IHG Hotels & Resorts (IHG), one of the world’s leading hotel companies, announces its partnership with PAYBACK, Germany’s leading consumer loyalty programme with more than 35 million customers. The collaboration introduces a new way for German guests to earn rewards when staying at any of IHG’s 7,000+ hotels worldwide.

Amazon is rolling out advanced agentic AI software to enable broad hiring, seeking to speed up and simplify recruitment in a surprisingly more human way.

12Go, the leading ground and sea transport brand in Asia and part of the Travelier group, today launches a ChatGPT App, bringing its large choice of buses, ferries, trains, and multimodal routes across Asia directly into ChatGPT. For the first time, travelers worldwide can use natural language to search and compare transport across Asia's most fragmented transport ecosystems — and book in seconds once redirected to 12Go's website and App.

KAYAK today introduced Ask AI, a new conversational travel planning experience designed to help travelers search, compare, and book trips more easily, as interest surges ahead of this summer's World Cup. Building on KAYAK's mission to make travel search more personalized and conversational, Ask AI is an industry first that lets travelers start planning their trip in a chat—while flight, hotel, and rental car results update live alongside the conversation, combining the ease of AI with the power of a traditional results page.

House Republicans are set to introduce two new federal data privacy bills that would set nationwide rules for how companies collect and use personal data. The proposals replace more than 20 different state privacy laws and give consumers new rights to access and control their information. This matters for the travel industry because travel companies – from booking platforms to B2B technology providers – handle large volumes of personal data across state lines every day. A single national standard would directly affect how these businesses operate, protect data and deliver seamless customer experiences.

Virgin Atlantic has become the first airline in the world to launch an app within ChatGPT, opening up a new way for customers to discover and plan their next trip simply by asking. Building on Virgin Atlantic’s AI-powered Concierge, the Virgin Atlantic app in ChatGPT allows customers to search for flights using everyday language, whether they’re dreaming of a beachside escape to sun-soaked Barbados, planning a last-minute trip to the bright lights of New York, or looking to soak up the vibrant energy of Delhi.