Traveling Blog: Tours and Activities' Online Disconnect + Booking CEO Gets Ctrip Seat + South African Airways Turnaround Plan

June 12, 2018

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Editor's Note

Skift Tech Forum day is finally here. In several hours, executives from around the world will take the stage in Silicon Valley for Skift's first conference focused on technology and the challenges and opportunities it presents to the travel industry. We've been working overtime to identify the key issues to discuss with our guests today. If you didn't get a chance to buy a ticket to watch the Forum live this year, no worries. We will post stories throughout the day. On Wednesday, we will publish a digital version of a print magazine we put together as well as our analysis and any follow-ups from the forum. If you don't see all that in our newsletters, you can find the stories here.

Technology is something we think about 365 days a year, trying to bring you the smartest coverage across all the travel sectors. A great example of that is Europe Editor Patrick Whyte's story today about how tours and activities are grappling with moving bookings to online, despite a long history of people just showing up in person. Read it, and then stay glued to Skift for our coverage from California.

— Tom Lowry, Managing Editor

American Airlines Expands Its Shuttle Service to Help Business Travelers Go on 'Autopilot'

Everybody wants a piece of the tours and activities sector, but how easy is it going to be to migrate all those businesses that currently operate offline to online?

Booking CEO Gillian Tans Gets a Ctrip Board Seat

Online travel's two most influential women executives, Ctrip's Jane Jie Sun and Booking.com's Gillian Tans, will now deliberate around the table together at Ctrip board meetings. Ctrip felt the need to announce that the two companies are strengthening their ties after Booking's 2017 investment in Ctrip rival and IPO-bound Meituan-Dianping.

Letting Troubled South African Airways Go Bust Isn't So Simple: Here's Why

One expert called South African Airways a "vanity project." That's probably accurate, because the carrier has lost money for six consecutive years. But the airline will survive, because the governments wants it to. That's the way it works. No one wants to see a national airline disappear.

Oman Is Preparing to Be the Perfect Introduction to the Middle East

Oman represents one of the most fascinating opportunities in modern tourism. And thankfully the country seems to be taking the right steps to realize the vast potential.

Hyatt's New Free Breakfast Option Requires Loyalty

Hyatt's new breakfast policy at its Hyatt Place chain requires guests to join the loyalty program before digging into the free muffins. Is that too much to ask?

Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson, along with his fellow hotel CEOs are right: It's not the "disruptors" like Airbnb that are the biggest threat, but the already established tech giants like Amazon, Google, Facebook, Tencent, Alibaba, and others that are the real competition for the hotel industry.

Skift's Top Travel Startups to Watch 2018

Better, faster, stronger. We pinpointed 20 venture-backed companies — mostly young — that promise breakaway potential. These startups prove that innovation is happening everywhere, from Atlanta to Ramallah to Queensland.

Lisbon's Overtourism Lesson: Living Like a Local Is Not Enough

Lisbon's post-crisis evolution and corresponding tourism boom show the dramatic impact and lasting ramifications of overtourism. Efforts have centered on sustainable tourism and limiting tourism's potential negative impacts, but, in our view, the focus has been all wrong. Sustainable tourism should be about sustainable cultures, and we all have a role to play.

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