Sean O'Neill, Skift
Ebix has made a generous takeover bid for Yatra, a corporate travel services provider and online travel agency, to create one of India’s largest end-to-end travel services businesses. Ebix's shrewd CEO Robin Raina is cornering the rare travel segments in India that aren't facing fierce price wars, namely, corporate travel services and currency exchange.
13 hours ago
Sarah Frier, Bloomberg
Facebook's Instagram is focusing on direct booking for brands from Adidas to Warby Parker but you can imagine the day that this e-commerce initiative will also include flights and hotels from household-name travel brands. They are not in the first iteration, however.
2 days ago
Patrick Whyte, Skift
While traditional tour operators might not offer the flexibility that Lastminute.com does with its package vacations, they do have an advantage in terms of exclusivity.
2 days ago
Meghan Carty, Skift Research
In its third year, Skift Research’s U.S. Experiential Traveler Survey shows us how the modern American traveler has changed and remained constant, revealing important information for travel industry insiders looking to appeal to this market.
2 days ago
Raini Hamdi, Skift
It appears that AirAsia has a bigger problem on its hands than it can possibly imagine. Now, even the largest local tour operators have stopped selling its flights on their online platforms. Whatever the outcome, one thing is clear: Online travel booking is such a powerful weapon.
3 days ago
Andrew Sheivachman, Skift
Going down the rabbit hole and considering the effect of a big tech crackdown in travel, Google and global distribution systems have perhaps the most to lose. It's likely, though, that few, if any, of Elizabeth Warren's proposed restrictions will ever become U.S. law.
6 days ago
Rachel Lerman and Anick Jesdanun, Associated Press
China leads the super app phenomenon and Facebook is following in its footsteps several years later with big ambitions to be the WeChat of the world — outside China, of course.
1 week ago
Raini Hamdi, Skift
Any form of industry players conspiring to protect their self-interests should be thoroughly investigated. Hopefully this unsettling episode in Indonesia will end soon and everyone can go back to booking the best deal they can get without lame invisible hands interfering with the process.
1 week ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
Meituan has an advantage in travel over some of its competitors because it is a platform company, offering an extensive array of retail services, although food delivery is its core business. The Chinese hotel market is clearly in flux with Meituan and, to a lesser extent, Alibaba, nipping at Ctrip's heels.
1 week ago
Raini Hamdi, Skift
Within months, Google has rolled out new features in flights and hotels that, we dare say, make it a convenient one-stop shop to book travel sans encumbrances. Given its dominance in search, hotels and online travel agencies are on another planet if they are not feeling wary.
1 week ago
Patrick Whyte, Skift
We're pretty sure Hilton chief Chris Nassetta would disagree.
2 weeks ago
Sean O'Neill, Skift
The Argentine economic crisis continues to drag on Despegar, but the online travel agency's continuous investment in mobile is setting it up for long-term growth across the continent.
2 weeks ago