Japan Raises Hotel Taxes as Overtourism Costs Start Reaching the Visitor Bill

Expedia Group says travelers are increasingly willing to use AI as a planning tool, but still hesitate when it comes to letting that same technology handle the actual booking. Its new AI Trust Gap report, based on a survey of more than 5,700 adults across the U.S., U.K., and India, points to a clear pattern: AI is gaining traction in travel discovery, but trust still sits firmly with established travel brands when money and accountability enter the picture.

That distinction may be one of the most important travel-tech stories of 2026. For years, the industry has assumed that if AI got good enough at recommendations, it would naturally move deeper into transactions. Expedia’s findings suggest the path is not that simple. Travelers appear open to using AI in a supporting role, especially for time-saving tasks like suggesting destinations, building itineraries, or tracking prices. But once a trip moves from inspiration to payment, they still want the protection, familiarity, and customer service infrastructure of a known booking platform.

The report lays out the contrast clearly. More than half of travelers said they are comfortable with AI suggesting travel options. A meaningful share said they would use it to monitor prices or help shape an itinerary. Nearly half said AI can save time and surface places they may not have otherwise discovered. Yet only a small minority currently rely on AI chatbots or agents for trip planning, and even fewer feel comfortable letting them actually make a purchase. Expedia says 68 percent of travelers still prefer to book with a trusted travel brand over an AI chatbot or agent, while 66 percent say they would not trust AI to buy or book anything on their behalf.

Planning Is One Thing, Payment Is Another

That gap reflects how travelers think about risk. Travel is not a low-stakes purchase. A wrong hotel, a failed booking, a mistimed flight, or a support problem during a disruption can quickly become expensive and stressful. In that context, people are not just asking whether AI can make a booking. They are asking who fixes it if something goes wrong.

Expedia’s data suggests the biggest concerns are loss of control, privacy around data and payment details, and misuse of personal information. There is also concern about what happens after the transaction, particularly if customer service is weak or unclear. In other words, the issue is not purely technological. It is operational and emotional. Travelers want to know there is accountability behind the booking, not just automation.

What This Means for the Travel Industry

The practical takeaway is that travel discovery is fragmenting. People may start their search on AI assistants, search engines, social platforms, or travel sites, but they are still gravitating toward trusted brands when it is time to complete the purchase. That creates a more complicated distribution environment, but also a major opportunity for travel companies that can combine AI-powered inspiration with dependable service and fulfillment.

For Expedia, the message is also strategic. The company is clearly acknowledging that AI alone is not enough to win the booking moment. The real advantage lies in blending AI interfaces with the pricing, supplier relationships, support systems, and operational scale that travelers already trust. The next phase of travel AI may therefore be less about replacing travel brands and more about embedding them wherever trip decisions begin.

If that holds true, the winners will not simply be the companies with the smartest chatbot. They will be the ones that make travelers feel comfortable enough to click book.

Dubai’s Burj Al Arab will close for 18 months as Jumeirah begins the first major restoration in the history of one of the world’s most recognizable hotels. The project is expected to run until 2027 and marks a significant moment not just for the property itself, but for Dubai’s wider luxury hospitality story. Few hotels are as tightly linked to the identity of a city as the Burj Al Arab is to Dubai.

Since opening in 1999, the sail-shaped hotel has functioned as more than a luxury address. It has been a visual shorthand for Dubai’s ambition, a building that helped define the city’s global image during its transformation into a major tourism and business hub. Built on its own man-made island and designed to resemble the sail of a traditional dhow, the hotel became one of the most photographed structures in the region and one of the most recognizable hotel buildings anywhere in the world.

The restoration will be led by French interior architect Tristan Auer, whose portfolio includes high-profile hospitality projects in Europe, including Paris’s Hôtel de Crillon. The task, by all accounts, is not to reinvent the property but to preserve its identity while refining it. That is a delicate challenge with a hotel whose entire appeal has long been tied to excess, theater, and unmistakable visual character.

Burj Al Arab was never designed to be discreet. Its interior language of gold leaf, Swarovski crystals, dramatic colors, expansive marble surfaces, and grand spatial gestures is central to why guests travel to see it.

Jumeirah’s message is that this DNA will remain intact. The colors, opulence, and unmistakable theatricality are expected to stay, while the hotel undergoes upgrades intended to modernize the property and improve technology, craftsmanship, and detailing. In that sense, the closure reflects a wider luxury-hotel trend.

Legacy icons are increasingly being restored not because they have lost relevance, but because maintaining relevance at the top end of the market now requires continuous reinvestment. For a hotel like Burj Al Arab, the risk is not age alone. It is allowing a landmark to become a museum piece in a market that keeps moving.

Preserving the Symbol, Not Replacing It

That may be why the language around the project is so careful. This is being presented as restoration, not redesign. The hotel’s operator appears to understand that Burj Al Arab’s power lies in familiarity as much as spectacle. Returning guests are not looking for a completely different product. They want the same sense of fantasy, but sharpened, restored, and made relevant for the next 25 years.

The closure also says something about Dubai itself. The city now has no shortage of ultra-luxury hotels, many of them newer and in some ways more contemporary. Yet Burj Al Arab still carries symbolic weight that few others can match. Its restoration is therefore not just an asset upgrade. It is a maintenance project for one of Dubai’s most important global tourism brands.

When it reopens in 2027, the test will be whether Jumeirah has managed to do what the best restorations achieve: make everything feel renewed without making the icon feel different. For a hotel built on memory, mythology, and visual recognition, that balance is everything.

MSC Group’s cruise division has revealed the name and positioning of its next private island project in the Bahamas: Sandy Cay, a luxury retreat scheduled to open in 2028 for guests sailing with both MSC Cruises and Explora Journeys. Located next to Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve, the new island is being presented as a more intimate and quieter complement to the company’s existing private destination, rather than a separate large-scale attraction on its own.

That distinction matters. Cruise lines are no longer building private destinations only as broad, family-focused beach products. Increasingly, they are segmenting them. Sandy Cay appears designed to give MSC a more layered Bahamas offering, with Ocean Cay continuing to serve as the larger anchor destination while Sandy Cay delivers a more exclusive and refined atmosphere. In strategic terms, this allows the company to serve both its contemporary cruise brand and its luxury brand with a shore product that feels more tailored, more controlled, and more premium.

The island’s branding is built around its aragonite sand, described as exceptionally bright and pure, which gives Sandy Cay both its name and much of its visual identity. MSC is emphasizing serenity, immersion, and connection to the natural environment, signaling that the island is meant to feel less programmed and more elemental than the increasingly entertainment-heavy private destinations many cruise brands now operate.

For Explora Journeys in particular, that matters. Luxury passengers tend to respond better to exclusivity, space, and understated design than to the amusement-style features that dominate some mainstream cruise islands.

A Two-Island Bahamas Strategy

Sandy Cay also strengthens MSC’s wider Bahamas model. Ocean Cay was already central to the company’s Caribbean strategy, and the addition of a second adjacent island creates the basis for a more flexible private-destination platform. It gives MSC the ability to shape different guest flows, offer different experiences by brand or itinerary, and deepen the overall value of stopping in a destination that it fully controls.

At the same time, MSC is continuing to enhance Ocean Cay itself. The company has outlined upgrades including additional dining venues, new beach concepts for adults and families, expanded relaxation spaces, and more marine-conservation experiences. It is also extending the pier at Ocean Cay so that two ships can dock there at the same time by the end of next year. Taken together, these moves show that Sandy Cay is not a standalone announcement. It is part of a broader investment in making the Ocean Cay area a more important long-term asset within MSC’s Caribbean business.

There is also a broader industry angle. Private islands have become one of the most valuable competitive tools in cruising because they give companies control over the guest experience, shore spending, operational timing, and brand messaging in a way traditional ports do not. By adding Sandy Cay, MSC is moving further into that model, but with a more upscale tone that may prove especially useful as it grows Explora Journeys.

The key question now is execution. If Sandy Cay delivers the level of privacy and polish MSC is promising, it could help the group strengthen its position at both the premium and luxury ends of the cruise market. In that sense, Sandy Cay is more than a new beach stop. It is a clear sign that MSC wants its private destinations to evolve from simple itinerary perks into core brand assets.

Hyatt has pushed the reopening of nearly all of its major Montego Bay-area resorts to the first quarter of 2027, extending the timeline for one of the most closely watched recovery stories in the Caribbean. The affected properties have been closed since Hurricane Melissa hit Jamaica in October 2025, and the latest delay means a substantial share of upscale all-inclusive room inventory will remain offline for another year.

The list is significant. It includes Breathless Montego Bay, Dreams Rose Hall, Hyatt Zilara Rose Hall, Hyatt Ziva Rose Hall, Secrets St. James Montego Bay, Secrets Wild Orchid Montego Bay, and Jewel Grande Montego Bay. Another property in the broader portfolio, Zoetry Montego Bay Jamaica, is also not currently bookable, though no reopening date has been announced. Taken together, these resorts represent a major part of the Montego Bay and Rose Hall lodging base, particularly in the upper-upscale and luxury all-inclusive segments.

For travelers, the immediate meaning is simple: anyone hoping for a near-term return of these brands to Jamaica will have to wait longer or book elsewhere. For the destination, the implications are broader. Montego Bay and Rose Hall form one of Jamaica’s core resort corridors, helped by proximity to Sangster International Airport and a concentration of large beachfront properties. When so many rooms stay dark for so long, the impact goes beyond one company’s booking channels. It changes capacity, shifts demand to other parts of the island, and raises pressure on the inventory that remains open.

Hyatt has framed the delay around the scale of restoration work and a clearer understanding of what is required as projects move deeper into recovery. That language is important because it suggests this is no longer just about repair. Across the Caribbean, major storm damage increasingly becomes an opportunity for owners and operators to go beyond rebuilding and into repositioning. The extra time often points to more extensive upgrades to guestrooms, public areas, food and beverage concepts, and back-of-house infrastructure. In other words, these resorts are unlikely to return exactly as they were before Melissa.

That approach may prove valuable in the long run. The Caribbean all-inclusive market remains highly competitive, and travelers now expect fresher design, stronger dining, and better overall product consistency. A delayed reopening can therefore be commercially painful in the short term but strategically useful if it results in a stronger relaunch. The risk, of course, is that long closures also weaken customer loyalty and redirect repeat guests toward competing resorts in Jamaica, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, or elsewhere in the region.

For now, the Montego Bay and Rose Hall story remains one of absence rather than comeback. Hyatt’s Jamaica portfolio was expected to be a major part of the island’s recovery narrative. Instead, that return is now firmly a 2027 story, and one of Jamaica’s most important resort clusters remains in transition.