Expedia News

OTAs are posting record revenues, and the top four still dominate. But they face a major shift if AI platforms bypass them altogether.

Better rates and more visibility are clear advantages for independent hotels. But the presentation still needs some work.

Any travel brand can now submit apps and get listed in its new app store — which means Booking.com and Expedia, early movers in OpenAI’s app ecosystem, will soon get new competition to own ChatGPT’s travel conversations.

That Airbnb didn't acquire Tiqets for its own experiences business after leading a Series C funding round, didn't give Tiqets much street cred. The Expedia deal couldn't have been a very substantial one for investors given the lack of financial disclosures.

Expedia and Booking are trying to be both the storefront and the supply chain. AI is squeezing the middle, and “doing both” starts to look less like diversification and more like diluted power.

The global online travel agency (or OTA) market is experiencing sustained, moderate growth, fueled by resilient international travel demand and rapid digital transformation across all travel sectors. The OTA market, valued at $94 billion in 2024, is projected to reach $107 billion by 2026, growing at a steady rate of 7%.

Expedia's acquisition of Tiqets is the latest indication of the online travel agency's B2B tilt. It's certainly a niche that provides Expedia with an open lane.

It's extremely difficult to see how the online travel agencies emerge from the LLM platform shift unscathed.

As AI models like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity become the new travel gatekeepers, brands are rewriting SEO playbooks for an era where visibility hinges on being mentioned, not ranked.

Expedia Group’s move to bring in Xavier Amatriain, a heavyweight from Google, as its inaugural Chief AI and Data Officer underscores its intent to lead on travel technology in the AI age.