Done With Gift Guides? Skift Research Ideas For Every Travel Pro on Your List
As the travel industry gears up for the winter holiday high season, please enjoy this guide to our favorite reports of the year.
AI in Travel
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the dominant topic of the future in travel, and we’re keeping a close eye on it at Skift.
Breakthrough generative AI technology was released publicly by OpenAI last November, and a number of big-name travel companies have already responded. Expedia, Kayak, and more — including multiple startups — have started releasing experimental technologies that could lead to transformations in the way users discover, plan, and book travel.
Skift’s own Ask Skift AI deep search tool gives readers extensive insight into the business of travel by training artificial intelligence on the complete archives of Skift, Skift Research, Airline Weekly, Skift Meetings, Daily Lodging Report, and Skift Live events.
MCP Explained: The AI Standard Reshaping Travel Tech
Model Context Protocol is becoming a prerequisite for AI travel distribution. In the agent era, not being machine-readable will be the fastest way to become invisible.
Social Media Never Cracked Travel Booking. Agentic AI Could Face a Similar Problem
The LLMs will need to prove that their agentic AI is so revolutionary that it can capture traveler trust and loyalty. Travel inspiration sites and social media have never been able to do it.
TikTok’s U.S. Sale: A Reprieve for Travel Brands, or a Tech-Induced Headache?
TikTok inked a deal to sell a significant portion of its U.S. operation to American investors. The sale may bring clarity, but not comfort, as travel brands wait to see the effect on the algorithms driving discovery.
What 10 Job Postings Tell Us About Disney’s AI Strategy for Travel
The company that pioneered MagicBands and transformed queue management into a science is, for now, treating AI as infrastructure rather than imagination when it comes to the guest journey itself. That may be prudent sequencing...or it may be a blind spot that someone else fills first.
‘Double Trouble:’ AI’s Energy Demands Threaten Airlines’ Net-Zero Goals
Airlines are under pressure to decarbonize, but now they’re pointing fingers at AI for stealing the clean energy they need. The question is whether policymakers will listen.
OpenAI Breaks Open ChatGPT App Submissions
Any travel brand can now submit apps and get listed in its new app store — which means Booking.com and Expedia, early movers in OpenAI’s app ecosystem, will soon get new competition to own ChatGPT’s travel conversations.
AI Is Reshaping Luxury Travel Discovery — Here’s What Marketers Must Do
Luxury travel discovery is being rewritten by large language models — and PR has become performance marketing for machines, not just people. Brands still optimizing for yesterday’s gatekeepers risk disappearing from tomorrow’s consideration set.
Famous vs. Indispensable: The Choice AI Is Forcing on OTAs
Expedia and Booking are trying to be both the storefront and the supply chain. AI is squeezing the middle, and “doing both” starts to look less like diversification and more like diluted power.
United Rewires Mobile App With AI
United rewrote its mobile boarding, disruption handling, and personalization by weaving AI throughout its app — not just layering on a chatbot. The real question is whether the automations will ultimately help smooth travel or, by introducing errors or hallucinations, add to the travel friction.