Rafat Ali, Media Operator & Dad

CEO/Founder, Skift (@skift). Dad of three hyperactive kids, Indo-Brit-American, Global Soul. Hunter of mangoes, guavas & sugarcane. Personal:

[Rafat Ali, Media Operator & Dad @rafat]

https://t.co/IZFCO9yV3K

[Rafat Ali, Media Operator & Dad @rafat]

The full story, for Skift subscribers: https://t.co/VNKvFFDujl

[Rafat Ali, Media Operator & Dad @rafat]

Last couple of months I’ve been reporting out Turkey’s travel tech scene and it is fascinating: Hitit, HotelRunner, Paximum, Obilet, Wingie, etc, are companies even travel industry insiders don’t know about. Read on, lots of data and analysis in here>>

[Rafat Ali, Media Operator & Dad @rafat]

Steinway Street in Astoria in World Cup summer, post-Knicks championship, Mamdanistan, greatest-city-in-the-world-swagger-back era, is *the* most interesting street in all of NYC, for food, for people watching, for the sheer fact of what a city looks like alive.

[Rafat Ali, Media Operator & Dad @rafat]

I wrote a tribute to @om on my blog, not here, coz Om spent two decades arguing you should publish on your own platform, own your own words. That's how we got to know each other in the first place. I should've picked up the phone & stayed in touch... https://t.co/zpGCyBDcYh

[Rafat Ali, Media Operator & Dad @rafat]

@Scobleizer I am shocked to hear, loved him like a brother and lost touch over last decade, regretting it deeply this evening. What amazing early days of internet together, all of us in the scene.

[Rafat Ali, Media Operator & Dad @rafat]

This is exactly 20 year ago, I had started paidContent and he was still at Business 2.0, thinking of leaving & I was pushing him to start his own thing. @jdlasica took this pic of us at Stanford, if I remember correctly, at a business of blogging event there.

[Rafat Ali, Media Operator & Dad @rafat]

OMG, I just found out that @om passed away, that is devastating to hear. Om and I were fellow journalists turned entrepreneurs in early aughts, his humanism had a huge impact on my journey. I had fallen out of touch in last decade and I regret it.

[Rafat Ali, Media Operator & Dad @rafat]

@TheStalwart

[Rafat Ali, Media Operator & Dad @rafat]

My audio essay from the glittering Doha airport, a meditation on class, travel, pilgrimage, labor, and the silence built into one of the world’s most celebrated terminals…below. https://t.co/qQXnlIAorc

[Rafat Ali, Media Operator & Dad @rafat]

Everyone's reading @bchesky's AI lab as a distraction. I think it's the opposite: a structurally smart bet, built outside @Airbnb for four reasons that only make sense together.

Connecting the dots: https://t.co/GqPcE2rBVQ

[Rafat Ali, Media Operator & Dad @rafat]

If you were a Scot-Moroccan New Yorker, last evening was the greatest night of your life…

[Rafat Ali, Media Operator & Dad @rafat]

https://t.co/ujh5Y7eUeP

[Rafat Ali, Media Operator & Dad @rafat]

New essay from me on what Gulf hub airports are actually arguing about, why brand coherence is the dimension that matters most, and what happens when a fourth sovereign-funded terminal enters the corridor with a even bigger bet. Full story🔗👇👇

[Rafat Ali, Media Operator & Dad @rafat]

Who Really Holds Your Travel Money Before You Travel https://t.co/YdRDkQSnt9 via @Skift

[Rafat Ali, Media Operator & Dad @rafat]

Two islands I love, as different as can be, on exactly the same tourism trajectory. Iceland can afford to pull back, Puerto Rico can’t. That gap is the part of overtourism we’ve spent years refusing to look at, one of my fave pieces to write this year: https://t.co/16LJy5V2M3

[Rafat Ali, Media Operator & Dad @rafat]

India Is Where the Voice-First Travel App Gets Built https://t.co/HWJuPvytBf via @Skift

[Rafat Ali, Media Operator & Dad @rafat]

The full story: https://t.co/S7zJ1rvRjk

[Rafat Ali, Media Operator & Dad @rafat]

I loved writing this, an ode to how to build desirability of a city, through local creators out in the streets, better than any tourism board or any marketing strategy could. NYC’s still got it.

[Rafat Ali, Media Operator & Dad @rafat]

Even this won’t end well, too pricey.

Meanwhile, build yourself an anti-Buzzfeed life.

[Bloomberg @business]

Comedian and media mogul Byron Allen paid $120 million for a 52% stake in online publisher BuzzFeed https://t.co/V10hTHSaKV

[Rafat Ali, Media Operator & Dad @rafat]

Travel, for me, stopped being about destinations a long time ago. It became a proxy for a childhood I left behind in India in the 1990s and have never stopped looking for. I finally wrote about it.
https://t.co/7OILYtgC5Y