Skift Take
In another busy week of coronavirus coverage at Skift, there were stories about digital nomads, the contrasting outlook of Airbnb's boss versus Expedia's, and investor calls from numerous hotel companies.
Throughout the week we are posting original stories night and day covering the impact of coronavirus by connecting the dots across the travel industry. Every weekend we will offer you a chance to read the most essential stories again in case you missed them earlier.
Booking.com Restructuring Will Pare Its Workforce By Up to 25 Percent: Despite the deep job cuts, the proprietary Skift Health Score calculates that Booking Holdings has far greater long-term strength than rivals Expedia Group and Trip.com Group. If you follow Booking.com’s logic, the future of travel will be substantially smaller than its past.
Thailand’s 60th Tourism Anniversary Turns to Nightmare as Longstanding Travel Agencies Start Closing: Five months without revenue would challenge even the best operations. As travel agencies start closing down in Thailand, calls for clarity on reopening become more desperate.
Accor’s Pandemic Shakeout Includes Shedding 1,000 Jobs, Possible Sale of Iconic Paris HQ: The cost cutting program, unfortunately, was inevitable. The healthy occupancy rates from China, France, and Germany were unexpected. Is recovery in sight?
Struggling Tourist Destinations Pitch Themselves to New Digital Nomads as Remote Work Locales: The pandemic may accelerate the existing trend of digital nomads in an unexpected way — and some destinations are taking notice at a time when leisure travel is decimated.
Travel Blogs Rode Credit Card Referrals Wave: What Comes Next?: If you wanted to make money in travel media in the past decade, credit card referral revenue was the best bet. But now that stream has dried up. Will it return?
China, Italy, and the U.S. — A Tale of 3 Hotel Industry Recoveries: China and Europe continue to post strong gains in their hotel industry recoveries — not so much in the U.S. Hotel company mask mandates won’t help the problem unless more Americans follow the rules.
How One Upscale Australian Hotel Group Used the Crisis to Rethink Everything: A fashion executive and a tech geek walk into a hotel bar …” But instead of being the start of a bad joke, this is the start of a good story about creativity during a crisis.
Hyatt CEO Says China Offers Proof Hotels Don’t Need a Vaccine to Recover From Coronavirus: Hyatt leaders promote ongoing strength in China’s hotel recovery, but the company can’t lose sight that its exposure in the country — despite the momentum — is smaller compared to the U.S., which continues to struggle.
Starwood CEO Touts Resiliency of Extended Stay Hotels During Pandemic: Extended stay hotels may be strong performers for Starwood Property Trust and Barry Sternlicht, but it may be years before the investment firm looks to deploy capital further into other hospitality sectors.
Expedia and Airbnb Bosses Have Conflicting Visions About the Future of Travel: Sometimes CEO views of where online travel is headed seem more about the capabilities of their companies than anything else. Will pandemic-induced travel preferences make for dominant trends five or 10 years from now? Highly doubtful.
Choice Hotels Sees Revenue Surge From Guests Who Live Within 25 Miles of Its Hotels: If you can’t make a long-haul trek to Paris this summer, why not just a short hop, skip, and a jump to a roadside hotel two towns over? That mindset seems to be working in Choice Hotels’ financial favor.
Hilton CEO Sees All of the Hotel Giant’s Business Returning to Previous Demand — Eventually: It’s never too early to start planning for a post-pandemic travel environment, which Hilton is clearly doing with robust optimism. But the company can’t ignore the fact the ongoing case surge in the U.S. threatens to curtail months of recovery momentum. How will that play out for the long term?
Even Norwegian Cruise Line’s CEO Is Surprised People Are Booking Cruises: Norwegian Cruise Lines says it has enough liquidity to weather a prolonged break from cruising. But with the prospect of more than six months without sailing now likely, how prolonged are we talking?
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Tags: coronavirus, travel
Photo credit: Shown here is Sequana Tower, Accor corporate headquarters in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France. Accor