Andrew Sheivachman

Agencies and venues have stepped up to the plate to meet rising safety and security concerns among meetings organizers. The challenge is to fulfill duty of care obligations without impacting the delegate experience.

These are the films, magazines, articles, and other pieces of media that inspired the Skift team in 2018. We look forward to being just as impressed in 2019.

Flight Centre’s latest North American acquisition looks like a win-win. Casto Travel gets access to the group’s technology, buying power, and marketing reach while the Australian-headquartered travel group expands its footprint in Silicon Valley.

We're not mad, but we are tired of buzzwords being used by travel companies to obscure what is really going on, which tends to be either a strategic erosion of quality for consumers, or a slow process of change to become more competitive in a certain marketplace.

Behavioral rewards still aren't super mainstream in corporate travel. But as companies choose the carrot instead of the stick when it comes to influencing travelers, more organizations are experimenting with it.

Some travelers take advantage of behavioral rewards, and others don't. The bigger picture shows, however, that the promise of a reward for making a particular travel booking decision is a good way to get buy-in from business travelers and give them something to look forward to after their trip.

Planners in different regions have differing takes on what's going to be most important to their clients in upcoming years. It'll be interesting to see how the event experience evolves around the world going forward.

In Asia-Pacific, planners are more concerned about facilitating new technological advances than bringing local experiences to attendees.

Salaries for travel buyers were relatively flat this year, although less experienced buyers saw a nice uptick in their annual bonuses.

In an age when business travelers are tired of visiting the same old place every year, secondary destinations are making a play to turn intimacy and character into a major draw for event organizers.