Online Travel

Deep dives and market research into the dominant players and digital upstarts that shape how consumers buy travel online

Online Travel

A Deep Dive into Google Travel Part II: U.S. vs Europe in 20 Charts

The underlying hotel supply in Europe is much less branded than it is in the U.S., meaning a greater reliance on OTAs for bookings. In turn there is a more fragmented online distribution market in Europe, with Google’s introduction of an organic auction providing further opportunity for smaller OTAs and new entrants to gain market share.

November 2023

Online Travel

A Deep Dive into Google Travel Part I: U.S. Hotel Distribution

In this web scraping exercise of Google Hotels, we consider one of the most interesting questions in the travel industry currently: what role does Google play in the shifting sands of hotel distribution? Google, not one to stay static, is constantly tweaking its hotels platform and we see its latest iteration contributing directly to the democratization of the online travel market and a dis-intermediation of the legacy OTAs in favour of direct bookings.

October 2023

Online Travel

Short-Term Rental OTAs: Airbnb vs Vrbo in 20 Charts

We attempt to tell you everything you'd want to know about the Airbnb - Vrbo rivalry in 20 charts... Sadly we failed, and give you 23 charts instead. As a bonus we sprinkle in some Booking.com analysis too, data permitting.

September 2023

Online Travel

The Last Outpost of Travel: A Deep Dive into Tours, Activities and Experiences 2023

The tours, activities & experiences market is a lucrative and underexplored opportunity in the travel industry. Its high fragmentation, influx of small suppliers, and rapid shift from offline to online makes it a goldmine for online intermediaries to gain market share from traditional offline players.

August 2023

Destinations

State of Travel 2023: Travel in 250 Charts

Travel is back! While 2022 was all about bumper performances in some countries and sectors, and lagging performances in others, we can truly say that 2023 is the year that travel fully recovered. But we do need to be clear-eyed about persisting and upcoming challenges. This report hands you everything you need to know in one 250+ slide deck.

July 2023

Online Travel

Hopper’s Rise in Travel 2023

Hopper is the new kid on the block. Except it's not. Founded in 2007, it spent a decade building a huge database of flight information before selling its first flight booking in 2016. The time it spent on its cutting edge price prediction capabilities have paid dividends, leading to the launch of a suite of fintech products which have been fundamental in Hopper's disruption of the legacy OTAs.

May 2023

Technology

Generative AI’s Impact on Travel

Generative AI is poised to transform the travel industry. True, there’s plenty of hype out there with little substance to back it up. But even after Skift Research separates the chaff from the wheat, we find that a multi-billion dollar opportunity still remains.

April 2023

Hospitality

Online Travel Booking Trends During the Pandemic

Are the channel wars coming back? The pandemic brought a wave of direct bookings but our latest survey data suggests that this trend may not last. Plus, we find surprising shifts in booking site usage and share among American travelers.

February 2023

Hospitality

Skift Research Global Travel Outlook 2023

The new year will give no rest to a weary travel industry. After years of work to dig out of the hole the pandemic put us in, travel in 2023 may find that the hardest part still lies ahead. The groundwork for growth is in place but achieving success will be no simple task.

December 2022

Online Travel

Expedia and Booking in the Post-Pandemic Travel Landscape

Travel is back in full swing and Expedia Group and Booking Holdings are now fully recovered versus the pandemic. But under the hood, big changes are underway as these two booking sites revamp their strategies for the future.

December 2022

Hospitality

State of Travel 2022: Charting Travel’s Future

So much has happened in the the travel industry in recent years. This new report by Skift Research puts perspective on those dizzying changes by providing definitive and data-driven insight into the current state of the travel industry, and the trends that will shape the future.

October 2022

Online Travel

A Deep Dive Into Google’s Impact on Travel 2022

The metasearch wars are drawing to a close and Google is winning. The future of independent travel metasearch in the U.S. and Europe is at risk, in our view.

April 2022