5 Countries With Booming Tourism Industries

Today's podcast looks at emergent tourism destinations, Four Seasons' remote gamble, and an airport slot battle in Washington, D.C. -Rashaad Jorden

India’s Travel Sector Is Creating Jobs – But There’s Risk of a Worker Shortage: India Report

We're unpacking the travel industry's impact on jobs in India. There's no question the demand is there and companies want to hire. But we've also heard from industry leaders that it's going to be tough to retain the next generation of workers - changes are needed they say. -Bulbul Dhawan

Unveiling Five New Speakers for the Skift Data + AI Summit

The countdown is on for the inaugural Skift Data + AI Summit that is just a few weeks away. We are excited to announce another round of speakers that plan to join us on stage from companies like Microsoft, United Airlines, Expedia, Kayak, Destination Canada, and more. -Nicole Meyer

Kempinski Hotels Names Former Silversea CEO as First Female CEO

Barbara Muckermann, the trailblazing former CEO of Silversea, will become the first female CEO at Europe's oldest luxury hotel group. Muckermann is poised to usher in a fresh era of opulence and innovation at Kempinski. -Sean O'Neill

Don’t Miss Our Skift Short-Term Rental Summit This June

Don't miss out on this opportunity to gain practical insights, engage in thoughtful discussions, and connect with peers (and rivals). -Jason Clampet

Revenue of Indian Airport Operators to Top 15% – India Report

India's aviation industry is expanding to increase connectivity. The growth in passenger traffic will increase revenue sources for airport operators. -Bulbul Dhawan

Marriott vs. Hilton: A Fee Fight for Hotel Dominance

While analysts fixate on room count and loyalty program growth, the real battle between hotel giants Marriott and Hilton is over the fees they charge owners and credit-card issuers. -Sean O'Neill

Why Four Seasons Yachts Is Encouraging Guests to Leverage Travel Advisors

Beyond its innovative design ethos and distinctive service offerings, Four Seasons Yachts is making waves with a unique sales and distribution strategy built around a growing preference among affluent travelers to book trips with luxury travel advisors. -Four Seasons Yachts

Travel Startups Raise $1.1 Billion in Past Two Weeks

There haven't been as many travel startup fundraises this year, but there have been many more large dollar amounts than at this point last year. -Justin Dawes

Saudia Group Orders More Than 100 New Airbus Jets

The huge order - one of the largest aircraft deals of the year so far - is in addition to existing deliveries bound for the Saudia Group. -Gordon Smith

South of France, but not as we know it: exploring Nîmes and the Gard

Unesco listing for the city’s Roman temple put this city on the map last year, but there are uncharted delights in the surrounding towns as well

The director of a newly refurbished boutique hotel in the old town of Nîmes tells me he has gained and lost a star recently. The hotel’s restaurant, Rouge, run by Benin-born chef Georgiana Viou, recently won its first Michelin star. But the hotel itself, the Margaret Chouleur, has been downgraded from a five-star to just four.

Here’s the interesting thing: it was the hotel that did the downgrading. The top-level rating was putting people off, so it has been reclassified as a four-star.

It’s a very Nîmes move. With the Côte d’Azur to its east and arty, chic Arles its nearest neighbour, Nîmes flies just below many tourists’ radar and sits firmly in the good-value category.

Nîmes was first valued by Gaul tribes for its natural springs, but made its fortune in the heyday of ancient Rome. Julius Caesar rewarded his Gaul campaigners with land in the area, and so began a long tradition of welcoming wealthy retirees. The campaigners and their successors spent lavishly on the city, which was a handy waypoint between Rome and its Hispanic provinces. Continue reading...

When an Airbnb Moves In Next Door, It’s Neighbor vs. Neighbor

According to Airbnb lore, the short-term rental was born in 2007 when, “two hosts welcomed three guests to their San Francisco home.” Fast forward 17 years and Airbnb now has over 5 million hosts … and most all of them have neighbors. That’s led to some epic feuds. -Jason Clampet

The best new camping and glampsites around the UK, from festival vibes to no-frills meadows

Pods, campervans, bell tents and even Star Wars domes feature in our round-up of sites set in glorious countryside from the South Downs to the Hebrides

Wild Canvas, one of the recent wave of pop-up campsites with a festival vibe, has a host of new additions for its fifth outing this summer. The campsite makes the most of its riverside setting on the Turvey House Estate near Bedford. It has a new wellness area, the Nest, with direct river access (BYO paddleboard!) plus a yoga yurt, a mobile sauna, a treatment tent for massages and free early-morning activities from meditation to boot camp. Continue reading...

Airbnb Ups Its Experience Delistings Amid Strategy Revamp

Airbnb appeared to have begun a wave of delistings for its travel experiences offerings, upsetting some operators. However, Airbnb has made it clear that it remains committed to the experiences business, with plans to boost customer awareness of the category. -Jesse Chase-Lubitz

Glamping on the go: a wild ride through Cumbria in a camper truck

TV presenter and naturalist Steve Backshall finds a camper truck the ideal way to give children an outdoors experience in untamed parts of northern England

Camping trips with a young family can be thoroughly challenging, especially in the UK, when the weather often skips from sunshine to deluge in the blink of an eye. My extra challenge is that my wife, Helen, can’t join us for our Easter break (she’s away training for her fourth Olympic Games – reasonable excuse). My three kids (twins of four, and an older brother not quite six) are a tornado handful at the best of times. I definitely don’t want to be flying abroad with them, but I want to give them a memorable wild outdoors experience. So what to do?

Inspiration comes in the form of Wild Camper Trucks, a small enterprise set up by entrepreneur Andrew Clark, who rents out a fleet of four-wheel-drive campers from bases in Kendal and Inverness. The vans are go-anywhere robust and reliable, but kitted out with enough home comforts that they feel like glamping on the go. Thanks to the additional roof tent, they’re set up to sleep four, but with kids as young as ours we could definitely push it to five. There’s a bijou kitchen and eating area, plenty of lounging and kipping space, and a huge amount of storage, which allows us to take all the outdoor toys we want.

Andrew has teamed up with websites Off Grid Camp and Nearly Wild Camping, which connect 4x4, campervan and canvas wild campers with landowners. Campers subscribe to the websites, and pay their hosts as they would at any campsite. Continue reading...

Banks vs. OTAs: How Credits Cards Took Over Travel

There is a sea change taking place in how banks – and particularly how credit cards – interact with the travel industry. Watch what Skift Research has to say. -Jason Clampet

Air India-Vistara Loyalty Programs: How Will They Be Combined Post-Merger?

In its nine years of operations, Vistara's service quality has created a strong base of loyal customers. The new information shared by the airline sheds light on how the merger will impact these customers. -Bulbul Dhawan

A local’s guide to Coffs Harbour: ‘The culture here is being outside’

There’s the muttonbirds and the supersized banana, but this NSW coastal destination is known for its friendly outdoor lifestyle – and a growing food and culture scene, says artist Sarah Lyttle

* Read more local’s guides to Australia




When we moved to Coffs Harbour on Gumbaynggirr country on the New South Wales mid-north coast in 2007, we really missed Sydney’s multicultural food. Thankfully, Coffs is a well-supported refugee settlement city and it didn’t take long for those communities to gift us an assortment of culinary options. Continue reading...

H World’s Ji Hotels: This Chinese Brand Is Heading to Saudi and UAE

Chinese brand Ji Hotels wants to expand outside its home land, starting with the Middle East. -Josh Corder

‘This campsite feels like paradise’: readers’ favourite places to pitch in the UK

Whether it’s a field with minimal facilities or a comfortable site with mod cons, our tipsters pick out enticing spots for enjoying the great outdoors from the Highlands to Cornwall

At the foot of Scafell Pike, England’s highest peak, and at the northern end of one of the Lake District’s most dramatic valleys is the National Trust campsite at Wasdale Head (basic grass pitch from £38 for two nights). As well as standard pitches there are heated camping pods, three tipis, a bell tent and campervan pitches. Great Gable and Pillar, two other famous fells, are a walk away. The location, at the foot of the mountains, with Lingmell Beck flowing past, is brilliant and there are enough facilities to make life easy but not detract from the camping feel. We haven’t climbed Scafell Pike yet, but even without doing that there was still enough for a good active trip.
Emma Continue reading...

TUI Integrates Conservation Efforts Into Tours and Experiences

A new program is incorporating tours and experiences from TUI Musement into the Foundation's charity efforts. -Jesse Chase-Lubitz

Chase Travel Has What the Other Cards and Online Travel Agencies Don’t — Southwest Flights

Online travel agencies and credit card companies — other than Chase — have Southwest-envy. Not having Southwest flights is a major hole in their travel offerings. -Dennis Schaal

How Saudi Sees Luxury: Just ‘20% Will Be in 4- And 5-Star Hotels’

Saudi Arabia says its "real business" will come from mass-market travel, not ultra-luxury stays. -Josh Corder

Gen Z Travelers Boost Hotel Revenue

Today's podcast looks at Paris' new bookings, Gen Z's new bookings, and TUI's new challenges. -Rashaad Jorden

A walk across Italy in Garibaldi’s footsteps: from Ravenna to the coast of Tuscany

A route tracing the unification hero’s flight across the peninsula in 1849 runs spectacularly over the Apennines then descends to the sea via a string of gorgeous Tuscan towns

Crickets leaping round our feet. A butterfly at the rim of my hat. Burrs on our socks. Smells of fern and pine. The rhythmic rasp of the cicadas. And, ranged around us, a never-ending green. Cypress and cedar. Peaks and parched pastures. The combed vineyards and the dark oak thickets. Moving through it all, feeling right inside it, sticky with it even. Like any other animal. This is what we love and why we do these summer walks.

We set off from the railway station in Ravenna. Heading for the coast. Not the Adriatic, just five miles away. But the Tyrrhenian, on the other side of the Italian peninsula. The remote bay of Cala Martina to be precise: it’s in Tuscany, about halfway between Genoa and Rome. Continue reading...

Gen Z Gives Surprising Boost to Some Hotels

With youth unemployment at record lows and paychecks getting fatter, people born between 1997 and 2012, are financially better off than young people in earlier eras. Some hotel brands are benefiting. -Sean O'Neill

TUI Faces ‘Significant’ Costs Due to Boeing Delays

TUI is grappling with operational challenges due to ongoing delays in Boeing aircraft deliveries. But the European tourism giant still produced record revenue for its hotels, resorts, and cruises. -Jesse Chase-Lubitz

Simplifying Business Travel: T&E Comes Closer Together

"T&E" makes it sound like travel booking and expense tracking are already integrated, but that's far from the case. Some tech tools are trying to be at the forefront of this integration.
-Justin Bachman

A festival of music, film and spectacle: the best of Belfast 2024

A year-long celebration aims to start a new chapter for Belfast, forging better connections and conversations within communities through creativity and culture

Belfast did not have the best of starts to 2024. Never mind the mass public sector strikes, the not-unrelated fact of Northern Ireland being without a functioning government (the government returned, the strikes were settled, or suspended … for now), at the end of January, one of the city’s most respected – revered – publicans, Pedro Donald, who over the years had brought us the John Hewitt, La Boca, the Sunflower and the American Bar, announced that he was leaving for Amsterdam. There may not be bombs and bullets any more, he said, but Belfast was “a dump and derelict”. Indeed, apart from a few good years between the Good Friday agreement and the financial crash, the city was in many ways no further on than when he started in the trade in 1984.

Some bridled at the broadside. But walking towards the Sunflower along Royal Avenue, historically the main shopping street, after 6pm sometimes, you would have been hard-pressed to say Pedro had called it wrong. Hard-pressed, too, to say that the people in whose gift was the title of “city of this” or “capital of that” were being entirely unreasonable when they overlooked bids from Belfast in the not-too-distant past. Continue reading...

Google Follows ChatGPT With New AI-Powered Trip-Planning Tools

Today's podcast looks at Google's new AI tool, Ariane Gorin's new plans for Expedia Group, and Qantas' change in routes to China. -Rashaad Jorden

Meta Wants You to Use VR While Flying

The Meta Quest virtual reality headset was designed for the ground, but a new update makes them useable while flying. Now, the company is pushing them as an in-flight entertainment option. -Justin Dawes

Qantas Pulls Out of Mainland China, CEO Admits Some Flights are ‘Half Full’

Despite being Australia’s national airline, Qantas couldn’t compete effectively with a torrent of competition from Chinese carriers. -Gordon Smith

AI-Powered Travel Updates Will Make Translation Easier

Today's podcast looks at AI-powered travel tools, airlines suing to protect junk fees, and Booking's European challenge. -Rashaad Jorden

‘Flavours as vivid as the scent of pine forests’: why I love Baltic cuisine

Food writer Caroline Eden celebrates the region’s distinct - and underrated - flavours, from quince lemonade and cloudberry jam to birch syrup and blueberry soup

When I was planning a recent journey back to Riga, its food filled my thoughts more than anything else. I kept picturing the Latvian capital’s cafes, bistros and moody beer bars. Such longing was evidence, to me at least, that I was coming back to a city that knows how to feed people and with memorable flavours: smoked sprats, black pudding sausages, quince lemonade, cloudberry jam, pickled garlic, herby butters and bitter balsams tasting of liquorice.

As anticipation began to build, a question crossed my mind: why are some countries revered for their food while others are not? The cuisine of the Baltics, rich with variety and imagination, can often rival that of the nearby Nordic countries yet it is rarely held in the same esteem. Continue reading...

How This Thai Resort Hopes to Attract Indian Travelers – India Report

Even as Thailand is a popular travel destination among Indians, most places beyond Bangkok and Phuket remain unexplored. Smaller resorts and businesses now seem to be trying to attract Indian tourists. -Bulbul Dhawan

Major U.S. Airlines Sue Biden Administration Over Junk Fees Rule

Major U.S. airlines have filed a lawsuit against the Department of Transportation’s “junk fees” rule, arguing that it would create more confusion for consumers.

-Meghna Maharishi

This Saudi Airline Hopes to Triple in Size: The CEO’s Plan For Getting There

Flyadeal's new CEO Steven Greenway says the scale of airline's expansion attracted him to the role. His challenge now is turning targets into tangible results. -Gordon Smith

48 hours in Cologne, Germany’s most laid-back city

Cologne cathedral, Europe’s biggest collection of pop art and vintage shops are all less than four and a half hours from London by train

It’s on about our fifth Kölsch that we begin to get the idea of Cologne’s constitution. We are sitting in Päffgen, one of the traditional brewhouses that produce the pale yellow beer unique to the German city. It comes in small straight glasses (it loses its fizz quickly apparently) and each time one is emptied, another one is delivered by a waiter swinging a kranz, or circular tray, which appears to defy gravity. The process of replacement goes on until you place a beer mat on top of your glass to signal that you’ve had enough.

I imagine my limit of four is only the beginning for many of the drinkers packing the room, but we soak up the alcohol with traditional dishes of pork schnitzel, meatloaf and – for the vegetarian – three fried eggs with fried potatoes, all of which are declared delicious, if not the healthiest food. Continue reading...

Record-Breaking Number of Road Trips Projected For Memorial Day Weekend

Buckle up. AAA expects a major weekend for air travel and especially road trips this Memorial Day. -Elizabeth Casolo

Akasa Air’s Plan to Expand Beyond India

Central to Akasa's expansion strategy is its substantial order of 226 planes with Boeing. The airline seems confident about the planemaker's capabilities. Will Boeing 'deliver?' -Peden Doma Bhutia

Alaska Airlines Tests AI Vision for Loyalty and Flight Search

Though the new Alaska Airlines AI flight search tool has issues, it's an early glimpse at how the future of airline loyalty tech and search could look. -Justin Dawes

Sun, sea and delcious food: 10 wonderful agriturismos in Italy

From a family farm where you can help yourself to lemons and oranges in the orchard to an old shepherd’s house with views of the sea

You can’t beat an agriturismo. Rural locations, owners whose main job is farming, plus food and drink produced on site all add up to a charmingly informal stay. There is rarely a reception desk and there’ll be dogs and crowing roosters to contend with, but they offer brilliant food and a friendly welcome. And they are not all buried in the countryside; there are lots of agriturismos around Italy’s 5,000 miles of coast. Here are 10 within walking or cycling distance of the beach. Continue reading...

Kayak CEO Says Online Travel ‘Still Sucks’ and He Wants to Stay ‘Until It’s Fixed’

Twenty years later, Google is the leading global player in travel metasearch. Steve Hafner can do little about that but argues travelers can snack on Google but they should come to Kayak for better results when they are ready to book. -Dennis Schaal

Automatic Refunds For Flyers: Here’s How it Works in Europe

The European Union’s rule gives a glimpse into how the U.S. may enforce its automatic refunds policy – though there are key differences. -Meghna Maharishi

Extra time at Euro 2024: day trips and more from Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Leipzig

Spectacular scenery and rich culture from the Alps to the North Sea are just a train ride away from the main hubs at this summer’s football tournament

Of all the ways to explore southern Germany this summer, the most memorable is not by train, bus or hire car but by boat. Lake Constance, nearly 40 times bigger than Windermere and two hours south-west of Munich by public transport, is a wonderful water world ringed by harbour towns, and it makes an idyllic break from the Bavarian capital. Continue reading...

Germany’s football factory: a travel guide to the Ruhr

All eyes will be on Germany’s industrial heartland next month as Euro 2024 kicks off. We explore the region’s heritage, renewal and sporting history

In 1961, future West German chancellor Willy Brandt declared: “The sky above the Ruhr must be blue once more.” His words were greeted with what sounded like applause but was actually his audience falling off their chairs. Because the Ruhrpott, or Ruhrgebiet, an agglomeration of industrial cities that includes Gelsenkirchen (where England will play their opening match of the European Championship this summer), Dortmund (which hosts group matches as well as a semi-final), Essen and Duisburg was a place where the chimneys of the coal, iron and steel industries poked up above the smog like candles on a giant grey birthday cake. You were more likely to slip in unicorn droppings than breathe clean air in the Ruhrpott.

Today the notion of the Ruhr as a tourist destination may provoke as many German sniggers as Brandt’s prophecy back in 1961. But while this region of more than 5 million people may lack the fairytale castles of Bavaria or the coolness of Berlin, there’s plenty to divert the thousands of fans who will pour into the region in June and July. And that’s even if you leave aside the rich football heritage of the mighty Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04, and perennial battlers such as Rot-Weiss Essen, Bochum and Duisburg. Continue reading...

Soho House Check-Up Months After Dire Report: What the Latest Numbers Show

Soho House is continuing its streak of losing money every year since its founding in 1995. But it also appears to be improving on key metrics. -Sean O'Neill

2024 U.S. Election Won’t Scare Off Tourists, But It Will Make Advertising More Expensive

As the U.S. enters its most expensive election cycle, tourism marketers are going to need to get creative to stay on top of the minds of targeted audiences. -Dawit Habtemariam

Readers’ favourite trips in Germany: ‘We wandered every cobbled street and climbed every gothic tower’

From the Baltic to Bavaria, via Berlin, our tipsters enjoy epic scenery and architecture, culture and steins of fabulous German beer

Lübeck – Queen of the Hanseatic League – has a fading charm and vulnerability absent from the likes of Berlin, Munich and Hamburg … and most of Germany. I loved my trip there, wandering the cobbled streets, climbing every brick gothic church tower – generally alone! Thomas Mann wrote the unbearably sad novel Buddenbrooks there, then fled to the US from nazism in 1939. The Tin Drum author Günter Grass lived and worked in Lübeck in later life. Visit their former houses, now museums, the Grass-Haus and the Buddenbrook Haus. A singular German city, full of history and significance.
Martin Charlesworth Continue reading...

Hilton Grand Vacations: Weak Yen Dents Japanese Appetite for U.S. Timeshares

Hilton Grand Vacations is also eyeing a sales boost by inheriting Bluegreen's marketing deal with Bass Pro's 200 stores after the timeshare giant fully digests its latest acquisition.
-Sean O'Neill