The Skift Airline Innovation Report is our weekly newsletter on the business of airline innovation. We look closely at the technological, financial, and design trends at airlines and airports. Brian Sumers writes and curates the newsletter, and we send it on Wednesdays. You can find previous issues of the newsletter here. Do you remember the simplicity of airline economy class? Two decades ago, most airlines had a single cabin, and all seats had the same service, pitch, and width. No longer.

Thailand’s retail queen Supaluck Umpujh dispensed “talking sweet” and told bold truths about how the destination is selling itself short, and lacking in courage and foresight to build new tourist attractions at a tourism forum Monday.

Each week we round up travel startups that have recently received or announced funding. Please email Travel Tech Editor Sean O'Neill [email protected] if you have funding news. This week travel startups announced more than $66 million in funding. >>Outdoorsy, an outdoor recreation booking site and mobile app, has received $50 million in Series C funding. The startup has raised about $75 million to date. Greenspring Associates led the round.

It’s a new year, so I’m bringing back Skift’s Future of Business Travel Interview Series. On deck this week is my chat with Amy Fox from Lyft on the company’s devotion to making life easier for business travelers as its platform evolves to incorporate more mobility options. Marriott International finally renamed its rewards program …Marriott Bonvoy, for some reason. The name seems bad but honestly it’s doubtful business travelers will care that much.

If you’re looking for a cheap spring or summer airfare on United Airlines, you may not find it — at least not yet. United unveiled a new revenue management system last year, hoping it could use fresh technology to wring extra money from customers. And it has worked, executives said Wednesday on their fourth quarter earnings call, helping the airline sell fewer “lower-yield” tickets far in advance, so it can set aside seats for business customers.

Let’s say you’re designing a seating plan for one airplane in your fleet. Would you rather have a standard configuration, even if it isn’t best for every market? Or would you prefer several seating plans to match capacity to demand? The easy answer is you want the best configuration by route. If you have a transatlantic operation, your airline may want 40 (or more) business class seats for London and Geneva, and 18 for Barcelona, Nice and Naples.

The Skift New Luxury newsletter is our weekly newsletter focused on the business of selling luxury travel, the people and companies creating and selling experiences, emerging trends, and the changing consumer habits around the sector. What does the word luxury mean to you? For many people it corresponds to excess. After all, if money is no object then there are no limits to what it can buy.

The Skift Wellnessnewsletter is our weekly dispatch focused onwhat’s happening in wellness from a global business standpoint.Skift Wellness lives where wellness meets commerce, mindfulness meets technology, the yoga studio meets the boardroom, andhealth meets business. Early January means CES is in full swing in Las Vegas, and while giants like Apple and Intel may snag the biggest headlines, health and wellness tech products are also having a moment.

Throughout the week we post dozens of original stories, connecting the dots across the travel industry, and every weekend we sum it all up. This weekend roundup examines hospitality. For all of our weekend roundups,go here. >>Google’s voice-powered assistant now lets you check in for United flights. Nice. The tech giant is also working with Hyatt and other hotels on testing a translation device at front desks.

A new year brings the same old problems. We’ve got a government shutdown happening here in the U.S., along with fears that an economic recession is on the way that could impact global business travel. While the shutdown is being felt right now, experts are more optimistic when it comes to business travel at large. Barring a major change in relations between the U.S. and China, global growth should remain steady. Check out our stories below.