The death of hotels was greatly exaggerated. Advantage Booking.com and Expedia — not Airbnb — if travelers indeed are now seeking out both hotels and vacation rentals in comparable numbers.

The program for Skift Global Forum 2020 has been finalized and is live on the event website. During the conference, attendees will hear from a host of exceptional speakers from around the world discussing the future of the travel industry. No matter your interest, this year's event has sessions to suit your needs. Register today!

If the Expedia-Marriott partnership works out as promised, then there will be fewer Marriott rates on metasearch sites that are deeply discounted compared to Marriott's own websites. And bedbanks and tour operators will have to sign up with Expedia — not Marriott — to get their hands on Marriott's wholesale rates.

"Absolutely no one in the industry, government, capital markets or media is willing to face up to this inevitable reality." Don't say we didn't warn you.

It seemed like Shiji's recent acquisition spree would lead to it compete one day directly with Oracle, Amadeus, Sabre, and others. That day has come.

Delta Air Lines needs cash. Its SkyMiles program is one of its only remaining profitable assets. The airline is being smart in using it to secure new funding.

Voco is yet another branded opportunity for independent hoteliers looking for increased distribution, but IHG has to find ways to make the brand stand out in the crowded upscale, lifestyle hotel space.

Masks, social distancing, and vaccines can't stop climate change. It isn't a competition to choose the most dire threat, climate change or Covid-19, because they are interrelated. But taking a long-term view, climate change will be an existential threat to the travel industry, and the world, even as coronavirus fades.

Skift cited the subscription model as one of the megatrends to watch in travel this year. So we were intrigued to see that Inspirato and BeRightBack, two pure-play efforts at being the "Netflix of travel," have withstood the pandemic assault rather well.

We checked in with a hotel startup, two providers of software to hotels, a business travel startup, and a software maker for the tours-and-activities sector to see how last-minute funding helped them survive the industry's nuclear winter.