Google Travel Shifts Focus from Inbox to Calendar

Good morning from Skift. It’s Friday, May 12. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

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Episode Notes

Google Travel eliminated the feature that allowed Gmail users to view summaries of their past, present and future trips on google.com/travel, reports Executive Editor Dennis Schaal. 

A Google spokesperson said the tech giant decided to scrap the free feature in Google Travel because it didn’t attract enough users to justify the resources required to maintain or further develop it. However, the list of travelers’ past and future trips will still appear on Google calendar. Schaal writes that Google Travel will continue to focus on services such as flights, hotels and vacation rentals. 

Next, Booking.com’s latest Sustainable Travel Report reveals a large appetite among Indian travelers for greener ways to travel. Nearly three-quarters are seeking regenerative travel, which aims to leave destinations in a better condition than prior to a visit, reports Middle East and Asia Reporter Amrita Ghosh in Skift’s India Travel Daily newsletter.

Booking.com found a greater percentage of Indian travelers are partaking in greener travel than they did last year. Fifty-five percent said they use their towels more than once, a 21 percentage point jump from 2022. In addition, 57 percent of Indian travelers brought their own reusable water bottles on trips, 12 percentage points higher than last year. 

Finally, Worldia, a booking platform for travel agents, recently raised a little more than $27 million, writes Travel Technology Reporter Justin Dawes in this week’s Travel Startup Funding roundup. 

The Paris-based company plans to use the funding to expand in Europe and North America as well as increase hiring and improving its tech platform. Dawes writes Worldia’s business-to-business tech platform enables travel agency websites to offer one-stop travel planning and booking services. The company said it has access to 16,000 hotels in more than 80 destinations.