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Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and more sophisticated API-connected platforms are powering better speed, relevance, and accuracy of search and automating services across all touchpoints of the traveler journey—allowing travel providers and resellers to connect with customers more efficiently.

Locol is more than just a fast food restaurant. It's a way to build community, look to the future, and support underprivileged neighborhoods. Its intentions are laudable, but it also needs to be a sustainable business.

You know we've reached peak internet when we’re more excited about a photo of a cake than eating the actual cake.

Google's paid-search and product practices enable the big -- like Expedia -- to get bigger. So what's not to like? Although other businesses that aren't as well-positioned as Expedia and the Priceline Group undoubtably take a more critical view.

Taj isn't afraid to do things differently, whether teaming up with a competitor on an innovative loyalty program strategy, or deciding to whittle down its number of brands to just one. It's certainly a hotel company worth keeping an eye on going forward thanks to its contrarian approaches.

TripActions' funding adds buzz to a category of startups aiming to incentivize travelers to book travel more cheaply, while Bluesmart's fresh funding validates the electronic luggage category.

As the global hospitality industry evolves in a more integrated and digitally connected world, it’s demanding that employees have more multidisciplinary skills and nuanced worldviews. However, the industry needs to redefine its value proposition for young talent seeking a rewarding lifetime career with unlimited potential for personal and professional development.

Skift recently released our Megtrends Defining Travel in 2017. One trend, Humanity Returns to Travel, notes that, “all of the data in the world is much more powerful when placed in the hands of a well-trained, empathic person who can anticipate, be flexible, and help steward a cohesive experience.” This observation is coming to life through 2016’s increase, and 2017’s predicted increase in travelers seeking the services of travel agents/consultants.

The biggest conclusion here is that hoteliers can't afford to dismiss the impact, however large or minuscule it may be, that Airbnb is having on the lodging industry, and on their bottom lines, too. Plenty of reports may tell us different things, but the universal thread is that Airbnb is here, and it can't be ignored.

Breached data such as air miles, loyalty points, and travel website accounts are being sold on the dark web and are now available for anyone to purchase, but what is the dark web? Below is a visual representation — for a full picture of cyber fraud’s impact on the travel industry, check out Skift’s new Insights Deck: Cyber Fraud in Travel.