Traveling Blog: 5 Big Travel Themes + Venice Tourism Crowd Control + OpenTable's Hangry App

May 2, 2018

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Editor's Note

Brexit is a very important issue, but another European battle is taking shape at entry points to Venice, where tourism officials have installed turnstiles to divert visitors along prescribed routes to blunt the crush of the crowds. Some Venetians took exception to the new access points, which they were also subject to, as an affront to their everyday lives.

In 2017, Barcelona made headlines for demonstrations at a tourism attraction and on the beaches, and Venice may be taking center stage this year. Officials in Capri are likewise mulling their own turnstile test. The whole thing may turn out to be a test of wills, as overtourism clashes with locals' sensibilities anew on the front lines of European tourism in summer 2018.

— Dennis Schaal, Executive Editor

Cities Are Leveraging Their Cultural DNA to Connect With Travelers' Passions

There is no set formula on how to do it, but it's clear that the most progressive companies in travel are intent on reinventing their businesses, and value propositions. On the other hand, certain things that still work, like customer service and personalized hospitality, will survive the cut.

Sabre's Back to the Basics Strategy Shift Starts to Bear Fruit

CEO Sean Menke has gained breathing room to provide positive surprises. Getting cloud-based distribution and operations software right is hard. So the company is relying on concepts from top-tier management consulting firms as guidance.

Venice Tourism Checkpoints Are a Sign of Europe's Fractured Approach to Overtourism

For a city that's afraid of becoming a theme park, it's certainly starting to look more like one with turnstiles and fast passes to get in the door. The summer travel season is just starting to heat up.

OpenTable Redesigns Its Mobile App for the Hangry

Subtle changes — like changing the default reservation time — have big impact in OpenTable's latest mobile app redesign.

Accor Makes Another High-End Acquisition

AccorHotels has made quite a shift upmarket in the last couple of years and it's unlikely the acquisition of Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts will be the end of its dealmaking exploits.

Grubhub's Aggressive Growth Fueled by Chain Partnerships

Like everyone in the delivery space, Grubhub has extremely aggressive expansion plans and is looking to shore up as many restaurant chain partnerships as possible. In the race to grab market share, it's positioning itself as the one to beat.

Check out our magazine to see how Europe raced back to be a global leader in tourism growth — and what that means to the larger travel industry in the region.

Why the Hotel Lobby Is the Perfect Antidote to Airbnb

The power of a great lobby is a huge differentiator in hospitality. Hotels shouldn't forget its power. In fact, they should double down.

Accor Pushes Further Into Luxury With $567 Million Mövenpick Deal

Where there is smoke there is fire and Sebastien Bazin's comments at Skift Forum Europe last week hinted at an imminent deal.

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