Travel

Skift Take There are economic pressures and segment-specific challenges, such as growing supply in the luxury market. Sean O’Neill STR and Tourism Economics lowered their forecast for U.S. hotel demand growth this week. The benchmarking firms now project a more modest 2.1% increase in average daily rates this year — down from the previous estimate

Skift Take We’re thrilled to announce the latest edition of Skift Aviation Forum on November 12 in Dallas, Texas, where key aeronautic stakeholders will gather to explore groundbreaking ideas, share insights, and look toward the future of this dynamic sector. Becca Smith We are excited to announce that our latest Skift Aviation Forum, the leading

Skift Take Guesty CEO Amiad Soto said an initial public offering would fund more acquisitions. Justin Dawes Guesty could go public as soon as next year.  That’s according to Amiad Soto, CEO of the platform for short-term rental property managers. “We will decide to go public when the market is more receptive to companies in

Skift Take Speaking to Skift, the former British Airways CEO gave his informed perspective on the problems at American Airlines. Gordon Smith Last week saw a mea culpa of colossal proportions at American Airlines. Robert Isom, the carrier’s chief executive, acknowledged that the company had “dug ourselves a hole” through a misguided commercial strategy.  This

Skift Take Kayak is doing a lot of experiments with AI, not always in the most obvious ways. Justin Dawes Kayak has found multiple ways to use generative AI, and it’s not always how one may expect.  Kayak chief scientist Matthias Keller discussed the metasearch engine’s recent AI projects on stage Tuesday at the Skift Data+AI Summit.

Skift Take While Oyo’s global expansion plans had been on pause mode during Covid, the hospitality company now seems to be diversifying its geographic footprint. Peden Doma Bhutia Oyo is expanding the footprint of its premium vacation home rental brand, Belvilla: On Tuesday, it announced the launch of Belvilla by Oyo in the UK. Through

Skift Take Execs at the major hotel groups have a broadly upbeat outlook as they turn to AI to offset staffing shortages and enhance the guest experience. Sean O’Neill The world’s top hotel executives are betting big on AI, groups, and India amid a post-pandemic travel resurgence that’s bolstering the bottom line despite economic headwinds

Skift Take Accor’s strategic interest in India is driven by the country’s demographic potential, significant supply-demand gap in branded hotel rooms, and improving travel infrastructure. Peden Doma Bhutia “India is a country we’re very interested in,” Sebastien Bazin, the group chairman and CEO of Accor, said during the company’s earnings call Friday. Despite the potential,

Skift Take Bastian’s drive for simplicity at Delta follows a disastrous week for rival American Airlines, which cut ties with its chief commercial officer and lowered its financial outlook.  Gordon Smith If last week was one American Airlines would rather forget, consider 2024 the year Delta Air Lines never wants to end. Speaking on Saturday,

Skift Take Microsoft wants to help travel companies adopt generative AI, and many of those connections are coming through Amadeus. Justin Dawes Microsoft has invested billions of dollars into OpenAI, making it part owner and giving it early access to the generative AI technology.  That tech, which powers ChatGPT, has been the basis for Microsoft

Skift Take The easier route for platforms to scale listings is to contract with property managers. But Airbnb thinks that the secret sauce is individual hosts. Dennis Schaal Short-term rental veterans for years have said “professionalization” is key to industry expansion. But Airbnb believes that its individual hosts — and not professional property managers —

Skift Take Yatra has been growing its corporate travel offerings, and its domestic air passengers increased significantly as the company is gaining market share in this segment. Now, the company is set to focus on its hotel segment to grow further. Bulbul Dhawan Online travel agency Yatra is working to expand its corporate share and

Skift Take As every brand races to generative AI and understanding what it means for their company, our Data + AI Summit on June 4 will rest on one core idea: AI is only as good as the data that powers it. Across the event, we’ll speak with technology and data leaders to explore this

Skift Take Indian travelers are becoming an attractive source market, a McKinsey says. And a boom in the domestic travel market is leading to “substantial investments.” Bulbul Dhawan India is becoming a fast-growing source of outbound tourism, according to a report by consulting firm McKinsey and Company. The report reiterated McKinsey’s earlier projection of India

Skift Take Never say never in travel. Airbnb has moved away from Google marketing in years’ past, but recently it’s found a way to play there more efficiently. Dennis Schaal Early in 2020, Airbnb diverted about $800 million in spend on performance marketing — mostly Google keyword advertising — and tilted more toward marketing its

Skift Take Thailand’s aggressive push to attract tourists through these visa promotions highlights its commitment to reviving the tourism sector and ensuring long-term economic stability. Peden Doma Bhutia In an effort to attract more tourists and remote workers, the Thai cabinet this week rolled out a series of new visa promotions, including visa-free and visa-on-arrival

Skift Take American Airlines tried to drag an entrenched industry toward the airline’s vision of a more productive distribution future. But the financial hit stung. Dennis Schaal Online and offline travel agencies had faced a July 11 deadline: That’s when flyers buying American Airlines tickets on certain booking sites would have no longer been able

Skift Take Qatar’s tourism numbers are growing, but so is the country’s reliance on events and conferences. Josh Corder The small Gulf nation of Qatar is relying heavily on events to keep its tourism sector going. During the FIFA World Cup in 2022, the country scrambled to open thousands of hotel rooms, which it now