Skift Travel Health Index: May 2026 Highlights
The index fell to 97 in May, but this does not indicate that people have stopped traveling; travelers have just become more selective about where they spend their money.
Skift Research – In-Depth Travel Industry Reports and Insights for Business Leaders
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Ask Skift is built on more than a decade of Skift Research reports as well as Skift’s original reporting and industry-leading events – as well as public financial information.
Skift + McKinsey & Company
Agentic AI could upend the travel industry. Understand the implications and potential for travel and hospitality organizations with the report Remapping Travel With Agentic AI.
Most Read This Month
Millennial and Gen Z Travelers: Trends, Anxieties, and Shifting Priorities
We take for granted that Gen Z's will be just as avid travelers as their older Millennial peers; that might be a bad assumption. Gen Zs still like to vacation but our new research shows that financial anxieties weigh heavily on these younger travelers.
Skift Research Global Travel Outlook 2026
Consumer love for travel, rising demographics, and exciting innovation square off against unstable geopolitics, affordability challenges, and a lukewarm economic expansion
The New Economics of Hotel Brand Expansion: Why Scale Alone Is Not Enough
Hotel companies spent the last decade building brand portfolios for coverage and scale. The next phase of competition will reward sharper brands that drive pricing power, loyalty relevance, and visibility in AI-compressed discovery funnels.
Skift Travel Health Index
February 2026 Highlights
After a promising start to the year, the travel industry saw growth level off in February 2026. An index of 100 this month, indicates a stable market that matches performance levels seen in 2025, yet, this plateau also signals a cautionary phase for travel.
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Skift Travel Health Index: March 2026 Highlights
As of March 2026, the global travel industry is no longer moving in a predictable direction. Global travel demand across regions is diverging, dictated by the realities of geopolitics.
Global Traveler Mindset and Trends 2026
Global travel demand remains resilient, but the strongest growth opportunities are concentrated in emerging markets, where higher travel intent and rising spending power are driving faster momentum than in mature regions.
Skift Travel Health Index: February 2026 Highlights
The travel industry's growth hit a plateau in February 2026 as the geopolitical conflict in the Middle East paralyzed global air corridors, upending the Middle East's record growth. The industry's resilience now depends on its ability to effectively redistribute global travel demand.
The Skift India Travel Intelligence Briefing
India is one of the fastest-growing outbound travel markets, one of the largest domestic travel ecosystems, and an underpenetrated inbound destination. The Skift India Travel Scorecard shows clear, comparable data on how India is actually performing relative to its peers.
Hospitality Research
Do Hotels Need to Optimize Their Brand Portfolios?
Hotel groups have doubled their brand counts since 2014, but RevPAR hasn't followed — the industry needs a new playbook for its brand portfolios.
Visits or Value: Which Is Your North Star?
Most destinations only report how many visitors came and how much they spent. Very few report on where the money goes or what is lost when those visitors don’t come back. With destinations being asked harder questions about tourism’s benefit to local communities, per-trip yield and arrival volumes may not be enough on their own.
Deciding on a Re-Engagement Strategy: Product-Focused or Traveler-Focused?
Most destinations’ marketing campaigns lead with what is on offer, such as price, product, or infrastructure. But the travelers who are most likely to return want to know what is on offer to them personally. Should the focus be on marketing the destination as a product, or should marketing target the traveler?
Visitor Acquisition or Retention? Choosing Your Destination’s Growth Strategy
Most destination budgets lean heavily toward attracting first-time visitors. But this growth model is under strain — it may be time to change the equation and ask what smarter allocation would look like.
Skift Research in Action
Skift Research analysts contribute to a wide range of in-person and online events. Watch clips from recent events in New York City and Abu Dhabi.
Consumer Habits Research
Latin America Traveler Trends 2026
Travel demand in Latin America remains strong, but affordability — not appetite — increasingly determines how far and how often people travel.
The New Economics of Hotel Brand Expansion: Why Scale Alone Is Not Enough
Hotel companies spent the last decade building brand portfolios for coverage and scale. The next phase of competition will reward sharper brands that drive pricing power, loyalty relevance, and visibility in AI-compressed discovery funnels.
Skift Research Global Travel Outlook 2026
Consumer love for travel, rising demographics, and exciting innovation square off against unstable geopolitics, affordability challenges, and a lukewarm economic expansion
Skift Global Travel Insights: What’s New for 2026?
Travel demand is holding in 2026, but growth will favor markets and brands that adapt as power shifts geographically and behaviorally.
Skift Travel 200 Index
The Skift Travel 200 combines the financial performance of nearly 200 travel companies worth more than a trillion dollars into a single number. The ST200 makes it easy to track travel industry performance for the first time ever.
Learn more about the ST200 by reading our full methodology.