Move over London, luxury travelers have a new favourite city. Virtuoso, the global leader in luxury and experiential travel, has analyzed intel from its data warehouse exceeding $63.6 billion in transactions and found that while upscale globetrotters continue to book eternal European favourites, Paris has risen to the top as the number one city among luxury leisure travellers. Surpassing both Rome and London, Paris is Virtuoso’s most booked European city in 2022 – a trend that Virtuoso hotel analytics shows continuing into 2023. While New York City was the most booked city overall in 2022 and is pacing 13 percent Read more
Rome
Two travel groups have come up with different lists of the most romantic cities in Europe for Valentine’s Day. Research by Catamaran Charter Croatia ranked Europe’s capital cities based on their number of romantic restaurants (as described on TripAdvisor) and hotels per million residents. A Canadian travel company, redtag.ca, also listed five top romantic cities in Europe and came up with somewhat different results. Here’s the top 10 from Catamaran Charter Croatia: Lisbon Monaco Paris San Marino Rome Andorra La Vella, Andorra Amsterdam Athens Prague Reykjavik, Iceland I’m not so sure about San Marino or Andorra as I’ve never been. Read more
A new study finds Americans are fond of bucket lists, and travel is their top desire. Asked by myvisiong.org what’s on their bucket list, 45% said travel, 30% said spending time with loved ones, 15% said adventurous experiences, and four per cent said academic pursuits. Here were their top ten must-see locations: 1. The Grand Canyon 2. Yellowstone National Park 3. Paris 4. The Colosseum in Rome 5. The Pyramids of Egypt 6. The Canals of Venice 7. The Great Barrier Reef, Australia 8. The Great Wall of China 9. Redwood National and State Parks, California 10. Stonehenge, England The Read more
Expedia Group bookings for the second quarter of this year were the highest in history, and travellers around the world are taking more long-haul flights to traditional, top destinations. Expedia Group’s second quarter report for 2022 revealed a 40% increase in stayed room nights and a nine per cent increase in stayed average rates. That means significantly more travel despite higher rates, a sure sign of the pent-up demand for travel around the world. The study revealed that the global demand for long-haul flights (more than four hours) soared by more than 50% during the second quarter, compared to last Read more
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I know. But sometimes I can’t help but get riled up about silly travel lists. For example, there’s this that I found today on a website called mentalfloss.com. The story says a group called Online Mortgage Advisor looked at something called the Golden Ratio (yeah, I’ve never heard of it, either), which measures shapes and building sizes that are pleasing to the eye, and then ranked world cities based on that. It’s interesting, and there are some worthy candidates on the list. But simply focusing on pleasing architectural shapes warps things so Read more
