Google CEO Sundar Pichai revealed the clearest roadmap yet for the company's shift toward AI-first search. At the heart of the announcement is AI Mode, Google’s new conversational experience, which is already live as a separate tab — a testing ground before its full integration into the main search interface. Unlike traditional search, AI Mode transforms how users interact with information, enabling them to have dynamic, multi-step conversations. Travelers searching for “family-friendly tours in Costa Rica” will no longer see just a list of links. Instead, Google’s AI can respond to follow-up queries like “What about for kids under 8?” or “Which ones include wildlife viewing?”

The business community has welcomed artificial intelligence as a key means of adapting to today’s changing workforce and recommending actions based on data analytics; however, according to experts, the hotel industry has yet to leverage it fully. A recent study by McKinsey found that as many as 78 percent of respondents say their organizations use AI in at least one business function, a 6-percentage-point increase from 2024. With so many core processes now informed by AI, hoteliers must bring these capabilities into the heart of their operations: the property-management system.

China Airlines (CAL), a Taiwan-based carrier, will begin providing travelers in all cabin classes with free Internet access or messaging service on all routes flown by 777, A350 and A321neo aircraft from August 1 this year. The move will make China Airlines the first Taiwanese carrier to offer free Internet access for all travelers and cabin classes, ushering in a new era of digital flying and convenience

To help savvy holiday-goers navigate the murky water of cybersecurity when abroad, award-winning airport parking operator Airport Parking and Hotels (APH.com) has revealed its 10 top tips for ensuring cyber safety when travelling. The tips are available in the Travel Know How Section of the APH website at www.aph.com/cybersecurity and highlight the most useful tricks for ensuring computers, phones and other devices are protected against cyber threats when away from home.

Research released this week from Gigasure, who specialise in car hire excess insurance, found that 64% of people are scared to hire a car when abroad thanks to the widespread reports of car hire scams such as inflated insurance fees and customers being charged for damages they didn't cause.

Ever been told you are moving too fast through Europe? These travel pros are taking it to the extreme. On July 20th at 12:01 AM, two teams of seasoned travel industry leaders will set off from Eijsden, a Dutch town bordering Belgium, in an audacious attempt to attempt to break the Guinness World Record the most countries via overland - in a continuous Easterly directly by a car convoy. Travelling by car, with passports and pure navigational grit, they aim to go on a mind-bending 17-country road starting in the Netherlands, through Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Hungary, Serbia, Slovakia and ending somewhere between Poland and the Czech Republic — if their caffeine and customs timing hold out.