Online Travel

As the Chinese economy has grown and opened up to the West, both domestic leisure and outbound travel have ramped significantly. At the same time, the country is still in the early stages of moving bookings from offline to online. A growing travel market and increased adoption of online bookings is a potent recipe for growth at Ctrip and the industry as a whole.

The leather wallet is facing increasing competition from digital alternatives. In this report we explore the types of innovations shifting the payments ecosystem and identify how early adopters have been able to leverage new payment systems to drastically cut operating costs while giving consumers a better payment experience.

TripAdvisor's bold platform-driven approach to online travel tells us a lot about where the market is headed.

This report analyzes the state of hotel distribution with a focus on direct booking. Rather than taking the view that it’s a booking war, we believe the landscape is far more nuanced where hotels need to take a holistic approach with their distribution channels. Readers will gain insight from our interviews with over 20 executives across the hotel and online travel ecosystem along with the results from our survey of 370 hotels around the world, which was powered by Skift and Trivago.

Europe has traditionally been a very active player in travel. Yet lack of funding, market fragmentation and other factors have held it back from producing global corporations. Nevertheless, Europe is finally warming up to the American-style, risk big and risk early venture investment culture that has given birth to so many tech megabrands out of Silicon Valley.

Facebook has transformed itself from a social media site into a powerful digital media platform that is now spreading its footprint across the travel industry. Facebook’s ability to dynamically retarget consumers combined with the ads being visual, aspirational, cost-effective, and largely in-app for Facebook’s massive and highly-engaged user base will make the platform an increasingly important tool for the travel industry.

TripAdvisor has managed to insert itself into just about every segment of travel. Like an octopus, its tentacles reach wide from accommodations to restaurant reviews.

An in-depth look at the trends that are driving booking via smartphones and tablets, the challenges holding the market back, and strategies for businesses in the travel and hospitality industries.

How do top executives and mobile gurus in travel view the dramatic shift toward mobile that’s under way and what does it mean for lookers, bookers and the bottom line? This Skift Trends Report traces some of the seminal shifts of 2014, from the dramatic rise in mobile bookings to same-day hotel-booking trends and marketing trends that impact mobile development.

As media buying and delivery technology expands in every industry, travel marketers are competing to identify, reach, and convert consumers in an increasingly complex display-ad environment. Their strategies to do so are evolving, as technology provides newly dynamic and newly granular tools across a spectrum of devices and platforms.

Mobile commerce is growing in importance for the travel industry, but poor design and mobile user interface sometimes means that travel planning and inspiration that starts on mobile often results in booking through a more traditional channel. How can travel brands book more sales from this fast-growing medium?