Skift Take

These are the digital trends we were talking about this week.

Every week we post hundreds of stories across various sectors in travel, connecting the dots across various global trends, and in these weekend posts we highlight the stories that tackle these trends. This one looks at top digital trends.

For all of our trends roundups, go here.

>>CEO Gillian Tans believes that true loyalty is more about delivering the core product for customers than points and rewards schemes: Video: Booking.com CEO on Keeping Customers at Center of Strategy

>>There have long been rumblings that the OpenTable acquisition was problematic for the Priceline Group. Now we learn the depth of the problem — a $941 million impairment charge: Priceline Takes $941 Million Writedown on OpenTable

>>Peer-to-peer payment platforms, digital wallets and cryptocurrencies are no longer the things of science fiction: 5 New Travel Startups Creating a Smarter Future For Digital Payments

>>Tourism and hospitality companies have an opportunity with Mapillary to create their own ground-level, photo-based mapping platforms without having to wait for Google Street View teams to create or update them: What Destinations Do When Google Maps Lets Them Down

>>For a company with the unparalleled size and reach of Facebook to say that travel is the industry it’s putting some of its most significant investment towards in the next year should tell you something: Interview: Facebook’s Head of Travel Reveals How Brands Are Winning on the Platform

>>TripAdvisor stated earlier this year that its transition to transactions, or Instant Booking, would show progress in the second half of 2016. There is indeed a morsel of progress but not enough to satisfy investors and other critics: TripAdvisor Still Looking for Elusive Progress in Instant Booking

>>In the same way that R&K has made the world larger with its travel reporting, expect them to do the same in this new form: Roads and Kingdoms Extends Its Brand of Travel Reportage Into Podcasts

>>Google may not be on the road toward becoming an online travel agency, but the search engine is inserting itself more aggressively in the travel research and hotel-shopping process: Google Making Gains in Hotel Advertising, Updates Website for Hoteliers

>>“Like” buttons could be the solution for hotels, airlines, and other types of travel companies eager to gather guest feedback during the trip: The Evolution of the Like Button — Digital Marketing News This Week

>>IBM has come a long, long way in rebuilding its brand thanks to all of the cool factor surrounding Watson: The Future of Artificial Intelligence in Travel Might Revolve Around a Driverless Minibus

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Tags: Travel Trends, trends roundups

Photo credit: Priceline wrote down the value of its restaurant booking platform OpenTable by nearly $1 billion. Skift / Skift

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