Ask Skift travel tips

Ask Skift is our artificial intelligence chatbot that offers a new way for readers to better engage with our breadth of knowledge and our latest experimentation creating products travel professionals rely on. It digs into news stories, Skift Research reports, Airline Weekly issues, Skift Live events, the Daily Lodging Report, and more to answer many questions about the travel industry.

Soaring temperatures are poised to make traveling around the world more challenging. But is climate change already impacting travel? And how is the industry responding?

China, the world’s largest outbound tourism market prior to the pandemic, is expected to continue making substantial progress in its recovery this year.

Travel brands are busy preparing for the upcoming summer season, and travel demand is xpected to surpass pre-pandemic levels. What are the major trends for this summer?

Luxury travel has grown in popularity in recent years, with the sector’s boom expected to continue this year. So what are the major trends in luxury travel?

India, already the world’s largest emerging outbound travel market, is in the midst of a travel boom as 63% of Indian travelers said they’re planning to increase their travel budgets for 2024. In addition, Indian travelers are projected to become the fourth-largest global spender on travel by 2030.

The Asia-Pacific region is expected to play a key role in the travel industry’s growth this year. Skift Research projected the region would see travel revenue jump 20% in 2024 from the previous year as outbound travel from China is expected to increase substantially.

Travelers worldwide have increasingly expressed an interest in embarking on solo adventures in recent year. Skyscanner’s Travel Trends 2023 Report found that 54% of U.S. travelers were looking to venture solo within the following year.

Many destinations around the world have become more expensive to visit in recent years as governments increasingly levy tourist taxes.

The U.S. government has increasingly taken aim at junk fees, charges levied by travel service providers that are considered unnecessary or excessive and not clearly communicated to travelers.

Destinations worldwide have increasingly moved to lift visa requirements as part of their strategy to increase visitor numbers — visa processing delays are a major obstacle to the industry’s full recovery.

Tourism to Las Vegas has made a strong recovery from the pandemic, with visitor spending hitting a record $79.3 billion in 2022.

Major conflicts in recent years, most notably in Israel and Ukraine, have significantly impacted travel worldwide, another hurdle for the industry in its quest to make a complete recovery from the pandemic.

Some countries, including the United States, have yet to make a full tourism recovery from the pandemic, and lengthy waits for visitor visas are one reason why. Several travel executives have argued that those long waits have hurt the ability to attract visitors.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Tuesday, September 26. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Although business travel has made significant progress in its recovery in recent months, it’s uncertain if and when it will fully rebound from the pandemic.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Wednesday, September 6. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

In addition to booming tourism numbers worldwide, travelers this summer have experienced scorching temperatures. That blistering heat has made travel difficult and could potentially create chronic health problems.

Travelers who made plans to hit the road this summer will likely notice the price of travel has gotten more expensive — in some cases, so expensive that many have decided to make changes to their planned trips. So why have hotel rates and airfaires increased from 2019 levels?

The U.S. travel industry has made tremendous progress in its recovery from the pandemic. Bookings for hotels, car rentals and tour activities have risen almost 30% from last year for travel between between Memorial Day and Labor Day — numbers that are expected to increase, according to travel organization AAA.

Travelers have increasingly prioritized sustainability, however, companies across the industry have struggled to make substantial progress in going green.