Travel apps in AI platforms can now show real prices and booking buttons, but in hands-on tests, Skift's Tech/AI Reporter Adriana Lee found that being connected isn't the same as being used. ChatGPT routinely denied Booking.com, Expedia, and Viator app availability, even when already connected. Only after rejecting its claim — stating, "You are wrong" — she saw the chatbot find and use the app to deliver real listings, not generic web results. Claude, by contrast, proactively suggested relevant connectors and pulled listings without friction. Expedia confirmed the bug is a known platform issue. The takeaway: as chatbots shape which brands travelers see, being available isn't the same as actually being surfaced.

One tour date, one final, one festival can redraw airlift, lodging, and ground transport across a whole region long after the crowd leaves.

75 senior leaders across destinations, sports and entertainment, hotels, airlines, and travel platforms work that question in a closed-door room, presented by Live Nation, at North Javits Center on September 22, the opening day of Skift Global Forum.

MINDTRIP + SKIFT

Hotels and airlines have spent years collecting loyalty data. At the Skift Data + AI Summit, industry leaders argued AI assistants may already know travelers better than the brands courting them.

Skift Research’s new Decision Brief’s lay out the key evidence, strategic context, and paths forward behind a specific strategic choice. Today we ask the question: “do hotels need to optimize their brand portfolios?”

Hotel groups have doubled their brand counts since 2014, but RevPAR growth hasn't kept pace, and guests increasingly find sister brands indistinguishable. AI search tools now surface just two or three options, favoring strong reviews and clear positioning over loyalty scale or portfolio breadth. Skift outlines three paths forward: consolidating brands, investing in loyalty personalization, or expanding only into genuinely new demand segments.

The takeaway: brand clarity and demonstrated value matter more than sheer portfolio size.

Visa does not issue credit cards. Banks do. And those banks, Chase, Capital One, and Citi, have spent years and billions building their own travel portals. Chase Travel did $12.6 billion in sales in 2025. American Express did $11.1 billion. Now Visa has launched Visa Destinations, a consumer-facing travel platform sitting above all of them at the network level.

In this clip from Good Morning Hospitality Hotels Edition, Sarah Dandashy and Steve Turk break down the structural conflict, what it means for the banks that built their travel businesses on top of Visa's rails, and why the pushback could be coming.

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.