The Future of AI and Travel: 12 Industry Leaders Explain the Impact

To celebrate their 20th anniversary this year, Atlanta residents Jessica and David Goldberg booked an Oceania Cruise. The voyage started in Greece and dropped them off in Israel on October 4, where they planned to spend the next week exploring. 

My trip to Jim Thorpe, a small Pennsylvania town often called the "Little Switzerland of America," was an afterthought, a brief stop on the way back to New York City the Sunday after a girls' weekend in nearby Long Pond. About two hours from the city, Jim Thorpe is an easily accessible day trip from Manhattan. 

The event included more than 100 top travel advisors and suppliers. (Photo Credit: Travel ALLIES Society)

Imagine a world where you don’t have to play jump rope over headphone wires every time you climb into or out of your airplane seat, settle for a set of subpar provided plug-in earbuds to enjoy the inflight entertainment, or remove your wireless headphones to hear about the snack selection from your friendly flight attendant. Too utopian? Perhaps. But United Airlines and Apple believe it is possible.

Big things are happening over at Maui Gold Pineapple and holding strong at the helm is general manager, Rudy Balala. In the pineapple industry for 45 years, Balala says the industry has changed remarkably since he began his career in 1979 as a seasonal field worker for Maui Land and Pineapple (MLP) at age 14. “The canning of pineapple was once a large part of Maui’s economy, employing several thousand residents and at one point, there were about 10,000 acres of pineapple growing on different parts of the island,” Balala says.

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When German teacher Richard Schirrmann converted a former classroom to accommodate young travellers on a budget in 1909, no one could have predicted the global movement he would inspire. Three years later, Schirrmann bought a castle near Dortmund to establish the world’s first youth hostel and by the 1920s, Germany had 2,000 low-cost hostels dotted around its rural areas. But it wasn’t until a group of Brits brought the idea back to the UK and launched the Youth Hostels Association (YHA) in 1930 that the new movement gained its poster child.

Unless you’re inheriting family vineyards—or celebrating an IPO windfall—Napa Valley isn’t the most affordable place to start a wine brand. And when Malek Amrani created The Vice in 2016 he had neither of those—just a vision that placed equal focus on both his passion and business approach. The Vice concentrates on single-vineyard and single-varietal wines from 15 of Napa’s 16 AVAs, has a line of orange wines and bottles that begin as low as $29, far below the average price for the region. Amrani has also just been appointed to the Board of Directors of Napa Valley Vintners—quite a journey for someone who came to New York as a teenager from Morocco. I spoke with Amrani about his love of Napa, his sales-first approach to winemaking and why orange wine may be here to stay.

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

Those suffering from hair loss have found both comfort and results from visiting Hårklinikken clinics around the world. The company is expanding and currently has location in California, New York, Florida, Iceland, the UAE and Denmark. The Beverly Hills location just opened and a Miami location is in the works. Danish founder Lars Skjøth has created clinics that incorporate Scandinavian design elements to create a soothing atmosphere that is anything but medicinal. The products incorporate natural ingredients and the extracts are customized for each client. Skjøth explains the popularity of the program and the results you can expect.

It’s a stormy morning in the Bazaruto Archipelago, a constellation of five coral-fringed islands in the turquoise waters just off the coast of southern Mozambique, between the mainland and Madagascar. From our ship’s deck, I watch wind-sculpted dunes gleam silver on the horizon as triangle-sailed dhows glide past, their wooden bellies full of freshly caught fish. The water’s so clear that meadows of seagrass are visible on the ocean floor beneath my feet; occasionally, a green turtle pops its head above the surface, gulping down the warm, humid air. 

So-called junk fees have been in the forefront of many travel executives’ minds, especially after the Biden administration took aim at charges travelers increasingly see as unnecessary and excessive.