Skift

Virgin Atlantic Files Chapter 15 Petition in U.S. to Assist Its Rescue in the UK

Tue, 04 Aug 2020 21:30:14 GMT

Virgin Atlantic and TUI Airways aircraft are seen at Manchester Airport, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease, Manchester, Britain, June 8, 2020. Phil Noble / Reuters

Skift Take: The real restructuring happened three weeks ago, as Airline Weekly's analysts have noted. This move is just to facilitate that.

— Sean O'Neill

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Accor’s Pandemic Shakeout Includes Shedding 1,000 Jobs, Possible Sale of Iconic Paris HQ

Tue, 04 Aug 2020 20:15:01 GMT

For sale: Sequana Tower, Accor's corporate headquarters in Issy-les-Moulineaux, Paris. Accor

Skift Take: The cost cutting program, unfortunately, was inevitable. The healthy occupancy rates from China, France, and Germany were unexpected. Is recovery in sight?

— Matthew Parsons

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Hyatt CEO Says China Offers Proof Hotels Don’t Need a Vaccine to Recover From Coronavirus

Tue, 04 Aug 2020 19:55:45 GMT

Hyatt leaders Tuesday touted significant recovery in their Greater China portfolio (pictured: the Grand Hyatt Taipei) despite a major second quarter loss. Solomon203 / Wikimedia

Skift Take: Hyatt leaders promote ongoing strength in China's hotel recovery, but the company can't lose sight that its exposure in the country — despite the momentum — is smaller compared to the U.S., which continues to struggle.

— Cameron Sperance

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Tourism and Aviation Among the Sectors Giving Insurers the Most Concern in the Pandemic

Tue, 04 Aug 2020 19:40:01 GMT

Empty plane interior with few people and stewardess during coronavirus pandemia. Underwriters said aviation is one of the most concerning areas in current portfolios. Pavlo Vakhrushev / Adobe

Skift Take: Aviation and tourism are two of the leading areas of concerns for insurers, according to a recent survey. It's the latest bit of troubling news for the travel industry.

— Korey Matthews

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The 2020 Digital Transformation Report

Tue, 04 Aug 2020 12:55:32 GMT

Skift Take: In this report, Skift and Amazon Web Services explore the state of digital transformation in the travel and hospitality sector, providing a benchmark for executives to follow as they gauge their own progress with this critical discipline.

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Booking.com Restructuring Will Pare Its Workforce By Up to 25 Percent

Tue, 04 Aug 2020 09:31:18 GMT

The Booking.com presence at Web Summit 2019 on November 05, 2019. Booking.com announced deep job cuts on August 4, 2020. Paolo Moura Photography / Flickr.com

Skift Take: Despite the deep job cuts, the proprietary Skift Health Score calculates that Booking Holdings has far greater long-term strength than rivals Expedia Group and Trip.com Group. If you follow Booking.com's logic, the future of travel will be substantially smaller than its past.

— Dennis Schaal

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Best Western CEO Says U.S. Hotels Need 6-Month Lifeline From D.C. to Survive, Not Just to Recover

Tue, 04 Aug 2020 06:30:53 GMT

The next six to nine months are a crucial survival breaking point for the U.S. hotel industry, Best Western CEO David Kong said in an interview with Skift. Best Western Hotels & Resorts

Skift Take: Best Western CEO David Kong wants hotel-specific economic relief from Washington like anyone else in the industry, but he's among the few publicly to recognize what is realistic and needs to happen to survive into 2021.

— Cameron Sperance

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Majority of Brits, Germans and French Would Skip Holidays if Masks and Testing Required: New Survey

Mon, 03 Aug 2020 21:00:26 GMT

No wonder these tourists are lonely. Many Europeans say they would skip vacations if required to wear masks and take tests. Nacho Doce / Reuters

Skift Take: Travel is just too much of a hassle, it seems. So many Europeans are asking: Why bother? Not what airlines, hotels, and destinations want to hear right now.

— Tom Lowry

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China, Italy, and the U.S. — A Tale of 3 Hotel Industry Recoveries

Mon, 03 Aug 2020 16:00:18 GMT

China's hotel industry recovery from the pandemic continues to propel forward while the U.S. stagnates amid rising cases. Li Yang / Good Free Photos

Skift Take: China and Europe continue to post strong gains in their hotel industry recoveries — not so much in the U.S. Hotel company mask mandates won't help the problem unless more Americans follow the rules.

— Cameron Sperance

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Travel Blogs Rode Credit Card Referrals Wave: What Comes Next?

Mon, 03 Aug 2020 14:00:57 GMT

The Points Guy moved into new office space in 2017. It racked up big revenues on credit card referral fees. TPG Architecture

Skift Take: If you wanted to make money in travel media in the past decade, credit card referral revenue was the best bet. But now that stream has dried up. Will it return?

— Brian Sumers

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Corporate Travel Agencies Remake On-Site Operations at Companies

Mon, 03 Aug 2020 13:00:12 GMT

With office rents rising, some corporations might think twice about dedicating chairs to travel advisors. Arlington Research / Unsplash

Skift Take: Archaic throwback to the 1980s, or an indispensable service for the Covid-wary business traveler? Possibly the latter, but with a virtual twist.

— Matthew Parsons

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China Tourism Leans on Cross-Province Group Tours as Bellwether of Recovery

Mon, 03 Aug 2020 06:00:59 GMT

Domestic travelers at Yu Gardens in Shanghai before Covid-19. Will there be as many? Photo courtesy of Abercrombie and Kent

Skift Take: China has allowed cross-province group tours to resume, with conditions. Sold in a flash is an understatement. But will all go well? This will be the test towards full recovery of its travel market.

— Raini Hamdi

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The Hotel as Cultural Diplomacy: More Important Than Ever Going Forward

Sun, 02 Aug 2020 14:00:41 GMT

The lobby of the Royal Mansour Hotel in Marrakech, Morocco. The Royal Mansour Hotel

Skift Take: Cultural diplomacy is often found in museums and cultural initiatives. It is seldom found in hotels. The Royal Mansour in Marrakech was a statement of intent from the king to show the best of the country's craft and service. The result is impactful, especially in these times — perhaps more so than other means of country branding.

— Colin Nagy

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Corporate Travel Giant CWT Paid $4.5 Million in Ransom to Cyber Hackers: Reports

Sat, 01 Aug 2020 14:15:40 GMT

Cyber hackers, like the one depicted in this photo illustration, made big demands of CWT. Oleksii / Adobe

Skift Take: Data breaches often go undetected for months or even years, so is this latest attack a new tactic the travel industry needs to prepare against?

— Matthew Parsons

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The $600 Check Gap and 11 Other Coronavirus Travel Stories This Week

Sat, 01 Aug 2020 14:00:23 GMT

Food handed out at the a food bank in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada as seen on February 16, 2016. Some unemployed travel workers struggle to make ends meet as a supplemental $600 unemployment check from the federal government ceases being sent. Mack Male / Flickr.com

Skift Take: In coronavirus-related travel stories this week, Skift covered how the end of a $600 supplemental unemployment check impacts out-of-work travel employees, Disney Parks' lost year, the prospect of an IHG default, and how Vrbo addressed its Google problem.

— Dennis Schaal

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A 33 Percent Drop in U.S. GDP and the Ominous Signs for Travel’s Recovery

Fri, 31 Jul 2020 20:15:25 GMT

U.S. GDP decreased at a record rate in the second quarter of 2020. A closer look shows rough news for travel Joshua Woroniecki / Pixabay

Skift Take: The U.S. economy showed a record rate of contraction in the second quarter, and a closer look revealed some troubling signs for travel.

— Korey Matthews

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Airbnb Sets Up Clash With Expedia Over Number of Legal Rentals in San Diego

Fri, 31 Jul 2020 17:01:03 GMT

Pictured is a vacation rental in San Diego County, California as seen on November 29, 2016. . In the City of San Diego, Airbnb and Expedia Group are at odds over proposed short-term rental regulations. Virginia Hill / Flickr.com

Skift Take: Room for a compromise seems to have emerged between Expedia, Airbnb, a hotel union, and the city council over short-term rental limitations in San Diego although bad blood looks to exist between Airbnb and Unite Here Local 30. Going it alone with a referendum doesn't seem like a viable stance for Airbnb.

— Dennis Schaal

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From Pop-Up Policies to Bio-Safety Wellness — Managing Corp Travel Takes On New Complexities

Fri, 31 Jul 2020 16:00:11 GMT

Happy travelers from Singapore's Energy Drilling Management, who are using International SOS's new ICC AOKpass — an app that stores an individual's Covid-19 test result. International SOS

Skift Take: Coronavirus has accelerated a range of latent travel trends over the past six months, most related to technology. Now you can add traveler well-being to that list.

— Matthew Parsons

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Amadeus Isn’t Seeing a Significant Pickup in Airline Ticket Sales Yet

Fri, 31 Jul 2020 13:30:17 GMT

In July 2020, Qingdao, China, finished work on its new airport – which is twice the size of London's Heathrow. It cost $5.8 billion. Amadeus, the world's largest travel technology company, said on Friday that coronavirus-stunted demand for travel had hurt its revenue and profit. Reuters

Skift Take: The first half of July saw little improvement in travel agency bookings compared with the first half of June, according to the world's largest processor of airline tickets. Sigh.

— Sean O'Neill

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Has the Pandemic Killed the Freebie Trip for Travel Influencers?

Fri, 31 Jul 2020 13:00:55 GMT

Free trips no more? Hello Lightbulb / Unsplash

Skift Take: The comped influencer trip has long been a divisive idea in the travel industry, but in the context of the pandemic, some are asking if it should exist at all.

— Rosie Spinks

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