BET Co-Founder Expands Hotel Empire and Other Top Stories This Week

BET Co-Founder Expands Hotel Brand Salamander in Pursuit of the New Luxury: Entrepreneur Sheila Johnson has been steadily expanding her luxury hotel empire. Some call her business, which has lately generated buzz, an overnight success that’s been 17 years in the making.

State of Travel 2022: New Skift Research: So much has happened in the the travel industry in recent years. This new report by Skift Research puts perspective on those dizzying changes by providing definitive and data-driven insight into the current state of the travel industry, and the trends that will shape the future.

A New Bridge to the Future for Travel in Croatia: Thanks to the Pelješac Bridge, Croatia gained a new tourist attraction, investment, and a faster link between its mainland and southern islands. And against apocalyptic predictions, Bosnia and Herzegovina seems to have come out on top as well.

Capital One Travel Takes On Rival Banks With 10x Rewards for Luxury Hotels: Capital One Travel’s 10x rewards for bookings in its soon-to-be-launched luxury hotel collection is a statement as banks dig deeper into travel: We are going to be a player.

United Airlines Says Hybrid Work Will Drive Future Demand: United’s Scott Kirby and Airbnb’s Brian Chesky make for strange bedfellows. Both believe hybrid work models will lead to permanent changes in how their respective companies operate.

6 Themes for Hotel Earnings Season: Expect analysts in the next few weeks to be eyeing the group bookings recovery, Europe’s energy supply shock, hubris about property pipelines, currency turmoil, China’s fragility, and opportunities in lifestyle properties.

Wego CEO Sets Ambitious Goal to Be the First Travel Unicorn in Middle East: The Middle East focus is surely helping Wego go places, but CEO Ross Veitch has bigger plans.

Norway’s CEO Evangelist for Electric Cruise Ships: Having seen the impact of climate change firsthand, Hurtigruten Group’s Daniel Skjeldam is driven by a powerful motivation to innovate even if it means eating the associated higher costs of electricity-powered ships to drive the industry forward. Hopefully other cruise operators will come around.

Barcelona’s Firing of Its Tourism Chief Reinforces Why Engaging Local Communities Matters: Barcelona remains one of the clash points between the tourism sector and locals. Its next tourism chief will need to be a master at community relations.

Expedia and Google Disagree on Best Day to Book Flights: I’ll show you my airfare data if you show me yours. Finding the best flight deals remains among the dark arts.