WHAT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT TODAY
Higher prices per trip are doing significant work for tourism's recent success. Travelers are spending more because everything costs more. That is a different story than one about tourism on the rise.
U.S. travelers are learning to read a very different map, one drawn not by airlines and hotel chains, but by geopolitics and security risks. Safety and predictability have become the new luxuries.
Most hotels’ AI products ask how guests want to search. Very few are asking why a consumer would choose to engage with a hotel brand at all, or on whose terms.
Read on, below.
Skift Global Forum
Travel is being reordered. Who's navigating it best?
September 22-24 | New York City. Three days with the leaders defining what comes next. Join them.
DON’T MISS THESE STORIES
The Case for Smarter Global Advocacy For Travel — Not More Cheerleading
by Rafat Ali
The travel industry's instinct to declare victory regardless of what the numbers say is not just outdated, it is the reason policymakers don't take the sector seriously.
What Hotels Are Getting Wrong About AI
by Luke Martin
The hotel industry is quickly implementing AI to get a better handle on search. Mews founder Richard Valtr thinks that is the wrong approach.
How Cartels, Conflict, and Live Tourism Are Redrawing the American Travel Map
by Saniya Zanpure
In 2026, the American traveler has traded the pursuit of the best deal for the stable experience, as geopolitical shockwaves transform predictability into the ultimate luxury.
ZS + SKIFT
Travel brands can no longer rely on core offerings alone — growth now depends on unlocking new revenue streams. Discover how leading companies are turning non-core assets into real impact.
Travel marketing is being rewritten in real time — and most brands are still playing by the old rules. See what 10 industry leaders are doing differently. Get the report.
SKIFT PODCAST NETWORK
On today’s Skift Daily Briefing, Sarah Dandashy breaks down why predictability is reshaping travel decisions, what Air New Zealand’s new $495 Skynest product signals for airline strategy, and how Saudi Arabia is recalibrating Vision 2030.
MORNING HEADLINES
For $7 a week, Skift gives you something the industry is missing – the full picture. Subscribe today for 25% off.
CHART OF THE DAY
Every ambitious project deserves a second draft. The war just cleared the desk for Saudi to write one.
This second draft should be about making Saudi the operating system for movement, gathering, and conversion across the Muslim world and its adjacent regions, building from pilgrimage, regional proximity, and cultural familiarity rather than from speculative Western desire.
SKIFT TRAVEL 200
How are public travel companies performing around the world? The Skift Travel 200 pulls the data you need to understand global market movements. Paid subscribers get full access here.
See more essential travel news in your search results.
