Articles tagged “viator”

The latest version of Airbnb Experiences won't be a slam dunk even with a $250 million investment, and Airbnb hiring staff with experiences on their resumes.

Pepijn Rijvers doesn't bring a ton of experience in the tours and activities sector. But he's a veteran in the online travel agency sector and in marketing, which will play a big role in Viator's prospects.

Experiences has traditionally been a low-margin business so Airbnb was never going to make a go of it tethered to a niche offering. The challenge in going mainstream is to maintain some differentiation from rivals.

The emergence of AI platforms such as Perplexity, ChatGPT and others could see the travel industry redirect a huge chunk of marketing spend away from Google. Although Google has its own entrant, Gemini.

It's another downsizing at Tripadvisor as it gets ready to acquire its controlling shareholder and make some moves.

We may be at an inflection point where the very nature of how we discover and book travel is being fundamentally reimagined – and listings are increasingly not the best answer.

Tripadvisor officials are doing their jobs in that they are trying to grow the company in the event no strategic transaction takes place. But eventually there has to be one.

Tripadvisor's challenge is that it is no big deal these days to see a static image of someone who wrote a hotel or experiences review. Many people are accustomed to scrolling TikTok instead.

Five years from now, will Airbnb be at the top of the heap in short-term rentals? Will Chase Travel be a headliner? Will future generations yearn to travel as current ones do?

Travelers are flocking to activities that make them learn, interact with locals, or preferably both. It's as if people are treating vacations like a semester abroad, minus the college credits.