Expedia News

While much of the talk these days is about digital nomads and remote workers, both Expedia Group and Booking Holdings have doubled down on commitments to brick and mortar headquarters. Which could mean that there may be real offices again after the pandemic.

Tripadvisor's travel-planning help by text for Tripadvisor Plus subscribers plays to the company's strengths — user reviews and a global roster of hotels, restaurants and things to do listings. It really can't compete, though, with a real travel agent who has visited the destination and knows the hotel general manager personally.

After shutting down or selling eight businesses — some of which were relatively inconsequential — since the beginning of 2020, Expedia Group doesn't expect any more such asset dispositions as part of its drive to make the company simpler and more focused. But selling brands may turn out to be the easiest part of the exercise.

By remaining silent on vaccine equity, the travel industry's big players are as accountable as vaccine-hoarding governments for a deepening tourism divide. Intrepid Travel is setting an example — will others follow?

In Skift’s top stories this week, England welcomes fully vaccinated tourists, hotels are focusing on conversions rather than mergers, and Brazil is setting itself up to become a travel tech hub in Latin America.

Business school students can probably debate this question endlessly and there would be merit in either position: Should smaller companies copy their larger rivals or vice versa? In the Google era, marketing power often wins the day — but differentiation still counts.

Putting the “American Express” back into American Express Global Business Travel, its new Neo1 expense tool reminds us the world’s biggest corporate travel agency is half-owned by a credit card company.

While climate change and the pandemic clearly ratcheted up travelers' concerns about factors other than price, are we at the point that Airbnb will compete against Vrbo, and Booking will battle Expedia over which companies have the lighter carbon footprints? That would indeed be progress.

In this video, we hear from Jennifer Andre, global vice president of Expedia Group Media Solutions, on what sustainable tourism might look like as destinations think about travel’s return.

Fintech is trending, and likewise for superapps in certain parts of the world. Getting into travel is too delicious to resist, but the world is not ending for incumbent travel competitors.