U.S. Travel Insights: Redefining Value and Purpose in Winter 2026 - leger360.com

This sponsored content was created in collaboration with a Skift partner. At a Skift Global Forum 2026 executive roundtable presented by Bloomreach, Graham Smith, Bloomreach’s strategic account executive for enterprise, joined travel industry executives to discuss how brands can turn browsers into bookers during long consideration cycles. The group explored how timely, relevant engagement can strengthen loyalty, convert preference data into visible value, and connect the promise of personalization with the experience travelers receive.

When I asked Certares founder and legendary travel industry investor Greg O’Hara where he would invest outside Western Europe at Skift’s Transatlantic Summit in Dublin on October 15, he answered without hesitation. “The superstar, without even thinking about it, is Poland.”

This sponsored content was created in collaboration with a Skift partner. Corporate travel budgets are under renewed scrutiny as companies face economic uncertainty, rising costs, and pressure to operate more efficiently. But research from the American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA) and Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) points to the broader business value of managed travel. The analysis found that a 1% increase in managed corporate travel spending was associated with a 0.2% increase in company revenue.

This sponsored content was created in collaboration with a Skift partner. Independent hotel brands are trying to solve a problem the industry has wrestled with for years: how to gain the reach of a global chain without becoming part of one.

Photo Credit: Santosh Kumar, Booking.com's regional head for South Asia at the Skift India Intelligence Summit in Delhi in March 2026. Skift Booking.com wants to win over more Indian travelers, whether they’re traveling within the country or abroad. It also wants to sell business travel to small- and mid-sized companies and take charge of more of the booking and payment process. It faces a tough market, where local rivals, led by MakeMyTrip, dominate domestic travel.

United Airlines on Tuesday issued a disappointing earnings outlook for the fourth quarter due to continued high costs for jet fuel. It now expects adjusted earnings per share to range from $0.50 to $1.50, short of the $1.76 analysts expected. United said it expects fuel to average $4.80 a gallon, about $0.45 higher than what consensus assumed, a difference it said is worth roughly $1 a share. The high end of that range would bring United’s 2026 adjusted earnings to no more than $7.22 per share, CNBC reported. In mid-July, United had raised