Skift Research travel tips

Day tours are more than just a trend — they’re a significant part of modern travel: In the first quarter, nearly half of all travelers went on one. What’s driving this interest? Skift Research dives deep into the issue in the latest edition of our “U.S. Travel Trends” series: The “U.S. Travel Trends Q1 2024: Exploring Day Tours and Experiences.”

Women travelers are a dominant force in the travel industry, and their influence is far-reaching: 82% of all travel decisions are made by women, whether it’s choosing the destination, booking accommodations, or deciding on tours and activities.

Family travel continues to be the largest segment of U.S. leisure travel, with more families opting for vacations that create shared experiences and lasting memories. Skift Research delves into the trends driving this vital segment in our latest report:

2024 marks a new era for the travel industry beyond the depths of Covid-19 and the volatility of the post-pandemic world. Skift Research’s State of Travel 2024 brings you 350+ insights into the current state of travel, consumer behavior, and sector-specific trends.

Despite looming recession fears, the travel industry continues to demonstrate strong growth, according to the Skift Travel Health Index for August 2024. The index showed a 9% increase from a year ago, led by the Asia Pacific region (up 13%) and North America (up 8%).

Hotels still dominate over short-term rentals when U.S. travelers are deciding where to stay. But several trends show the challenges hotels face — and the growth opportunities for short-term rentals.

Last month, we wrote about how a potential recession in the U.S. could impact the travel industry. The concern has been that a recession would hit travel spending and you can see it in the stock market: The Skift Travel 200 Stock Index is up only 3% since the start of the year while the global market is up 20%.

In early August, British Airways announced that it would soon stop flying to Beijing – Shanghai is now the only city it flies to in China.

The Skift Travel Health Index has continued to trend upward: The latest reading of 104 indicates 4% growth over July 2023. Countries in the Asia Pacific dominate and China showed the biggest jump – 21% above a year ago.

The world’s largest hotel groups have made great strides in signing up guests for their loyalty programs in the past several years, and Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt, and IHG have enjoyed some of the greatest gains.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Friday, August 16, 2024, and here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Booking and Expedia spend a ton on marketing: Nearly $13 billion combined in 2023, up from $10 billion in 2019. And it’s the largest expense for both companies, accounting for roughly half of their total operating expenses. 

Germany has the world’s third-largest economy but in terms of airline capacity, it’s far from a major power. Total capacity was actually lower in 2023 than it was a decade earlier.

Travel stocks were the best performers Monday, a day when the broader U.S stock market had its worst day in years – but don’t get too excited. Fact is, travel had front-loaded the pain. While it was Monday’s performing sector, the travel sector has been the performing group of stocks over the past week and past year. 

It wasn’t that long ago that U.S. budget airlines were crushing the network carriers. They led in operating profits, with margins of around 13%.

As the summer travel heats up, a surprising trend is emerging: Russia is experiencing a tourism uptick, according to the latest Skift Travel Health Index for June 2024. Despite the ongoing war, tourism performance in the country in June 2024 witnessed a 12 percentage point surge over May 2024. The index is at 103, which indicates a 3% rise above June 2023.

When it came down to it, Google didn’t want to anger its core customers — advertisers — and this week announced it won’t phase out third-party cookies in its Chrome browser as planned.

In May 2024, the travel industry reached 103, marking a 3% rise over last year, according the latest Skift Travel Health Index: May 2024 Highlights. This highlights a transition from the post-pandemic recovery phase to moderate and sustainable growth levels in 2024.

Online travel conglomerate Trip.com Group is expanding its global reach in a deal with the booking system Prioticket.

Skift Research’s latest report explores the state of venture capital investment in the travel industry. Below we present 5 key insights and takeaways.

The Skift Travel Health Index, boosted by the spring travel season, gained 3 percentage points to reach 108 in April 2024. This represented an 8% surge over last year.

Earlier this week, Skift Research’s Seth Borko and Pranavi Agarwal hosted a LinkedIn Live session to discuss the evolving role of credit card companies in the travel industry. Their conversation built on an earlier Skift Research report about banking and travel loyalty.