Rashaad Jorden

Travel agents should've been expecting a development would arise making the sale of cruises difficult since the cruise industry has been so volatile since the start of the pandemic. It's clear to many agents now to find ways to be less dependent on booking cruises.

In Skift's top stories this week, Marriott indicates W Hotels will get a makeover, Google Maps was the most downloaded travel app in 2021, and Omicron batters European hotels.

After Covid put the travel industry under a microscope, Ecuador aims to define who’s who in the agencies segment, create a clearer environment for online sales, avoid embezzlements and improve the quality of professionals.

Although tour operators are wise to try to limit the risks their guests might face during trips longer than two weeks, they need to find ways to resume these profitable trips immediately because their businesses can't take the further financial hits.

In Skift's top stories this week, Barbados creates its own online travel booking platform, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky takes suggestions from Twitter followers about what the company should launch, and 2022 will likely see a large number of major deals in the hotel industry.

Considering how much the appetite for single-country trips has grown in recent years, why go through the constant hassles of grappling with widely divergent protocols and testing requirements in a Covid era?

As bad as 2021 has been for tour operators, 2022 could be worse — especially if new variants emerge, which could spark a wave of even more travel restrictions that would cripple so many struggling companies.

Airbnb seemingly has a good plan in place to limit the possibility of disruptive New Year's Eve parties, but will the company's technology be able to weed out guests with a not-so-sterling history on the platform?

In Skift's top stories this week, several U.S. airline CEOs argue that federal mask mandates are no longer necessary, Amazon is enabling travelers to make payments using their palms, and numerous pandemic travel myths are debunked.

Although many tour operators are hopeful they'll stage Christmas market tours next year, they'll rue missing out on an enormous amounts of revenue generated by the popular excursions for a long time — especially as many haven't fully recovered from the pandemic.