Skift Research Excerpt

Despite years of marketing campaigns to drive direct bookings, our look at hotel distribution shows that little has changed for most hotels and that driving room nights via first-party channels remains a difficult uphill battle.

Fuel efficiency is integral to the bottom line of airline operators. Skift Research found that efficiency improvements fluctuate considerably by year and between companies. Most were unable to achieve efficiency goals set by the industry.

Hotels need to reduce their carbon emissions by 66 percent by 2030, and 90 percent by 2050 to comply with the Paris Agreement on climate change. While there is a lot of talk, not all companies are walking the walk. We have identified those that are talking, and those that are walking.

After a difficult year, 2021 is likely to be a year of travel startup exits and consolidation fueled by IPOs, M&A, and — new on the scene — SPACs. These deals could help drive renewed enthusiasm for investing in and founding companies within the travel.

We often talk about Europe as a single travel destination, but it exists of 44 sovereign countries with an immensely heterogeneous tourism offering. As a result, the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic are also heterogeneous.

Thursday was a historic day for Airbnb and the travel industry at large. Airbnb is a excellent business, but is it a $100 billion business?

Early data shows that hotels' direct bookings are gaining market share during the pandemic, with both brand.com and phone making ground during this time of lower demand. Is this permanent, and if so, which other channels will lose out?