Turn Down: 28 October 2025

Punch Hospitality, a hospitality marketing and consultancy agency, have pulled together all the top news of the week in the world of AI, hospitality, and marketing so you can sit back, relax, and take in the headlines that are crucial for your hospitality business – because keeping on top of the latest helps us ensure our strategies are crafted expertly and can adapt to keep smashing your revenue goals.

New travel campaigns, a new AI web browser, and the purchasing power of Gen Alpha. Find out all the newest hospitality marketing news in Punch’s Turn Down. And as always, you can get in touch with any questions about hospitality marketing by emailing us or dropping us a call at 0113 255 7285

AI

• OpenAI have released ChatGPT Atlas, a new AI web browser. 
• Reddit has sued Perplexity over scraping Reddit data from Google on an ‘industrial scale’. 

Marketing

• Google has ended its Privacy Sandbox project after 6 years. 
• TikTok have launched subscriber-only photo posts.
• Instagram have launched tabs – an easier way to navigate between your feed, reels, and DMs. 
• Google Merchant Centre has created a centralised issue details page to help advertisers diagnose and resolve issues faster. 
• Google Ads will delete accounts without campaigns after six months. 
• X have launched a new link experience, with the like, share, and comment features still visible on the linked page to make it easier for followers to engage with your posts. 
• E.l.f Cosmetics is the first brand to test the newest ad integration on Twitch, allowing consumers to purchase directly through their livestreams. 
• Side hustles account for 57% of Gen Z’s income in the US. Nearly ¼ consumers have started or expanded side work due to economic pressures, according to a new PYMNTS Intelligence report.
• Gen Alpha consumers possess approximately $28 billion in purchasing power. New data from Numerator reveals that 53% of parents of Gen Alpha children report giving them some sort of weekly allowance, averaging at about $22. The most popular items Gen Alpha consumers purchase with their allowance money are snacks (59%), entertainment (34%), electronics (31%) and beverages (31%). Among 11–14-year-olds, 48% learn about new products from influencers and internet personalities, a rate that now rivals in-store discovery.

Hospitality

• Travellers view an average of 141 pages of travel content in the 45 days prior to booking a trip.
• Sabrina Carpenter is collaborating with Airbnb for a free experience, inviting 20 people to her vintage TV show in a Los Angeles Penthouse. 
• A new OOH British Airways campaign celebrates the beauty of air travel, with four British photographers travelling across three continents and capturing the world through plane windows. 
• United Airlines announces a new limited campaign with several NFL teams. 
• With the global gift card market projected to reach $1.3 trillion by 2029, many hospitality professionals are suggesting this could be a hidden revenue hack for travel companies and hotel groups to end the year strong. 
• 58% of travellers surveyed in Marriott Bonvoy’s 2026 EMEA Ticket to Travel Report now say that it is important that accommodation is ‘solo traveller-friendly’, and nearly half (47%) feel it’s important that accommodation is ‘pet-friendly’.
• The latest research by Travel Counsellors for Business, based on a survey of 1,000 UK SMEs, shows that 76% of respondents now typically extend overseas business trips for leisure or personal time – a sharp increase from 48% in 2024.
• Premium water is now a major concern for restaurant-goers:
  • 37% of UK restaurants surveyed said their demand for non-alcoholic alternatives has increased over the past year.
  • 64% of regular restaurant-goers say they’re now more likely to choose bottled water over a traditional soft drink when dining out.

October’s coming to a close so if you’re starting to think about your 2026 strategy and making next year your most successful one yet, it might be time for you to reach out. Our team of hospitality experts and enthusiasts will be happy to talk to you about your commercial goals and the strategy you need to achieve them. Get in touch with Punch today.