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WhatsApp Channels Has Started Rolling Out Across The MENA Region
The one-way broadcast tool allows account admins to send text, photos, videos, and stickers to followers, and create polls.
WhatsApp Channels is now being rolled out across the MENA region, with countries including Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, and Morocco soon to benefit from the broadcast service.
Soon, people across much of the Middle East and North Africa will benefit from private updates from their favorite celebrities, creators, artists, and sports teams without having to leave WhatsApp.
Moon Baz, Creator Partnerships Lead, Africa, Middle East, and Turkey at Meta, was excited to announce the update, “We’re starting to roll out WhatsApp Channels globally and adding thousands of new channels that people can follow in WhatsApp. We’re also welcoming some of your favorite celebrities, sports teams, artists, creators, and thought leaders that people can follow right within WhatsApp”.
According to Moon Baz, Channels allow admins to send one-way broadcasts via text, photos, videos, and stickers. Users can find Channels in a new WhatsApp tab labeled Updates, which is separate from their regular chats with friends, family, and communities.
WhatsApp users will be able to see recommended Channels based on popularity and region. Similar to regular chats, they will also be able to use emojis to react to updates — though users won’t be able to see someone else’s reaction.
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Channel updates will not be available indefinitely. Meta will store data on their servers for up to 30 days. Admins will also be able to block screenshots and forwards from their channels.
Overall, WhatsApp Channels look set to become an effective tool for getting in touch with your target audience — whether you’re an influencer or a business looking for marketing opportunities.
News
Trip.com Is Betting An AI Agent Will Book Your Next Vacation
Abu Dhabi, Jazeera Airways and a run of hotel deals give the company more inventory. Its Mastercard demo says the most about where booking technology is headed.
Most of what Trip.com Group announced at Arabian Travel Market 2026 this week reads like the standard expansion playbook of an online travel agency: a new agreement with a tourism board, a run of hotel partnerships, an airline deal. However, one item was considerably more interesting: a demonstration built with Mastercard of an AI agent that doesn’t just suggest trips but also pays for them.
The showcase put TripGenie, the company’s AI travel assistant, to work searching, selecting and completing purchases inside a single booking flow, with Mastercard’s Agent Suite for Merchants handling the payment step and Network International processing the transactions on the merchant side. It’s limited for now to attractions and ancillary services, but the partners plan a phased commercial rollout from early 2027.
“As traveller expectations change, technology and AI will play an increasingly important role in how people plan their journeys,” says Schubert Lou, CEO of Trip.com.
Meanwhile, in more conventional news, CEO Lou and Saleh Mohamed Al Geziry (Director General for Tourism at the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi), signed an agreement building on the two organizations’ existing partnership, with joint marketing and Abu Dhabi destination content to be pushed across Trip.com Group’s platforms.
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On accommodation, the group expanded its partnerships with JA Hotels & Resorts, Ishraq Hospitality and Aleph Hospitality and deepened its work with Silkhaus, which brings vacation homes into a portfolio that has so far leaned on hotels. Jazeera Airways signed a strategic partnership intended to widen the Kuwaiti carrier’s reach and encourage earlier bookings, tied to Kuwait’s own tourism ambitions.
The company moved into a larger Dubai office earlier this year and describes its long-term aim as a two-way ecosystem: sending Middle East travelers abroad while drawing international visitors in.
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