And now my Jimmy Awards for Best International Travel Experiences in 2024. I didn’t do a lot of overseas travel, but I did manage trips to Istanbul and Singapore, and our MSC cruise on the World Europe took us to Italy, Malta, Spain and France. Thank you to everyone who helped along the way, both in big and small ways. Best Tour: We had a superb tour of Palermo, Sicily with a local guide on our MSC World Europa visit. We admired the beautiful cathedral, nibbled on cannoli the size of a football, and briefly toured a furiously noisy local Read more
Istanbul
Seoul has been rated the top city in the world on TikTok, with Paris and Barcelona right behind. Here are the top ten cities in the world ranked by key TikTok hashtags. Research conducted by JeffBet has crunched the numbers to see which city has the most hashtag views on TikTok and is, therefore, the most popular to visit this summer. The following hashtags were combined with each city as the prefix: #travel, #travelguide and #travel2023. Rank City Hashtag Views 1. Seoul 1,000,931,500 2. Paris 481,305,224 3. Barcelona 101,882,604 4. Amsterdam 72,201,405 5. Singapore 62,890,900 6. Bangkok 34,386,100 7. Read more
U.S. airlines expect strong travel demand that drove record fourth-quarter revenues to continue into 2023, but economic uncertainty and burgeoning labor and operations costs could cloud their rosy outlooks, Reuters reports. JetBlue Airways, American Airlines and Alaska Airlines last week all forecasted full-year earnings that were better than expected, the agency said, adding that “airlines are cashing in as consumers snap up tickets following a pandemic-induced slump.” HOLLAND AMERICA SETS WAVE SEASON RECORD In an early sign of a successful Wave season, Holland America Line bookings in the third week of January were the highest on record for any January Read more
Travel executives are betting that this summer will be one of the busiest yet even with soaring inflation as consumers excited to leave home will splurge on vacations – potentially going further afield and venturing back into tourist hot spots For its part, ToursByLocals, the Canadian-based company that connects discerning travellers in search of customized, private tours with handpicked tour guides in 189 countries worldwide, sees “substantial demand” for travel heading into the busy summer season after more than two years of Covid-19 restrictions. “May was an all time record month for us after nearly 14 years in business,” says Read more
What do a leopard statue in Kenya made from re-cycled scrap metal, Finland’s crazy version of Dragons’ Den, a DC-3 airplane in Hong Kong, a giant moose statue in Canada and a street-skating event in Paris have in common? They’re just some of the more unusual participants in Tourism Ireland’s Global Greening initiative for St Patrick’s Day 2019. Tourism Ireland’s annual Global Greening initiative has gone from strength to strength – from its beginning back in 2010, when just the Sydney Opera House and the Sky Tower in Auckland went green, to this year, which will be the biggest Global Read more
