Tripadvisor

Platforms Drive 68.3M Holiday Nights in Germany

Online booking platforms accounted for 68.3 million overnight stays in German holiday homes and apartments in 2025, according to the Federal Statistical Office of Germany (Statistisches Bundesamt). That total represents a 13% increase year-on-year and more than an 80% rise compared with 2019. The figures refer to bookings via platforms including Airbnb, Booking.com and Expedia (TripAdvisor data was not included). Smaller providers dominate supply: about 94% of platform-booked nights occurred in accommodations with fewer than ten beds. Domestic demand was particularly strong (48.5 million nights, +15%), while international guests contributed 19.8 million nights, led by the Netherlands and Poland. Regionally, Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia recorded the highest booking volumes.

HelloFresh Showcased AI-Generated Billboard in Times Square

Hightouch ran a one-day Times Square activation in June to showcase ads created with its new creative tool, Ad Studio. The activation — funded by Hightouch — featured brands including HelloFresh, Sweetgreen and Tripadvisor. HelloFresh adopted Ad Studio to produce creative at scale, using the brand’s own assets, catalogs and compliance guidelines to maintain voice and governance. Ad Studio, part of Hightouch’s agentic marketing suite, handles creative asset generation through deployment and integrates with tools like Figma, though it does not manage media buying or budget allocation. HelloFresh’s Times Square ad emphasized the cost advantage of home-cooked meals versus takeout; the company plans to continue using the tool for future activations. Quotes in the article come from HelloFresh US head of marketing Conor Feeney and Hightouch co-CEO Tejas Manohar.

Marketers' playbook for brand visibility in AI agents

Jon Williams responds to Mark Ritson’s warning by offering a practical playbook for brands to remain visible and recommended by generative AI agents. He argues that fame functions as training data for large language models: brands that surface frequently become the model’s named recommendations, while weaker brands may be ignored. Williams recommends measuring a "share of model" metric (brand mention rate, recommendation rate, prompt coverage, model-specific visibility, volatility), using tools such as Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit, Profound and Peec AI, and optimizing content for citations rather than just search position. He highlights that paid AI discovery products are emerging (Google AI Mode, Perplexity, ChatGPT/OpenAI) and stresses the value of third-party validation channels like Reddit, review sites and editorial coverage to shape AI recommendations.