Skift is a travel industry news site. Skift also provides market research and marketing services to the travel industry. Skift was founded in 2012 by Rafat Ali and Jason Clampet. The name Skift, which means "shift" or "transformation" in

Nordic languages The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages—a sub-family of the Indo-European languages—along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages. The language group is also r ...

, was chosen by Ali and Clampet to highlight the ongoing changes in the future of travel.

Background

In July 2012, Rafat Ali founded Skift and assumed the role of CEO. Co-founder Jason Clampet, formerly of

Frommer's Frommer's is a travel guide book series created by Arthur Frommer in 1957. Frommer's has since expanded to include more than 350 guidebooks in 14 series, as well as other media including an eponymous radio show and a website. In 2017, the company ...

, joined as Skift's head of product. For its launch, Skift raised about $500,000 in funding from investors, including L. Gordon Crovitz,

Craig Forman Craig Forman (born 1961, in New York City) is a partner at NextNews Ventures in San Francisco and past President and Chief Executive Officer of McClatchy, operator of 30 media companies in 29 U.S. markets in 14 states. Forman is a non-resident fel ...

, Jim Friedlich,

Tom Glocer Tom Glocer (born October 8, 1959) is an American business executive and the former CEO of Thomson Reuters and Reuters. Biography He is a co-founder and executive chairman of BlueVoyant and Capitolis, cyber defense and fintech start-ups, respec ...

Vishal Gondal Vishal Gondal ( hi, Vishal गोंडल) (born 14 July 1976) is an Indian people, Indian entrepreneur and angel investor. He is the founder and CEO of GOQii (pronounced Go-Key). Gondal founded the game development and publishing company Ind ...

, Jason Hirschhorn. In May 2013, Skift announced that it raised an additional $1.1 million in seed financing from a group of investors led by Lerer Ventures. Skift's revenue comes from three main sources: branded content, subscriptions, and a series of global events - of which the flagship is the Skift Global Forum held annually in New York.

Research and advertising

Skift produces twice-monthly reports, analyst calls, and data sheets on travel trends aimed at professionals in the travel industry, which are available by paid subscription. ''The New York Times'', CNBC, and ''The Verge'' have cited Skift studies in their reporting. In January 2015, Skift launched a print magazine, ''Skift Megatrends'', built around the company's annual travel trend forecast. SkiftX is Skift's advertising and

branded content In marketing, branded content (also known as branded entertainment) is Content (media), content produced by an advertiser or content whose creation was funded by an advertiser. In contrast to content marketing (in which content is presented first an ...

studio. As of 2015, 30 percent of Skift's business came from SkiftX, which has created

microsite A microsite is an individual web page or a small cluster of pages which are meant to function as a discrete entity (such as an iFrame) within an existing website or to complement an offline activity. The microsite's main landing page can have its ...

s, videos, and custom trend reports for companies within the travel industry.

Conferences

Skift CEO Rafat Ali interviews TripAdvisor CEO Stephen Kaufer

Since 2014, Skift has held its annual Skift Global Forum in New York City to discuss the future of travel with the executives of the travel industry. In 2017, Skift held its first "Skift Forum Europe" event in London and in 2019, it held its first "Skift Forum Asia" in Singapore.

References

External links

* {{official, https://skift.com/ Internet properties established in 2012 American travel websites Business intelligence companies Digital media organizations