Ronan Daniel

🔎 Steve Hafner, CEO of Kayak, revealed via LinkedIn on April 10, 2025, the launch of the experimental kayak.ai, an AI-driven conversational agent for travel planning that connects to real-time travel inventories. Unlike traditional search portals, kayak.ai remembers user preferences and provides real-time pricing. Kayak's integration with AI began in March 2023, including data availability in ChatGPT results, following partnerships with Amazon's Alexa and Apple's Siri.

🎬 The Futuroscope deploys "Fenêtres Immersives" (Immersive Windows) in Nantes, Bordeaux, and Créteil, developed by French start-up DigitaLandmarks. These interactive digital displays preview three attractions: L'Aquascope, Chasseur de Tornades (Best Attraction 2022), and L’Extraordinaire Voyage. Visitors can potentially win Futuroscope tickets and stays. The immersive experiences are available on specific dates: April 9-12, 2025, in Beaulieu (Nantes), April 16-19 in Créteil Soleil (94), and April 23-26 in Mérignac Soleil (Bordeaux). A previous campaign in a Paris store saw 50,000 visitors and 1 million social media impressions in a week. DigitaLandmarks was founded in 2019 and has been involved in events like the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

🚢 In 2024, the cruise market saw a 20% increase in travelers over 2019, surpassing the air travel sector, which only experienced a 10% growth. The pandemic had initially reduced cruise attendance by 80% in 2020, while air travel dropped by two-thirds. Recovery began in 2023, with American cruises resuming in 2021, leading to a concept known as "revenge-travel." Despite the demand, cruise prices remained competitive, historically 15-20% lower than comparable land stays, and stabilized at 25-30% below post-pandemic, after peaking at 50% savings. The Lufthansa Innovation Hub study highlighted that cruise-related patent filings, which had been rising since 2016, surged during the pandemic, with 14% focusing on health protection and 50% on onboard services and entertainment. MSC Cruises' innovation includes a 1,000m² digital display on a terminal façade. Millennials, making up a quarter of the clientele in 2021, increased to over a third (34%) by 2025, with customer satisfaction on TripAdvisor and CruiseLine matching pre-pandemic levels, unlike with airlines.