Rafat Ali

A new job title appearing across airlines and online booking companies reveals how seriously the industry is taking the conversational interface shift…and the strategic anxieties driving it.

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

Saudi Arabia’s tourism progress is real and worth recognizing — but so are the structural challenges it must confront to achieve lasting, credible growth.

Zohran Mamdani is the frontrunner for NYC mayor and his central idea — affordability — has big implications for the travel industry.

The Africa to Middle East corridor might represent the most transformational opportunity in global tourism if developed thoughtfully. And in 7 days, the industry leaders who can make it happen will gather at Skift Global Forum East in Abu Dhabi.

What happens when the fundamental assumptions underlying the travel industry's business models stop being true? Who has agency: who makes decisions, who controls discovery, who influences choice, and critically, who gets left behind when those power dynamics shift in an AI age.

AI memory and who controls it is about the fundamental architecture of customer relationships in an AI world. The companies that get this right will define the next era of travel.

The growth-at-all-costs playbook that built online travel platforms is dead. The disruption opportunity with new players isn't theoretical anymore, it's structural, and it rewards depth over scale.

America has become too expensive to visit, and the tourism industry refuses to admit it. We've turned travel – and living – into an extraction operation, and we're surprised when people stop coming.

I’m proud to announce two acquisitions that mark significant steps forward for us in community-driven, multimedia content. These acquisitions are part of our intentional growth strategy, balancing simplicity and complexity to build resilience into our media ecosystem.