Innovation

🚢 Viking® has delivered the Viking Nerthus, a new Viking Longship® with a 168-passenger capacity. The handover ceremony took place at Meyer’s Neptun Werft in Rostock-Warnemünde, Germany. The ship will sail the "Paris & the Heart of Normandy" and "Christmastime in Paris & Normandy" (both 8-day itineraries) on the Seine. Viking’s Torstein Hagen expressed pride in the fleet expansion. The Viking Nerthus features hybrid propulsion, shore power connectivity, and solar panels for enhanced energy efficiency.

💸 During Concur Fusion event, SAP announced the integration of its AI assistant Joule into SAP Concur Solutions, specifically with Concur Expense to automate expense management in business travel. Joule's generative AI can provide natural language user assistance and streamline procedures. Available initially to SAP Early Adopter Care members, the global rollout of Joule within Concur Expense is scheduled for the second half of 2025. SAP Concur also extended its partnership with Amex GBT.

🏡 Atmosphere Core, a hotel group with headquarters in the Maldives, announces its expansion from Asia to Europe with BORGO MONCHIERO HERITAGE BY ATMOSPHERE in Italy, projected to open in 2026. This marks the brand's first entry into Europe, adding to its portfolio of over 25 establishments in India and South Asia, grown significantly over the past decade. The new luxury residence in Italy will feature 19 rooms and suites.

💻 In 2022, France's digital sector had a carbon footprint of 29.5 MtCO2e, with data centers responsible for 46% of emissions, 4.4% of the country's total carbon footprint. The Shift Project highlights uncertainties in measuring AI's carbon-energy footprint. Regarding energy, digital consumption was 11% of France's electrical consumption, but estimates vary widely, from 3 TWh by RTE to 12 TWh by ADEME & Arcep. Transparency issues also affect the impact of AI generative models, with no data shared by NVIDIA or TSMC, controlling 80% and as the leading semiconductor supplier, respectively. Meta's communications on its Llama models' carbon footprint are considered narrow by Carbone 4, which also notes a 50% carbon emission increase over three years for Meta and Google. Ten daily queries to a LLM can add 100 kgCO2e to a user's annual personal emissions.

📌 ATM Start-Up Pitch Battle, in partnership with Intelak, will be held on May 1st on the Future Stage of the Arabian Travel Market (ATM). Start-ups must submit their applications by March 21st deadline. The contest invites participants to pitch innovative business ideas in front of expert judges, including Ramzi Al Qassab of Sabre and Njood Alkhaldi of Intelak Hub. Open to pre-seed and seed stage start-ups, it offers a platform for regional entrepreneurs to shape the future of travel.

🎥 WIFIRST, European leader in professional wifi, partners with CANAL+ BUSINESS to integrate CANAL+ ROOM STREAMING into its offerings. This collaboration aims to enhance guest experience by providing a custom entertainment package, including up to 90,000 on-demand contents and 80 live channels. Guests can enjoy recent films, international series, original creations, in various languages or subtitles, and major live sports events like 100% of UEFA European football cups directly from their rooms.

🚀 Joby Aviation partners with Virgin Atlantic to launch electric flying taxis in the UK, targeting regional connections and airport links. Flying taxis will reduce travel time from central London to Heathrow from 80 minutes by car to just 8 minutes. The electric vehicle can carry 4 passengers and a pilot, with a top speed of 321 km/h and a range of 160 kilometers. Virgin Atlantic offers its booking channels, including a mobile app, to promote zero-emission short-haul mobility; no launch date specified. Joby Aviation has completed thousands of test flights and showcased in New York, Japan, and Korea.

📌 CDS, with 450 employees across six European countries, aims to become a key player in integrating technology solutions for business travel. CEO Ziad Minkara targets supporting Europe-based companies with effective tools for managing business trips. Leveraging entities in France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Croatia, and Poland, CDS offers services like VAT and invoice management. They plan a UK acquisition by July 2025, aiming for one acquisition per year to meet 90% of corporate needs. CDS also focuses on technology like NDC connections, multi-source comparison tools, AI-based conversational assistants, carbon footprint tracking, and real-time hotel rate comparison tools to enhance client experience and negotiation strategies.

💻 Ditto, a startup specializing in edge computing, raises over €75 million ($82 million) in a Series B funding round led by Top Tier Capital Partners and Acrew Capital. The round includes participation from USIT (Thomas Tull), True Ventures, Amity Ventures, Fundrise, Friends & Family Capital, Advance Venture Partners, and IIJ. Following a 250% increase in annual recurring revenue and doubling its customer base, Ditto's valuation approaches €423 million ($462 million). The funds will enhance international growth and deepen partnerships with cloud database providers like MongoDB. Ditto also secured a contract with the U.S. Air Force and serves clients like Japan Airlines, Delta, and Lufthansa.

🏠 Cédric Lefort, Head of Corporate Travel de Sabre France, discussed overcoming travel content fragmentation with AI at the Future of Travel Distribution event by Eventiz. Emphasizing collaboration among airlines, agencies, and travel providers, he highlighted the importance of common standards and real-time information sharing through modern APIs. AI contributes to personalizing travel offers, dynamic pricing, and customer service automation while respecting legal constraints like GDPR. He sees AI as a tool for hyper-personalization and predictive analytics in travel distribution, not a replacement for human agents. Physical travel agency bookings increased by 4.5%, while e-commerce and call centers saw a 9.6% decline, reflecting the continued relevance of human touch in the industry.