Transforming Travel’s Future

The Decision Brief Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex & Founder, Travalyst Moderated by Sarah Kopit, Editor-in-Chief, Skift THE VERDICT Travel leaders at Skift Global Forum spent two days talking about the value of the traveler. Prince Harry asked who is measuring the health of the destination. He said boardrooms track RevPAR, load factors, and visitor numbers, but have no standard metric for whether the places generating that revenue are getting stronger or weaker. He proposed “destination lifetime value” as the missing KPI and argued it belongs inside the business strategy, not alongside it as a sustainability principle. PATHS FORWARD Add destination health to the KPI dashboard. Prince Harry asked the room directly: “How many of your KPIs actually measure the success of the destination? … Are local communities benefiting? Are natural resources being protected? Is tourism strengthening or strangling the destination for the next generation?” Any company whose board cannot answer what its tourism does to the places it depends on has a measurement gap that is also a business risk. Widen the funnel to distribute demand. Prince Harry said part of the industry’s responsibility is “to encourage people to go to different places off the beaten track” rather than concentrating volume on the same destinations. He said spreading demand protects both communities and the commercial longevity of the destinations. Concentration is convenient. Distribution is durable. Ensure tourism benefits flow back to local communities. Prince Harry said he has visited the same community in Botswana for 25 years and “their lives haven’t really improved much” despite growing tourism around them. He said when local communities are incentivized to protect their assets, “everybody benefits and the longevity and the sustainability of that destination will be around for decades.” Communities that feel the benefit will likely welcome tourism. WHAT TO WATCH Prince Harry said communities “need to feel valued and what they call home needs to be valued.” Whether the industry addresses the resentment driving that backlash — or continues to optimize for volume at the most popular destinations — will determine how many places become hostile to the businesses that depend on them. Prince Harry asked the room to compare what they’re investing in AI and technology next year against what they’re investing in the long-term health of the places their businesses depend on. He said what doesn’t land with heads of state is “sustainability as a marketing scheme.” The gap between what travel companies spend on distribution and what they spend on destination resilience is a question most boards have never been asked, but increasingly may be. Access all the Skift Takeaways from this event, as well as full session videos, presentation documents, and more editorial coverage at our Skift Global Forum attendees hub.