The Skift Travel Podcast

There is room for optimism heading into 2018 for the global travel industry with numerous indicators pointing to a solid year of macroeconomic growth. In this Analyst Session we discuss our expectations for the global travel market, as a supplement to our Skift Research Report, Room for Optimism: 2018 Global Travel Market Outlook. We review some key economic data points that are top of mind for Sk...

On this episode of the Skift podcast, we're tackling the issue of overtourism with some ideas for addressing the problem. Our guest is Megan Epler Wood, director of the International Sustainable Tourism Initiative at the Harvard School of Public Health. Her latest book, Sustainable Tourism on a Finite Planet, was released earlier this year. She spoke with Skift tourism experts Andrew Sheivachman a...

With more hotel booking options becoming available to travelers, hotel brands must consider their distribution approach and direct booking strategies. This Analyst Session discusses hotel distribution, with a particular focus on direct booking. As a supplement to our Skift Research Report of the same name, we discuss results from our Hotel Direct Booking Survey, which collected responses from 370...

As China's travel market continues to grow and Chinese travelers are increasingly booking online, Ctrip and the country's travel industry are poised for high growth. This Analyst Session offers a recap of Skift Research's report, A Deep Dive Into Ctrip and the China Online Travel Market 2017, and supplementary discussion. In the Session, we provide an overview of the Chinese travel market and insi...

On this sponsored episode of the Skift podcast, we’re talking about what destinations can do to better forge alliances between tourism and tech. Our guests come from both worlds: London and Partners innovation relationship manager Danielle Sheerin joins research and insights manager Louise Wilks along with Katie Hegarty, lab program and community manager with the Trampery. This is a sponsored podc...

Anyone who follows travel knows that Expedia has been making a lot of news lately. Now-former CEO Dara Khosrowshahi left to take the top job at Uber, and Expedia promptly promoted its CFO Mark Okerstrom to the chief executive position. At Skift, we've been all over this story since the news broke late one recent Sunday night, so we put together a team to do a newsy conference call in early Septemb...

On today's episode of the Skift Podcast, we're hearing from hotel experts who make a living helping travelers find standout properties. Our guests are Claus Sendlinger, CEO and founder of Design Hotels, and James Lohan and Tamara Heber-Percy, the founders of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, a travel club that started out as a guidebook featuring under-the-radar boutique hotels. They spoke at Skift Forum Europe...

This analyst call discusses the current state of destination marketing, with a particular focus on current and developing content marketing, digital advertising and data analytics strategies. Destination marketing is a changing landscape. Technological innovations and emerging trends in content marketing and data analytics are paving the way for numerous exciting opportunities for those working in...

Our guest on today's mini-episode of the Skift Podcast is Richard Solomons, the soon-to-retire CEO of InterContinental Hotels Group. He spoke at Skift Forum Europe this year and joined us backstage in the Skift Take Studio to discuss how IHG is trying to cater to both millennials and baby boomers, the way the company is keeping well-known brands relevant but comfortably familiar, the reason he isn...

On today's episode of the Skift Podcast, we're talking about the way consumers comparison shop for travel. Our guests are executives from some of the top metasearch companies in the world: Trivago managing director Johannes Thomas, Kayak CEO Steve Hafner, Momondo Group CEO Hugo Burge, and Skyscanner CEO and co-founder Gareth Willams. Each spoke at Skift Forum Europe in London this year and sat dow...

On today's mini-episode of the Skift Podcast, we're talking about disruption in the airline industry. Our guest is Bjorn Kjos, the CEO of Norwegian Air. He spoke about low-cost transatlantic flights, competition from legacy carriers, the airline’s growth opportunities around the world, and the risks facing global travel. Kjos joined us in the Skift Take Studio backstage at the first ever Skift For...

On today's episode of the Skift Podcast, we're talking about volatility in the world, and how the travel industry deals with it. Our guests are Olivier Jager, CEO and co-founder of ForwardKeys, which compiles tourism data based on reservations transactions, and Gerald Lawless, chairman of the World Travel and Tourism Council. They joined us in the Skift Take Studio backstage at the first ever Skif...

On today’s episode of the Skift podcast, we’re talking hotel loyalty: who’s doing it right, who’s still trying, and how it is continuing to evolve. Our guest is Gary Leff, founder of the View from the Wing blog. We also have insights from Best Western Hotels & Resorts CEO David Kong and Langham Hospitality Group CEO Robert Warman.

On this episode of the Skift podcast, we’re talking about why bargain-priced airfare is all over the news, the true cost of cheap flights, the reason airlines are fighting to capture price-sensitive travelers, and what they’re charging for instead. Our guests are Brian Sumers, Skift’s airline business reporter, and editor in chief Jason Clampet. We've also got clips from interviews with British Ai...

On this episode of the Skift podcast, we're hearing from leaders of the world’s two largest cruise lines on attracting newcomers to cruising, appealing to millennials, and considering the needs of Generation Z. The episode features portions of separate conversations we had with Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line, and Michael Bayley, president and CEO of Royal Caribbean Internationa...

On this episode of the Skift Podcast, we're talking about tourism growth in New York City, the role of gentrification, the new ways that visitors are experiencing the city, and what kind of growth is sustainable. Our guest is Skift reporter Andrew Sheivachman, who reported an in-depth piece on the city's tourism landscape, and we're also hearing from interviews he did with several industry leaders...

While the vacation rental industry is becoming more popular among consumers, particularly in urban areas, behind the scenes three waves of consolidation are hitting the sector. In this Skift Research Analyst Session we discuss the global vacation rentals landscape and look at how the industry is quickly evolving when it comes to vacation rental managers and the digital tools and platforms they use...

On this episode of the Skift podcast, we're talking about the legal and technological changes that have made travel more accessible to people with disabilities, the opportunities that the travel industry has been missing, and what lies ahead for the disability travel market. Our guests are Peter Slatin, founder and president of Slatin Group, which provides education and training to help businesses...

On this episode of the Skift podcast, we explore the biggest trends that will define travel in 2017, with audio from our annual Megatrends event. Skift founder and CEO Rafat Ali and co-founder and editor-in-chief Jason Clampet delve into topics including how low-cost airlines are changing the transatlantic game, the festivalization of meetings and events, the return of humanity to travel, and the...

On this episode of the Skift podcast, we’re talking about a very specific form of travel advice — the where-to-go-in-the-coming-year list — and what goes into making them. Our guests are Dan Saltzstein, a travel editor at The New York Times who organized the 52 Places to Go in 2017 project, and Nikki Ekstein, travel editor at Bloomberg Pursuits. She oversaw Bloomberg’s Where to Go in 2017 list.

On this episode of the Skift podcast, we're hearing from supertravelers about what they like, dislike, and merely tolerate on the road. The conversation took place at the Skift Global Forum last year. Panelists are Alexandra Wood, chief operating officer at Wearable Experiments; Jalak Jobanputra, founder and managing partner of FuturePerfect Ventures; Colin Nagy, head of communications strategy at...

On this mini-episode of the Skift podcast, we welcome Mike Shea, chief logistics officer and partner at South by Southwest, and Rich Goodstone, co-founder of Superfly, the production company behind Bonnaroo. Mike and Rich joined us in the Skift Take Studio backstage at the Skift Global Forum to talk about bringing fun to events that could be boring, the way attendee behavior is changing, and why s...

On this mini-episode of the Skift podcast, we welcome Oliver Heckmann, Google's vice president of engineering who heads the search engine's travel product. We spoke backstage in the Skift Take Studio during the Skift Global Forum. He spoke to us about how user behavior is changing with the shift to mobile, Google’s efforts to move toward an assistant-driven environment, and the future of virtual a...

On this mini-episode of the Skift podcast, Booking.com CEO Gillian Tans discusses last-minute behavior, direct bookings, advertising, new search methods, and more. We interviewed Gillian backstage in the Skift Take Studio during the Skift Global Forum. The Skift Take Studio Series is presented by Mastercard, a payments technology company that is enabling loyalty, security and data solutions for th...

On this mini-episode of the Skift podcast, Lola Travel CEO Paul English discuses the inspiration for his new travel agency messaging app, how he is trying to improve the tools that travel agents use, and why chatting via message is more popular than talking. We interviewed English, who also co-founded Kayak, backstage in the Skift Take Studio during the Skift Global Forum. The Skift Take Studio Se...