Travel Industry CEO Interviews

Many observers will be watching the trajectory of Tripadvisor Plus in 2022. In the video, Tripadvisor's Steve Kaufer details his thinking behind the strategy changes.

Hotels adopting the airline industry's à la carte pricing model is a hot-button issue, but MCR Hotels CEO Tyler Morse is onto something by adopting it at venues like the TWA Hotel. The model can be the financial life raft hotel owners need after more than a year of decimated business.

As the U.S. prepares to reopen fully to the vaxxed, Los Angeles is seeing signs of demand from Canada, the UK and even Australia — proof that one of America's most popular cities is far from dead.

How does a well-known European travel brand, Trivago, get more engagement with customers? Just make a sponsorship deal with Chelsea of the Premier League. The cost might be top-notch, as well.

A fallible forecast: Hilton CEO Christopher Nassetta's claim that business travel demand will eclipse pre-pandemic levels in three years still has time to pan out, but another prediction that the labor shortage would partially fix itself after the lapse of extra unemployment benefits isn't ringing true.

Booking CEO Glenn Fogel's "connected trip" strategy has drawn critics, but he did make a compelling case for the need for it, and just how broken the travel experience still really is.

Anthony Capuano was named to fill the late Arne Sorenson's shoes this year, but the new Marriott CEO has hit the ground running. Listen to how he is building on his predecessor's legacy and at the same time making his own mark for the world's largest global hotel chain.

Look for Expedia's vacation rental unit, Vrbo, to keep gaining market share in geographies where it is already strong. But the brand hasn't always been nimble, and it may be missing out opportunities.

Uber in recent years has been offloading operations in geographies where it can't compete. Its CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who is an Expedia board member, knows that Expedia's Vrbo, too, can't launch a frontal assault against the larger Airbnb, but has to invest into its strength. That's worked to a degree.

Greg O'Hara of Certares argued that this is the easiest time to make travel investments ever — "if you are an expert." That's an important caveat, and we are skeptical that it is still not as easy as O'Hara lets on.