View Transcript
Episode Description
The U.S. passport is no longer among the world's most powerful. Skift revisits its biggest travel megatrends of 2026, and The Odyssey is already driving tourism in Norway.
Sarah Kopit and Seth Borko discuss what shifting passport rankings reveal about global influence, which travel megatrends have held up through the first half of the year, and why movie tourism continues to be a powerful force for destinations.
Connect with Skift
Subscribe to @SkiftNews and never miss an update from the travel industry.
00:00 Passport Power Rankings
02:35 Dressing Up to Travel
03:32 Ironing Boards Crusade
05:03 Henley Index Deep Dive
07:52 Megatrends Midyear Game
10:34 Tourists Skip the US
13:13 Marketing for AI Search
14:44 Sustainability Reality Check
16:51 Mocktails Take Over
20:07 Luxury Boom Debate
21:58 Self Driving Trend Watch
23:37 Train Renaissance Tease
23:48 Train renaissance check-in
25:18 Flying taxis progress
25:56 Music tourism boom
27:50 K-beauty travel trends
29:46 OTA oligopoly cracks
31:30 Vibe coding tsunami
37:39 World Cup matrix reveal
44:30 Winners of the week
48:32 Wrap and sign-off