Coronavirus and Travel

In a year when travel's recovery began, only to sputter, the pandemic was still a story for Skift that just kept giving. Our reporters and editors kept their heads down on crisis coverage, but shared some of the adrenaline too, on other worthy travel topics. Here's our team members' favorites, and how those stories came to be, in their own words.

Mergers and acquisitions were undoubtedly the headline in 2021, as corporate travel agencies regrouped after a grueling year battling the pandemic.

The latest data since the Omicron variant emerged isn’t showing any massive swings in global hotel performance, but that doesn’t mean all regions are selling out rooms.

Skift CEO Rafat Ali shares an audio essay about the current state of the travel industry as it attempts to manage the challenges and fallout of the Omicron variant.

As leisure travel finally returns to Las Vegas, The Venetian Resort is welcoming guests back to celebrate their shared milestones together and make up for lost time with friends and family.

Six months or a year seem like way longer than that in the Covid era, and anything can happen in the interim. But it is significant that the executive chairman of China's largest online travel agency is postulating that inbound and outbound travel curbs could be softened next year.

How has Australia experienced and adapted to the pandemic from an event industry perspective? In our second global snapshot, we discuss all relevant regulations currently in place and provide a brief overview of the state of the local event industry.

Inflation for travel sectors like hotels isn't a cause for concern at the moment, as it continues to signal demand is returning from record-low performance seen in the early months of the pandemic.

Vaccination programs have played a major role in the return to in-person events, but they’ve also brought extra logistical challenges: Many planners now have to verify the vaccine status of attendees. Fortunately, some event tech providers now offer solutions.

Anxieties of a Delta replay were certainly stoked when Omicron was first discovered. So what does a new coronavirus variant mean for hotels? Not too much, based on early performance data.