Good Sunday morning from Seattle . . . Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, October 31, 2025, is below. Booking Holdings garnered most of the attention this past week as it reported its third quarter earnings and updated investors on its ongoing artificial intelligence efforts. A copy of the earnings release
The Growing Influence of ChatGPT on Travel's Future
Good Monday morning from Seattle . . . Our Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, October 24, 2025, is below. This week’s Update introduces readers to ChatGPT’s new browser, ChatGPT Atlas (and its new Agent Mode), and offers varying views on ChatGPT’s (and similar AI powered platforms’) long term effect on travel, the
Between the AI Waves: Online Travel Catches Its Breath
Good Saturday morning from Seattle . . . Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, October 17, 2025, is below. Compared to last week and its seemingly endless parade of announcements around AI and online travel, this week’s unexpected shortage of announcements provided many of us the opportunity to catch our breath
The Race to Reinvent Online Travel
Good Sunday morning from Seattle (actually, about 180 miles south of Seattle at one of Marriott’s new Post Card Cabins in Glennwood, Washington) . . . Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, October 10, 2025, is below. This week’s OTU includes recent product updates from both Expedia Group (Hotels.com) and Booking
Agentic AI or Amplified Influence: The New Battle for Guest Acquisition
Good Sunday morning from Seattle . . . Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, October 3, 2025, is below. Artificial intelligence again generated most of this past week’s headlines (many of which coming out of the recent Destination AI Forum in Washington, D.C.), but social media also made a strong showing.
Digital Omnibus: European Commission Seeks Evidence to Streamline EU Digital Rules
On September 16, 2025, the European Commission opened a call for evidence to inform a forthcoming “Digital Omnibus” aimed at simplifying and reducing administrative burden across the EU’s data, cybersecurity and AI regulatory frameworks. The initiative sits within the Commission’s simplification agenda and its headline target to cut administrative burden by at least 25% overall
This Week in Online Travel: Sabre Bets on AI, Social Media Drives Inspiration and Skift Questions Market Power
Good Sunday morning from Seattle . . . With a full week of wind and rain in the forecast, fall has definitely arrived in the Pacific Northwest.
Our Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, September 26, 2025, is below. With Skift’s annual Skift Global Forum now behind us, things definitely slowed this past
FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection Director on Privacy Rules and AI Regulation
Chris Mufarrige, the director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, spoke last week at the National Advertising Division’s Annual Conference in Washington, providing further insight into how the FTC is thinking about key issues.
Mufarrige focused his remarks on privacy and AI. He said he views the basic principles for all consumer protection
Travel’s Balance of Power
Good Saturday morning from Seattle . . . Our Online Travel Update (OTU) for the week ending Friday, September 19, 2025, is below. For those of you asking why the list of stories has grown so long the past few Updates (and what happened to the bespoke, curated short list of must reads that you’ve
National Advertising Division 2025 Annual Conference: Highlights and Takeaways
This year’s National Advertising Division’s (NAD) Annual Conference demonstrated that the self-regulatory process remains an active venue for companies interested in challenging competitor advertising claims. Attorneys from Venable’s Advertising and Marketing Group represent both advertisers and challengers at all levels of the NAD process, and this year has been particularly busy with NAD challenges. Read