GOOD DAY, READERS.

Skift Research’s fifth annual State of Travel report is out. This year, the team has reworked the old sector-by-sector playbook in favor of a new framework: the Travel Stack.

Rather than slicing the $11 trillion industry into hotels, airlines, and OTAs, the Travel Stack maps four universal layers that cut across every corner of travel: Consumers, Commerce, Operations, and Experiences.

Sector deep-dives on seven segments, from hotels to cruises, round out the report, alongside 150+ charts and a notable data point on distribution’s fastest-moving front: 62% of global travelers are now familiar with AI trip-planning tools.

Skift Global Forum

Only 6% of hotels surface in AI search. The other 94% are invisible to the customer's first question.

Skift's State of Travel 2026 shows discovery shifting from search-scroll-compare to ask-shortlist-decide, and the room deciding what happens next gathers in New York this September: the CEOs of Airbnb, Booking Holdings, Hilton, Expedia, and Uber, alongside OpenAI chairman Bret Taylor, across three days at North Javits.

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State of Travel

The State of Travel report is your essential guide to understanding the trends shaping our industry. 150+ charts to help you stay ahead of the modern traveler and make the decisions needed to win in a crowded travel and tourism market.

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Airbnb Partners With Tripadvisor Experiences, Drops Build-Your-Own Strategy

by Dennis Schaal

Airbnb was never going to be able to scale experiences without major partnerships or acquisitions.

Air Canada Heads Into Winter Between CEOs and With Plenty To Prove

by Gordon Smith

The most revealing number on Wednesday may be one Air Canada stopped giving investors in April.

Where Should Hospitality Draw the Line on AI?

ACCOR + SKIFT

Accor's Jean-Jacques Morin says AI can strip friction from booking, check-in, and problem-solving, but people still travel for human interaction. His take on balancing automation with emotional depth is one of the threads running through Skift's State of Travel 2026 report.

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MORNING HEADLINES

Canadian Travel to the U.S. Ticks Up Again — But Still Far from a Full Recovery

While Rivals Cut Fees, IHG Takes a Different Route on Owner Economics

More Travel Leaders Join the Skift Global Forum 2026 Stage

Spain’s Eclipse: A Three-Year Tourism Strategy Built Around Two Minutes of Darkness

The Lessons of Cancún, Fifty Years Later

UAE’s Hotel Divide: Abu Dhabi Holds Up While Dubai Sinks

SKIFT PODCAST NETWORK

Dynamic pricing generates 20% more revenue on average, and most of that lift comes from more bookings, not higher rates.

In this clip from Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast, Michael Goldin, Brandreth Canaley, and Jamie Lane break down why a quarter of Airbnb listings still have flat rates, what that pricing gap means for hosts leaving money on the table, and whether Airbnb can actually convince operators to make the switch.

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