The Skift Travel Podcast

Get the latest from the most-trusted travel industry news source.

Skift sits down with creatives, executives, and entrepreneurs from across travel to discuss their insights and perspectives on the hows and whys of travelers’ habits, industry patterns, and the seismic changes happening across the industry.

Listen for exclusive conversations with travel leaders and Skift's own in-house editors and analysts.

Read the latest news every day at skift.com/news

News
Business News
Society & Culture
176
Bringing Everything to You With Uber CEO Dara K...
Uber's CEO doesn't want to offer a super app for everything, but he believes his company is in the best position to bring consumers anything they need, from rides, to food, to medicine, and more. “Anything you want to be delivered to your home with a fre...
28 min
177
Bonus Episode: Skift Daily Briefing for Jan. 6,...
Thanks for listening to the Skift Podcast. We have another podcast you can listen to every weekday morning. The Skift Daily Briefing podcast delivers the day's top headlines in under four minutes. Search for "Skift Daily Briefing" in your favorite podcas...
3 min
178
The Travel Industry’s 6 Under-Appreciated Story...
Skift CEO Rafat Ali explains the underappreciated storylines from the last year that will continue to define the travel industry in 2022. The United States, Latin America, and Dubai will remain open by prioritizing keeping their economies open over every...
17 min
179
Another Year of Recovery and Optimism With Sout...
New Southwest Airlines CEO Robert Jordan said that he sees 2022 as another “transition” year in the recovery. He is optimistic that business travelers will return — his predecessor has said this may take 5-10 years — but does not expect this to occur ove...
22 min
180
Online Travel Agency Factboook: The Top 11 Glob...
Skift Research’s Online Travel Agency Factbook is your one-stop shop to understand the global universe of online booking sites. We collected data on and built individual profiles for the 11 largest publicly traded online travel agencies. We analyzed the ...
26 min
181
Privacy and Frictionless Travel With CLEAR CEO
Clear's previous experience vetting travelers and moving them quickly through airport security put it in an excellent position to take on the challenges of identity, health, and vaccination in the (hopefully) coming post-Covid panic world. "Cyber and pri...
22 min
182
What Happens To Travel Now? With Skift CEO Rafa...
Cancellations and closures are on the rise as countries react to the Omicron variant. What does this mean for a recently optimistic travel industry? This special episode of the Skift Podcast features Skift founder and CEO, Rafat Ali, looking ahead to ear...
17 min
183
Creating a Google-Crushing Superapp With Hopper...
Hopper has big plans ahead in its ongoing mission to continue being the best at lowering the cost of travel for consumers — it’s betting on the future of superapps for travel, which are already popular in Asia. “There will be a Western global superapp fo...
21 min
184
A New Age of Mobility with Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky acknowledged that enough affordable housing is a major challenge but argued that the new flexible nature of work wrought by the pandemic will see people migrating to city corridors and other less-dense locales where residences can...
29 min
185
Virtual Meetings And Business Travel With Ameri...
Like many airline chiefs, Doug Parker is “bullish” on the future, particularly after a surge in demand for transatlantic flights after the travel ban lifted on Nov. 8. But American Airlines is poised to begin 2022 as a larger airline — despite labor woes...
27 min
186
Growing While Going Net Zero With Marriott CEO ...
The world’s largest hotel company plans to juggle global growth over the next few decades with a major step forward in its sustainability efforts. Marriott International CEO Anthony Capuano announced September 22, 2021 at Skift Global Forum a company pla...
22 min
187
Winning Customers On Quality With United Airlin...
“We will win customers on quality,” Kirby said at the Skift Aviation Forum on November 17, 2021. And he had plenty of examples quality improvements to cite: The addition of premium-heavy “high-J” Boeing 767-300ERs that fly to Europe, the Bombardier CRJ-5...
34 min
188
What Happens When Big Events Return?
For this episode of the Skift Podcast, we're featuring a conversation between William J. Hornbuckle, Chief Executive Officer and President of MGM Resorts International and Skift Hospitality Reporter Cameron Sperance. The two discuss the return of big eve...
24 min
189
Where Do Short-Term Rentals Go From Here?
The recent Skift Short-Term Rental and Outdoor Summit brought together leaders from online rental marketplaces, investors, startup founders, and outdoor recreation operators for interviews with Skift editors and research analysts. We uncovered what might...
29 min
190
Bonus Episode: The Future of the Event Industry
While Skift Podcast is on hiatus, we wanted to share the first episode of the Event Manager Podcast, a production of our partner site EventMB.  Julius Solaris founded Event Manager Blog in 2007, as a result of his passion for events and in the process di...
40 min
191
Skift Forum Sessions: Marriott Group President ...
Marriott Group President Stephanie Linnartz speaks with Skift Hospitality Reporter Cameron Sperance at Skift Forum Asia in October 2020. Learn more about our slate of online events in 2021 at live.skift.com.    
22 min
192
Skift Forum Sessions: IAC/Expedia Group Chairma...
IAC/Expedia Group Chairman Barry Diller speaks with Skift Editor-in-Chief Tom Lowry at Skift Global Forum in September 2020. Learn more about our slate of online events in 2021 at live.skift.com.
26 min
193
Skift Daily Briefing for January 12, 2021
Your daily insight into the business of travel from the industry’s most trusted authority.  We are excited to share another update from the Skift Daily Briefing. Our daily podcast tells listeners what they need to know about the top travel stories in jus...
4 min
194
Regulating the Short-Term Rental Economy
What a difference a year makes — and perhaps a pandemic. During a discussion at this year's Skift Short-Term Rental & Outdoor Summit on December 9, held online, signs of more collaborative environment emerged between cities and short-term rental operator...
41 min
195
Airbnb's IPO: What It Means at Skift
Since Skift's own launch it was the first media outlet to ask hard questions of Airbnb, and it has been amazing to document that journey of the company from start till its IPO day and beyond. Here are CEO Rafat Ali's thoughts in an audio essay. Read comp...
14 min
196
How Diversity Fuels Creativity: Lessons for the...
In early November Skift hosted its first Design the Future event, an afternoon of discussions with leaders in the design and creativity space. As part of this, we're posting extracts of these conversations.  Host: Robert Rosenthal, author, speaker, and j...
27 min
197
Travel Industry Outlook: Post-U.S. Election and...
What a difference a few days make for optimism in the beleaguered travel industry. With the clarity on U.S. presidential election results coming this past weekend and the encouraging news on vaccine development and effectiveness from Pfizer, the travel i...
49 min
198
Tripadvisor CEO on Selling Just The Right Tours...
In the closing interview for Skift Forum Asia, Tripadvisor CEO Steve Kaufer argued that his company and its Viator brand are in the “pole position” because of the company’s vast content and international reach in tours and activities. Kaufer is interview...
27 min
199
How Travel Metasearch Survives a Pandemic (With...
At Skift's recent Travel’s Path Forward: Online Travel event, Skift Executive Editor Dennis Schaal interviewed Kayak and OpenTable CEO Steve Hafner about the state of travel metasearch, restaurant bookings, and what digital discovery and booking looks li...
22 min
200
Consumer Spending Is Changing Travel Loyalty (W...
At the Travel Loyalty Online Summit on July 16, 2020, Skift Aviation Business Editor Zoomed The Points Guy's Brian Kelly to talk about how consumer spending during the Covid-19 pandemic and (hopefully) afterwards will change how airlines, other travel br...
22 min