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Online Travel
China's domestic travel is on the way back. Outbound travel will take a little longer.
Sophie Yu and Brenda Goh, Reuters | 12 months ago
The sure bet is that the major online travel agencies will use some cash to buy back shares in 2023 unless the economy tanks. Less sexy than acquisitions, but good for shareholders. Still, that leaves plenty of money for some possible headline-making deals.
Dennis Schaal | 1 year ago
Agoda's new CEO appointment highlights the need for online travel agencies to be continually reinventing experiences from a technology point of view. If only the company would now balance it out by bringing in someone who understands the hoteliers’ perspective.
Peden Doma Bhutia | 2 years ago
News Blog
After Airbnb decided to exit the local Chinese market, local players are rushing in: Tujia, Meituan, Muniao, Fliggy and Xiaozhu are large local Chinese online travel and short-term rental players that are reaching out to the local Airbnb hosts to migrate them to their respective platforms, according to this report. Tujia has set up a special…
Rafat Ali | 2 years ago
The old boys network is still as strong as can be in online travel and elsewhere. It shows up in several ways, although it was far from a decisive factor, in the pending Vacasa SPAC deal. But those decades-old ties sure didn't hurt, either.
Dennis Schaal | 2 years ago
The Chinese government, for better or worse, is exacting a toll on online platforms in its anti-monopoly drive. Meituan's penalty amounted to 3 percent of revenue, and it is being forced to implement additional reforms.
Did Airbnb, Booking Holdings, Tripadvisor, Oyo, and Marriott, among others, squirm a bit upon learning of Chinese regulators' latest antitrust crackdowns, this time against ridesharing giant Didi and food-delivery and hotel booker Meituan? If not, they should.
Dennis Schaal, Skift | 3 years ago
Regulators in China, Europe, and the U.S. can certainly screw up on execution of their goals with over-regulation, under-regulation, or initiatives that are off-target. But there's something happening around the globe that points to a new and potentially hopeful era for competition and innovation.
Sometimes CEO views of where online travel is headed seem more about the capabilities of their companies than anything else. Will pandemic-induced travel preferences make for dominant trends five or 10 years from now? Highly doubtful.
Dennis Schaal, Skift | 4 years ago
Coronavirus
An unfortunate first-mover in the pandemic, China, in turn, got an early start on its travel recovery. But officials at major travel companies there view a robust bounce back as taking a year or longer — and much of that pace depends on how quickly coronavirus gets neutralized in the rest of the world.