Friday, June 31st, 2026.
Welcome to Quests Daily | Your Compass for the Day in Travel.
The Lead Story: India’s Corporate Travel Problem Has Shifted From Adoption to Integration
Image generated via AI for representational purposes.
TripGain’s State of Business Travel in India 2026 report, based on responses from more than 200 professionals across HR, finance, IT, executive leadership and frequent business travellers, finds that companies are adopting travel technology without fully connecting the travel process. Among organisations with automated travel systems, 58% still take more than a week to reimburse employees. While 64% of respondents reported using automated booking platforms, booking, policies, approvals, payments and expenses often continue to operate through separate systems. Every HR and finance controller surveyed considered broader travel inventory a strategic priority, compared with only one in five business travellers.
Corporate travel platforms are moving beyond a competition over booking inventory and transaction convenience. Companies increasingly need one workflow connecting policy enforcement, approvals, payments, expense reporting and reimbursement. A business may automate reservations while still leaving employees to submit claims manually and finance teams to reconcile disconnected records, limiting both cost visibility and employee adoption. The finding that organisations with automated booking platforms were more than four times as likely to approve premium travel also suggests that stronger controls can create room for higher-value purchasing rather than simply restricting spend. Travel management companies and expense platforms will increasingly compete on integration depth, policy visibility and reconciliation speed. Providers limited to the booking stage risk becoming inventory suppliers inside a travel programme controlled by a more comprehensive technology platform.
The Briefing:
Thomas Cook and SOTC Secure Inventory on Premium Global Trains:
Thomas Cook India and SOTC have launched rail-led holidays across South Africa, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Egypt, starting at ₹4.5 lakh per person. By procuring seats and cabins in advance, the companies are treating limited luxury-rail inventory as a packaged-holiday product rather than an add-on booked after demand arrives.
Jewar Plans ₹5,000-Crore Medical Tourism Hub:
Uttar Pradesh has identified nearly 200 acres in Jewar for the proposed UP Cares Regional Medical Hub, an integrated medicity combining multi-speciality hospitals, diagnostics, rehabilitation, medical education and research. Its proximity to Noida International Airport could help connect overseas patients directly with treatment and recovery services, but the tourism opportunity will depend on international patient facilitation, accommodation, transport and coordinated hospital partnerships being developed alongside the healthcare infrastructure.
Tourism Finance Targets ₹3,000 Crore in FY27 Sanctions:
Tourism Finance Corporation of India plans to sanction around ₹3,000 crore in FY27, up from more than ₹2,000 crore in FY26. Nearly ₹500 crore is expected to come from smaller cities and emerging tourism destinations, placing more hotel financing behind markets driven by leisure, religious and business travel.
Burj Khalifa Opens Online UPI Payments to Indian Travellers:
Indian travellers can now use UPI on the official At the Top, Burj Khalifa website through an integration involving NIPL, NEOPAY and Emaar Entertainment. The UAE attraction becomes the country’s first to accept UPI for e-commerce transactions, reducing payment friction before the traveller reaches Dubai.
Chalet Hotels Converts Moderate Revenue Growth Into Stronger Margins
What happened: Chalet Hotels reported total income of ₹514 crore in Q1 FY27, up 10% year-on-year, while EBITDA increased 14% to ₹240 crore. Its EBITDA margin expanded by 231 basis points to 46.7%, and consolidated profit after tax reached ₹86.1 crore. Within the hospitality portfolio, revenue rose 9% to ₹418.5 crore and EBITDA increased 11% to ₹178.4 crore. RevPAR grew 6% to ₹8,582, supported by a strong performance from leisure properties.
Why it matters: Chalet’s results show hotel profitability growing faster than room revenue despite flat air traffic and limited growth in international business during the quarter. Domestic demand and leisure performance helped protect occupancy and pricing, while margin expansion allowed a 10% increase in core revenue to produce 15% EBITDA growth excluding the residential business. The next phase of growth will also depend on new supply, with the Taj Delhi International Airport hotel and CIGNUS II in Powai nearing completion. Chalet’s earnings therefore rely on two parallel drivers: extracting more profit from the existing portfolio and bringing new assets into operation without weakening rates or margins.
Visual- Stat of the Day:
Takeaway: Canadians spent $3.3 billion less on travel to the United States in 2025 than in 2024, while visits fell by approximately 25%. Spending on non-US international travel increased by $3.6 billion to $22.8 billion, with travel to Europe rising nearly 14% and Asia almost 17%. The demand did not simply disappear; a substantial share moved to competing international destinations. US border markets, hotels and attractions face a source-market problem that discounting alone may not repair, while destinations receiving redirected Canadian demand have an opportunity to convert a politically driven shift into repeat leisure behaviour.
Hotel Wi-Fi Has Become a Corporate Travel Security Risk
Case: Researchers have identified an ongoing DNS-poisoning campaign targeting Wi-Fi gateways at hotels and conference venues. Compromised networks can redirect travellers attempting to access legitimate services toward credential-harvesting pages designed to steal corporate login details. Affected gateways have been identified in multiple US cities, India and Saudi Arabia, extending the threat across markets frequently used for business travel and events.
Where it helps: Hotels can treat secure connectivity as part of the core guest product rather than a back-end IT function. Regular router updates, network monitoring, segmented systems and stronger vendor controls can reduce exposure while giving corporate buyers clearer security standards to assess during procurement. Travel managers can also build public-network safeguards into employee policies, particularly for staff handling finance, customer or company data while travelling.
Risk: Hospitality networks often depend on third-party hardware and property-level maintenance, creating uneven protection across a hotel group. A single compromised gateway can affect many guests without visibly disrupting the Wi-Fi service. Hotels that cannot demonstrate control over their connectivity infrastructure may face reputational damage and greater scrutiny from corporate travel buyers after an incident.
See you soon with more such insights, if you have been forwarded this email, don’t forget to subscribe to Quests.Travel