Travel

Hilton is opening a direct line into its reservation system for Navan, the companies said Tuesday, letting the corporate-travel platform pull rates, availability, and marketing content straight from the source — bypassing the middlemen who have long controlled how hotel booking information reaches business travelers. Legacy reservation systems used by travel management companies limit a

After years of anticipation, host cities across the U.S., Mexico, and Canada are finally reaping the benefits of the 2026 World Cup. Local businesses have reported a surge in international visitors, and hotels are benefiting from gains in revenue per available room. But non-host cities are also seeing a lift.    RevPAR has grown at least

India’s airlines have spent two years building premium cabins, airport lounges, and loyalty programs. But in the past two weeks, two of them launched products designed for the traveler who only care about the lowest fare. On June 17, Air India unveiled a new Basic fare that strips complimentary meals from Economy tickets while retaining

As AI agents take on more of the trip-planning journey, where do OTAs fit in? Executives from Expedia and Booking.com have decided their edge is trust. If travelers worry LLMs like ChatGPT can hallucinate, they’ll still turn to trusted travel brands to book their trips.  Trip.com Group Executive Chairman James Liang last week also raised

Demand for U.S. extended-stay hotels grew at its fastest pace in more than four years in May, even as the construction pipeline started to thin.  For developers and brand executives, the widening gap between accelerating demand and decelerating supply points to a window of pricing power opening in 2027. Extended-stay has outrun the broader industry

Airlines spend fortunes reminding travelers they exist at 35,000 feet. Increasingly, they are spending it on the ground too — buying their way into theaters, arenas, and concert halls to stay in front of premium customers on the days they are not flying anywhere. Carriers are fueling brand engagement by offering loyalty program members early

Cabo Verde wasn’t supposed to have a chance against Lionel Messi and the Argentina team. Instead, the tiny West African nation pushed the defending World Cup champs to extra time and a narrow 3-2 loss.  It was the smallest country in tournament history to advance to the knockout stage and now the roughly 550,000-person island

One of the most fascinating hidden stories in travel tech hubs is Turkey, which has built a much larger sector than the global industry realizes, one that barely registers in global discussions, even on Skift. Turkey has skyrocketed to 60-plus million visitors a year post-Covid, about $60 billion in annual tourism revenue last year, and

Marriott outspent every hotel company on U.S. national TV ads in the first half of 2026, committing more than $40 million across its brand portfolio. Yet for the World Cup, it was Airbnb that gained more impressions. Marriott’s overall TV ad spending in the first half was $35.5 million on Marriott Bonvoy and masterbrand advertising,

Cabo Verde was hailed as the underdog story from this year’s World Cup after it became the smallest country in tournament history to advance to the knockout stage.   Suddenly, the roughly 550,000-person island nation off the coast of West Africa is finding a new audience among millions of World Cup viewers. Interest in the destination

Booking.com thinks business travelers in India have been settling for “sub-par” booking experiences. The company announced Thursday it is expanding Booking.com for Business with new features for Indian startups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), adding support in providing GST-compliant invoicing, traveler safety tools, real-time spend tracking and city- or country-level budget caps “The overall

Expedia this week unveiled the latest phase of its partnership with IShowSpeed, the 21-year-old content creator known for livestreams of his global travels. A minute-and-a-half-long advertisement, featured on the custom Exspeedia.com website, shows IShowSpeed in a Corvette, making waves in a jet boat, and enjoying an outdoor massage. A bright-yellow mannequin with “You Here” printed

Ryanair has agreed to keep Michael O’Leary as group CEO until April 2032, a deal that will push his tenure toward four decades. By the time the contract ends, he’ll have been at the airline for 44 years, with 38 of those in the top job. It’s an impressive run in any industry, but all

Adam Stewart has a message for the bankers and buyout firms circling his family’s all-inclusive empire: Sandals Resorts International isn’t for sale. “At this stage, we’re just kind of warming up, so we’re not looking at exiting,” said Stewart, executive chairman. “I’m not going anywhere.” Stewart made the comments when asked about a March 2025

Oyo’s parent company, Prism, is making its third IPO attempt this summer — and the numbers in an updated prospectus filed Tuesday show a business barely recognizable from the Indian hospitality startup that first tried to go public in 2021. Its U.S. motel business, G6 Hospitality, now drives more of the company’s profit than the

Visa has launched Visa Destinations, a consumer-facing travel platform offering cardholders curated experiences, dining, and shopping across 10 cities, including Paris, London, Dubai, and New York. There’s also a link to the pre-existing Visa Luxury Hotel Collection.  Visa has numerous partners, including Smart Media Technologies, which powers the site, as well as Trip.com, the Star

India’s next phase of hotel development is being driven by companies that don’t operate hotels. On Monday, real estate developer Omaxe announced its entry into hospitality with plans to invest about INR 62 billion ($656 million) to develop 19 hotels across 13 cities over the next four to five years. This comes a month after

Key Points Trip.com’s $15.1B liquidity—about half its market cap—is largely trapped: most cash sits in mainland China behind VIE structures, locked statutory reserves, and cross-border taxes, with the Cayman parent that funds buybacks and M&A holding only ~$1.6 million. Regulatory pressure is squeezing every deployment path simultaneously—a SAMR anti-monopoly probe (potential ~$900M+ fines), regional pricing-conduct