The travel industry's instinct to declare victory regardless of what the numbers actually show is the reason policymakers don't take it seriously.  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Read online 🌎 Travel's "Record" Year Has a Catch The travel industry's instinct to declare victory regardless of what the numbers actually show is the reason policymakers don't take it seriously. WHAT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT TODAY Higher prices per trip are doing significant work for tourism's recent success. Travelers are spending more because everything costs more. That is a different story than one about tourism on the rise. U.S. travelers are learning to read a very different map, one drawn not by airlines and hotel chains, but by geopolitics and security risks. Safety and predictability have become the new luxuries. Most hotels’ AI products ask how guests want to search. Very few are asking why a consumer would choose to engage with a hotel brand at all, or on whose terms. Read on, below.     Skift Global Forum Travel is being reordered. Who's navigating it best? September 22-24 | New York City. Three days with the leaders defining what comes next. Join them. SECURE YOUR SEAT         DON’T MISS THESE STORIES The Case for Smarter Global Advocacy For Travel — Not More Cheerleading By Rafat Ali The travel industry's instinct to declare victory regardless of what the numbers say is not just outdated, it is the reason policymakers don't take the sector seriously. View Article What Hotels Are Getting Wrong About AI By Luke Martin The hotel industry is quickly implementing AI to get a better handle on search. Mews founder Richard Valtr thinks that is the wrong approach. View Article How Cartels, Conflict, and Live Tourism Are Redrawing the American Travel Map By Saniya Zanpure In 2026, the American traveler has traded the pursuit of the best deal for the stable experience, as geopolitical shockwaves transform predictability into the ultimate luxury. View Article         New Research: 5 Ways to Diversify Revenue Growth ZS + SKIFT Travel brands can no longer rely on core offerings alone — growth now depends on unlocking new revenue streams. Discover how leading companies are turning non-core assets into real impact. Get The Report         Travel marketing is being rewritten in real time — and most brands are still playing by the old rules. See what 10 industry leaders are doing differently. Get the report.         SKIFT PODCAST NETWORK Travelers Are Choosing Predictability Over Price On today’s Skift Daily Briefing, Sarah Dandashy breaks down why predictability is reshaping travel decisions, what Air New Zealand’s new $495 Skynest product signals for airline strategy, and how Saudi Arabia is recalibrating Vision 2030. SUBSCRIBE TO THE SKIFT DAILY BRIEFING         MORNING HEADLINES Podcast: The Crisis Crushing America’s Hotel Owners Saudi Vision 2030’s Second Draft Video: Travelers Are Choosing Predictability Over Price Skift Forum Asia Preview: Why ‘Unsatisfied Booking Rate’ Might Be Travel’s Most Overlooked Metric Saudi Arabia Scraps Tourism Funding In Vision 2030 Shake-Up Lufthansa Is Shutting Down an Entire Airline — With Immediate Effect Why United Is Talking Merger While Everyone Else Plays Defense         For $7 a week, Skift gives you something the industry is missing – the full picture. Subscribe today for 25% off.         CHART OF THE DAY Every ambitious project deserves a second draft. The war just cleared the desk for Saudi to write one. This second draft should be about making Saudi the operating system for movement, gathering, and conversion across the Muslim world and its adjacent regions, building from pilgrimage, regional proximity, and cultural familiarity rather than from speculative Western desire. GET THE FULL STORY         SKIFT TRAVEL 200 How are public travel companies performing around the world? The Skift Travel 200 pulls the data you need to understand global market movements. Paid subscribers get full access here. GET TODAY’S INDEX SCORE         See more essential travel news in your search results. ADD SKIFT ON GOOGLE         Thanks for reading. We are switching to a new email platform to improve delivery. What does this mean for you? During this transition, these emails might land in your promotions or spam folder. To ensure you don’t miss out, please move this newsletter to your primary inbox.       DEFINING THE FUTURE OF TRAVEL. Update your email preferences or unsubscribe here © 2026 Skift 35 W 31st St. New York, New York 10001, United States Terms of Service