Delta Launches Stripped-Down Business-Class Fares
Delta is betting wealthy customers will pay Delta One prices for a coach-class experience on the ground
All Categories
Airlines
Air Canada Names SAS Chief Anko Van der Werff as New CEO
The outgoing Air Canada CEO couldn't speak French. His successor speaks that, plus five more to varying degrees.
Who’s Next After EasyJet? We Size Up 10 Possible Takeover Targets
A U.S. buyer has done what none of EasyJet's past suitors managed: It got the airline's board to the table.
Business Travel
Hilton Opens Direct Line to Navan, Cutting Out Corporate Travel Middlemen
Hilton and Navan have launched a direct booking connection that skips distribution middlemen, giving the hotel group more control over retailing. It's an early step in a broader corporate travel push to overhaul how road warriors book hotels.
UAE Bets on Discounts, Insurance, and New Visa Markets to Refill Hotel Rooms After Iran War Hit
The UAE is running two recovery tracks at once — emergency incentives to plug a war-driven demand hole and multibillion-dollar infrastructure bets. The gap between those timelines is the story.
Booking.com Built Its India Business on Leisure — Now It’s Going Corporate
India's business travel boom gives Booking.com a rare chance to grow two businesses at once — corporate bookings today and leisure loyalty tomorrow.
Coronavirus
The Travel Industry’s Immense Potential for Growth
Despite the pandemic’s unprecedented challenges, the travel industry’s recovery is proving to be remarkable.
The Travel Industry Surpasses 2019
Today's edition of Skift's daily podcast looks closer at the recovery of the travel industry that have allowed it to surpass spring 2019 benchmarks.
Travel Makes a Complete Recovery
Today's edition of Skift's daily podcast looks closer at travel's coronavirus recovery, Airbnb's optimism, and Hilton's extended-stay moves.
Cruises
Middle East War Hit Cruise Bookings, But Carnival Says They’ve ‘Turned a Corner’
Record second-quarter results weren't enough to keep Carnival from trimming its growth outlook — the Middle East war lasted longer than the company expected.
Cordelia Cruises IPO Bets on India’s Untapped Cruise Market
By 2028, Cordelia will have transformed from a single-vessel operator into a three-ship fleet. The challenge is whether India's still-nascent cruise market can generate demand quickly enough to support a near-tripling of capacity.
Royal Caribbean’s Giant Beach Resort Blocked by Mexico after Environmental Backlash
At what point in the investment cycle does environmental risk now need to be priced in? The answer, increasingly, is before the land is bought.
Experiences
Tripadvisor To Sell TheFork for $700 Million to Fuel Its Bet on Experiences
The sale gives Tripadvisor the cash to chase the $1 trillion experiences market through Viator.
Klook Co-Founder Bets AI Can Finally Fix Travel Experiences Discovery
Klook has no grand OTA ambitions, at least for now. Its bigger bet is that AI can smooth out the messiness of experiences booking and help it deepen its lead in the category while pulling travelers into adjacent trip spend.
Abu Dhabi’s Sphere Has a Home: Yas Island
The location was the easy part. Whether Abu Dhabi can fill a $1.7 billion venue with its own original content is the harder question.
Food and Drink
Omakase, Fine Casual… and Burgers: Marriott’s Top Food Trends in Asia
Asia’s food culture, from hawker stalls to omakase counters, has always been vibrant. But it’s now also setting the pace for how food tourism might look globally in the years ahead.
How Tourism Homogenizes Cuisines and What Are Possible Solutions
There is a lot that can be done, both from an awareness and, even more importantly, from a policy perspective. Most of it requires changes that the travelers of today, seeking more authentic experiences, would welcome.
Magic Mushrooms in the Minibar
Some will always love a luxury spa. But psychedelics (think psilocybin soundbaths and mushrooms) are the phase in high-end wellness.
Ground Transport
Grab Takes Taxis Across the Singapore-Malaysia Border
“Travel companion” Grab clearly isn’t ready to say goodbye at the border. With its cross-border taxi pilot, Grab is stretching the definition of “last mile” into an international one, keeping travelers in-app the entire way.
Uber CEO Says Travel Rivals Like Expedia Can’t Match Its On-the-Ground Edge
Khosrowshahi said there's the usual tension with partners about Uber's travel ambitions, and he obliquely cited Expedia's shortcomings post-booking. If Uber gains traction in travel, you can expect Khosrowshahi to one day step away from the Expedia board, and all of those conflicts to get exacerbated.
Airbnb’s Latest Service Expansion: Rides From the Airport
Pre-booking rides to your Airbnb or hotel may ease the journey when arriving in an unfamiliar destinations, but there doesn't seem to be anything Airbnb-ish about the new service partnership. Maybe Airbnb gets less unique as it grows?
Hotels
Fattal Buys Its First U.S. Hotel, Testing an Asset-Heavy Model Against the Giants
The owner-operator of nearly 330 hotels is betting that its owner-operator model will win in the U.S. market, where other foreign entrants have stumbled.
Accor and China’s H World Detail Plans to Link Their 19,000 Hotels
The two companies tout 430 million loyalty members between them. The test is how many actually book.
India’s Biggest Hotel Chain Is Following Its Biggest Travelers
You can only build so many Tajs. Scaling to 700 hotels means following demand and building for India's expanding middle class, where consistency matters as much as luxury, rather than chase the shrinking pool of ultra-premium international arrivals.
Luxury
Not For Sale: Sandals CEO Shuts Down Deal Rumors
The all-inclusive operator's executive chairman says he isn't selling the company, despite rumors, but is instead pouring tens of millions into properties to drive rate premiums.
Marriott to Enter Branded Apartment Rentals: W Hotels Comes First in 2027
The hotel company's first branded apartment rentals, opening in Cleveland in 2027, will mark a new turn for a real-estate business that has become central to its luxury strategy.
Five Types of Travelers Driving Premium Demand
Premium is evolving beyond a product category to become an entire ecosystem. Instead of chasing each other’s offers and upgrades, travel brands should leverage the premium economy through the lens of customers they already interact with.
Media and PR
Marriott Outspends Rivals on TV, But Airbnb Owns the World Cup
Marriott outspent every hotel brand on national TV, yet Airbnb's World Cup ads have out-reached Marriott's so far. Marketers should note that focus, rather than budget, wins marquee experiences.
EternityX CEO Charlene Ree at Skift Asia Forum 2026
Demographic segmentation of Chinese outbound travelers is the wrong unit of analysis.
How TV and AI Are Reshaping Travel Demand
If travel demand is being shaped by entertainment and filtered through AI, what role do travel brands actually play in influencing decisions?
Meetings
5 Ways Meeting in Ireland Balances the Best of Both Worlds
All too often, choosing a destination for incentive travel forces meeting planners to prioritize either a busy city or rural country, business or wellness, modern developments or rich cultural experiences. Here’s how planners get to have it all on the island of Ireland.
3 Ways Corporate Meetings in New Orleans Can Fuel Creativity
Beyond the everyday challenges of organizing memorable events that move the needle for companies, today's planners are under mounting pressure to inspire a burned-out workforce. New Orleans combines its rich history, deep culture, and modern innovation to host corporate experiences that spark creativity and foster connection.
Inside India’s Events and Meetings Aspirations
India upped its convention center game for the G20 Summit last year. Now, it is trying to drum up the marketing for these spaces across the country. But is India really MICE ready?
Online Travel
Scapia Wants to Own India’s Next Wave of Travelers — Through Their Credit Cards
Scapia won’t fight online travel agencies on price. Instead, this travel fintech is betting that everyday spending, loyalty rewards, and payments will determine where the next generation of travelers book trips.
China’s Tongcheng Travel Bids for Dida to Bring Ride-Sharing In-House
Chinese OTAs have long offered airport transfers and chauffeur services through third-party partnerships. If completed, Tongcheng's Dida acquisition would make it one of the first to own the ride-sharing marketplace itself, rather than plugging into someone else's.
OTAs Are Betting on Traveler Trust. But the Scramble Is On to Win the Trust of AI Agents
Whether or not travelers trust AI would almost be irrelevant to OTAs if the LLMs don't trust them enough to surface their inventory for discovery. The contest is on behind-the-scenes battle to become the LLMs' OTA fave.
Podcasts
The Race to Own STR Distribution Just Got a Lot More Complex
On Monday's Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast, Brandreth Canaley and Michael Goldin break down who is actually controlling the relationship between a traveler and a booking right now.
GMH Hotels: Hotel Owners Are Dropping the Big Brands
On this week's Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast: Hotels Edition, Sarah Dandashy and Steve Turk are joined by Skift Editor-in-Chief Sarah Kopit to break down a question that is…
Third-Party Study Says Airbnb Hosts Face New Account Security Concerns
Airbnb hosts and short-term rental operators are facing renewed questions around platform security after third-party research from Saily and NordStellar, cited in recent press coverage, claimed a sharp increase in…
Short-Term Rentals
Airbnb Moves Into Fintech With a Cancel-for-Any-Reason Feature
Airbnb is selling peace of mind to guests, giving assurances to hosts, and potentially debuting a new fintech revenue stream that’s been so successful for Hopper. The issue is whether this will further alienate hosts, who deal with the logistical hassles of last-minute cancellations.
Vrbo Is Launching Sponsored Listings — with Expedia.com Placements to Come
Vrbo and Expedia are seizing an obvious opportunity in vacation rental sponsored listings. Airbnb will get there eventually too.
GMH Hotels: Airbnb Just Got Serious About Hotels
On this week's Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast: Hotels Edition, Sarah Dandashy and Steve Turk break down a week where three big stories all pointed at the same shift:…
Skift Originals
Karak Chai, Luxury Retail, and the Invisible Millions of the Gulf Hub Airports: An Audio Essay
The largest purpose-driven travel flow on earth passes through the most commercially aspirational spaces on earth, and the dissonance is jarring if you stop long enough to watch who is actually walking past the glittering Hermes store...
The Lessons Travel Buried After Covid Are Resurfacing in the Middle East
The travel industry edited Covid into a convenient story about resilient demand while ignoring the system’s fragility. We’re seeing the cost of that rewrite in real time.
Building in Travel Has Never Mattered More
Travel is where history gets physical. We're in it. Right where we should be.
Startups
Fora Travel Is Focused on Growth and a Small Acquisition Helps Build AI Tools
Fora Travel has the luxury of being private and can build its business — seemingly at a decent pace — without getting second-guessed in quarterly earnings calls.
India’s Travel Space Heats Up as Niche Players Gain Significance
India’s maturing travel market is allowing for more niche players to strengthen their bases, and it seems like investors are backing this movement.
What a Siberian Startup and a Saudi Ticketing App Reveal About Travel’s Future
Two startups from two different worlds are quietly rewriting the rules of who controls the travel transaction, with fascinating implications.
Tour Operators
Norwegian Air To Buy Nordic Leisure Travel Group in $843m Bet on End-to-End Travel
Why settle for just the airfare when you can own the whole holiday?
Egypt Emerges as the Winner in the Middle East’s Travel Shake-Up
The Iran war hasn’t destroyed Middle East travel demand — it has reshuffled it. Egypt is picking up what the Gulf is losing.
Europe Visa Bottlenecks Push UAE Residents to Rethink Travel Plans
The visa queue will clear. The question is whether leisure demand comes back with it.
Tourism
World Cup Ripple Effect: How Non-Host Markets Are Cashing In
Turns out the World Cup’s tourism impact extends beyond the 16 host cities, with outside markets seeing some of the steepest spikes in demand.
Private Capital Is Moving Into Saudi Tourism — Their Bets Look Very Different
The PIF is stepping back from direct tourism investment, and private capital is racing into the vacuum — but no two entrants agree on which segment actually has room to grow.
Airlines Are Turning Live Entertainment Into a Loyalty Strategy
Theaters and arenas are becoming year-round brand real estate for airlines targeting premium customers. Whether that presence pays off in bookings, rather than just awareness, remains to be seen.
Travel Agents
Dubai Strengthens Passenger Rights Rules to Rebuild Traveler Trust
Dubai’s passenger rights framework means one regulator, one rulebook. The details around enforcement are still to come, though.
American Express Saw Strong Luxury Spending in Q1, Airline Softness in April
A lot of companies are seeing strength among premium customers and hesitancy at lower rungs, but American Express skews toward the upper echelon.
Inside the $2.4 Billion Agency Powering Luxury Travel’s Elite Advisors
For years, Global Travel Collection's $2.4 billion in sales has been spread across legacy brands, masking its true scale. Its brand unification is a signal that scale is becoming the defining competitive advantage in luxury travel.
Travel Technology
The West Got Two Half-Apps Instead of a Super App: Google Maps vs. Uber
Uber owns the transaction, and Google Maps owns the moment before it, and in the first half of 2026, both started using AI to cross into the other's territory. Travel distribution sits directly in the path.
Who Owns Your Passport Expiry Date?
The travel industry has owners for issuance, verification, and conversion. The missing layer is readiness, and the traveler owns the failure.
Mews Cuts 15% of Staff, Points to AI in Broad Restructuring — Exclusive
Mews says AI can remove the handoffs that once slowed work and hurt margins. Now it has to prove a leaner structure can bring hotels closer, not leave them with less.
Venture Capital
Airbnb’s Brian Chesky Is Creating an AI Lab
Is Brian Chesky development of a new AI Lab outside of Airbnb an acknowledgement that building AI capabilities within Airbnb hasn't been up to par? Or are some tech developments like AI too large to sit out without having more skin in the game?
Brook Bay Capital, Inovia, and Highgate Technology Ventures at Skift Data + AI Summit 2026
If you are pitching travel AI to investors, lead with cost savings you can put on the income statement, not revenue lift you can only promise — measurability is what closes the deal.
Travel Venture Capital Is Back, But Only for the Biggest, Safest Bets: 3 Charts
Early-stage startups face longer fundraising cycles and less capital.