Asia is set to surpass North America in its population of millionaires by the mid-2030s, and that’s fueling a lot of travel spending. According to Skift Research’s 2025 Travel Outlook Survey, travelers from India and China are most likely to say they'll be on the move this year. We asked, "Will you be traveling in 2025?" and 88% of respondents from China said "Yes, definitely." For India, it … [Read more...]

The Saudi Minister of Tourism said Wednesday that the kingdom had 30 million international arrivals in 2024, a new record for the country. And it was a significant increase from when Saudi Arabia opened for international tourism in 2019 with just over 17.5 million visitors. However, the growth in 2024, at 9.4%, was slower than in previous years. In 2023, arrivals surged 65% to 27.42 million. To … [Read more...]

In the two months since China introduced a visa-free policy for South Korea, the hashtag “travel to China after work on Friday” has gained traction on platforms like Korea’s Naver and China’s RedNote, with over half a million posts from Korean travelers featuring their weekend itineraries, blogs, photos and travel tips.  The idea is that Korean tourists can clock out of work, hop on a … [Read more...]

The U.S. is increasing its efforts to attract tourism from India. The country’s destination marketing organization Brand USA held its 11th India Sales and Media Mission in Hyderabad this week in its largest mission ever, according to President and CEO of Brand USA Fred Dixon. CEOs representing U.S. destinations also visited India for the mission, along with 48 U.S. tourism companies and 67 … [Read more...]

The EU’s commissioner for sustainable transport and tourism has warned that the tourism industry is at risk from the direct impacts of climate change. Apostolos Tzitzikostas said that infrastructure is not keeping pace with the need to adapt to these threats.  Speaking during a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday, Tzitzikostas pointed to Valencia in Spain, which was … [Read more...]

Donald Trump's return to the White House had many travel executives wondering what a second Trump administration would mean for the industry, a subject we explored in one of Skift's 2025 Megatrends. So, as Trump has already issued a set of executive orders that could significantly impact travel, we turned to our answer engine, Ask Skift 2.0, to find out more about the ramifications of … [Read more...]

India reported 18.9 million international arrivals in 2023. However, only half — about 9.5 million — were actual foreign tourists. The rest were people of Indian origin or non-resident Indians visiting friends and family. Even that 9.5 million is over 10% shy of 2019’s figure of nearly 11 million, which itself fell short of the potential for a country as culturally and geographically diverse as … [Read more...]

Thailand has shared its vision for tourism cooperation between India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The initiatives include plans for an “ASEAN-India Forum 2025 Thailand" focusing on two-way tourism development between India and the region.  At the 12th ASEAN-India Tourism Ministers Meeting in Malaysia, Thai tourism and sports minister Sorawong Thienthong on Monday … [Read more...]

President Donald Trump wasted no time after being sworn in as the 47th president of the United States, signing a series of executive orders Monday that signal a potential shake-up in federal priorities and resource allocation.  While details remain sparse, early moves appear aimed at tightening cross-border controls, raising the specter of tougher scrutiny and fewer government resources. … [Read more...]

The U.S. will only recognize people's sexes as assigned at birth on passports and other federal-issued documents following an executive order signed Monday by President Donald Trump. Since 2022, U.S. citizens have been able to select “X” as their gender marker on passports, visas, and Global Entry cards. “As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government … [Read more...]

Global tourism has finally recovered to pre-pandemic levels, UN Tourism said Tuesday: Roughly 1.4 billion people traveled internationally last year, a figure that's 99% of 2019 levels. That's also an 11% increase — or 140 million more international tourist arrivals — from 2023, driven in part by substantial increases in visitor numbers to Africa and the Asia-Pacific region. Africa had 74 … [Read more...]

Donald Trump used his first day in office to send a letter to the United Nations to withdraw from a global agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  It will take a year for the withdrawal from the UN Paris Agreement to go through, but at that point, the U.S. will join Libya, Iran, and Yemen as the countries not in the pact.  When Trump pulled out in 2017, the U.S. was required … [Read more...]

One of Donald Trump’s first acts as president in 2017 was to institute a ban on travel to the U.S. from several nations that had Muslim majorities. During his campaign, he vowed to restore the ban if he won again.  "We will seal our border and bring back the travel ban," Trump said at an event in Washington in September.  On Monday, his first day in office for a second term, Trump … [Read more...]

The Alaska Travel Industry Association (ATIA), which represents over 600 travel businesses in the state, is calling for "thoughtful" talks about opening up a vast wilderness area in the Arctic to oil and gas drilling. President Donald Trump declared a “national energy emergency” in the United States on Monday and issued an executive order that would open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge … [Read more...]

South Africa’s new Trusted Tour Operator Scheme (TTOS) for Indian travelers came into effect on Monday. The scheme, which was announced last year, is an initiative that aims to provide travelers with credible points of contact who clearly understand the visa processes of South Africa. Here’s some context: Last year, South Africa decided to launch this scheme for Indian and Chinese travelers to … [Read more...]

TikTok has gone dark in the U.S. as of late Saturday, shortly before the federal ban on the Chinese Bytedance-owned app was due to come into effect. The app is no longer available on Apple’s iOs App Store or Google’s Play Store in the U.S., and a message is appearing for existing users after opening the app, states: “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now." It continues: "A law banning … [Read more...]

Across the Union Budgets over the past few years, the travel industry has been left disappointed. Apart from two tax reforms and destination development in Bihar and Odisha, the sector did not receive much last year too.  In fact, in February, the global marketing budget was reduced by 97% to just INR 30 million ($361,000), even as the government said that it was focusing on making India a … [Read more...]

When Donald Trump returns to the White House as U.S. President next week, he is expected to pull the country out of the Paris climate agreement again, as he did in 2017. Most countries signed the United Nations in Paris in 2015. It marked the first time the world agreed to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. Last November, a Trump campaign spokesperson told … [Read more...]

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against TikTok in its challenge to a law banning the social media platform, unless its Chinese parent company Bytedance sells it to a U.S. based company by Sunday. The Biden administration has said the law targets control of the app by a foreign adversary, not protected speech. The justices ruled on Friday that the law did not violate U.S. Constitution's First … [Read more...]

Newly re-elected Bali Governor Wayan Koster has decided to abandon the proposed moratorium on building new hotels and villas. Instead, he has pledged stricter regulations to manage the growth of tourism accommodations. “There is no need for a moratorium. What’s needed is stricter control,” Koster said at a recent press conference in Seminyak. The proposed ban had been rooted in concerns … [Read more...]