Skift Research travel tips

Good morning from Skift. It’s Wednesday, March 29. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

The LGBTQ+ travel market has grown enormously in recent years, becoming one of the most lucrative segments in the industry. LGBTQ+ travelers were worth an estimated $218 billion worldwide prior to the pandemic, with the LGBTQ+ community in the U.S. alone spending roughly 10 percent of its purchasing power on travel.

Recent breakthroughs in Generative AI have had an electrifying effect on the tech world in recent weeks. Many have compared these first artificial intelligence tools, which create new content, such as images or text from simple prompts, to the early days of smartphones or the internet. With the potential for such wholesale disruption, what does generative AI mean for the travel industry? And how do we separate the hype around this new tech from the reality of what it will look like in use by travel companies.Skift Research’s latest report will attempt to tackle those questions by diving into Generative AI’s impact on the travel industry. This report will focus specifically on large language models and their use cases within the travel business.We examine seven different cases for how AI will be used across travel, including its implications for chatbots, operational efficiency, and search. Across most of these scenarios, we see multi-billion dollar markets being created. Skift Research estimates that altogether generative AI poses a $28 billion-plus opportunity for the travel industry.

Over the past decades, the booking pendulum has swung back and forth between online travel agents’ (OTAs) growing booking share, and hotels clawing back some direct bookings. Hoteliers have been complaining about high commissions paid to third-party travel websites, and increasingly invest in driving more direct bookings. The evolving hotel tech stack has website builders, booking engines, and direct-booking tools offering to aid this cause.

Most U.S. travelers are interested in going on more environmentally friendly forms of travel, but they’re largely finding it challenging to do so. 

Property manager Sonder, received a notice of delisting from Nasdaq because the company failed to satisfy the minimum bid price listing rule as its common stock traded below $1.00 per share for 30 consecutive business days. 

Despite rising prices and economic uncertainty, many U.S. travelers seem to be ring-fencing their travel budgets from spending cuts, according to the latest survey by Skift Research.

Guests have an abundance of channels to choose from when making a hotel reservation. Companies finding the optimal mix in this vast channel landscape is the goal of any good hotel distribution strategy. As the number of booking options multiply, it only makes fighting off the competition more complex. Most large hotel chains use Central Reservation Systems (CRSs) to have a central source for all hotel reservations, and to tackle reservation-related challenges.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Wednesday, May 10. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Always looking to offer our subscribers with more value, today we are launching our first airline research report which is available to both Skift Research and Airline Weekly subscribers.

April 2023 marked an important milestone: The full recovery of travel since the pandemic – as measured by the Skift Travel Health Index. And it’s a record, with our index passing the level last reached in 2019.

To better understand how people working in the travel industry feel about new AI tools, like ChatGPT and its many extensions, and the impact it will have on their job and company, Skift Research recently launched a short survey. 

Skift Research has gained unprecedented access to one of the fastest growing online travel agencies (OTAs) in North America – Hopper. We interviewed senior executives across each of Hopper’s verticals, in addition to their co-founder and their CFO, to produce a deep dive analysis of Hopper’s rise in travel. Since being founded in 2007, Hopper has become a formidable disruptor of the OTA market, which for so long has been dominated by the duopoly of the legacy players. It has leveraged big data, machine learning algorithms and predictive analysis to launch an array of unique fintech products that have been fundamental in helping it become the third largest OTA in North America.

Skift Research examined how female business travelers were shaping the industry in a 2014 report, noting that companies were increasingly taking steps to address the needs of this growing segment.

Skift Research has launched the Skift Short-Term Rental 250, a free-to-download map of 250 of the most prominent short-term rental companies operating today.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Wednesday, May 31. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

As we have written about in our deep dive on “Hopper’s Rise in Travel,” much of the company’s growth can be attributed to its expansion into fintech products, which has not only helped boost take rates and revenue gains, but has also allowed Hopper to be differentiated from the legacy players. Another way Hopper is distinct is its unique strategy around marketing and user acquisition – namely, how it avoids spending marketing dollars on Search Engine Marketing and instead focuses on product-led growth.

In a new Skift Research report, entitled Understanding the Chinese Traveler Post-Covid: ​Survey Findings and Trends​, we explore various stages of the Chinese travel journey, decode their spending habits, and offer key takeaways for Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) and travel suppliers.

The Skift Travel Health Index for May 2023 continues to indicate the full return of global travel. Despite a 1 percentage point drop over the prior month, the index stands at 100, as highlighted in our latest report, Skift Travel Health Index: May 2023 Highlights.

Marriott and Hilton are the two largest and most well known hotel chains in the U.S. Both companies’ stock prices and valuations soared from their Covid-lows through 2021. After a pullback last year, hotel stocks have rallied again, lifted by strong demand and the continued travel recovery.

Skift Research’s U.S. Travel Tracker Survey shows that online sources are used more than offline sources when planning a trip, making digital marketing and advertising crucial for the industry. If a brand is marketed well, potential customers will be drawn to it regardless of how they decide to book their trip.