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Gen Z is already a force in business travel, yet the industry is decidedly unprepared

Chinese OTAs have long offered airport transfers and chauffeur services through third-party partnerships. If completed, Tongcheng's Dida acquisition would make it one of the first to own the ride-sharing marketplace itself, rather than plugging into someone else's.

Hilton and Navan have launched a direct booking connection that skips distribution middlemen, giving the hotel group more control over retailing. It's an early step in a broader corporate travel push to overhaul how road warriors book hotels.

Bhutan has approved a 5% interest rate subsidy for 84 four-star and lower hotels. Plus, more hotel deal and development news from APAC.

Concerts, festivals, sports and cultural moments are changing where and how the world travels, and the shift is proving durable. Most operators still treat it as a calendar event. The Skift Live Tourism Summit, presented by Live Nation, is the room where they learn to build around it.

Event tech vendors are starting to implement bring your own AI (BYOAI) policies. That means organizers can keep their data and pick their own tools, instead of handing the platform the interactions behind them.

Turns out the World Cup’s tourism impact extends beyond the 16 host cities, with outside markets seeing some of the steepest spikes in demand.

California saw 21 hotels open during the first half of 2026, a 42% decline compared to the same period last year. IHG topped 200 open hotels in Canada and Hyatt Studios expanded. Plus, more hotel development news.

Travel apps inside AI chatbots are starting to look like real referral channels. The catch, Skift's testing found: A brand can be connected and still get skipped.

Comporta's magic was scarcity and silence. Sublime's expansion bets it can grow without diluting either.

On Monday's Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast, Brandreth Canaley and Michael Goldin break down who is actually controlling the relationship between a traveler and a booking right now.

The PIF is stepping back from direct tourism investment, and private capital is racing into the vacuum — but no two entrants agree on which segment actually has room to grow.