Saudi Arabia’s $1 Trillion Tourism Investment and Other Top 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.

Saudia Arabia to Spend $1 Trillion Over a Decade to Build a Global Tourism Economy: With a goal to attract 100 million tourists a year by 2030, Saudi Arabia realizes that it will have to promote itself aggressively as a leisure destination. A trillion dollars looks pretty aggressive.

The Definitive Oral History of Short-Term Rentals: Airbnb disrupted vacation rentals. Will short-term rentals take a chunk out of the hotel business? History shows that’s a distinct problem.

Marriott to Debut Ad Network to Reach Travelers Via App and Room TVs: Marriott’s move to let advertisers reach its guests with Yahoo’s help is really interesting. The hotel brand has a few great channels for brands to efficiently target travelers via its app and, eventually, its guestroom TVs.

Uber Takes Further Steps Into Travel Through Itinerary Aggregator, and More: Uber may not become a superapp anytime soon, but wants to become a bigger part of your journey and everything you do in it, that is for sure.

Japan Airlines Gave This Startup Travel Subscription Service a Lift: Japanese startup Kabuk Style has thousands of travelers booking hotels and guesthouses via subscription. A recent promotion with the airline JAL boosted the company’s profile.

Tourists Ditch Shopping Sprees for Big Nights Out Since Pandemic: Bars, nightclubs, theme parks and museums will be the winners this summer. The “experience economy” is back.

Latin America Is Showing a Resurgence of Group Travel: Extended family and friends’ groups, delayed weddings and graduation trips are contributing to a revival in group travel in destinations like Argentina, Colombia, Perú, Paraguay and Bolivia. The residual effect is that travel agents are in demand again, and back into bricks-and-mortar offices to help travelers plan more book these trips asap.

Chinese Outbound Travel Will Look Like This When It Eventually Returns: Prepare now or get left out when the Chinese outbound tourist wave returns in 2023, says China Outbound Tourism Research Institute. Considering the country’s staunch zero-Covid policy, the timeline seems a little too good to be true.

American Airlines Wins Just $1 From Sabre in 11-Year-Old Antitrust Case: The long-running case revolved around practices that the leading U.S. provider of airline fare data to travel agents imposes on nearly all airlines. If the verdict stands, it doesn’t make Sabre change, well, anything. Except maybe a smaller tip for a barista.