Ryanair’s quarterly profit is off, year-over-year, which might be making investors uneasy. Pictured is the airline’s Dublin headquarters.
Skift Take: Ryanair’s profit is down, but let’s not get carried away. The airline reported roughly $400 million U.S. in pre-tax profit for the most recent quarter, despite several challenges, including labor unrest and rising fuel prices. Europe’s leading discounter will be just fine.
The U.S. hotel unemployment rate jumped more than 4 percent in January due to a longer-than-expected travel recovery. Elizabeth Backus / Flickr
Skift Take: The slow winter travel season, delayed vaccination schedules, and people giving up on hotel jobs are pushing the hospitality sector unemployment figures up once again. More vaccines can speed up the recovery (the industry hopes).
Two sets of couples using selfie sticks at the Acropolis during pre-pandemic times in Athens, Greece. Skift
Skift Take: Who knows what the next few months have in store, but the PM is right about one thing: any success in the tourism sector is entirely dependent on an effective vaccine rollout in Greece’s feeder markets.
After announcing its exit from long-haul flights due to the pandemic, Norwegian Air on Monday issued a pause to its frequent flyer loyalty reward program affecting millions of passengers worldwide. Skift
Skift Take: Many global airlines have reduced long-haul flights or exited markets altogether due to the pandemic, but more often than not their loyalty points have an expiration date. Now is a really good time for airlines to put customers first and adjust their valuable currency — or risk losing their loyalty.
The Graduate Berkeley (pictured) is the first to host a multi-branded ghost kitchen in a partnership between parent company Graduate Hotels and C3. Graduate Hotels
Skift Take: The pandemic has produced unlikely partnerships between the hotel and office sectors, but the longevity is up for debate. The ghost kitchen pairing between hotels and an outside food operator may actually stick for years to come, as it solves a pre-pandemic revenue loss problem.
Skift Take: The vaccine rollout is fueling optimism among Asia-Pacific’s travelers and the region’s travel industry. But until inoculations are widespread and the right systems for recognizing official health documents are in place globally, extra layers of protection — such as testing — remain key to traveler health and safety.
Ho Chi Minh City: Asia’s next financial center in the making. www.mroosfotografie.nl / Visual Hunt
Skift Take: A new flare-up of Covid-19 cases in northern Vietnam does not change the fact the country has a lot going for it and that its commercial capital in the south, Ho Chi Minh City, is a rising star in Asia.