Choice Hotels International, Inc. one of the world's largest lodging franchisors, today announced a new set of technologies and AI-powered solutions designed to help franchise owners drive more revenue, improve operating efficiency, and prepare for the next era of travel discovery and booking.

Cruise Planners, the nation's largest home-based travel agency franchise network, has introduced another artificial intelligence–powered enhancement to its CP Maxx platform designed to eliminate manual data entry from the cruise booking process. While several major cruise brands already support automated data retrieval, gaps still exist for smaller cruise lines. Travel advisors often enter booking details for many of these smaller cruise lines manually from cruise confirmations into their CRM system. Using AI and secure API integrations, the new Cruise Confirmation Import feature allows advisors to upload cruise confirmations directly into CP Maxx, their proprietary CRM system. Once imported, booking details are automatically extracted, validated and processed, streamlining workflows, reducing manual tasks, and improving accuracy.

Hotel booking portal Agoda is taking the power of artificial intelligence to a whole new level with the unveiling of an innovative hotel discovery feature. This feature makes it easier for travelers to get answers before deciding on their accommodations. The recently introduced Agoda AI travel tool is one of the latest examples of technology built on top of generative AI. Moreover, it has the ability to offer real-time answers, personalized hotel recommendations, and an enhanced property exploration experience via Agoda’s platform.

Tokyo, once again, is poised to be at the heart of innovations in AI-led tourism thanks to WiT Japan 2026. This event promises to bring to Tokyo the world’s brightest experts in travel technology, hospitality and artificial intelligence for focused discussions on WiT Japan 2026 AI travel technology trends.

One year on from publishing its aspirational Flying Towards Net Zero roadmap, Wizz Air, the leading carrier in Central and Eastern Europe, is sharing new insights from a non-representative passenger survey¹ exploring attitudes to air travel, climate change and the aviation sector’s transition. Aviation remains a critical driver of connectivity and economic activity across Europe, supporting around 86.5 million jobs globally and contributing approximately 3.9% of global GDP². It underpins tourism, trade and regional development. As the sector moves toward long term decarbonisation, balancing the need for accessible mobility with meaningful emissions reductions remains a defining challenge.

Travelers who use artificial intelligence for trip planning and in‑destination support are emerging as the industry’s most valuable customer segment, according to new research from Phocuswright. The findings show that AI‑using travelers take more trips, spend significantly more per year and engage more deeply with digital travel tools than those who have not adopted AI. Phocuswright’s new report, The AI Surge: Travel’s Fastest Behavioral Shift in a Decade, reveals that AI travelers have a median household income of $129,200 compared to $104,000 for nonusers, and take 3.8 leisure trips per year versus 2.9 among nonusers. They also spend $4,500 annually on leisure travel, far outpacing the $3,000 spent by those who do not use AI.