What connects fandom, credit cards & infrastructure?

Hi there,

I took a bit too long to send the newsletter this week. Maybe I was waiting for some major news to land overnight. Maybe I got swept into the FutureTravel Summit swirl, with speaker notes, session drafts, and school holiday logistics all competing for airtime. It’s been busy, but the good kind of busy :)

There’s no single insight that cracked the sky open this week. But there are stories worth stitching together. This edition is a bit of a patchwork (my crafty side showing up again) with threads running through infrastructure, brand emotion, and the quieter edges of travel.

Let’s start with infrastructure...

Travel Curious acquired Redeam, to rethink how curated experiences get distributed. Redeam has been a behind-the-scenes connector in the tours and activities world. By bringing that API layer into a curated, premium solution like Travel Curious, the new stack is vertically tighter, and (potentially) more powerful.

In another corner of the industry, KKR took a minority stake in Etraveli. Interesting follow-up to the failed Booking.com acquisition, and a reminder that global flight distribution (complex and messy as it is) still holds strategic value.

Heymax acquired Krip, a Hong Kong fintech that aggregates credit card perks and turns them into usable travel rewards. For Heymax, this is a way to localize and embed loyalty at the point of spend, not just after checkout.

And then on the brand and culture front:

Brussels Airport just opened what it’s calling the biggest souvenir shop in the country: a retail space filled exclusively with Belgian-made products. Thinking beyond airport commerce, this is cultural storytelling repackaged, for transit passengers.

Qatar Airways partnered with Hans Zimmer to compose a signature “Qatar Symphony.” Sound is becoming a brand asset, and the goal is simple: to create an emotional link that stays with travelers after they land.

Then there’s Virgin Voyages, who just announced a true crime-themed cruise (I mean, what!) for October, featuring iHeart’s biggest podcast creators. It’s one of the more extreme (but smart) examples of tapping into fandom and content culture to fill cabins.

Also spotted a couple things on the product and platform side.

Escape Plan raised $5M to grow its travel gear platform across Japan and the US. They’re going beyond just selling luggage, positioning themselves as a lifestyle brand with community and tech layered in.

And lastly, LATAM launched its own eSIM service via Gigs. Travelers can now purchase global data plans directly through the airline’s website or app. A smart combo of loyalty and upsell, built right into the travel flow.

That’s all for now. Back to event planing mode and weaving together more stories.

Thanks for reading, as always <3

See you next week,
Ana

Thank you for reading until the end.

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