Finnair is the latest oneworld airline to allow passengers to check in for their flights off-airport, including baggage collection, through a partnership with luggage services AirPortr. The service is being introduced first for passengers flying out of London Heathrow airport, and is sold as a digital ancillary available during…

Seatfrog, an app-focussed rail and airline upgrade technology specialist, has confirmed a £4.5 million Series A funding round, led by Octopus Ventures. Existing investors, including HOWZAT Partners, also participated in the round. HOWZAT backed a £650,000 seed round back in May 2016. Seatfrog’s co-founder and CEO Iain Griffin told…

This is a viewpoint interview series by Justin Watkins, Creative Strategist at Native Digital. There is an ongoing debate on how destinations can stay relevant to travelers. It’s a discussion often had among destination marketing organizations and partners whose roles and tactics must evolve as the travel, marketing and…

Way2VAT has earned a patent from the U.S. Patent Office for a new Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered technology which, it says, will simplify VAT claims and travel expense management. The patent covers computer vision and language processing which power the company’s automated invoice analysis. It also covers a method…

In a report entitled Technopoly, experts from the think tank ResPublica call on officials in the UK and Europe to stem what they describe as the growing digital monopolies of technology companies such as Facebook and Google. They summarize their key concerns as follows: Current competition law is not…

 Sponsored by EyeForTravel If the energetic and driven Tess Mattisson is passionate about one thing, it is to “move the needle” for Choice Hotels Europe. Mattisson is director of European marketing for the firm. She joined in 2016 after nine years at Nordic Choice Hotels and does not have…

Vacation rental software specialist Lodgify has secured $5 million in its largest round of fundraising, which will be used to speed up expansion plans. The Barcelona-based firm has completed its Series A round from existing investors Nauta Capital  and HOWZAT Partners, while Intermedia Vermögensverwaltung has also come on board as…

Booking Holdings is buying hotel metasearch site, HotelsCombined, for an undisclosed sum. HotelsCombined was formed in 2005 and has built up a strong presence in APAC from its headquarters in Sydney, Australia. Glenn Fogel, CEO of Booking Holdings, talked about the deal in terms of its worldwide metasearch strategy. The…

Dubai-based loyalty and engagements specialist The Entertainer has developed a trip-planning and in-destination discounts app for members of the Emirates loyalty scheme, Skywards. The app – branded as Emirates Skywards Go – operates on a subscription model, of sorts.  Members of the Skywards scheme need to pay 6,700 points…

Our latest update from China, sharing some fascinating insights from the documents filed by Meituan and Tongcheng Elong as part of their IPOs on the Hong Kong exchange. Plus some Chinese travel startup funding rounds, Chinese hospitality market caps and general tourism numbers. Meituan, Ctrip and other OTAs Meituan…