The World Cup opened Thursday afternoon with Mexico facing South Africa in Mexico City. More than 100 matches will follow, culminating in a July 19 final in New Jersey. With fans flying across North America’s 16 host cities, the tournament is shaping up to be the most carbon-heavy World Cup yet, with the potential to generate up to 9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. But it’s still not clear how many international tourists will be pouring into the http://U.S. on those flights. While the tournament is expected to deliver a lift, data suggest demand is so far running below expectations, particularly from the high-spending international crowd. hubs.ly/Q04lk3VG0

Aven Hospitality launched a booking engine on Wednesday designed to keep travelers on a hotel’s own website through checkout.  The tech eliminates the redirect to a separate booking page — a step the company says drives abandonment. Aven says the engine was rebuilt from scratch, rather than adapted from the technology it inherited as a Sabre business unit. The launch is Aven’s second major product release since TPG acquired the former Sabre hotel unit for $1.1 billion last year. In March, the company rolled out Model Context Protocol support across its SynXis platform for AI-driven distribution. hubs.li/Q04lk-m40

Ireland’s Kerten Hospitality will be opening its first property in India before the end of 2026, possibly ahead of the fourth quarter, CEO Marloes Knippenberg told Skift in an exclusive interview. And the initial target of 1,000 keys in the first phase of its India launch could go higher, Knippenberg said, driven partly by the fact that Indian developers rarely think in single-project terms. “Very few talk in one or two projects. Most of them are talking in nine, 10, 15 projects.” The lifestyle-led hospitality group, which operates 12 brands across 11 countries, is entering India with three lodging brands: House Hotel, Cloud 7, and HOSME. hubs.li/Q04lkb1N0

AI disintermediation isn't coming for travel infrastructure, and builders just proved why. Agents can surface a trip. Completing one still requires pricing, inventory, and supplier systems no AI platform has built. Skyscanner's CEO said bots will call his APIs, not replicate two decades of commercial agreements. Travelport rebuilt its platform so AI agents can book through it. Read about other things AI can't do in the latest The Prompt newsletter: hubs.li/Q04lkbnS0

For American destination marketers, the World Cup is a chance to reverse a slide in international visits and the campaigns they’re running share a single word: welcome.  Cities like Boston, Philadelphia, New York, and Atlanta are using videos, celebrity endorsements, and local stories to convey messages of inclusivity and hospitality. International tourism boards, such as those from Norway, New Zealand, Scotland, and Curaçao, are also leveraging the tournament to promote their destinations with visually compelling content. hubs.li/Q04lkfXz0

Hotels spent the last decade trying to convince travelers to book directly. In this episode of the Skift Travel Podcast 🎧, Seth Borko and Sean O’Neill unpack what hotels actually gained from the direct-booking movement, why loyalty programs became the real strategic weapon, and what CitizenM’s partnership with Marriott reveals about the economics of modern hotel distribution. hubs.ly/Q04lhZCl0

The meetings industry is dealing with a lot right now. Visa refusals are up. AI-powered fraud is hitting event teams hard. And most planners are being asked to do more with budgets and headcount that aren't keeping up. Skift Meetings Forum is built around those problems. Not panels that gesture at them. Fresh Skift Research data covers how geopolitical shifts are changing destination decisions. Planners from INFORMS, ISTH, and the International Congress of Mathematicians get into what U.S. policy is actually costing international events. And practitioners get specific on AI in planning workflows, and how the same technology is fueling fraud. 400 senior planners. One day. September 22, Javits Center, New York City. Apply to attend: hubs.li/Q04l0tMb0

Canadian travel to the U.S. grew in May, extending a rebound in April that snapped a 15-month slump — a gain that looks more modest when you consider how far travel had already fallen by May 2025. Canadian-resident return trips jumped 9.5% in May from a year earlier, according to data released by Statistics Canada on Thursday. That increase — boosted by a 15.1% surge in return trips by automobile — follows a 1.4% bump in April. It’s all growth from a depressed base: Overall return trips remain 28.7% below May 2024 levels. hubs.li/Q04lj7yz0

American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said the carrier is weighing a widebody order with Boeing or Airbus as it looks to bolster its profitability and better compete with Delta and United. “We've been making several long-term investments to improve the business. One good example is the work we're doing right now to shape the future of our widebody fleet,” Isom said in a call with shareholders on Wednesday. “We currently have [request for proposal] in the market and are actively engaging with both Airbus and Boeing as we evaluate our next order for wide-body aircraft.” hubs.li/Q04lhLDW0

There’s a particular kind of guest checking into the Grand Hyatt Singapore these days, and they are not there for the rainforest shower or the turndown chocolate. They’ve come to drag a 225-pound sled across a rubberized floor, do 80 wall balls until their forearms give out, and then book a recovery treatment at Damai. The hotel gym, the historically straightforward air-conditioned box with treadmills and some Technogym gear, has become a competitive venue. Hyatt is betting it’s the reason to book the room rather than a perk you discover on the way up in the elevator. hubs.li/Q04ljcYS0

IHG Hotels & Resorts has seen a short-term drop in demand in Dubai and the Middle East due to conflict, but booking pace is recovering for Q4 2026, led by GCC and Indian travelers. Demand is being redistributed within the region, benefiting Egypt and Saudi Arabia, where IHG is expanding its hotel pipeline and brand presence. Hotels are filling up with GCC and Indian travelers, but the European market hasn’t come back. hubs.li/Q04ljFFD0

Lotte Hotels & Resorts spent over $1.3 billion assembling control of its Manhattan flagship, the 909-room Lotte New York Palace on Madison Avenue. This week, it hands the keys to someone else. Highgate, the New York investment and management firm, will begin running the Palace “in the next few days,” according to Richard Russo, a principal at Highgate. Lotte will keep ownership of the asset and real estate. The contract is the first piece of a broader framework that the firms described as potentially spanning hotels, distribution, technology, and staff training across the Americas and Asia. hubs.li/Q04lfd8r0

Alaska’s reputation as a bucket list cruise destination rests largely on its wildlife encounters, especially whale sightings. MSC Cruises is treating its first season in the region as a research opportunity, exploring how marine science can guide operations in high-density wildlife corridors.⛴️ Skift Studio spoke with Linden Coppell, vice president of sustainability and ESG at MSC Cruises, to understand how the cruise line plans to integrate marine research into cruise operations. Get full story on Skift: 🔗 hubs.li/Q04kPbYf0 In partnership with MSC Cruises

Navan CEO Ariel Cohen says rivals are merging — and their customers are coming to him. During Navan’s fiscal first-quarter 2027 earnings call earlier this week, Cohen pointed to upheaval among rival travel management companies as a meaningful driver behind Navan’s accelerating deal pipeline, one of several factors that helped the company see revenue jump 40% year-over year to $220 million. “A lot of our competitors are consolidating, changing their position,” Cohen told analysts. hubs.li/Q04lf9PL0

For American destination marketers, the World Cup is a chance to reverse a slide in international visits and the campaigns they’re running share a single word: welcome.  Cities like Boston, Philadelphia, New York, and Atlanta are using videos, celebrity endorsements, and local stories to convey messages of inclusivity and hospitality. International tourism boards, such as those from Norway, New Zealand, Scotland, and Curaçao, are also leveraging the tournament to promote their destinations with visually compelling content. hubs.li/Q04lfgmR0

Skift Studio sat down with Stripe's James Lemon and Andrew Beckmann, global and Americas lead for hospitality and travel, respectively, to talk payments and the numbers are hard to ignore. Up to 20% of travel bookings fail at checkout due to outdated infrastructure. 💳 In this Q&A, they break down why payments are a strategic revenue lever, not a back-office cost, and what travel brands need to do in 2026 to stay ahead. Read the full interview here: 🔗 hubs.li/Q04kZd8C0 In partnership with @Stripe

Travelport formally launched TripServices on Thursday, a cloud-native API platform the company says can connect flights, hotels, and extras through one system while handling more of the booking work developers previously had to build themselves. The GDS wants more of that complexity to sit inside its own system, not with the agencies, startups, and AI tools building on top of it. The company said TripServices uses machine learning models to rank content, surface more relevant offers, and avoid returning long lists of options that do not fit the trip. hubs.li/Q04lbHCQ0

There’s a particular kind of guest checking into the Grand Hyatt Singapore these days, and they are not there for the rainforest shower or the turndown chocolate. They’ve come to drag a 225-pound sled across a rubberized floor, do 80 wall balls until their forearms give out, and then book a recovery treatment at Damai. The hotel gym, the historically straightforward air-conditioned box with treadmills and some Technogym gear, has become a competitive venue. Hyatt is betting it’s the reason to book the room rather than a perk you discover on the way up in the elevator. hubs.ly/Q04l8VMB0

The big hotel groups don't offer hostels… yet. The logic that drives their overall strategies suggests they will one day.  Marriott CEO Anthony Capuano has said the company wants "100% of your travel wallet. My hunch is that this "travel wallet" will someday include the 22-year-old backpacker ... and the retiree stretching a pension. Here's how that would break down. hubs.li/Q04l91qG0

Aven Hospitality launched a booking engine on Wednesday designed to keep travelers on a hotel’s own website through checkout.  The tech eliminates the redirect to a separate booking page — a step the company says drives abandonment. Aven says the engine was rebuilt from scratch, rather than adapted from the technology it inherited as a Sabre business unit. The launch is Aven’s second major product release since TPG acquired the former Sabre hotel unit for $1.1 billion last year. In March, the company rolled out Model Context Protocol support across its SynXis platform for AI-driven distribution. hubs.li/Q04l7SH80