General travel industry news — policies, disruptions, and developments affecting travellers.
The Broken Creator-to-Booking Chain, and Why It Matters Now
# The Creator Economy's New Battleground: Who Gets Credit for Your Booking Travel's creator economy has entered a new phase. The competition for infl…
GetYourGuide Taps Creators to Write Reviews for Tour Operators
GetYourGuide, Europe's largest online marketplace for tours and activities, is deploying a network of content creators to generate reviews for tour op…
Booking’s 5 AI Experiments — and Why Agoda’s Is Next
# Booking and Expedia Deploy Divergent AI Strategies as Online Travel Agencies Race to Personalize Search and Booking Booking.com and Expedia are pur…
Skift Global Forum Preview: Revolution’s Steve Case on Which Friction to Protect From AI
Steve Case, the AOL co-founder and veteran venture capitalist, is bringing a provocative thesis to the Skift Global Forum. His investment strategy in …
New Research: 5 Revenue Moves to Make Amid Market Uncertainty
# Travel Companies Embracing AI and Financial Discipline Navigate Market Turbulence Travel industry leaders who combine aggressive cost management wi…
Woman Slaps Husband At Wynn Las Vegas Buffet, Gets Deported To Armenia
# Domestic Incident at Wynn Las Vegas Buffet Leads to Deportation for California Woman A Southern California resident faces deportation to Armenia af…
Live Tourism’s Biggest Operators Are Confirmed. Are You in the Room?
# The Live Tourism Power Players Gather in New York The future of live tourism is being decided behind closed doors. On September 22, the industry's …
FAA Proposes A220 Fuel Line Checks For Delta And Breeze Jets
# FAA Orders Fuel Line Inspections on Airbus A220s at Delta, JetBlue, and Breeze Airways The Federal Aviation Administration has proposed mandatory f…
American Airlines Passenger Stripped Naked And Touched Herself
# American Airlines Flight Disrupted by In-Flight Passenger Incident An American Airlines flight from Baltimore/Washington International Airport to M…
Woman Says Boyfriend Canceled Her Flight At Denver Airport—“How Am I Supposed To Get Home?”
# Boyfriend's Revenge: Flight Cancellation Leaves Woman Stranded at Denver Airport A relationship dispute escalated into a travel nightmare at Denver…
Tourist Caught On CCTV Having Sex On Bali Driveway—Stopped From Flying Home, Deported And Banned 10 Years
An Australian tourist faces a decade-long ban from Indonesia after authorities caught him on camera engaging in public sexual activity on a Bali drive…
AI Will Make Credit Card Rewards More Competitive—And Make It Harder To Get Approved
Artificial intelligence is reshaping the credit card rewards landscape in ways that will directly affect how travelers book flights, hotels, and vacat…
JetBlue Passenger Kicked Off In St. Maarten For Verbally Abusing Flight Attendant—Friends Debate Leaving Her Behind
# JetBlue Passenger Removed in St. Maarten After Verbal Abuse Incident Sparks Stranded Traveler Crisis A JetBlue passenger faced removal from a fligh…
Canadian Travel to the U.S. Grew for a 5th Month Despite Trade War — Still Down 27% From 2024
# Canadian Travel to U.S. Recovers Against Odds, Though Confidence Remains Fragile Canadian travel to the United States staged its fifth consecutive …
25 Years After 9/11, We Are Still Governed By The Fear It Created
# Two Decades of Fear Reshape How Americans Travel Tom Burnett's final act aboard United Flight 93 on September 11, 2001, represented extraordinary c…
What to Do if an Airline Loses Your Bag
# What to Do When an Airline Loses Your Luggage Losing luggage ranks among travel's worst nightmares, yet the odds work in your favor more than you m…
25 Years After 9/11, One United Flight 93 Passenger’s Story Has Become Personal
# How One Flight 93 Passenger's Legacy Reshapes What We Remember About 9/11 A quarter-century after September 11, 2001, the narrative around that mor…
Did 9/11 Kill Concorde? How The Attacks Helped End Supersonic Travel
Concorde's final flight touched down on November 26, 2003, but the supersonic jet's death spiral began years earlier, with September 11 delivering a f…
Middle East’s Recovery Stalled Again: Skift Travel Health Index
# Middle East Travel Recovery Faces New Headwinds as Warnings Deter Visitors The Middle East's tourism rebound has stalled. Fresh travel warnings fro…
See the Confirmed Speakers for Skift Creator Summit 2026
# Creator Economy Reshapes Travel Industry at Skift Summit The travel industry converges on a pivotal moment when creator-led demand no longer fits n…
Where Travel Stands, 25 Years After 9/11
# Travel's Post-9/11 Evolution: Seamless for Some, Complicated for Others A quarter-century after the September 11 attacks reshaped global aviation s…
This Is Why Your Baggage Claim Is Always in the Farthest Part of the Airport
# Why Airports Put Baggage Claim at the Farthest End You arrive at your gate after a three-hour flight. Exhausted, you follow the signs deeper into t…
Google’s New Hotel Search in Europe: What it Looks Like Now
Google rolled out a redesigned hotel search interface across Europe this week, fundamentally reshaping how travelers discover and book accommodations …
Delayed Flight? A New US Rule Could Mean You Get Less From Your Airline.
# Delayed Flight? A New US Rule Could Mean You Get Less From Your Airline A regulatory shift taking effect across US airlines threatens to reduce pas…
With Booking’s Etraveli Deal Still Blocked, Expedia Has the Edge in M&A
# Expedia Seizes Consolidation Advantage as Booking Faces European Regulatory Headwinds Expedia is moving aggressively into acquisitions while its ri…
A Lost Year for Gulf Tourism
# Gulf Tourism Faces Brutal Year as Occupancy Craters and Rates Plummet The Gulf region's hospitality sector confronts a severe downturn that extends…
Meta Says Its Muse Agent Books Travel. Here’s How It Works
# Meta's Muse AI Agent Reshapes Travel Booking With Direct Flight Access and Web-Wide Shopping Meta has released Muse, an artificial intelligence age…
Skift Global Forum: Five Decisions in the Room
# Leadership Recalibration at Skift Global Forum as Travel Industry Faces Technological Upheaval Travel executives gathered at Skift Global Forum con…
Navan Buys BoomPop to Push Into Meetings and Events
# Navan Acquires BoomPop, Making Aggressive Push Into Corporate Meetings and Events Market Navan, the fast-growing business travel management platfor…
Why the Personal AI Assistant Hype Matters More for Travel Than Any AI Travel Product
# The Real AI Revolution in Travel Isn't a Travel App—It's Your Personal Assistant The travel industry obsesses over specialized AI tools designed sp…
From the Gobi to Ghana: 10 of the best community tourism trips around the world
Community tourism transforms the typical vacation into a vehicle for real social impact. Travelers increasingly seek experiences that benefit the dest…
Klook Bets Creators Can Sell the Whole Trip, Not Just the Viral Attraction
# Klook's Creator Economy Play Turns Instagram Moments Into Bookable Trips Klook, the Singapore-based travel marketplace operator, has launched a new…
Flagship Group Makes First Three Acquisitions For Experiences Roll-Up
# Flagship Group Launches Experiences Roll-Up With Three Strategic Acquisitions Flagship Group has entered the experiences consolidation market with …
Your Map Has Been Lying About Africa Your Whole Life. The UN Finally Did Something About It.
# The Mercator Projection Finally Gets Its Reckoning: What This Means for How Travelers See Africa For over 400 years, the Mercator projection has do…
Google Strips Out EU Travel Search Features to Avoid More Fines
# Google Removes Travel Search Tools Across Europe to Sidestep Regulatory Fines Google has begun removing specialized travel search features from its…
Skift Global Forum Preview: Intrepid’s Chairman on the Climate Cost His Rivals Sidestep
# Intrepid Travel's Carbon Accountability Challenge Exposes Industry's Emissions Blind Spot Darrell Wade, chairman of Intrepid Travel, argues that ad…
What happens when a place has two different names?
# When Geography Gets Renamed: Lake Ontario Becomes Lake America on Some Maps Lake Ontario wakes up to a new identity on certain digital platforms. T…
An Ode To Work On Labor Day
# Labor Day 2024: Why Travel Writers and Hospitality Workers Keep Moving Forward Labor Day in America marks more than a day off from work. It honors …
American Woman Bought Marriott Employee Discount On Craigslist, Now Faces Jail In Singapore
# American Tourist Learns Costly Lesson After Using Fraudulent Marriott Discount in Singapore A 41-year-old American woman now faces potential jail t…
When Flights Were Grounded On 9/11, A Military Plane Carried A Liver To A Dying Baby [Roundup]
On September 11, 2001, as civilian airspace shut down across America, a military transport plane executed an emergency medical mission that saved a ch…
EU Ends Border ‘Safety Valve’ as Airlines Warn of More Delays
# EU Scraps Airport Congestion Relief as Airlines Brace for Disruption Surge Europe's aviation system faces a critical stress test. The European Unio…
Breaking: Amazon Cargo Jet Overruns Miami Runway, Ground Stop
An Amazon Prime Air cargo Boeing 767 overran a runway at Miami International Airport on Sunday, September 6, 2026, triggering a ground stop that disru…
AK Monthly Recap: July 2026
# Blogger's Whirlwind July Spans Five European Destinations in One Month Travel blogger Adventurous Kate packed five distinct European destinations i…
Virtuoso’s Survey: Optimism Down, Uncertainty Way Up
# Travel Advisors Losing Confidence Despite Overall Optimism, Virtuoso Survey Shows Virtuoso's July survey reveals a travel industry paradox. Advisor…
The good tourist: can we learn to travel without absolutely infuriating the locals?
# The Slow Travel Solution to Overtourism Anger Overtourism has ignited a global backlash. From Barcelona's protest marches demanding tourists leave …
A Viral AI Bot Just Showed Travel What Frictionless Actually Means
# AI Travel Assistant Instinct Rewrites What Frictionless Booking Actually Means Silicon Valley startups have promised frictionless travel booking fo…
Blackstone Plans $7 Billion IPO of Spanish Resort Owner Hotel Investment Partners: Report
# Blackstone Eyes Madrid Stock Market for Spanish Resort Giant Blackstone plans to take Hotel Investment Partners public on the Madrid stock exchange…
Europe Prepares New Law to Support Cities’ Airbnb Crackdowns
European Union officials are crafting legislation that grants cities explicit authority to regulate and restrict short-term rental platforms like Airb…
Fake AI Hotel Videos Are Coming for Travel
# Deepfakes and AI Are Reshaping How Travelers Book Hotels, and Trust is Crumbling The hospitality industry faces a credibility crisis. Artificial in…
New DOT Rule Could Let Airlines Dodge Hotel And Meal Costs After Maintenance Delays
# Airlines Gain Loophole on Passenger Compensation After Maintenance Delays The Department of Transportation has introduced a new rule that redefines…
The New Travel Loyalty Leaders Aren’t Hotels or Airlines — They’re Banks
# Banks Are Quietly Becoming the Real Controllers of Travel Loyalty Credit card companies and banks now wield more power over travel rewards than the…
Could AI Agents Turn the Time Between Trips Into a Revenue Channel?
# AI Agents Transform Travel Downtime Into Revenue Opportunities Airlines and travel operators are deploying artificial intelligence agents to mainta…
Qatar’s Arrivals Are Down 30% This Year — Its Recovery Now Rests on F1
# Qatar Banking on Formula 1 to Reverse Tourism Slump Qatar faces a tourism crisis. International arrivals have plummeted 30 percent compared to last…
Amadeus Brings Travel Tech Into Claude
# Amadeus Integrates Travel Data Into Anthropic's Claude AI Platform Amadeus, the Spanish travel technology giant processing over 10 percent of globa…
How Airports Are Growing Without Blowing Their Climate Goals
# Airports Navigate Growth While Pursuing Carbon Neutrality Airport operators worldwide face a fundamental tension. They need to expand passenger cap…
Swiggy Has a New Travel Concierge. Can a Food Delivery App Make It Work?
# Swiggy Expands Into Travel Concierge Services With New "Crew" Platform Swiggy, India's dominant food delivery platform, is making a bold pivot into…
Six US drive-ins where you can stay the night
# Stay the Night at America's Roadside Drive-In Attractions Drive-ins represent a uniquely American travel experience. These vintage entertainment ve…
The Race for Chinese Travel Demand Is Now a Fight to Get on the AI Shortlist
# AI Gatekeepers Now Control Which Destinations Chinese Travelers Actually Visit Travel marketers face an entirely new competition. They no longer ju…
Skift Global Forum Preview: Amadeus’s President of Travel on Why the Traveler, Not the Platform, Should Hold the Controls
# Amadeus Executive Argues Travel Industry Must Prioritize Openness Over Proprietary Control Decius Valmorbida, president of travel at Amadeus, belie…
Travel Execs Push Trump for 100 Million+ International Visitors by 2030
# Travel Industry Leaders Press Trump Administration for Ambitious Visitor Goals Travel industry executives met with Trump administration officials t…
Saudi Tourism Names New CEO As Kingdom Pulls Back On Vision 2030 Spending
# Saudi Arabia Taps New Leadership As Tourism Ambitions Face Budget Reality The Saudi Tourism Authority appointed Ageel Alshaibani as its new chief e…
Intrepid Partners With Air Canada Vacations Right as Canada Pushes For More Domestic Travel: Exclusive
# Intrepid Travel Aligns With Air Canada Vacations as Canada Pivots Inward Intrepid Travel, the Australian adventure tour operator known for small-gr…
Uber to Lay Off 3,300 Employees, Reducing Management Jobs by 20%
Uber announced a major workforce reduction affecting 3,300 employees, representing roughly 6% of its global staff. The company is cutting management p…
The Economics of Flight Search, Post-Google
# The Economics of Flight Search, Post-Google: Skyscanner, Kiwi.com, and Wego Redefine Airfare Discovery The flight search market has fundamentally s…
Vrbo Brings Sponsored Listings to Vacation Rental Search
# Vrbo's Sponsored Listings Feature Reshapes Vacation Rental Economics Vacation rental platform Vrbo has introduced sponsored listings, allowing prop…
What Happens to a Travel Company Owned by Private Equity for Too Long?
# Private Equity's Grip Leaves Travel Operators Stranded in a Changing Market A major tour operator backed by private equity failed to find a buyer i…
AirDNA Enters Revenue Management Market With Host Dynamic Pricing Tool: Exclusive
# AirDNA's Dynamic Pricing Tool Transforms Short-Term Rental Economics AirDNA, the leading analytics platform for vacation rental markets, has launch…
Airbnb Names Ex-Booking.com Hotel Boss and Viator President as Chief Business Officer
Airbnb has appointed Pepijn Rijvers as Chief Business Officer, a strategic hire that signals the company's aggressive expansion beyond home rentals in…
Your Hotel Is Hot on TikTok Go. But AI Got All The Facts Wrong.
TikTok's latest push into travel bookings has created a headache for hoteliers and travelers alike. The platform launched a hotel and experience booki…
Choice Hotels Hands CEO Job to Insider as It Tries to Reverse a Slump Versus Rivals
# Choice Hotels Elevates Longtime Executive Dragisich to CEO, Betting on Insider Leadership to Combat Competitive Pressure Choice Hotels Internationa…
How the Antigravity 360 Drone Will Change Your Travels
# The Antigravity A1 Drone Enters the Traveler's Toolkit Drone technology has become standard travel gear for content creators and adventure seekers.…
Faye Travel Insurance: The Best New Company Out there
# Faye Travel Insurance Breaks Into a Stagnant Market With Fresh Approach Travel insurance has long ranked among the most tedious purchases travelers…
Airbnb Is Testing Lower Fees for Hosts Who Bring Their Own Guests
Airbnb is experimenting with a fee structure that rewards hosts for bringing their own guests directly to the platform, marking a shift in how the com…
Share a tip on your most memorable food and drink discoveries in Europe
# European Food Discoveries: Where Locals Eat and Travelers Learn The Guardian Travel section is crowding out its readers for their best-kept Europea…
Canadians Were Just Starting to Come Around to U.S. Travel. Then Came the Trade War.
# Tariff Tensions Derail Canadian Tourism Recovery to the U.S. Canadian travelers were finally returning to the United States at steady pace before e…
Booking Holdings vs. Expedia in B2B: Bombshell Estimate Says Booking Leads in Room Nights
Booking Holdings commands a far larger share of business-to-business hotel bookings than industry observers previously realized, according to new esti…
What Hotelbeds’ Shrinking Margins Mean for Hotel Distribution
# What Hotelbeds' Shrinking Margins Mean for Hotel Distribution Hotelbeds, the world's largest independent hotel distribution platform, faces a recko…
Google’s Agentic Hotel Booking Tool Comes to AI Mode
Google launches its AI-powered hotel booking agent in AI Mode, nine months after the company first announced the capability. The tool represents the s…
Confirmed: Brand USA CEO Fred Dixon to Lead NYC Tourism Again
Fred Dixon returns to the helm of NYC Tourism as its new president and CEO, marking a significant leadership shift for America's largest tourism desti…
Theme Parks Keep Closing. Why Dolly Parton’s Dollywood Bucks the Trend.
# Theme Parks Keep Closing. Why Dolly Parton's Dollywood Bucks the Trend The American theme park industry faces a reckoning. Six Flags Entertainment …
Here Are the Winners of the 2026 IDEA Awards
# Innovation Reshapes Travel's Future: Meet the 2026 Skift IDEA Awards Winners The 2026 Skift IDEA Awards have crowned a new generation of travel inn…
It’s No Taylor Swift Effect, but Harry Styles’ Residency Offers NYC Operators a Boost
Harry Styles brings his extended Madison Square Garden residency to New York this year, and while the concerts won't replicate Taylor Swift's Eras Tou…
Ixigo Tests Packaged Tours for Trains, Uber Becomes a New Distribution Engine
# Ixigo Taps Train Tourism With IRCTC Partnership, Eyes Packaged Tours as Next Growth Engine India's largest online travel agency Ixigo is quietly re…
VayKLife Just Acquired Xplorie. The Guest Experience Layer Finally Gets Its Moment.
VayKLife has acquired Xplorie, consolidating two critical layers of the vacation rental management ecosystem. The deal unites gear and amenities infra…
Live Tourism Economy: Where Event-Driven Travel Spending Lands
# Live Tourism Economy: Where Event-Driven Travel Spending Lands Event tourism has become one of the travel industry's most powerful economic engines…
Brand USA Chief in Advanced Talks to Rejoin NYC Tourism: Scoop
# Brand USA Leader Poised to Return to New York City Tourism Leadership Fred Dixon, who departed New York City's tourism authority two years ago to l…
Wall Street Is Starting to Believe Airbnb’s Growth Story
# Wall Street Analysts Shift Bullish on Airbnb's Growth Trajectory Investment banks are embracing Airbnb's ability to sustain momentum after years of…
PE Money Is Coming for STR. The New StayTerra CEO Explains the Strategy.
# Private Equity Floods Short-Term Rental Market as StayTerra Maps Consolidation Blueprint Private equity capital is reshaping the short-term rental …
Everything you need to know about Spain’s airport strikes
# Spain's Airport Strikes Could Disrupt Your Travel Through End of Year Spanish ground staff have announced strikes that could stretch through Decemb…
In Praise of Kayak, 21 Years Later
# Kayak Remains Unmatched After Two Decades as Travel Search Leader Kayak stands alone as the travel search platform that fundamentally changed how p…
Travel’s AI Reckoning Has Arrived
# Travel's AI Reckoning Has Arrived: Separating Real Value from Hype The travel industry faces a critical inflection point. After years of breathless…
Google Just Bought Spirit’s Data for $10 Million and Got a Steal
Google's $10 million acquisition of Spirit Airlines operational data represents one of the most consequential technology deals in travel this year, an…
The UK’s Hidden-Fee Crackdown Is Coming for Travel
The UK's Financial Conduct Authority has launched an investigation into hidden fees across the travel industry, signaling a major regulatory shift tha…
Tripe soup and bitter coffee in the dining car: a nostalgic ride through Poland on a communist-era train
Poland's state railways are running a retro-themed service celebrating 100 years of Polish rail history and 25 years of PKP Intercity, the long-distan…
Is 'Tiny Tourism' the antidote to mass tourism?
# Is 'Tiny Tourism' the Antidote to Mass Tourism? A new travel philosophy called "tiny tourism" is gaining traction among travelers exhausted by over…
How I Got My Visa to France
A traveler shares their personal journey securing a French visa after falling in love with the country during a 2010 trip to Bordeaux. The story begin…
Airbnb-CarTrawler Partnership Details 1 Month In: Scoop
# Airbnb's Car Rental Partnership Reveals Friction Points One Month After CarTrawler Deal Airbnb's move into car rentals through its partnership with…
Muslims gather for Eid al-Adha in Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia – in pictures
# Southeast Asia Celebrates Eid al-Adha Across Indonesia, Philippines, and Malaysia Approximately 2 billion Muslims worldwide marked Eid al-Adha, Isl…
Inside Expedia’s Silicon Valley Bid for AI Talent
# Expedia's Silicon Valley Gambit: Chasing AI Talent in Google's Backyard Expedia is making a bold move to compete for artificial intelligence talent…
The State of Travel Is Getting Harder to Control
# The Creator Economy Is Reshaping How Hotels Build Their Brands and Reach Guests The travel industry faces a pivotal shift as two major forces colli…
If the World Cup Couldn’t Fix U.S. Tourism, What Will?
The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar failed to deliver the tourism surge the United States expected, and that reality poses a troubling question for Los A…
Saudi OTA Almosafer on Track for Year-End IPO Despite Iran War Disruption
Saudi Arabia's leading online travel agency Almosafer is pressing forward with its long-awaited initial public offering despite regional turmoil that …
How Net Unit Growth Ate the Hotel Industry
# How Portfolio Bloat Became the Hotel Industry's Growth Strategy The major hotel corporations control roughly 200 distinct brands today. This explos…