Coronavirus and Travel

Since April, destination marketing organizations have been forced to seek funding beyond revenue from hotel bed taxes, which aren’t expected back fully for four years. What’s emerging? A blended DMO model in which advocacy, corporations, and communities play key roles.

Several companies want to be the Michelin Guide equivalent for post-pandemic hotel safety standards. But early corporate travel agency buy-in puts Sharecare and Forbes Travel Guide's partnership at an advantage.

The entire hospitality industry would agree that short-term rentals led the tentative recovery in the spring and into the summer in many parts of the world. But a key question will be how will they respond when hotels and cities come back in earnest — and with vaccines a real possibility, they certainly will.

The energy sector has so far been a safe harbor for many corporate travel agencies during this crisis, but cracks are starting to show.

A few leisure markets on track to have higher hotel occupancy rates during Thanksgiving are no reason for the travel industry to celebrate.

Lifestyle brands often lose their appeal when global companies take over. But Accor seems to recognize this in creating a standalone entity with Ennismore to maintain cool factor while building a global reach.

Despite warnings from the CDC, Americans are traveling by air to see their loved ones and vacation. That's a good thing for the airlines. But the weeks ahead will be telling as to what the costs will be to the American people.

Accor CEO Sebastien Bazin previously said lifestyle hotels will be a key source of growth moving forward. By orchestrating a merger with Ennismore and the full buyout of SBE, one the largest hotel deals so far of the pandemic, Bazin just underscored that point.