Expedia's latest marketing play: a 21-year-old YouTuber.
The online travel giant has teamed up with IShowSpeed, a live streamer with more than 50 million subscribers on YouTube. The partnership kicked off with a live stream that showed IShowSpeed bouncing across four Caribbean destinations in Expedia-branded vehicles, and fans can head to the custom “Exspeedia.com” website to vote on where he heads next.
It's the company's first partnership with a large streamer and the latest sign that travel brands are increasingly using content creators to court travelers. A 2025 Skift Research study found 57% of Gen Z and millennial travelers get trip inspiration from social media channels. Fewer than 10% turn to traditional media and travel sites.
CAPITAL ONE + SKIFT
The "connected trip" may be moving closer to reality. A new travel app aims to unify booking, rewards, and real-time trip management into one seamless, end-to-end journey.
EDITOR’S PICKS
Travel’s Top AI Operators
May 28, 2026
The travel industry has spent three years talking about artificial intelligence. In the summer of 2026, we’re finally building with it. In earnings calls, CEOs now field questions about model training costs and agentic infrastructure with the same fluency they once reserved for RevPAR. In hiring, chief AI officer roles are cropping up everywhere on […]
Direct Booking Tug-of-War: Hotels’ Long Bid to Take Back Power
May 27, 2026
Ten years after Hilton, Marriott, and other chains began coaxing travelers to book directly, online travel agencies still control roughly the same slice of the pie. Yet the chains have won the economics: lower commissions, better contract terms, and stronger loyalty programs.
The Alaska Experiment That Could Reshape How Cruise Lines Navigate Wildlife
May 26, 2026
Alaska’s reputation as a bucket list cruise destination rests largely on its wildlife encounters, especially whale sightings. MSC Cruises is treating its first season in the region as a research opportunity, exploring how marine science can guide operations in high-density wildlife corridors.
The travel industry is moving from AI experimentation to execution, with real impact across distribution, operations, and customer experience. The Skift Data + AI Summit returns June 3 in New York City, bringing industry leaders together to share the next wave of AI applications and data strategies shaping travel.
SKIFT PODCAST NETWORK
Gulf travelers are flooding search engines but holding off on bookings as the Iran war reshapes travel demand, Brand USA launches a charm offensive to win back Canadian visitors, and Expedia reveals the next big piece of its AI roadmap for B2B partners.
On today's Skift Daily Briefing, Sarah Dandashy breaks down why the Gulf's search-to-booking gap signals a demand delay rather than a demand collapse, how Brand USA is rebuilding its Canadian strategy from scratch on a dramatically reduced budget, and why Expedia's new MCP server is the unglamorous infrastructure play that could quietly reshape how AI books travel.
SKIFT TRAVEL 200
How are public travel tech companies performing around the world? The Skift Travel 200 pulls the data you need to know to understand the market. Paid subscribers get full access here.
