Hospitality & Tourism Industry News Updates brought to you by MY RANGGO Hospitality Magazine for week ending 12th September 2025.
Our Hospitality & Tourism Industry News Headlines:-
- Philippines To Host Terra Madre Asia-Pacific 2025
- 1st Philippine Tourism Awards Takes Place
- Filipino Cuisine Among Australia’s Top 10 Fastest-Growing
- Booking.com Plagued With Fake Listings
- OTA’s Take Measures To Protect Their Dominance From AI
- OTA Bookings Are Down In Europe
- TikTok Go – Hotel Challenge or Hotel Opportunity?
Philippines To Host Terra Madre Asia-Pacific 2025
Terra Madre Asia & Pacific 2025 was officially launched on Tuesday Sept. 9 at the North Forbes Park Pavilion, Makati.
This will be the first regional edition of Terra Madre for Asia and the Pacific, and will take place at the Provincial Capitol Lagoon, Bacolod City from November 19 to 23.
The event, titled “From Soil to Sea: A Slow Food Journey Through Tastes & Traditions,” underscores the DOT’s focus on food and culture as key elements of its National Tourism Strategy. It will bring together chefs, cultural advocates, indigenous leaders, academics, farmers and fishers, to celebrate and promote food biodiversity and sustainability, alongside tradition, fairness and environmental care.
…Food carries our culture, sustains our communities, and provides livelihood for our people, and this Terra Madre is our global opportunity to tell the Filipino story to the world. – Sec. Christina Garcia Frasco, Philippines Department of Tourism.
Terra Madre Asia & Pacific 2025 has been organized by Slow Food International, in partnership with the Provincial Government of Negros Occidental, the City of Bacolod, the Department of Tourism (DOT), and other national government agencies.
1st Philippine Tourism Awards Takes Place
The first Philippine Tourism Awards took place on 8th September 2025, at Okada Manila, honoring the contributions of the businesses, enterprises and individuals that have shaped the industry.
All of You, our awardees and finalists, carry with you the stories of our communities, the hopes of our families, and the honor of our nation. May your triumph today inspire many others to follow your example, so that tourism will continue to be a wellspring of hope, unity, and pride in our identity as Filipinos. Sec. Christina Garcia Frasco, Philippines Department of Tourism.
The awards were given to businesses, enterprises and individuals that demonstrate excellence, innovation and best practice, across 28 award categories.
Read the Philippine News Agency coverage for the complete list of Awardees
Global Hospitality & Tourism Industry News
Filipino Cuisine Among Australia’s Top 10 Fastest-Growing.
Cuponation’s Forks & Searches 2025 Report shows that Search interest for Filipino cuisine is growing in Australia.
Online Searches for cultural cuisine shows a 238% YOY (year on year) growth in interest for Filipino cuisine, putting it in the Top 10 Australia’s Fastest-Growing Cuisines by Search Interest.
Booking.com Plagued With Fake Listings
The UK Consumer Watchdog Which? is demanding Booking.com get to grips with fake listings on their platform, stating that 1-10 customers have been affected.
And a separate body, Action Fraud, has also warned travelers to practice caution when using Booking.com, having received 530 scam reports, with total losses to travelers at £370k (during June 2023-September 2024).
Which? Editor, Rory Boland, has stated that Booking.com is not doing enough to reduce fraud on its platform, from insufficient requirements to provide proof of identity and/or ownership when creating a listing, to security breaches enabling hackers to send payment requests and access customers accounts to make bookings. Booking.com denies this and insists that there are multiple controls and checks in place.
An article by The Telegraph includes one case of an historical 12-bed Manor House in the UK, which was fraudulently added to Booking.com, with whole manor weekend stays priced at just £200-300. The owner, who lists the property privately for £2-3k per weekend, was shocked after being contacted by a number of people checking the legitimacy of the listing and cheap price. One person had already paid a booking deposit.
The owner faced a number of battles to get his property removed from Booking.com. As he hadn’t created the listing himself, he didn’t have a customer/property reference number. This meant he was unable to access the “24-hour helpline”, which requires the reference number to proceed. He was eventually able to track down an agent who disabled the ability to book the manor on the platform, but the property listing remained live on the site.
It took one month from the initial contact with the agent, letters to Booking.com’s Headquarters by the owner, and intervention by Which? for the listing to finally be removed completely.
OTA’s Take Measures To Protect Their Dominance (AND Profits) From AI
The capabilities of AI search and answer platforms are accelerating at great speed, bringing with it the imminent arrival of AI Agents – autonomous bots that can search, compare and book personalized travel packages on behalf of the consumer. And the global OTA’s are, rightly, perceiving this as a threat to their future revenue.
Users will be able to direct these AI ‘Agents’ to find and design packages that meet their requirements and deliver them with the best deals. This is likely to result in customers being offered a wider range of accommodation options, including accommodations not listed with the global OTA platforms.
With this potential threat to their commissions and fees, the global OTA’s are already working on their own AI-enabled trip planner agent features, as well as negotiating partnerships with AI platforms.
Our Tip? If you haven’t already, start looking into positioning your website for AI Overviews and AI Search.
There has been a lot of suggestions that website owners should block platforms like Open AI from crawling their site but – if they’re not crawling it, they’re not indexing it. And if they’re not indexing it your website doesn’t exist to them, or potential guests.
HotelMinder offers some useful steps for AI Search-Proofing your website
OTA Bookings Are Down In Europe
The OTA share of hotel bookings in Eurpose has dropped to 22%, from 30%, with many hotels reporting fewer bookings received from the global OTA’s.
A number of factors are thought to be behind this, including:-
- OTA’s diversifying their offerings to include short and long term rental options, and
- Hotels reducing their OTA distribution channels to focus on direct and paid marketing through alternative channels.
63% of hotels have said they have downsized their distribution channels and reallocated resources into their own marketing, loyalty programs and improved personalization programs, according to RateGain’s “State of the Distribution 2025” Report.
Read More:- Phocuswire
TikTok Go – Hotel Challenge or Hotel Opportunity?
TikTok Go has launched in the US, Indonesia and Japan, enabling followers to not just view created content but also instantly book the hotel accommodations they see, without leaving the platform.
This is great news for Influencers and Content Creators, who have a greater capacity to earn commission if customers aren’t redirected away from the platform to search for featured accommodation.
And for hotels it will provide an opportunity to better promote USP’s (Unique Selling Points) such as architecture, interior design, topography, facilities and amenities, service quality and atmosphere to a global audience.
But there is a catch. TikTok Go’s in-app booking is through a partnership with Booking.com. So, the usual OTA commission rates will apply on any confirmed bookings.
Effectively, TikTok Go is an extension of Booking.com’s affiliate commission model; Hotels pay their agreed Booking.com commission > Booking.com shares some of this with TikTok > TikTok shares some of its cut with the creator.
Global roll-out of TikTok Go will continue for the next 12-18 months and – while no launch dates have been set for the Philippines – with TikTok’s current market penetration in the country it is likely to be sooner rather than later.
Did you miss last weeks News Updates? Catch up here:- Industry News Update – 5th September
