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Agoda Reveals South Korea’s Top Inbound Travel Trends in the First Half of 2026

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SEOUL, South Korea, Aug. 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — As South Korea works toward its goal of welcoming 30 million international visitors by 2029, digital travel platform Agoda revealed a 9% rise in travel interest to South Korea from international travelers during the first half of 2026. Agoda’s insights on the latest inbound travel trends highlight the top source markets expressing travel interest to South Korea and the destinations that are attracting the greatest interest from international travelers.

Based on accommodation searches made between January and June 2026, Seoul claimed the top spot as the most-searched inbound destination. Busan, Jeju, Incheon, and Daegu rounded out the top five.

Busan, in particular, recorded a 43% increase in accommodation searches on Agoda. According to Busan Metropolitan City, the city welcomed more than 1.93 million international visitors during the first five months of the year. Ongoing efforts to expand partnerships with global OTAs and promote the Visit Busan Pass are expected to further strengthen the city’s appeal and support its target of attracting four million international travelers by the end of the year.

Ulsan emerges as a rising star in the first half of the year

Among domestic destinations, Ulsan recorded the fastest growth in travel interest, with accommodation searches rising 117% year over year. The increase is likely driven in part by the rebranding of the Ulsan Summer Festival as the Ulsan Music Festival, which was moved from August to June to provide travelers with a more comfortable experience while avoiding peak summer heat. Beyond the festival, Ulsan offers a wide range of attractions, including Jasujung Cave, Ulsan Sheep Ranch, the Migratory Bird Center, Jangsaengpo Whale Culture Zone, and the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream. The opening of a new coastal park at Gangdong Beach in July is also expected to attract even more travelers throughout the second half of the year.

Japan leads inbound travel interest to South Korea in 2026

When looking at the inbound source markets, Japan topped the list with accommodation searches increasing by 7%. Completing the list of the top five source markets expressing travel interest to South Korea were Taiwan (11%), China (37%), Hong Kong (15%), and the Philippines (49%). Notably, the Philippines climbed three places from last year to enter the top five. Interest among Filipino travelers in visiting South Korea is likely to remain strong as the visa waiver program for Filipino group travelers has been extended from its original end date in June this year to December 31 next year.

Japan and Vietnam are favorite international hotspots among South Koreans 

Among overseas destinations, Tokyo ranked first in accommodation searches by South Korean travelers, followed by Fukuoka, Osaka, Da Nang, Nha Trang, Sapporo, Bangkok, Bali, Phu Quoc, and Taipei. Japan and Vietnam dominated the top spots, highlighting South Korean travelers’ preference for short-haul getaways and beach vacations.

Alex Park, Country Director, South Korea at Agoda shared, “South Korea continues to attract growing interest from international travelers thanks to its vibrant cities, cultural heritage, scenic landscapes, and world-class experiences. As inbound travel continues to gain momentum, we’re pleased to see both established destinations and emerging cities capturing the attention of travelers from around the world. Agoda remains committed to helping visitors discover the best of South Korea with great value on flights, accommodations, and activities, making it easier than ever to experience everything the country has to offer.”

With over 130,000 flight routes, more than 6 million holiday properties, and over 300,000 activities, Agoda ensures inbound travelers can seamlessly combine their bookings in one convenient platform throughout their journey. As part of Agoda’s August Mega Sale, travelers can enjoy up to 60% off on hotel bookings during the main sale from 17 to 31 August, with a special Flash Sale offering up to 70% off on 19 August. The campaign also includes VIP Priority Access for Agoda VIP members from 13 to 16 August.

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SOURCE Agoda

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Sobot Upgrades its AI Agents, Moving from Answers to Results

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Built to Solve, Backed by a Full System of Support

SINGAPORE, Aug. 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Sobot, the agentic customer contact platform, announced an upgrade to its AI Agents. This upgrade didn’t come from a smarter model alone, but from a fundamental change in how Agents think and act.

What’s New in Sobot Agents

Reasoning in Action: From Answering Questions to Getting Things Done

Previously, Sobot followed a workflow-trigger pattern: businesses built a workflow in advance, mapping out how the Agent should respond to each customer behavior. Once a customer’s intent was recognized, the Agent simply followed that path. It couldn’t adapt when a situation fell outside the workflow, and nothing fed back into the Agent’s own decision-making until the process had run its course.

The upgraded Sobot Agents work differently, running on a continuous loop of reasoning, acting, and observing, a pattern known as ReAct. Take a return request: instead of following a workflow, the Agent works out what information it still needs, checks it against what the customer has already shared, and asks for the rest. Workflows still suit scenarios that need a fixed process; this is simply a more adaptive option. RAG keeps every answer grounded in the right knowledge, and ReAct turns that understanding into a finished task.

The foundation of Sobot Agents lies in a unified resource layer of knowledge, skills, tools, MCPs, memory, and variables, centrally managed and shared across every Agent rather than configured separately. A skill built to handle one type of request only needs to be created once, then any Agent can call on it automatically whenever it recognizes a matching scenario, without rebuilding it from scratch.

Conversational Building: From Expert Configuration to Simplified Setup

Building an AI Agent used to mean specialist-level setup: bot styles, prompts, knowledge bases, and even more, each on its own separate page. In the updated Sobot Agents Studio, businesses simply describe what they want to build in a conversation, the same way they might explain a task to a colleague, covering the relevant business materials and what the Agent is expected to do. The Studio then pulls up the right settings on its own, and no page switching is needed. Knowledge, skills, and tools all come together in one place.

Ask AI for Data: Performance Insights in Natural Language

The upgrade introduces “Ask AI for Data”, changing how businesses assess their own AI Agents’ performance. Sobot used to bring performance data together in one dashboard, but businesses could only view preset templates. With so many metrics available, managers had to dig through them, find the ones that mattered, and work out the comparisons on their own. Now, instead of reading a dashboard, managers can simply ask a question in natural language and get a direct answer, complete with trend interpretation, anomaly flags, and next steps to take.

Nexus and Experts: The Infrastructure and Expertise Behind Every Agent

Sobot Agents handle customer interactions independently, but they don’t run in isolation. That independence is backed by two more layers: Nexus and Experts.

Sobot Nexus is the unified infrastructure every Agent runs on. It connects every channel customers might come from, including website and app chat, voice, email, and social media such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram, into a single platform. It also gives agents a unified workspace: when a request needs a human touch, it transfers there with the full conversation history, so nothing needs to be repeated. An AI Copilot works alongside the human agent throughout, helping them handle the conversation more efficiently.

Sobot Experts stay involved throughout a business’s journey with Sobot Agents. AI Strategists design implementation plans aligned with businesses’ goals; Deployment Specialists configure and launch Agents for stable operation; AI Trainers refine models using real conversation data; and Operation Analysts monitor performance and flag where to adjust next. Rather than stepping back once a system is delivered, Experts keep observing and tuning, driving steady gains in accuracy.

Sobot: Redefining What AI Solves in Customer Contact

“We’re moving AI in customer contact from a supporting role to a leading one. The question is no longer how well AI can assist a human agent, but how much AI can resolve on its own. That’s the direction we see the whole industry heading, and it’s the direction we’re building Sobot toward,” said Yi Xu, CEO of Sobot.

This upgrade reflects that shift: Sobot Agents are now built to finish a customer’s request, not just respond to it, freeing up businesses’ people for what genuinely needs a human touch.

For more information, please visit https://www.sobot.io/.

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SOURCE Sobot

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Mouser Electronics New Product Insider: Over 5,000 New Parts Added in Second Quarter of 2026

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SHANGHAI, July 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — As an authorized distributor, Mouser Electronics, Inc. is focused on the rapid introduction of new electronic components and technologies, giving customers an edge and helping speed time to market. Over 1,200 semiconductor and electronic component manufacturers count on Mouser to help them introduce their newest products to the global marketplace. Mouser’s customers can expect 100% certified, genuine products that are fully traceable from each manufacturer.

Last quarter, Mouser launched more than 5,000 part numbers ready for shipment.

Some of the products introduced by Mouser from April through June include:

Renesas Electronics RX14T Motor Control Microcontrollers
Featuring a 48MHz RXv2 core with floating-point unit (FPU) and digital signal processing (DSP) support, the RX14T microcontrollers, from Renesas Electronics, balance cost, functionality, and motor control performance. The RX14T entry-level MCUs are specifically designed for cost-efficient motor control applications, including home appliances, power factor correction (PFC) control, building automation, such as HVAC and water pumps, power tools, and other small-motor market devices.Microchip Technology PIC16F13276 Curiosity Nano Evaluation Kit
The PIC16F13276 Curiosity Nano evaluation kit (EV18Z11A) from Microchip Technology provides an evaluation and prototyping platform for the PIC16F1327 8-bit microcontrollers. The board is equipped with full programming, debugging, and hardware‑level evaluation capabilities, allowing users to easily explore the performance and peripherals of the PIC16F13276 MCU. The Curiosity Nano kit is designed to integrate seamlessly with Microchip’s MPLAB® Tools for VS Code® and the MPLAB X Integrated Development Environment (IDE), providing quick access to the MCU’s Configurable Logic Block (CLB) and Core Independent Peripherals (CIPs). By implementing the MCC graphical interface, developers can quickly configure peripherals, generate optimized code, and customize device functionality for a wide range of embedded applications.DFRobot SEN0691 Fermion C4002 mmWave Human Presence Sensor
The SEN0691 Fermion C4002 mmWave human presence sensor by DFRobot delivers “True Presence” automation with micro-motion detection. Traditional PIR sensors often fail to detect stationary occupants, leading to inconvenient lighting deactivation. The Fermion C4002 mmWave radar module resolves this by utilizing 24 GHz FMCW technology to detect micro-motions (such as breathing and chest expansion). Capable of distinguishing between moving, stationary, and micro-moving targets within a 10 × 10 meter range, this module serves as a reliable core component for smart lighting, HVAC control, and security monitoring in Home Assistant and IoT systems.Phoenix Contact Hybrid Connectors for Energy Storage
The Hybrid Connectors for Energy Storage from Phoenix Contact combine power and signal interfaces, making them an all-in-one solution for energy storage applications. These connectors provide a reliable and safe connection for power and signal contacts, a preassembled interface for time savings, and a safe connection to compensate for manufacturing and mounting tolerances.

To see more New Product Insider highlights, visit https://info.mouser.com/new_products/.

For more Mouser news and our latest new product introductions, visit https://www.mouser.com/newsroom/.

Mouser Electronics, Inc. is the industry’s leading New Product Introduction (NPI) distributor with the widest selection of semiconductors and electronic components™.

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SOURCE Mouser Electronics

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Wieson Technologies Announces First-Half 2026 Operating Results: Revenue of NT$1.567 Billion, Second-Half Focus on AI Thermal Management and Robotics

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TAIPEI, Aug. 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Wieson Technologies (6272) announced its operating results for the first half of 2026, with consolidated revenue of NT$1.567 billion, gross margin of 21%, and earnings per share of NT$0.13.

Regarding the changes in revenue and profit in the first half, the automotive segment was mainly affected by the decline in mainland China’s domestic auto sales market, while the smart electronics segment was mainly affected by memory chips being concentrated in AI applications and prices surging several-fold, leading customers to reduce order demand for the company’s smart electronic components in order to control costs, as well as customers delaying pull-in due to chip supply shortages. Despite facing external environmental challenges, the company maintained gross margin above 20% through cost control and product mix optimization, laying a solid foundation for operations and technology development in the second half of the year.

For the second half of 2026, as AI technology gradually expands from cloud computing to physical application endpoints, the global robotics market and AI server demand are entering a phase of technological upgrading. Wieson Technologies will increase R&D investment in three main new business areas — robotics, thermal transfer, and high-frequency high-speed — raising R&D expenses to approximately 7% of revenue, to advance product deployment and technology upgrades.

Robotics Market: Integrating Four Key Technologies As industrial automation deepens, AI, autonomous mobile, and humanoid robots are gradually moving from R&D validation into factories, logistics, and service settings, driving related components toward higher reliability, high-speed transmission, high power, and greater integration. Wieson Technologies will position itself around “Connection × Data × Power × Thermal” as its core, focusing on key applications such as robotic joints, motor drives, sensors, controllers, machine vision, and edge AI computing. The company will strengthen its signal, power, and communication connection solutions, and extend its high-speed data transmission and thermal management technologies to meet the needs of next-generation robots for real-time computing, precise control, and long-term stable operation. By integrating these four core technology capabilities, Wieson plans to move from being a single-component supplier toward becoming an integrated solutions provider, continuing to expand into the industrial robot, mobile robot, and humanoid robot markets.

Advanced Thermal Transfer Business Unit: Developing Diverse AI Thermal Management Solutions Currently, high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for AI servers consumes a large amount of wafer capacity, and memory suppliers have shifted their focus toward enterprise-grade products, resulting in a structural shortage of consumer-grade GDDR memory, which in turn affects PC and notebook shipments and raises PC costs. In response to these market changes, Wieson’s Thermal Transfer Business Unit continues to advance technology development. For the LGA9324 series CPUs to be launched by Intel and the SP8 series CPUs to be launched by AMD in the fourth quarter of 2026, Wieson has completed testing and validation of the corresponding server CPU thermal module thermal management solutions. In addition, to address the thermal management needs of GPUs or ASICs in PCIe and OAM architectures for AI computing power, the R&D team provides customized thermal simulation analysis and develops both active and passive thermal modules. To meet the thermal management target of up to 800W for next-generation consumer graphics cards, Wieson has also developed air-cooling and AIO liquid-cooling modules (WATERCOOLER), offering customers a diverse range of cooling options.

High-Speed Transmission Business Unit: Developing High-Speed and High-Reliability Applications Wieson continues to invest in the development of high-frequency, high-speed products and the upgrading of automated production processes for the Server, Storage, IPC, and HPC markets. To further upgrade its high-speed transmission connector analysis and manufacturing technologies, the company has invested in a 67G high-frequency network analyzer and automated test equipment to meet customers’ stringent requirements for signal stability and data transmission speed across different application environments, providing high-stability, low-loss product options and helping customers smoothly develop and mass-produce next-generation products.

Overall, Wieson Technologies will maintain stable financial operations and continued investment in R&D resources. By integrating connections, data, power, and thermal technologies, the company will continue to monitor market demand and provide technology solutions aligned with the development trends of AI and smart manufacturing, striving to meet global customers’ product development and application needs in the second half of the year.

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SOURCE WIESON TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.

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