Google tips

Several Google platforms are offering helpful updates that can make it easier to compare travel options and plan for upcoming trips. Specifically, Search, Maps, and Shopping have improved travel tools. Here’s more about what has changed in each platform.

Google said Wednesday that it is adding several new tools meant to help travelers plan trips and explore destinations. 

Looking for inspiration for your next big summer vacation? Or, perhaps you're in search of some suggestions for an exciting city break? Whether you're looking for far-flung travel suggestions in Europe or Asia or something closer to home on U.S. soil, we have you covered.

A uniquely 20-something cocktail of ambition, stupidity and wanderlust led me to take a job in Berlin fresh out of college. My due diligence consisted of watching several of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s movies and calling it a day. I had visited the city before, crashing with lovers and loose acquaintances, but my sense of how to build a life there — or in any new place, for that matter — was nonexistent. The practical matters of adjusting to a new city bedeviled me. After work I longed to navigate the city with purpose but had nowhere in particular to go. Interminable weeks at the office gave way to lonely weekends spent not queuing up for clubs but crying on a floor mattress in Charlottenburg, anxiety taking hold at the thought of another aimless walk. A fun decision made in haste, for all its adventurous merit, had left me lost and lonely.

Alice Mansergh is spending St. Patrick’s Day 2024 in Washington, D.C., to participate in a longtime tradition. It involves delegates from Ireland presenting the current U.S. president with a bowl of shamrocks to mark this Irish holiday.

In Bali, opting for beans made from the poop of civets is the most expensive way to take your coffee. Every year, tourists travel to the Indonesian island and drink civet coffee — locally known as kopi luwak — at the more than a dozen cafés and farms listed on Google Maps.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Friday, March 8. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

The European Union’s Digital Markets Act, designed to ensure fair competition and protect consumers, became effective Thursday, and the EU Travel Tech association claimed Google is not complying with the new law.

The party of the month (year?) is underway in India, and the local airport is pulling out all the stops to cope.

Back in the days when I was a student living in Venice, before Google Maps and GPS systems, getting lost was a frequent occurrence. I’d often find myself wandering around the picturesque waterways, stumbling across tiny squares, crumbling bridges and hidden, narrow walkways, in the quest to find somewhere. One minute, I could be a piazza teaming with tourists and, next, it was not uncommon to suddenly find myself in a narrow calle, with no one around, hearing the echoes of my footsteps against the lapping of the green-hued canal water. Coming from London and knowing my way around that vast city, this, at first, felt like a painful start to becoming a resident here. Yet, quickly, this feeling was superseded by a sense of joy, especially when discovering hidden treasures off the beaten track. Going off the tourist paths is the fastest way to discover the real sense of this ancient city.

Why pay Google even more to acquire customers when your company can open travel agency storefronts, and counsel customers to book trips online?

Most tourism board CEOs come from the hotel or tourism industry. But Tourism Ireland’s new chief executive, Alice Mansergh, came from Google’s marketing side. 

On the back of its November acquisition of GamePlanner.AI, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said his company can create a new AI interface, and that it will help transform Airbnb into a “cross-vertical company” like Amazon or Apple.

A revamped Trivago Guy campaign, this one using just one actor whose monologue is powered by AI, is getting a mixed reaction in the 20 or so markets it’s running in around the world.

Six Flags is partnering with Google, Dell, and a group of other tech companies to integrate artificial intelligence and add a metaverse experience.

Viator drives the experience booking offering of its parent company, Tripadvisor, with a portfolio of over 300,000 offerings. Still, its market research shows that most leisure travelers are unaware of the brand.

Ryanair said Wednesday that “most of the larger OTA Pirates” abruptly stopped selling its flights in early December. But at least one of them — Booking.com — was back offering Ryanair’s flights today.

For this edition of the Skift Podcast, we turn to our recent Skift Global Forum East event in Dubai, UAE. Near the end of the first day of the event, Skift CEO Rafat Ali was joined by Hany Abdelkawi, Google’s Head of Travel Sales.

It’s been a momentous year for the travel industry and the Skift Research team. Across our 50-plus reports, we created hundreds of charts to visualize the data behind the travel industry.

Travel companies laid off more than 6,600 employees in 2023. The total comes from more than 20 travel companies that disclosed layoffs for various reasons.

Vietnam was the most-searched destination for Indians in 2023, according to the Google trends. There was a revival of global exploration after a three-year hiatus due to the pandemic. The resurgence is evident in the latest report, unveiling the most Googled tourist destinations of the year. Here are some of the top searches: