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UK travel and hospitality brands are shifting customer communications toward Rich Communications Services (RCS), with interactions up more than 300% last year, according to Infobip's Messaging Trends Report 2026. The data, drawn from 15.4 billion UK customer interactions in 2025, shows RCS penetration has reached 70% in the UK, while SMS still recorded a 22% increase and WhatsApp grew 4%.
The report, covered by Breaking Travel News, points to a clear trajectory: single-channel engagement is fading. James Stokes, Head of Enterprise UK and Nordics at Infobip, said: "This data confirms that single-channel engagement is now a thing of the past for the travel and hospitality sector. UK travel and hospitality brands are increasingly communicating with their customers through RCS and WhatsApp, creating engaging and two-way conversational experiences. We're seeing a clear trajectory toward omnichannel engagement powered by Agentic AI."
More than six million travel and hospitality interactions were recorded in 2025. Infobip also reports that over 50% of global brands have adopted agentic AI for tasks like account authentication and travel reminder notifications.
What the channel shift means for vendors
For anyone selling messaging, CRM, or customer engagement tools into UK hospitality, the numbers cut two ways. RCS growth above 300% signals operators are actively testing richer, two-way channels, which creates a buying window for platforms that can orchestrate RCS alongside SMS and WhatsApp. But the 22% SMS growth is a reminder that operators are not abandoning cheaper, reliable channels. A vendor pitching RCS-only messaging will miss the reality that most venues run hybrid stacks.
The 70% RCS penetration figure matters because it removes the historical objection that RCS reach was too patchy for hospitality use. When seven in ten UK customers can receive RCS, operators have a defensible reason to invest in richer booking confirmations, table-ready alerts, and two-way service messages. Vendors should lead with reach data, not feature lists.
Immersive AV spend hits the Isle of Man
TVC Technology Solutions has completed an immersive AV installation at Motor Isle Bar & Grill, a new motorsport-themed venue on the Isle of Man developed by the team behind the 3 Wheeling brand. The project, reported by LSi Online on 14 August 2026, used Samsung commercial displays, a WyreStorm NetworkHD AV-over-IP distribution platform, a multi-zone Audac sound system, and touchscreen control.
TVC technical director Chris Whitlock framed the investment in competitive terms: "As bars and restaurants compete to attract customers, immersive experiences have become one of hospitality's most valuable ingredients. From live sport and digital signage to carefully zoned audio and flexible entertainment spaces, technology is increasingly helping venues encourage longer visits, repeat custom and stronger customer engagement."
For vendors selling digital signage, audio, or entertainment systems, a single-site Isle of Man project is not a market signal. But it confirms that experiential AV is no longer confined to London and Manchester. Independent operators in secondary locations are spending on multi-zone audio and AV-over-IP, which means territory planning for AV vendors should not assume demand clusters only in major cities.
Workforce tech vendors watch Nory's positioning
Nory is participating in Propel Info's Summer Conference with a session on aligning people and operations in hospitality, per TipRanks. The women-led panel features leaders from Greene King and Robinsons Brewery, and will discuss how technology can reduce friction between HR and operational teams.
Nory is positioning its platform as a tool to integrate workforce management with operational execution. For vendors selling workforce or operations software into hospitality, the panel composition is the signal. Greene King and Robinsons Brewery are large, multi-site operators. When their leaders appear on a panel about HR-operations alignment, the topic has moved from back-office concern to board-level agenda. Vendors competing with Nory should expect procurement conversations to involve both HR and operations stakeholders, not one or the other.
Bank of England tests cross-border settlement with Polygon
The Bank of England's Digital Pound Lab has entered phase two, with Polygon Labs joining Nobo Finance and Dun & Bradstreet to test near-instant cross-border settlement, per Finextra. The test examines whether a stablecoin and a digital pound can settle the same cross-border payment in one flow, without either side waiting on the other.
The digital pound leg settles on the Bank of England's simulated test rails, while Polygon covers the stablecoin settlement leg and smart contract infrastructure. Nobo Finance leads work on a portable credit identity for small businesses, with Dun & Bradstreet contributing verified business identity and credit data.
Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs, said: "For digital money to actually move the world's trade, its different forms have to work together: public and private, central bank money and stablecoins. This experiment tests exactly that."
For payment processors and POS vendors selling into UK hospitality, this is a long-horizon signal. The Digital Pound Lab is testing infrastructure, not a product. But the inclusion of SME credit identity and cross-border settlement suggests any future digital pound rollout will be designed with small business trade flows in mind. Vendors should track phase two outcomes, not build roadmaps around them yet.
Western Union's Intermax deal clears New York, stalls in California
Western Union has reached an agreement with the New York Department of Financial Services to proceed with its roughly $500 million acquisition of Intermex, per Finextra. The company committed to maintain store locations in New York State, cap fee increases for three years, and keep the same physical presence in Zip codes where Intermax locations operate.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said: "As Western Union moves forward with this acquisition, my administration is ensuring that critical remittance services will remain available in communities across the state while protecting consumers from unfair fee increases."
The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation has suspended the approval extension previously granted, citing a need to further review the transaction after six months. Western Union and Intermex say they will work to address the watchdog's questions.
This is a US regulatory story, not a UK one. For vendors selling into UK hospitality, it matters only indirectly: Western Union's remittance network is used by hospitality workers sending money internationally, and any consolidation in that market can shift where those workers access financial services. UK vendors selling payroll, benefits, or financial wellbeing products to hospitality employers should note that remittance access remains a live employee concern, but no UK action follows from this development.
A note on Peach Data
Peach Data provides verified, TPS-screened contact data across thousands of UK hospitality venues, so vendors selling messaging, AV, workforce, or payments technology can reach the operators actually making buying decisions. peachdata.co.uk