luxury traveller demands?

Upchruch reminds up however “At its heart, luxury is the ‘how did you make me feel business,’ a highly defensible business model that’s deeply personal and human-led.” which I’m sure for many is true but a separate report on the state of luxury in travel that came out this week told us that the top reason a consultant is used is “time savings in planning & research” thereby perpetuating the myth that if we could just do it fast - everyone would adopt it.

It is worth noting the report also says luxury travel advisors are the “new power brokers in travel”, the exact phrase Skift used for influencers as one of their mega trends this year. They could both be right! Imagine if travel influencers could be transformed into travel advisors….. hmmmm - that gives me an idea.

Upchurch also noted in his address that “LinkedIn lists ‘travel advisor’ as the fifth fastest growing career.” So there you go!

Slack Group!

Shorts

Every week a lot of stuff is left on the cutting room floor. I thought maybe I’ll just lest those here for anyone interested in digging more:

• Bangkok Post - AI cameras linked to criminal databases net suspects in tourist hot spots

• This underhyped Google Maps feature is completely changing how I travel (if this actually works, its awesome)

• B.C. search-and-rescue groups warn about relying on AI (AI and wilderness don’t mix! Although it can probably tell you what you can eat whilst you’re waiting to get rescued)

• Gemma Collins launches AI 24-hour travel agency where you can get an itinerary in seconds - peach schnapps company + “celebrity” join the AI Trip Planner race - can it get any more commoditised?

Podcasts and Sponsors

Podcasts now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts:

New podcasts are now showing up on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for your easy listening pleasure!

This week we caught up with Luke Bujarski (ex Skift) about the latest announcements from Airbnb.

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Most clicked last week was the link to the Google I/O announcement - not surprisingly!

That’s it - you’ve made it to the end of this edition. I’ll be putting the result of the most clicked post in next week’s edition so you can see where others are focusing. If I’ve missed something, you’ve got a tip or any feedback at all - you can simply reply to this email and it will come straight to me. I’m doing this for You so please don’t be shy to tell me what you think