On Monday’s Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast, Michael Goldin and Jamie Lane break down the latest headlines shaping online travel and platform strategy. The team starts with leadership changes at Tripadvisor, where longtime chairman Greg Maffei is stepping down as activist investor Starboard Value pushes for greater control and strategic changes at the company.

They then unpack a new analysis arguing that travel’s obsession with loyalty program size is largely misleading, as membership growth hasn’t translated into lower customer acquisition costs for most companies outside of airlines. The episode wraps with a look at how AI is already reshaping travel discovery — even without handling transactions — as more travelers use tools like ChatGPT to plan trips before ever visiting OTA platforms.

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