The global travel industry continues to adapt to a dynamic landscape shaped by innovation, digital transformation and strategic leadership changes. This week’s travel technology news roundup showcases the latest moves from leading travel management firms, hospitality tech specialists, payment providers and disruptive startups.

AI-Powered Operations: BCD Travel and Oversee Deepen Alliance

Travel management powerhouse BCD Travel has announced the scaling of its partnership with Oversee, a specialist in artificial intelligence-driven spend optimization and agent automation. Building on a successful pilot, the collaboration will see Oversee’s ‘agentic AI’ deployed across BCD’s extensive operations. The advanced AI will automate back-office functions—from booking requests to passenger name record (PNR) creation—directly improving agent productivity and service level agreement (SLA) performance.

This initiative comes as competition among travel management companies intensifies. Consulting firm GBTA estimates that by 2025, 60% of large TMCs will use AI to streamline core functions. BCD’s digital transformation strategy reflects both industry pressures for operational efficiency and the growing demand for personalized, scalable traveler support, as corporates increasingly expect tech-enabled service without sacrificing the human touch.

Revolutionizing Hotel Payments: TerraPay and XanderPay Partner Up

The fast-evolving field of cross-border hotel payments gained a notable new partnership this week. Global payments infrastructure provider TerraPay and hospitality fintech leader XanderPay are teaming up to simplify international settlements for hotels.

The integrated platform lets hoteliers centralize financial operations, process third-party bookings seamlessly, and access a suite of payment types—all while driving down costs compared to legacy systems reliant on SWIFT or manual intervention. In the era of multi-channel distribution, efficient global payments are critical: Phocuswright reports that over 30% of European and Asian hotels cite payment complexity as a key cost and risk area in 2024.

By adopting streamlined, guest-centric payment models, hotels can improve cash flow, reduce reconciliation time and create smoother experiences for corporate and leisure guests alike.

Leadership Spotlight: Amex GBT, Fora, Awaze, and Mobi.AI Announce Executive Appointments

• American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) welcomed Rich Atkinson-Toal as Global VP, Brand & Experience Studio. With over 15,000 live events annually, Amex GBT is increasingly combining immersive brand experiences with sophisticated travel logistics for global clients.
• Mobi.AI tapped Andrew Boch as CEO after his notable tenure as COO. Boch, an industry veteran with major roles at Hopper and LevelUp, will help expand Mobi.AI’s personalization and optimization tech, which recently won ‘People’s Choice’ at The Phocuswright Conference 2024.
• Fora, a Hot 25 Travel Startup for 2023, brought Expedia founding-team member and travel investor Erik Blachford onto its board. Blachford, CEO of Expedia during its critical growth phase, will provide strategic oversight as Fora scales its advisor marketplace and tech platform.
• Awaze (parent of Hoseasons and Cottages.com) appointed Matthew Price, previously interim CEO and CFO, as its permanent chief executive. Backed by Platinum Equity, Awaze focuses on technology modernization and superior customer and property owner solutions, a priority as competition heats up in the alternative accommodations sector.

These moves signal both a generational change and an emphasis on digitally native leadership as travel companies accelerate out of pandemic-era disruption into renewed growth.

Distribution and API Innovation: D-Edge and Expedia Group Roll Out New Capabilities

Cloud PMS and CRS provider D-Edge has integrated with Expedia Group’s new reservations management API—launched in April 2025. The pilot enables over 17,000 hotels worldwide to offer guests improved personalization, leveraging Expedia’s deep loyalty and corporate client data for tailored booking experiences.

The API also supports tokenized payments, bolstering security and minimizing manual processing. With direct distribution and loyalty programs yielding higher margins for hotels, such integrations are crucial tools in the competitive online distribution landscape. Notably, Expedia Group’s Q1 2025 earnings reported a 6% year-over-year growth in direct channel bookings, driven in part by API-powered innovation.

Cost Savings and Centralization: Frenchospitality Adopts Eviivo

Paris-based boutique operator Frenchospitality has chosen Eviivo as its central operations platform, furthering a trend towards all-in-one hospitality software. By consolidating hotels, apartments, and co-living management under a single tool, Frenchospitality cut tech spending from 4% to just over 1% of annual revenue and boosted direct bookings from 0% to 35%. The migration allowed the group to retain its preferred payment gateway, saving up to 2% per transaction on processing fees.

This step mirrors a wider industry push toward platformization: STR research indicates that 68% of boutique and independent hotels plan new tech investments by 2026 to reduce operational costs and improve data-driven decision making.

Regional Expansion and Talent: Plan3 and Traxo Advance

Disruption management specialist Plan3 tapped Vivian Meril—veteran of Amadeus, Qatar Airways, and Emirates—to lead business development in MEA and APAC. The regional travel rebound is seeing tech-forward service providers strengthen their local presence as carriers and agencies seek new disruption mitigation solutions.

Traxo, leader in real-time corporate travel data aggregation, expanded its Traxo Marketplace with six new partners focused on risk management, ROI analytics, travel audits and secure traveler ID. Integrated marketplaces are growing fast: over 400 companies now use the Traxo platform to streamline their managed travel ecosystems and ensure duty of care compliance. According to GBTA, risk and insights services are the top priorities for corporate travel buyers in 2025.

Industry Coordination: Accelya Launches Business Travel Innovation Group

B2B technology provider Accelya, together with Temoji consultancy, announced the Business Travel Innovation Group (BIG) to give travel buyers a stronger industry voice and foster the adoption of the IATA New Distribution Capability (NDC) protocol. The forum includes 20 enterprise and mid-market buyers, who collectively oversee hundreds of millions in annual travel spend.

A new BIG study released in July 2025 suggests that people and process—rather than technology itself—are the main obstacles to NDC’s broader rollout. The findings will guide industry workshops and best practice frameworks to debut at the upcoming Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) Convention, with the aim of closing gaps between airlines, TMCs, and corporate travel buyers as NDC adoption rises globally.