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Airlines

A file image of an Air India Boeing 787-8.

Air India Scales Back International Flights: What’s Cancelled, What’s Reduced

Now, before we start linking this to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal to avoid foreign travel, it’s worth remembering that Air India had been warning about rising fuel costs and airspace disruptions for weeks before that call was made.

May 13th, 2026 at 6:44 AM EDT

United Airlines Plane Takesoff from Washington Reagan National Airport

United Is the Last Big 4 Airline to Settle With Flight Attendants. Here’s What It Cost.

After years of thorny negotiations, United flight attendants ratified a new five-year contract that will give them significant raises and boarding pay. And even with high fuel costs, airlines don’t expect those record contracts to change.

May 12th, 2026 at 1:55 PM EDT

An ITA airways Airbus A350-900.

Lufthansa Tightens Grip on ITA Airways With Majority Stake Swoop

What was sold as a minority investment has become outright control in record time. Expect Lufthansa to bring the same German gusto to the looming battle for TAP Air Portugal.

May 12th, 2026 at 5:39 AM EDT

Business Travel

people in the corporate travel industry walking around a trade room show floor

Amex GBT’s 12-Year Ownership Saga — Who Won and Lost

A $6.3 billion take-private closes the books on one of the most convoluted cap tables in travel. The scorecard is not what you’d expect.

May 4th, 2026 at 12:34 PM EDT

Paul Abbott, CEO of American Express Global Business Travel

Amex GBT to Be Acquired by General Catalyst-Backed Long Lake for $6.3 Billion

American Express Global Business Travel is going private with backing from major AI and tech investors. Despite a travel-tech experienced backer in General Catalyst, Long Lake will have to prove its mettle.

May 4th, 2026 at 8:25 AM EDT

Navan’s Post-IPO Reality: CEO Defends Strategy — Exclusive

Navan, an AI-first travel management company, is growing fast and spending faster. Some investors want to know when the math starts working.

April 15th, 2026 at 3:10 PM EDT

Coronavirus

Paris tourists outside of shops selling trinkets.

The Travel Industry’s Immense Potential for Growth

Despite the pandemic’s unprecedented challenges, the travel industry’s recovery is proving to be remarkable.

August 3rd, 2023 at 6:49 PM EDT

Tourists near St. Mark's Square in Venice, Italy.

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.

May 26th, 2023 at 2:44 AM EDT

Tourists taking photos on the roof of Milan’s cathedral

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.

May 24th, 2023 at 5:27 AM EDT

Cruises

A Carnival ship

Iran War Costs Have Hit Travel’s Profit Forecasts

The Iran war didn't just raise fuel costs — it upended many travel company's business plans for 2026.

May 8th, 2026 at 11:39 AM EDT

NCL cruise

Norwegian Cruise Line Slashes Profit Outlook as Fuel Costs Mount

Norwegian posted some very encouraging numbers during this first quarter but the rest of 2026 could be challenging.

May 4th, 2026 at 3:01 PM EDT

How a Cruise Line Cut Emissions by 90% on a 12-Day Voyage

Havila Voyages has shown that low-emission cruising through Norway's fjords is technically possible. The harder question is whether the infrastructure to support it can keep pace.

May 1st, 2026 at 8:50 AM EDT

Experiences

HBX Group to Buy Bridgify as Part of Broader AI Push

HBX has been trying to diversify from reselling hotel rooms since before it went public. Each time, the answer is new inventory and better tech for selling. Experiences and AI are the latest pitch.

May 13th, 2026 at 11:32 AM EDT

A Tiqets company sign

Expedia Spent $279 Million on Acquisitions in Q1, Airbnb Gained $70 Million on Tiqets Deal: Scoop

Expedia was the company that acquired Tiqets. Airbnb didn't buy the experiences brand, but seems to have made a solid return on its Tiqets investment when it cashed out.

May 9th, 2026 at 3:29 PM EDT

AlUla

What 7,000 Travelers Reveal About Loyalty, Pricing, and Where Demand Is Really Heading

Travelers do not make their decisions in one step. The smartest travel companies have started focusing on the stage where they can actually make a difference.

May 4th, 2026 at 10:39 AM EDT

Food and Drink

Food tourism

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.

October 14th, 2025 at 4:00 AM EDT

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.

December 12th, 2024 at 7:58 AM EST

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.

December 10th, 2024 at 12:01 PM EST

Ground Transport

Grab

Grab Takes Taxis Across the Singapore-Malaysia Border

“Travel companion” Grab clearly isn’t ready to say goodbye at the border. With its cross-border taxi pilot, Grab is stretching the definition of “last mile” into an international one, keeping travelers in-app the entire way.

May 5th, 2026 at 7:46 AM EDT

Dara Khosrowshahi seated on stage while being interviewed

Uber CEO Says Travel Rivals Like Expedia Can’t Match Its On-the-Ground Edge

Khosrowshahi said there's the usual tension with partners about Uber's travel ambitions, and he obliquely cited Expedia's shortcomings post-booking. If Uber gains traction in travel, you can expect Khosrowshahi to one day step away from the Expedia board, and all of those conflicts to get exacerbated.

May 4th, 2026 at 4:55 PM EDT

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?

March 31st, 2026 at 5:00 AM EDT

Hotels

aerial shot of outdoor pool at Luana Waikiki Hotel Suites in Honolulu

Hotel Equities CEO: Here’s Which Technologies Can Actually Lift Owner Margins

Hotel owners see operating-cost inflation grinding margins. One third-party manager is publicly betting that AI and other technologies are the most promising route back to profitability.

May 13th, 2026 at 9:30 AM EDT

Morocco Courts Investors Beyond Casablanca and Marrakech — Where the Opportunities Are

Rural Morocco is open for investment. Filling it won’t be easy.

May 13th, 2026 at 7:51 AM EDT

hotel exterior

Strawberry Has No Global Ambitions and a Record Year. Here’s What It Does Differently.

Strawberry is doubling down on the Nordics with a co-owned loyalty currency and two new brands. A record 2025 suggests it's working.

May 13th, 2026 at 7:18 AM EDT

Luxury

Chicago Four Seasons

Luxury Brands Have Been Marketing to Humans. But Their Next Booking May Be AI.

Luxury brands have spent two decades optimizing for the human eye. A meaningful share of their traffic will soon belong to something else entirely.

May 1st, 2026 at 4:52 PM EDT

Inside the $2.4 Billion Agency Powering Luxury Travel’s Elite Advisors

For years, Global Travel Collection's $2.4 billion in sales has been spread across legacy brands, masking its true scale. Its brand unification is a signal that scale is becoming the defining competitive advantage in luxury travel.

April 23rd, 2026 at 8:30 AM EDT

Image of an infinity swimming pool overlooking the mountains in Lake Como, Italy, seen from a luxury villa during the day

Steve Case’s Onefinestay Is Shedding Rentals to Chase Luxury Travelers: Exclusive

Onefinestay, a luxury vacation rental brand, will cede management of 200-plus homes to Veeve. The move is part of a tactical shift for a brand that had an urban and less exclusive tilt under its previous owner.

April 21st, 2026 at 6:30 PM EDT

Media and PR

EternityX CEO Charlene Ree at Skift Asia Forum 2026

Demographic segmentation of Chinese outbound travelers is the wrong unit of analysis.

April 29th, 2026 at 3:39 PM EDT

How TV and AI Are Reshaping Travel Demand

If travel demand is being shaped by entertainment and filtered through AI, what role do travel brands actually play in influencing decisions?

April 24th, 2026 at 6:03 AM EDT

Authorities Around the World Are Banning Flight Ads Due To Climate. But Will It Change Anything?

The bans may not ground a single flight, but they are opening the door to harder policy conversations.

April 17th, 2026 at 1:08 PM EDT

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.

December 15th, 2025 at 9:43 AM EST

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.

December 11th, 2025 at 9:19 AM EST

Visitors at the Yashobhoomi convention and exhibition centre in New Delhi.

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?

May 27th, 2025 at 11:00 PM EDT

Online Travel

Ixigo

Ixigo’s Co-CEO Says He Rebuilt His App From Scratch to Fight ChatGPT

Ixigo’s latest move comes as travel apps face pressure to do more than list fares, rooms and routes. They now have to help users make decisions faster and with less friction, without sending them elsewhere for answers.

May 13th, 2026 at 3:02 AM EDT

A man in a karate stance in an ad for Priceline

Priceline’s New CEO on Reinventing the Value Pitch and Competing in a Crowded OTA Market: Exclusive

Can a 29-year-old brand with limited resources remake its advertising and products to effectively reach younger generations? Priceline's new CEO is making bets that it can.

May 12th, 2026 at 5:25 PM EDT

Stack of dollars and Booking Holdings

Booking Holdings Is Running Ahead of Its Own Strategy

The merchant model is the most important thing happening at Booking Holdings. It is also the thing that lets it avoid proving whether Connected Trip actually works.

May 12th, 2026 at 1:04 PM EDT

Podcasts

Airbnb’s New Design Is Really a Bet on the AI Era

On Monday’s Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast, Wil Slickers, Michael Goldin, Brandreth Canaley, and Jamie Lane break down what Airbnb’s latest product and earnings commentary reveal about the future…

May 11th, 2026 at 3:05 PM EDT

Spirit Airlines Collapsed. What Happens to Budget Travel Now?

It's been almost a week since Spirit Airlines shut down. Sarah and Seth still have thoughts on the Skift Travel Podcast.

May 8th, 2026 at 8:00 AM EDT

How to Buy a Hotel (Without Being Rich)

On this episode of Suite Success, host Katie Cline sits down with Davonne Reaves—hotel owner, asset manager, and founder of The Vonne Group—to break down how hotel deals actually get…

May 7th, 2026 at 7:00 AM EDT

Short-Term Rentals

Brian Chesky Says Airbnb Won’t Mix Homes and Hotels — That’s ‘Pre-AI’ Design

Airbnb's Chesky is nothing if not ambitious. Given that people's preferences can change at any moment, the ability to serve customers with only a hotel or home, depending what they need in that instant, seems a long way off, even with agentic AI.

May 7th, 2026 at 6:34 PM EDT

People in an Airbnb cooking class in Mexico City.

Airbnb Expands Delta Partnership to Boost Experiences and Services

Airbnb is pushing whatever buttons it can to jumpstart Experiences and Services, which got off to sluggish starts.

May 5th, 2026 at 2:31 PM EDT

Times Square

How the U.S. Tourism Slump Is Hitting Short-Term Rentals: Exclusive

Headline tourism numbers undersell how hard the international slowdown is hitting U.S. vacation rentals.

April 28th, 2026 at 10:17 AM EDT

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.

March 16th, 2026 at 1:02 PM EDT

Building in Travel Has Never Mattered More

Travel is where history gets physical. We're in it. Right where we should be.

January 4th, 2026 at 12:37 PM EST

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.

December 2nd, 2025 at 9:50 AM EST

Startups

People sitting around tables and talking at Fora Travel event.

Fora Travel Is Focused on Growth and a Small Acquisition Helps Build AI Tools

Fora Travel has the luxury of being private and can build its business — seemingly at a decent pace — without getting second-guessed in quarterly earnings calls.

April 21st, 2026 at 9:18 AM EDT

The Hosteller property in Chakrata, Uttarakhand.

India’s Travel Space Heats Up as Niche Players Gain Significance

India’s maturing travel market is allowing for more niche players to strengthen their bases, and it seems like investors are backing this movement.

April 20th, 2026 at 9:18 AM EDT

Webook

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.

February 11th, 2026 at 9:42 AM EST

Tour Operators

UAE’s AI Push Could Reshape How Hotels and Holiday Homes Operate

The biggest win for the hospitality sector will be the elimination of manual licensing and compliance checks that quietly drain operator time and margin.

April 30th, 2026 at 9:40 AM EDT

TUI office

TUI Downgrades Outlook, Reports Softer Bookings From Iran War

TUI went from reporting record EBIT to suspending revenue guidance as conflict in the Middle East disrupts travel plans.

April 22nd, 2026 at 12:42 PM EDT

Intrepid Travel CEO James Thornton at the Skift Global Forum in New York.

Intrepid Buys French Tour Operator Altaï — Its Biggest Acquisition Yet: Exclusive

Intrepid’s CEO said the adventure tour operator isn't done with its European expansion plans.

April 21st, 2026 at 1:00 AM EDT

Tourism

Nick Adams speaking at the WTTC Summit in Egypt in May 2026.

100 Million Visitors and One Very Loud Pitchman: Inside Trump’s Tourism Push

Nick Adams is the loudest tourism pitchman the U.S. has ever had, but is the world hearing what he wants it to hear?

May 13th, 2026 at 12:19 PM EDT

gold-colored entrance to an airport lounge.

It’s Not Just Airfare: Travel Costs Are Running Double the Inflation Rate

Travelers are feeling pain at the pump and in the air after an April surge in travel costs.

May 13th, 2026 at 12:16 PM EDT

Where Travel Demand Is Heading: Middle East Down, Mediterranean Up

Travelers are not staying home, but they are changing destinations.

May 13th, 2026 at 6:55 AM EDT

Travel Agents

A file image of Terminal 3 at Dubai International Airport.

Dubai Strengthens Passenger Rights Rules to Rebuild Traveler Trust

Dubai’s passenger rights framework means one regulator, one rulebook. The details around enforcement are still to come, though.

May 5th, 2026 at 9:44 AM EDT

Emirates Refreshed Business Class on board the A350

American Express Saw Strong Luxury Spending in Q1, Airline Softness in April

A lot of companies are seeing strength among premium customers and hesitancy at lower rungs, but American Express skews toward the upper echelon.

April 27th, 2026 at 11:59 AM EDT

Shoppers and sellers in a a lively night market in Southeast Asia.

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.

March 24th, 2026 at 9:56 AM EDT

Travel Technology

tiktok

TikTok Turns Travel Videos Into Bookable Stays and Experiences

TikTok is moving from trip inspiration into bookings, turning videos for hotels and experiences into bookable inventory inside the app.

May 12th, 2026 at 9:00 AM EDT

Virgin Atlantic Airbus A350

OpenAI Builds AI Deployment Biz Around Team Behind Virgin Atlantic Concierge

OpenAI’s new $4 billion deployment company gives travel brands a clearer path to adopting AI at scale — and starts with the team behind Virgin Atlantic’s AI concierge.

May 11th, 2026 at 5:55 PM EDT

Amadeus Widens Its Travel Tech Domain as Sabre Fight Escalates

Amadeus didn’t answer Sabre’s monopoly accusations so much as argue the battlefield has moved on. That may be strategically useful, but it won’t make the questions disappear.

May 11th, 2026 at 11:58 AM EDT

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.

December 22nd, 2025 at 8:04 AM EST

Mokulele Airlines

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.

June 27th, 2025 at 4:45 PM EDT

Ramp business travel corporate card

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.

June 20th, 2025 at 5:29 PM EDT