Turkish Airlines Brings on New Chairman and CEO in Latest Exec Shakeup
The new appointments at Turkish Airlines are the latest in a set of executive shuffles that have taken place across the airline industry.
All Categories
Airlines
Fuel Surcharges, Bag Fees: How Airlines Are Passing on Costs to Travelers
The rise in fuel prices gives every airline on this list a good excuse to raise fees. Less clear is when they'll come back down.
Delta’s 2012 Gamble on an Oil Refinery Is Paying Off — $300 Million Boost
When Delta purchased a refinery in 2012, industry experts were skeptical. But Delta is reaping the rewards from its refinery just south of Philadelphia.
Business Travel
Africa’s Corporate Travel Problem: Cash, PDFs, and Fragmented Systems
The biggest problem in African business travel is everything that happens after someone decides to take a trip. And if this really is a $10 billion opportunity, it’s surprising how little innovation has focused on fixing that part.
SAP Concur Adds AI Agents for Expense Automation, Expands AmexGBT Partnership
SAP Concur unveils new automation tools and partnership milestones in New Orleans, though several key features remain in pilot or scheduled for later in 2026.
Hotels’ Business-Travel Problem: Demand Is Back. The Three-Night Stay Isn’t.
Shorter stays are quietly rewiring hotel businesses. Operators can’t rely on the old Monday through Thursday rhythm to smooth occupancy and pricing.
Coronavirus
The Travel Industry’s Immense Potential for Growth
Despite the pandemic’s unprecedented challenges, the travel industry’s recovery is proving to be remarkable.
The Travel Industry Surpasses 2019
Today's edition of Skift's daily podcast looks closer at the recovery of the travel industry that have allowed it to surpass spring 2019 benchmarks.
Travel Makes a Complete Recovery
Today's edition of Skift's daily podcast looks closer at travel's coronavirus recovery, Airbnb's optimism, and Hilton's extended-stay moves.
Cruises
Carnival Cuts Profit Forecast as Iran War Sends Fuel Costs Surging
The Iran war's fuel shock is already showing up in travel companies' numbers.
MSC Cruises Turns Its First Alaska Season Into a Marine Research Initiative
Alaska’s reputation as a bucket list cruise destination rests largely on its wildlife encounters, especially whale sightings. MSC Cruises is treating its first season in the region as a research opportunity, exploring how marine science can guide operations in high-density wildlife corridors.
Activist Investor Elliott Targets Norwegian Cruise Line — Decade of ‘Poor Execution’
Elliott has run this playbook before and isn’t wasting time calling for changes at Norwegian.
Experiences
Ransomware Attack Hits Ticketing System Used by Major Museums and Theme Parks
The incident speaks to the ongoing importance of cybersecurity both for your own company and downstream partners.
Millennials Made Travel Their Personality. For Gen Z, It’s Just Another Purchase
For years, the travel industry has coasted on millennial devotion. When it comes to connecting with Gen Z, brands are going to have to work harder.
China’s F1 Visitors Spent More, Stayed Longer
China has long been a powerhouse in outbound tourism. Now it’s trying to flip the script and do the same on the inbound side. But can it turn event-driven travel into something bigger than marquee sporting weekends?
Food and Drink
Omakase, Fine Casual… and Burgers: Marriott’s Top Food Trends in Asia
Asia’s food culture, from hawker stalls to omakase counters, has always been vibrant. But it’s now also setting the pace for how food tourism might look globally in the years ahead.
How Tourism Homogenizes Cuisines and What Are Possible Solutions
There is a lot that can be done, both from an awareness and, even more importantly, from a policy perspective. Most of it requires changes that the travelers of today, seeking more authentic experiences, would welcome.
Magic Mushrooms in the Minibar
Some will always love a luxury spa. But psychedelics (think psilocybin soundbaths and mushrooms) are the phase in high-end wellness.
Ground Transport
Airbnb’s Latest Service Expansion: Rides From the Airport
Pre-booking rides to your Airbnb or hotel may ease the journey when arriving in an unfamiliar destinations, but there doesn't seem to be anything Airbnb-ish about the new service partnership. Maybe Airbnb gets less unique as it grows?
Uber to Buy Blacklane in Push to Accelerate Premium Services
Uber decided it couldn't go it alone in premium travel — so it bought Blacklane.
Airbnb Is Testing Airport Pickups. Are Flights Next?
Airbnb likely sees how flights are driving Booking Holdings' connected-trip vision. The timing is unclear, but it needs flights if it wants to be a true "travel concierge."
Hotels
Hyatt Eyes an India-First Brand — Exclusive
Hyatt isn’t just aiming to grow its brand presence in India, it wants to build a brand rooted in the country’s own identity. Now, will this come from building something from scratch, or buying into something that already exists?
Minor Hotels Builds AI Stack From Scratch To Improve Personalization
Minor has avoided the rebuild problem that is slowing rivals. Whether clean infrastructure delivers faster results remains to be seen.
Marriott’s Indian AI Push Is About Enhancing Staff, Not Replacing Them
Marriott is using AI to streamline its operations, but humans continue to be at the center of how it delivers value to its customers.
Luxury
Hyatt’s Luxury Edge Over Hilton Is Paying Off
Wall Street loves Hyatt's luxury story, especially its big lead in room count. But Hilton is competitive on some other metrics, complicating the narrative.
How Montage Is Scaling Luxury Brands — Slowly, and With Purpose
Montage is thinking deeply about how to grow while preserving its service culture and attention to detail.
Kempinski Selects Prague Monastery for First Acquisition In 55 Years
Kempinski’s strategy hinges on being extremely selective. In today’s luxury market, scarcity could sell better than scale.
Media and PR
The Great British Airline Loyalty Battle
As many British Airways flyers brace for status downgrades, rivals are seizing a rare chance to convince the UK’s most valuable travelers that there’s another way.
Saudi Arabia Should Become the World’s Most Event-Friendly Country
Saudi has been running the mass events experiment for centuries with pilgrimage and is now building on it with sports, music, and entertainment. It’s time to scale those lessons….and build a tourism strategy that actually works.
The Validation Economy: How Western Travel Creators Monetize South Asia’s Need to Be Seen
This is a preview of where travel media is headed: destinations as identity theaters and creators as roaming interfaces between cultures and the algorithm.
Meetings
5 Ways Meeting in Ireland Balances the Best of Both Worlds
All too often, choosing a destination for incentive travel forces meeting planners to prioritize either a busy city or rural country, business or wellness, modern developments or rich cultural experiences. Here’s how planners get to have it all on the island of Ireland.
3 Ways Corporate Meetings in New Orleans Can Fuel Creativity
Beyond the everyday challenges of organizing memorable events that move the needle for companies, today's planners are under mounting pressure to inspire a burned-out workforce. New Orleans combines its rich history, deep culture, and modern innovation to host corporate experiences that spark creativity and foster connection.
Inside India’s Events and Meetings Aspirations
India upped its convention center game for the G20 Summit last year. Now, it is trying to drum up the marketing for these spaces across the country. But is India really MICE ready?
Online Travel
Hopper Takes Over Canadian Bank Deal From Expedia
The RBC contract is a significant B2B win for fellow Canadian company, Hopper. Exclusivity may have been a precedent that Expedia saw as too limiting.
Why Booking Has More at Risk From the Iran War Than Expedia
Booking's larger exposure to the impact from the Iran war than Expedia's comes from a position of strength. Booking has a much larger presence than Expedia in Asia and the Middle East, and inflation will smack Booking's European base much harder.
How Is Agentic AI Changing Travel Booking? What Ask Skift Says
Agentic AI promises to collapse research, planning, and booking into one conversation — assuming travelers ever decide to trust it.
Podcasts
Fuel Prices Are Forcing Airlines to Change Fast
Delta warns the current fuel shock may force structural change across airlines, as leadership risk emerges at top carriers and AI shifts from experimentation to core infrastructure.
After Selling Match.com, She Built Again – and Then Took It to Shark Tank
On this episode of Suite Success, host Katie Cline is joined by Fran Maier—entrepreneur, investor, and co-founder of Match.com. After helping build one of the most iconic companies of the…
GMH Hotels: Is $7 Billion in Hotel Points a Problem?
On this week’s Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast: Hotels Edition, Sarah Dandashy and Steve Turk break down the growing loyalty balance at Marriott Hotels and Hilton, and what nearly…
Short-Term Rentals
Airbnb Chief Business Officer Discussed How Flights Could Fit Into Expansion Strategy
The question isn't whether Airbnb will eventually add flights or not. The issue is in what manner will Airbnb do it.
UAE Holiday Homes Slash Prices as Demand Collapses
They say aggressive discounting has become unavoidable due to ‘unreasonable’ offers from hotels.
Airbnb Appoints Former Uber Safety Exec as Global Head of Operations
Consider the complexity that Fuldner is walking into. Airbnb is tasking him with reshaping the company's teams and systems into a unified "intelligent platform." All this, while Airbnb is launching new verticals, and trying to become a native AI app.
Skift Originals
The Lessons Travel Buried After Covid Are Resurfacing in the Middle East
The travel industry edited Covid into a convenient story about resilient demand while ignoring the system’s fragility. We’re seeing the cost of that rewrite in real time.
Building in Travel Has Never Mattered More
Travel is where history gets physical. We're in it. Right where we should be.
Legacy Is When Your Ideas Outlive Their Attribution: The Skift Journey
Skift is an extended argument for a particular way of being in the world: intellectually rigorous, commercially viable, editorially independent, globally aware, personally authentic.
Startups
What a Siberian Startup and a Saudi Ticketing App Reveal About Travel’s Future
Two startups from two different worlds are quietly rewriting the rules of who controls the travel transaction, with fascinating implications.
Ugandan Startup Roamio Aims to Use AI to Connect Travelers With Local Operators
AI can dream up your adventure, but it’s connecting to the operators on the ground who actually make it real. That’s the challenge Roamio is taking on.
India’s Travel Startup Funding Is No Longer Just About Online Travel Agencies
These fundings reflect a broader trend: For India’s travel startup ecosystem, capital infusion is no longer about scale alone, but about where value is being created in the travel stack.
Tour Operators
Can An Electric Snowmobile Become The Tesla Of Winter Tourism?
Decarbonization targets are opening a market for electric equipment in ski resorts and electric snowmobiles are among the first products that can compete with diesel on price and performance.
Southeast Asia Travel Operators Hit by Trip Cancellations and Delays
Bookings might bounce back in June. But if fuel costs keep climbing and wallets get tighter, the bigger worry is whether it will erode the spending power that makes Southeast Asians want to travel at all.
Why a U.S.-Based Luxury Safari Company Is Suddenly Courting Indian Travelers
Micato Safaris supported India's inbound potential much before it saw a market where it can sell its luxury offerings. But now, it is time to change the strategy.
Tourism
Travel’s Tax Refund Boom Is Falling Short
Tax refunds were supposed to be a $5 billion boost to travel spend this year, but refunds so far are tracking below expectations.
Skift Travel Health Index Flatlines
Global travel paused in February 2026, revealing how quickly momentum can unravel. As demand shifts to safer, closer destinations, the focus moves from growth to restoring trust.
What Countries Are Telling Travelers About Visiting the U.S. Right Now
Other countries aren't raising their U.S. travel risk ratings, but they are adding footnotes.
Travel Agents
TBO’s North America Deal Begins to Show Up in the Numbers
The Classic Vacations acquisition hands TBO a new distribution footprint. It brings higher-value bookings and deep industry relationships. But that also means that TBO’s numbers will look messy until the integration is done.
Q&A: Inside Civitatis’ Push to Own the Spanish-Language Tours Market
Offering wide-scale travel experiences is one thing — curating high-quality activities specifically for the world's 850 million Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking travelers is another. With its relaunched app, Civitatis is dedicated to keeping the travel planning process simple and culturally resonant for its global audience of travelers.
Selectour’s New AI Aims to Fix The Booking Handoff Problem
For a travel sector eager to automate, the basics still matter — especially continuity between bots and human travel agents. Selectour and Kleio tackle the handoff problem, and the effort could prepare advisors for the agentic future.
Travel Technology
How Meta’s New AI Model Could Change Travel
Meta is building AI that could know travelers' social history and see their surroundings in real time. Google isn't there yet.
Why AI Integration Will Define Travel’s Next Competitive Era
Artificial intelligence in travel is moving beyond experimentation. Now, the real challenge is scaling it across the industry’s complex systems. The companies that integrate inspiration, booking, and service successfully will define the next phase of competition.
Southeast Asian Superapp Grab’s Next Destination: Your Whole Journey
Grab is inching deeper into travel planning, using AI at scale to keep users inside its app. OTAs may be worried.
Venture Capital
Travel Venture Capital Is Back, But Only for the Biggest, Safest Bets: 3 Charts
Early-stage startups face longer fundraising cycles and less capital.
Regional Air Travel Startups Raise Over $85 Million: Funding Roundup
The biggest airlines are behind on updating their tech systems and operations; regional airlines are even further behind.
Ramp Raises $200 Million for Expense and Biz Travel Management: Startup Funding Roundup
Startups for business travel management and flying taxis are still raising a lot of money.