Travel Lessons From a Year of the Pandemic and 9 Other Top Travel Stories This Week

Throughout the week we are posting original stories night and day covering news and travel trends, including on the impact of coronavirus. Every weekend we will offer you a chance to read the most essential stories again in case you missed them earlier.

10 Shared Learnings for Travel & Tourism One Year Into the Pandemic: Skift Take
People have had a year to consider the perilous state of the planet, and they’re unimpressed. As borders reopen, sustainable, responsible, and regenerative travel will need to be reimagined, because the tourism sector is about to be in the eco-cross hairs.

Vacasa to Buy TurnKey in Ongoing Rollup Led by Private Equity: This deal cements Vacasa status as the largest full-service property manager for whole-home vacation rentals in the U.S. That makes it a rare pure-play bet on alternative accommodations for its private equity backers, which have prompted Vacasa to consolidate more of the sector.

Amadeus Teams With Microsoft: Take That Sabre and Google: Battling huge losses, and ongoing travel restrictions in Europe, Amadeus’ decision to team up with the technology titan could pay off — but the race is on to deliver something tangible as rival Sabre gets to work with Google.

Google Drops Costs for Hotels and Resellers to List Rates in Price-Comparison Search: In a switch, Google is inviting hotels and online travel resellers to drive bookings through its price-comparison search for free. Well, free for now, at least.

Tripadvisor’s New Subscription Service Edges the Company Toward Online Travel Agency Status: Years ago, before it acquired Viator, Tripadvisor was purely an advertising/media company. Today, with its big bet on the Tripadvisor Plus subscription program, the company is becoming much more of a hybrid advertising/booking site. That is certainly one of the calculations that the hotel industry is considering.

Kayak Moves Into Hotels by Opening Miami Beach Property in Partnership With Life House: Skift has long speculated that online travel agencies might launch soft brands, and now Kayak is attempting to do so during a dire moment for the hotel industry. Whether independent hotels would see any value in using a software package through the Kayak app is a wide open question.

Frontier Airlines Looks to Raise $100 Million in 2nd Airline IPO This Year: Airline IPOs used to be rare, but Frontier now is the second airline in as many months to say it’s going public. This is in the midst of the worst crisis the industry has faced in a century. For investors, that spells opportunity.

Delta Is Bringing All Its Pilots Off the Sidelines: Will Passengers Follow?: Delta is taking a big chance with a forward-looking perspective by re-engaging pilots. Whether it’s doing the right thing, or setting itself up for failure, will become much more clear in the months ahead.

How the U.S. Travel Sector Benefits (and Doesn’t) From $1.9 Trillion in Covid Relief: The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan is a massive life raft to many travel companies, but industry groups still want more targeted relief and stimulus to accelerate a full recovery that could be years away.

Amadeus Streamlines the Travel Check-In by Verifying Digital Health Passports Ahead of Time: growing number of digital health passports could be a risk by overcomplicating things, but folding them into an established digital ID platform should address that.