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Airlines

Canadian Tourists Bailed On the U.S. — Canadian Airlines Still See Growth

As one of the largest travel markets continues to shrink due to political tensions, Canadian carriers told Skift that U.S. travel is still producing healthy margins.

June 11th, 2026 at 3:25 PM EDT

An American Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

American Airlines Seeks Widebody Order to Take On Delta and United

Ordering more widebodies would allow American to invest in more international growth — a key market that has fueled the profits of chief rivals Delta and United.

June 10th, 2026 at 5:39 PM EDT

Airfares Are Up 20%, Demand Is Strong. Even Airline CEOs Are Surprised.

Airlines across the world have been cutting capacity and raising airfares to keep up with higher fuel costs. But even as travel is becoming more expensive, consumers still want to spend.

June 10th, 2026 at 4:49 PM EDT

Business Travel

Navan Says Rivals’ Mergers Are Sending It More Clients

Navan is winning large enterprise clients, picking them up when customers reevaluate their vendors in the face of protracted mergers.

June 12th, 2026 at 10:43 AM EDT

Ken ChSenault

How Ken Chenault Became Travel’s Most Consequential Non-Operator

One person connects the Amex GBT take-private, Airbnb’s board, a $10.75 billion travel loyalty startup, and Berkshire Hathaway’s governance committee.

June 9th, 2026 at 7:32 AM EDT

How AI Became the Reason Not to Buy the World’s Largest Corporate Travel Company

With most potential buyers citing AI disruption risk and walking away, Long Lake's $6.3 billion acquisition of AmexGBT is the most contrarian bet in travel right now.

May 31st, 2026 at 8:09 PM EDT

Coronavirus

Paris tourists outside of shops selling trinkets.

The Travel Industry’s Immense Potential for Growth

Despite the pandemic’s unprecedented challenges, the travel industry’s recovery is proving to be remarkable.

August 3rd, 2023 at 6:49 PM EDT

Tourists near St. Mark's Square in Venice, Italy.

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.

May 26th, 2023 at 2:44 AM EDT

Tourists taking photos on the roof of Milan’s cathedral

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.

May 24th, 2023 at 5:27 AM EDT

Cruises

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.

May 29th, 2026 at 9:41 AM EDT

The Alaska Experiment That Could Reshape How Cruise Lines Navigate Wildlife

Alaska’s reputation as a bucket list cruise destination rests largely on its wildlife encounters, especially whale sightings. MSC Cruises is treating its first season in the region as a research opportunity, exploring how marine science can guide operations in high-density wildlife corridors.

May 26th, 2026 at 10:40 AM EDT

$11.4 Billion and Zero Churn: What SpaceX Said About Starlink’s Travel Industry Grip

The competitors to Musk's Starlink will eventually up their game. It's never healthy for customers and end-users to be dependent on a single vendor, regardless of the Starlink's competitive advantage at this moment.

May 26th, 2026 at 9:11 AM EDT

Experiences

Eric Gnock Fah, President and Co-Founder, klook

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.

June 9th, 2026 at 9:26 AM EDT

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.

May 14th, 2026 at 8:30 AM EDT

HBX Group to Buy Bridgify as Part of Broader AI Push

HBX has been trying to diversify from reselling hotel rooms since before it went public. Each time, the answer is new inventory and better tech for selling. Experiences and AI are the latest pitch.

May 13th, 2026 at 11:32 AM EDT

Food and Drink

Food tourism

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.

October 14th, 2025 at 4:00 AM EDT

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.

December 12th, 2024 at 7:58 AM EST

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.

December 10th, 2024 at 12:01 PM EST

Ground Transport

Grab

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.

May 5th, 2026 at 7:46 AM EDT

Dara Khosrowshahi seated on stage while being interviewed

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.

May 4th, 2026 at 4:55 PM EDT

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?

March 31st, 2026 at 5:00 AM EDT

Hotels

image of a grand staircase in a luxury hotel lobby

Highgate Takes Over Lotte’s New York Palace — How it Feeds the Next Deal

Buying and flipping broken hotels is lumpy and cyclical. Highgate's fees for third-party hotel management are a steady drip that keeps the lights on between the big, risky trades.

June 12th, 2026 at 12:10 PM EDT

Hotels Spent $100 Million Fighting OTAs. Did It Actually Work?

If AI agents become the next distribution layer, does the decade-long battle between hotels and OTAs even matter anymore?

June 12th, 2026 at 8:00 AM EDT

Kerten Hospitality

Kerten CEO Says First India Property by Year-End, Pipeline Likely to Exceed 1,000-Key Target: Exclusive

India's hotel market doesn't need another global chain pretending to be local. Kerten Hospitality's entire bet is that developers have finally figured that out too.

June 12th, 2026 at 12:58 AM EDT

Luxury

image of Soneva Fushi overwater villas

One Year Into Private Equity Ownership, Soneva Is Rebranding — New CEO on What’s Changing

Where KSL is taking Soneva is firmly in the zeitgeist of what one segment of ultra-luxury travelers wants right now: less glitz, more optionality.

June 7th, 2026 at 8:06 PM EDT

Dubai Mall

Luxury Retail’s Hospitality Problem Isn’t a Training Problem

Saying luxury retail should be more hospitable ignores how most of the industry works.

May 29th, 2026 at 12:38 PM EDT

hotel exterior

Capella’s New President Wants to Crack Luxury’s Top Tier Within a Year

Capella’s pitch under its new president: scarce, personalized, and aiming for the top tier of ultra-luxury. The growth job goes to Patina.

May 21st, 2026 at 6:00 AM EDT

Media and PR

EternityX CEO Charlene Ree at Skift Asia Forum 2026

Demographic segmentation of Chinese outbound travelers is the wrong unit of analysis.

April 29th, 2026 at 3:39 PM EDT

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?

April 24th, 2026 at 6:03 AM EDT

Authorities Around the World Are Banning Flight Ads Due To Climate. But Will It Change Anything?

The bans may not ground a single flight, but they are opening the door to harder policy conversations.

April 17th, 2026 at 1:08 PM EDT

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.

December 15th, 2025 at 9:43 AM EST

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.

December 11th, 2025 at 9:19 AM EST

Visitors at the Yashobhoomi convention and exhibition centre in New Delhi.

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?

May 27th, 2025 at 11:00 PM EDT

Online Travel

Man speaking on stage

MakeMyTrip Co-Founder on India IPO and the AI Question Investors Stopped Asking

MakeMyTrip is trying to answer three questions at once: can it stay relevant as AI reshapes travel discovery, can a string of small acquisitions build real value rather than just organizational sprawl, and does a domestic listing finally make sense after 16 years on Nasdaq?

June 10th, 2026 at 12:37 AM EDT

People walking near a beach in Rio de Janeiro.

Skyscanner CEO on Agentic Booking and the Future of Flight Metasearch

Given Skyscanner's leading global footprint in flights, it isn't hard to envision an LLM extracting it from Trip.com Group to accelerate building a travel vertical.

June 8th, 2026 at 12:37 PM EDT

Image: Aloke Bajpai (right) and Rajnish Kumar of Ixigo.

Ixigo Acquires Hotel Booking Platform and Invests in AI Startups

With Brevistay, Ixigo closes the last major gap in its travel stack. Its twin bets on AI infrastructure hint at a larger goal of keeping trip planning inside its ecosystem, rather than letting it migrate to ChatGPT.

June 5th, 2026 at 1:00 PM EDT

Podcasts

GMH Hotels: Hotel AI Is Cutting Costs. It Should Be Making Money.

On this week's Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast: Hotels Edition, Sarah Dandashy and Steve Turk break down why hotel AI is stuck on the wrong side of the ledger…

June 10th, 2026 at 2:40 PM EDT

Your Hotel’s AI Problem Is Actually a Data Problem

Independent hoteliers are under pressure from every direction, and now there's an AI mandate on top of it all.

June 9th, 2026 at 8:00 AM EDT

AI Is Breaking Travel’s Search Economics.

On Monday's Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast, Brandreth Canaley, Michael Goldin, and Jamie Lane break down what AI is actually doing to travel economics and operations right now.

June 8th, 2026 at 3:10 PM EDT

Short-Term Rentals

A vacation rental listed on Vrbo in Scottsdale, Arizona. Source: Vrbo

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.

June 10th, 2026 at 3:05 PM EDT

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:…

May 27th, 2026 at 2:55 PM EDT

Houses in Catalonia

Spain’s Top Court Voids National Short-Term Rental Registry

The ruling is a win for Airbnb, but Spain's war on short-term rentals is far from over.

May 22nd, 2026 at 2:44 PM EDT

Skift Originals

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.

March 16th, 2026 at 1:02 PM EDT

Building in Travel Has Never Mattered More

Travel is where history gets physical. We're in it. Right where we should be.

January 4th, 2026 at 12:37 PM EST

Legacy Is When Your Ideas Outlive Their Attribution: The Skift Journey

Skift is an extended argument for a particular way of being in the world: intellectually rigorous, commercially viable, editorially independent, globally aware, personally authentic.

December 2nd, 2025 at 9:50 AM EST

Startups

People sitting around tables and talking at Fora Travel event.

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.

April 21st, 2026 at 9:18 AM EDT

The Hosteller property in Chakrata, Uttarakhand.

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.

April 20th, 2026 at 9:18 AM EDT

Webook

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.

February 11th, 2026 at 9:42 AM EST

Tour Operators

A museum in Egypt

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.

June 11th, 2026 at 8:49 AM EDT

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.

June 8th, 2026 at 8:53 AM EDT

A crowd of people sitting outside celebrating

Airbnb Invests in WeRoad — and Hired Its CEO to Lead Hotels

Airbnb has struggled to scale experiences. Investing in WeRoad — and hiring its CEO — is Chesky's preferred move: partner first, potentially acquire later.

May 27th, 2026 at 4:00 AM EDT

Tourism

World Cup Host Cities Are Spending Millions to Tell Wary Tourists: You’re Welcome Here

The World Cup handed host cities a global stage. Marketing videos underscore how host cities are using it to reassure a world that has grown more hesitant to book U.S. travel.

June 12th, 2026 at 12:25 PM EDT

Aerial view of a stadium

Hotels Are Hoping For a Last-Minute World Cup Surge. Will It Come?

Operators are banking on spur-of-the-moment travel from soccer fans who want to see their favorite teams play in the World Cup. Data suggests there are reasons to be optimistic, but it’s still not clear how big of a surge last-minute bookings will bring.

June 11th, 2026 at 2:30 PM EDT

The U.S-Canada border

Canadian Travel to the U.S. Rebounds, But Still Far Below 2024 Levels

Two months of gains is progress — but Canadian trips to the U.S. are still down nearly 29% from two years ago.

June 11th, 2026 at 12:49 PM EDT

Travel Agents

A file image of Terminal 3 at Dubai International Airport.

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.

May 5th, 2026 at 9:44 AM EDT

Emirates Refreshed Business Class on board the A350

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.

April 27th, 2026 at 11:59 AM EDT

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.

April 23rd, 2026 at 8:30 AM EDT

Travel Technology

Fahim Khan at Data and AI Summit 2026

Travelport Launches TripServices to Power AI Travel Booking

AI agents can already help travelers dream up trips. Booking them is harder. Travelport is betting that cleaner access to flights, hotels, and extras will keep travel sellers from looking elsewhere.

June 11th, 2026 at 7:56 PM EDT

Aven’s New Booking Engine Targets Hotel Direct Booking Conversions

Aven, the former Sabre hospitality business, is taking direct aim at a core hotel tech problem: how much legacy infrastructure can still support modern direct booking. Its new booking engine shows what a cleaner rebuild could look like.

June 11th, 2026 at 5:51 PM EDT

4 Bets Accor Is Making on AI and the Future of Hospitality

Accor's AI strategy spans discovery, distribution, loyalty, and operations, but its boldest bet is the one focused on people. The company believes automating the invisible half of hotel work is what will let the visible half feel more human.

June 11th, 2026 at 9:00 AM EDT

Venture Capital

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky speaking with Skift CEO Rafat Ali

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?

June 4th, 2026 at 6:45 PM EDT

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.

June 3rd, 2026 at 6:09 PM EDT

Travel Venture Capital Is Back, But Only for the Biggest, Safest Bets: 3 Charts

Early-stage startups face longer fundraising cycles and less capital.

December 22nd, 2025 at 8:04 AM EST