Rafat Ali is the founder and CEO of Skift, an information and intelligence brand, a daily homepage for the travel industry, and the leading news source for travel executives. In fewer words, Skift is a digital trade media and research company serving the travel profession.
Skift’s team of journalists monitor the evolving transformation into the future of travel. They provide media insights on key travel sectors, spotting and defining trends through news, research, conferences, interviews and newsletters.
Ali launched Skift 12 years ago, but he started out as a computer engineer. Then he was a journalist and then an entrepreneur. Now, he is a travel industry professional, he tells blooloop.
Skift was founded to serve as the Bloomberg of travel. “That didn’t exist 12 years ago, it still doesn’t exist 12 years later, except us,” he says. “So that’s what we’ve created: news coverage, research conferences, marketing services – consulting as an advisor to the travel industry.”
Daily homepage for travel executives
What makes Skift unique? “We cut across sectors,” Ali says. “Our proposition is to cut across different parts of the travel industry and help companies understand the connections between different sectors. And we do it journalistically, taking a fiercely independent outlook on the world. Also, we connect the dots in the industry and other sectors in the world, such as geopolitics or any other larger issues happening in the world that affect travel. The travel industry is not insulated from the world.”
Skift has several functions. In addition to news, the site provides research and live events. “Between research and conferences is probably more than 50 percent of our revenues,” Ali says. “And they all feed into each other. Our research picks up where the editorial leaves off. People come to our conferences because of the reputation that we’ve built from our daily editorial and research, so it all feeds into each other.”
“On a financial basis, they’re separate business lines, but on a daily operational basis, it’s tough to separate because they all feed into each other,” he adds.
Artificial intelligence in the travel industry
Skift is closely monitoring artificial intelligence (AI) in the travel world. Breakthrough generative AI technology was released publicly by OpenAI in November 2022. Travel companies like Expedia and Kayak have already started releasing experimental technologies that could transform how users plan and book travel.
“AI, or versions of AI, have been part of the travel industry for years – whether it’s hotels or airline pricing, which is very dynamic depending on when you book. All of that is enabled by some sort of machine learning,” Ali says.
“One of the early things we were exploring when ChatGPT came out was how travel search changes. The travel booking search in all parts of the industry is what I termed trapped in a box, as it is a very rigid structure that you have to follow to get results, and many times the results may or may not be relevant to you. It hasn’t happened yet. It’s early days, it’s been only since November 2022 when ChatGPT launched.”
He adds, “Marriott launched something last month in their homes and villas product. They launched an experiment where instead of the regular search, it’s now enabled through a chatbot-type environment where you can go in and do a freeform query, and it helps you match the right villa or homes. So that’s a good example of some of the early stuff.
Experimental technologies
“Sites like Expedia and others focus on travel itineraries, which seems to be the lowest hanging fruit in AI. I think those are easy and catch attention, but they are not that interesting to me, honestly. Most of the time, they’re very generic and frequently wrong.
“The more exciting and larger part is operational efficiency on the back end, whether it’s hotels, airlines, or attractions back of the house. There’s so much operational friction because the travel industry is very human-heavy. There are just a lot of inefficiencies built into it. AI, at least on paper, will help streamline some back-end processes.
“For better or for worse, it will also take out some of the labour in the industry. And even if it doesn’t take out labour, it’ll enable labour to graduate to higher level work as opposed to manual work, if you will.”
Skift says its own Ask Skift AI deep search tool, or chatbot, is its “latest experimentation with AI”. Built on OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Ask Skift has been trained with news stories, research reports, Airline Weekly issues, Skift live events, and more from the past 12 years. Readers can ask questions like, “Is travel sustainable?” and then receive an answer and sources.
In the attractions world, AI is powering robot helpers, curators, and creators. It’s also being used to enhance museum exhibits and immersive spaces and the visitor experience. Six Flags’ digital transformation, for example, includes a concierge named Missi Six, driven by generative AI.
Trends shaping travel
In addition to AI, Ali spoke about other trends shaping the travel and tourism industry. Among them, destination popularity is shifting, and demographic changes such as ageing populations pose challenges to travel. Also taking place now is a period of post-Covid normalisation.
He explains, “I think normalisation in the travel industry is happening. By that, we mean the crazy peaks we saw in summer 2022 or 2023, post-Covid. The industry continues to move in general, but some of the shine has come off.”
“We are ahead in the sense that the travel industry is still growing, so it will be interesting to see what the summer of 2024 looks like. Will every second American be in Italy? That’s what it felt like last year, where destinations in Italy or Spain were overrun by tourists, the UK the same thing. Particularly American tourists. Normalisation is a big trend that we are looking at.”
Another trend the team at Skift is watching is the rise of the Middle East regarding infrastructure development. “Obviously, Dubai has proved that if you build it, they will come,” Ali says.
Infrastructure development in the Middle East
Saudi Arabia, for example, is creating many giga-projects and attractions as part of the Public Investment Fund’s (PIF) Vision 2030. This aims to diversify the economy and reduce the kingdom’s reliance on oil.
Since opening to tourism in 2019, Saudi Arabia has become one of the fastest-growing tourism markets globally, recording 93.5 million visits in 2022. Since the launch of Vision 2030 in 2016, Saudi Arabia has awarded construction contracts with a total value of $250 billion and launched around $1.25 trillion worth of real estate and infrastructure projects, Knight Frank’s 2023 Saudi Giga Projects report found.
Another trend to watch is demographics. “One of the larger trends that I’m pretty interested in, which is a larger trend – not just in travel, is the demographic changes in the world where the world is getting older,” Ali says.
“Fertility rates around the world have dropped. This is true for all Western countries – but also even Asian countries. What does that mean in terms of how the travel industry, which is generally geared to sell to younger cohorts, has to adjust to people who are living longer and have more leisure time? That’s a more long-term trend.”
Southeast Asia is booming
As well as Middle Eastern countries, India and China are emerging as significant players in the global travel market. On which regions show growth and development in travel and tourism, Ali said the Middle East “in terms of their desire to transform their economies around tourism”. He adds: “That’s how the investment is going. It’s the same with the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Morocco, and Egypt. They’re all sort of in the MENA region.
“Southeast Asia is a big region. Vietnam is a booming country right now. Singapore is an established one, and Thailand is a significant destination, and Malaysia. Indonesia is booming economically as well. These are geographically complex countries because a lot of them are islands.
“It’s very interesting for us to look at the rise of these dense city-based countries and how all the technologies or tools are built and tested in countries of Southeast Asia, which are very heavily wired up. That’s a fascinating region for us.
“The US continues to be a force economically. Europe outbound; this plays into a little bit of the previous trend I mentioned about demographics. I think the importance of Europe’s outbound will decrease as populations get smaller and older.
“And economies are hurting a lot – Germany, France, the UK, Spain, Italy, they’re all going to grow a lot slower, if at all. But Europe’s allure as the world’s biggest destination in terms of the continent continues so far. So that’s why it’s still a very important place.”
Conscious cruises and immersive wellness
Two significant trends in the attractions business at the moment are immersive wellness and next-generation cruises, or floating theme parks. Think top-deck coasters, robotic thrill rides and aquatic attractions. Inside, expect themed dining and innovative experiences.
Environmental and social concerns are also being addressed by the cruise industry, which Ali says is “a perfect example of the escapism part of travel”. He adds, “Technology has advanced, and many of these new attractions on the ships are possible that weren’t possible 10, 15, 20, or 30 years ago.”
“There’s a prevailing trend around cruises becoming more conscious of the communities they’re going into, with a better sense of the effect on the destination, whether it’s cities in Europe or islands in the Caribbean,” says Ali.
“The challenge of how cruises affect the planet, the conversation and discussion will only increase. However environmentally friendly cruises become with the fuel, they’re still, by definition, extractive. I think there’s a cohort of people that cruises have tried to attract for decades and have not connected with them. That’s why expansion into China or India happened for the cruise industry; they figured this was a new population to which they could market it.”
From reverse osmosis and green methanol to recycling plans, water treatment, and energy management systems, Disney Cruise Line is leading the way in more sustainable operations.
As for immersive wellness, operators in the attractions and travel industries are enhancing their wellbeing experiences by merging them with art or technology. Examples are immersive yoga classes at Las Vegas’ Area15, the Chopra Foundation Institute’s AI-driven virtual wellness assistant, and an immersive spa concept called Submersive.
Merging therapies and technology
“Immersive wellness, particularly in the hotel industry, used to mean spas,” Ali says. “Now people want to live healthier lives to get more out of hotels or spas. Our editor-in-chief, Sarah Kopit, is doing a piece on sleep tourism and how the hotel industry or some brands are trying to market themselves as places you come and it’s not a medical environment – it’s a mix of therapies and technology.
“Equinox Hotel, which has only one hotel for now in New York City, is by the company with gyms in the US and I’m sure other parts of the world too. They launched Equinox Hotel with the idea that they’ll help in fitness and extreme fitness.
“Kerzner International, which is the company that owns Atlantis in Dubai, just launched its first extreme fitness hotel brand called Siro Hotel. New therapies are coming in for different parts of wellness and fitness, and the travel industry is adopting them.”
Skift’s expansion
But back to Skift, which is expanding into new areas. “We’ve increased our coverage of the tourism activity space; hopefully, at some point, we will cover the attractions world more. We’re going deeper into different parts of the travel industry and becoming as global as possible regarding our coverage. We learn from different parts of the world,” Ali says.
“Skift will continue to create services that help us grow deeper into the travel industry.”
Lead image courtesy of Kerzner International.
