Coworking Providers and Hotels Tighten Partnerships as Pandemic Still Weighs Heavy

A more permanent working relationship between hotels and coworking providers like the one between Industrious and Wythe Hotel indicates sold-out room nights with traditional hotel guests are a long way away. -Cameron Sperance

Hainan Airlines Among Alleged Victims of $10 Billion Embezzlement at Bankrupt Parent HNA

First a bankruptcy, then disclosures alleging embezzlement by shareholders. All during a pandemic. Things promise to get uglier for the this once high-flying aviation group. -Tom Lowry

The little island of Procida prepares to shine as Italy’s Capital of Culture

The backdrop for the films Il Postino and The Talented Mr Ripley braces itself to balance tourism with tradition Church bells chime and children play freely in the square named after the late actor Massimo Troisi. A restaurant serves fresh fish to the smattering of customers eating outside, and fishermen mend their nets. With clear blue skies, it seems like a typical afternoon in mid-summer. But this is late January in Corricella, a 17th-century port in Procida, and the scene pretty much sums up the pace of life on what is the smallest and least known island in the bay of Naples. Continue reading...

10 of the most tranquil places in the UK

Many of us have stumbled upon unexpected corners of serenity during lockdown. Here’s our bucket list of natural spaces to explore when we can The search for tranquillity used to have three perfectly simple rules, principles that had stood the test of time since first expressed by the Greek master of mental calm, Epicurus: don’t fear death or God, spend plenty of time walking in gardens with friends … and buy the kids an Xbox. Like so many other aspects of our lives, however, those wise old nuggets no longer offer a route out of the tossing maelstrom in the way they used to. Head out early to your local park and chances are every favourite tranquil corner is occupied by another cabin-fever escaper. Related: 10 inspiring hobbies taken up by readers during lockdown Continue reading...

Mexico’s Yucatan Tourism Train Project Gets New Backer

Grupo Mexico isn't let the pandemic deter it from the prospect that tourism will be still be a big and even bigger business along the Yucatan Peninsula. It's investing $865 million into a long-awaited train project. -Tom Lowry

Why an everyday English field is my tranquillity base

Our writer’s special spot in a timeless corner of southern England holds a sense of deep peace and isolation Last January I started a new part-time job on a landscape scheme in the medieval hunting forest of Cranborne Chase, a designated area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB) that straddles the borders of Wiltshire, Dorset, Hampshire and a sliver of Somerset. By day it was all chalk, sheep and beech trees, big skies and isolated villages; at night the bright ribbon of the Milky Way arched above, soft moonlight bathing the fields, earning the AONB a Dark Sky Reserve designation. I’d stand in the garden in midsummer blackness, watching the dusty dart of the unromantically named C/2020 F3 Comet (AKA Neowise) while it was visible in the northern hemisphere, and unlocking an old obsession with constellations, our solar system and the Apollo missions. Continue reading...

The paintings that take me back to Snowdonia

Cut off from the Welsh mountains by lockdown, our Berlin-based writer stays connected through the work of a local artist Growing up in a small west Lancashire town surrounded by potato and cabbage fields, I always felt the mountains were a long way away. They weren’t of course. Snowdonia was a couple of hours’ drive in one direction. The Lake District was a similar distance in another. An even shorter drive took us across the fields to Formby where, down on the beach when the weather was right, you could even see them – the Welsh hills a line of shadowy shapes on the horizon, across the wide expanse of Liverpool Bay. When you’re young, the time between weekends, let alone school holidays, seems endless, and for me those mountains symbolised moments beyond the everyday. Trips to high places were something out of the ordinary, an adventure outside the routine. Not that we always went willingly, of course. For every walk in fine weather, when the view would unfold before us like a piece of elaborate natural theatre, there would be a long trudge to a mist-covered summit where, sheltering from the drizzle behind an oversized cairn or trig point, we’d eat a soggy sandwich and try to imagine what we might be looking at if visibility was greater than about six feet. Continue reading...

Travel Megatrends 2025: Travel Sectors Get Scrambled and Definitions Blur

Expect most travel sectors to shed their defined borders, with convergence running wild. But a handful of companies will choose to focus instead on their core services as an elixir for growth. -Sean O'Neill

Dingdanlaile Raises $10 Million for Homestay Management Software: Travel Startup Funding This Week

This week, travel startups announced more than $215 million in investment. The funded concepts include travel management for small businesses, property management software for vacation rental managers in China, and luxury vacation rentals in India. -Sean O'Neill

American Airlines May Furlough Staff Again as Travel Recovery Lags

American Airlines' outlook for 2021 is decidedly more cautious than those of its largest competitors. With a moribund recovery and the possibility of new domestic Covid testing rules, the airline may be forced to make further cuts to staff come April. -Edward Russell

The mystery of the 60-year-old travel photos

Jennifer Skupin bought a box of slides at an Amsterdam flea market in 2008. Now she's trying to track down the story behind the photos.

Airbnb Experiences Is Still a Conundrum With Strategy Lapses

Sell Disneyland tickets or retain its curated Experiences offerings? Things are already beginning to change, but that's a dilemma for Airbnb as it tries to build a profitable tours and activities business in a rough-and-tumble and highly competitive market. -Dennis Schaal

U.S. Airlines Fear ‘Crushing’ Blow From Possible Domestic Travel Testing Requirements

The eagerly awaited recovery in air travel that airlines have talked up may arrive late to the gate if the U.S. mandates negative Covid-19 tests for all domestic air travelers. The potential move could set back recovery efforts underway in the beleaguered industry. -Edward Russell

Arrivals in UK from high-risk countries to pay for hotel quarantine

Boris Johnson confirms move as he rejects calls to extend policy to cover all arrivals * Coronavirus – latest updates * See all our coronavirus coverage Boris Johnson has confirmed that British citizens returning from high-risk countries must quarantine in hotels at their own expense, facing down calls from cabinet colleagues and scientists to extend the policy to all arrivals. Speaking in the Commons, Johnson also said all travellers would be interrogated as to their purpose of travel. Continue reading...

Istanbul: a virtual tour through books, film, food and music

Crime writer Barbara Nadel explores the ‘vibrant but maddening megacity’ that inspires her books When I first saw this view of Istanbul, decades ago, it was as if I’d just met the love of my life. From the northern end of the Galata Bridge, looking across the Golden Horn to what is known as the Old City, the view remains breathtaking even on an iron-grey winter’s day. Rising above the waters of the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus are: to my left, the vast Topkapı Palace complex; before me, the Byzantine wonder that is the Hagia Sophia and the Blue mosque; and to my right, the Kapalıçarşı or Grand Bazaar and the Süleymaniye mosque. This last was created by Turkey’s greatest architect, Mimar Sinan, for its greatest sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent. Continue reading...

Tell us about a tranquil place you’ve found for the chance to win a £200 holiday prize

Where do you go to find calm amid the current chaos and restrictive Covid rules? The best tip wins £200 towards a Canopy & Stars stay With everything going on in the world right now, it’s essential to try to carve out moments of calm. Where do you go to tap into tranquillity? Perhaps it’s a spot on a local river, a particular park bench, a hidden coastal cove, or even a serene city cemetery. It could also be somewhere you revisit in your mind that induces a sense of peace. If you have a relevant photo, do send it in – but it’s your words that will be judged for the competition. Continue reading...

Soviet flying beast that never quite took off

The only surviving prototype of the unusual Bartini Beriev VVA-14 vertical takeoff airplane now sits dilapidated in a field near Moscow, but it was once the hope of the Soviet Union against US submarine attacks.

Klook Raises $200 Million in Bid to Become a Superapp for Experiences

Klook is winning investor confidence during the pandemic. The online agency is tapping into domestic leisure spending in several Asian markets while aspiring to copy some moves from Chinese superapp Meituan by providing more business-to-business services, too. -Sean O'Neill

Concorde successor AS2 takes leap forward

Florida-based company Aerion breaks ground on a new production HQ for its 1,000mph AS2 private jet

Asia Destinations Look to Indian Tourists as Chinese Remain Home

Destinations were counting on China as the Asian market that will drive tourism recovery. Increasingly, however, their attention is shifting to India, which may be smaller than China, but mighty in its own way. -Raini Hamdi

Dear World Travel Groups, Stop the Mind-Boggling Confusion Over Testing and Vaccines Now

Nearly a year since Covid's start, the lack of a united front among travel and tourism's leading organizations and groups continues — this time, with confounding, divergent opinions on vaccine mandates. This fragmented approach is sure to stunt the industry's pace of recovery. -Lebawit Lily Girma

Biden Adds South Africa to List of Travel Ban Countries With New Covid Strain Spreading

Five days in office and President Joe Biden is wasting no time tightening up travel restrictions to get Covid-19 and all its variants under control. Short-term pain now for hopefully a better second half to 2021. -Tom Lowry

Summer holidays cancelled? UK faces big decision on border

Stricter controls appear likely, with government’s approach in stark contrast to that during first Covid wave * Coronavirus – latest updates * See all our coronavirus coverage Slumped on the sofa after another day of home schooling, many families will have longingly eyed adverts for getaways: sun, sandy beaches and glittering pools, a much-needed reward after a year in the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic. But ministers are becoming increasingly concerned they may have to ask the British public to sacrifice their hopes of a break abroad this summer. On Thursday, Priti Patel became the latest cabinet minister to say it was too soon to book an overseas break; Matt Hancock has already announced he is going to Cornwall. Continue reading...

I’m painting the amazing Galápagos wildlife – from my sitting room

Can a virtual four-day art class come anywhere close to visiting the famous archipelago? Maybe not, but for our writer it turns out to offer something far more valuable The creature comes into view quite slowly. It’s like staring into the bushes, realising there is something there, then picking out its parts, assembling the whole that, suddenly, magically, comes alive and steps gently forward. A giant tortoise. Mary-Anne, our guide, laughs: “A tortoise’s mouth always remind me of my grandmother.” As if hearing this, the animal’s wrinkled lip curls slightly, into a sad old grin. The panels on its shell catch the light and the shadows under the leading edge deepen, catching subtle flashes of magenta and ultramarine. I would never have noticed such details without Mary-Anne pointing them out. “There,” she says, “I think we’re finished.” And puts down her brush. Continue reading...

China’s Covid Lessons and 9 Other Top Travel Stories This Week

The setback to China's hotel recovery is a cautionary hotel. In other top travel stories this week, Skift covered mask mandates, vegan tourism, and American Express Global Business Travel's latest acquisition. -Dennis Schaal

U.S. Travel Trade Group Opposes Quarantines for International Entry

As mandatory tests for entry into the U.S. kick off next week, more specificity and Covid control measures are likely to emerge from the Biden administration in the coming days. Until then, industry players continue sharing their varying positions on domestic and international travel protocols. -Lebawit Lily Girma

The Inside Story of How Alaska Airlines Went All-In on the Returning Boeing 737 Max

Alaska was the first airline to officially throw its support behind Boeing's beleaguered 737 Max after the jet was ungrounded, with commitments for 36 more aircraft. But it was a long and winding road to that decision with the seed planted in its merger with Virgin America four years earlier. -Edward Russell

Air Taxi Startup Joby May Go Public by Merging With a Blank Check Company

Joby Aviation, a startup that's building an electric aircraft capable of making vertical takeoffs and landings inside cities, may seek to go public soon. If it does so by merging with a special-purpose acquisition company, it will copy similar moves by helicopter taxi service Blade and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic. -Sean O'Neill

United Airlines Looks Abroad (Eventually) for Travel Recovery Profits

United Airlines executives are betting that structural changes on the international front mean it can emerge larger and stronger from the pandemic. But this won't occur until travelers return in significant numbers, something they don't expect for some months. -Edward Russell

China’s Hotel Recovery Falls Off Rails Amid New Coronavirus Flare-Ups

All eyes have been on China in terms of its travel recovery. While China's hotel recovery faces a major setback now with a surge of new Covid-19 cases, the country is still likely to make a faster rebound than other parts of the world. -Cameron Sperance

President Biden Ends Discriminatory Travel Ban

Despite the travel industry's continued growth from the Obama administration into the first three years of the Trump era, its leaders found themselves apologizing for the president's offensive comments, discriminatory policies and lack of planning. The hopeful normalcy of a Biden administration will be a welcome relief. -Jason Clampet

Middle East Diplomacy Could Help Fix Online Travel Blindspot 🔒

Israeli Arab entrepreneurs have not benefitted from the travel tech startup boom in Israel. The controversial peace deal between Israel and some of its Arab neighbors could begin to get the investments flowing. -Dennis Schaal

Tell us about your lockdown discoveries for the chance to win a £200 holiday prize

Share the neighbourhood treasures you’ve noticed since restricted by Covid rules. The best tip wins £200 towards a Canopy & Stars stay Lockdown restrictions have made us see the world in a different way – the fact that we can only go out once a day and explore a limited radius means we are rediscovering our local areas and noticing things that we’d previously overlooked in our pre-lockdown busyness. That can be anything from a historical building, deserted factory or faded adverts painted on the sides of buildings, to animal footprints in the snow or mud, birds in leafless trees or gables and gargoyles hidden in plain sight. This week we’d like you to tell us about favourite discoveries on your daily lockdown walks. If you have a relevant photo, do send it in – but it’s your words that will be judged for the competition. Continue reading...

Choice Vs. Wyndham: The Race to Convert Hotels to Their Brands 🔒

Wyndham's loss is Choice Hotels' gain in a 15-hotel brand shuffle. But this type of transaction is still falling short of wider industry expectations. -Cameron Sperance

This chef is redefining authentic Indian food

Chef Jessi Singh was born in Punjab, India, and grew up between Australia and America. He brings his unique culinary journey to modern Indian cuisine, including his signature buffalo milk kebabs.

Holiday bookings surge as Covid vaccinations increase travel hopes

People high on list for jabs in UK ready to make 2021 and 2022 plans * See all our coronavirus coverage Holiday companies have reported an increase in bookings as the UK’s coronavirus vaccine rollout gives people hope that they will soon be able to travel overseas again. Despite a series of negative travel announcements in recent days, including the closure of air corridors and words of caution from ministers over foreign holidays, there are signs that those among the first in line for the vaccinations are starting to plan trips, and that consumers are hopeful about taking a break later this year. Continue reading...

Travel IPOs to Watch for in 2021

Enthusiasm for IPOs is booming in the wake of Airbnb's sensational debut as a public company. But only a handful of startups, possibly including Turo, Traveloka, Yanolja, Gett, Tujia, SiteMinder, Sonder, and Vacasa, may have enough positive growth in 2021 to woo investors. -Sean O'Neill

Matt Hancock cautions against booking holidays abroad

Health secretary lines up break in Cornwall ‘to have a great British summer’ rather than travel overseas * Coronavirus – latest updates * See all our coronavirus coverage People should plan for a “great British summer”, the health secretary has said, suggesting that holidays abroad may not be a given as he revealed he has booked his own break in Cornwall. Matt Hancock’s comments come after the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, suggested it was “too early” for Britons to book summer breaks overseas. Continue reading...

Emirates Begins Offering Vaccines to Pilots and Cabin Crew

It's a small step, applying only to those employees in the United Arab Emirates, but it could inspire other carriers to do the same, giving aviation's reputation its own shot in the arm. -Matthew Parsons

The joy of steps: 20 ways to give purpose to your daily walk

Has the novelty of a prescribed stroll long since worn off? From tracking animals to uncovering hidden history, here’s how to discover a new world in your neighbourhood The weather is rubbish, there is nowhere to go and, bereft of the joys of spring, the daily lockdown walk can feel pointless. But, of course, it is not: the mental and physical health perks of exercise are immune to seasonal changes. We need to gallivant around outside in daylight so that our circadian rhythms can regulate sleep and alertness. (Yes, even when the sky is resolutely leaden, it is still technically daylight.) Walking warms you up, too; when you get back indoors, it will feel positively tropical. But if meeting these basic needs isn’t enough to enthuse you, there are myriad ways to add purpose to your stride and draw your attention to the underappreciated joys of winter walking. Continue reading...

Arrivals in UK could be asked to stay in quarantine hotels, Raab says

Foreign secretary says all options being considered, including measure inspired by New Zealand’s ‘directed isolation’ policy * Coronavirus – latest updates * See all our coronavirus coverage People arriving in the UK could be asked to stay in quarantine hotels under plans being considered by ministers to try to deal with the spread of the pandemic, the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, has said. Raab said the government had “considered all of the possibilities” when asked about reports in the Sunday Times that ministers have ordered plans to be drawn up for the creation of quarantine hotels for arrivals in Britain. Continue reading...

France Toughens Covid Curfews and Quarantine Rules for Visitors

Some of France's European counterparts — including the UK — have taken tougher Covid stances so the government thinks it had better get aligned and be tougher. -Dennis Schaal

World Health Org Won’t Endorse Proof of Vaccines for Safe International Travel

A top health official said there was currently a "great disparity" among countries about testing, quarantines and travel bans, leading to the world being "a little bit paralysed, a little bit confused." No kidding. How can travel have chance at recovery with so many mixed messages? -Tom Lowry

UK Airports Make Plea for Government Help After Covid Travel Rules Tightened

The ripple effects of a third wave of coronavirus are being felt all across aviation in the United Kingdom. Airports now say they need much more than just a tax break. -Tom Lowry

UK shuts travel corridors and requires negative Covid tests to enter

All foreign arrivals will also have to quarantine in toughening of measures in response to new strains * Coronavirus – latest updates * See all our coronavirus coverage Boris Johnson has announced a dramatic tightening of the UK’s borders, with all international arrivals to be forced to quarantine as well as demonstrate they have had a negative Covid test. After months of criticism of the government’s lax border policies, which Labour claimed were “costing lives”, the prime minister said he was tightening the rules to prevent new variants of the virus reaching the UK and safeguard the vaccination programme. Continue reading...

I got cabin fever in lockdown … so built my own beach hut

Few things say escape like a beach hut. After checking out some classic coastal designs – and remembering boyhood dens – I’m making one in the garden It started with a chance comment from York hotelier Simon Cowton during an interview. “I was getting depressed in lockdown,” he said. “I realised I had to have a project.” Simon’s solution was to start a building project. He set about redesigning his hotel garden as a magical support bubble-friendly outdoor restaurant. When I got off the phone, Simon’s words were still in my head. His enthusiasm and energy had fired me up. I, too, needed a project and knew what I wanted for my lockdown sanity … I wanted to build a beach hut. Continue reading...

Travel Megatrends 2025: Travel’s New Cadence Is More Deliberate, Introspective and Soulful

With prospects for winning the planet’s climate change confrontation after the horrific pandemic not appreciably improved in 2025, the travel industry and travelers rethink their operations and the way they wander the globe, respectively. Fear is a fantastic motivator. -Dennis Schaal

Champs-Élysées set for green transformation

One of the most famous avenues in Paris, the Champs-Élysées, is set for a facelift that will see it transformed into a green, pedestrian-friendly space, after Mayor Anne Hidalgo gave the go-ahead for a major renovation project.

Online Business Travel Platforms See Consolidation, New Funding

Business travel has all but stopped, but not the dealmaking, judging from these recent announcements. -Matthew Parsons

Norwegian axes long-haul flights and cuts 1,100 Gatwick jobs

Low-cost long-haul vision ditched as struggling airline announces strategy for survival post-Covid * Coronavirus – latest updates * See all our coronavirus coverage Norwegian has announced it will no longer fly long-haul routes, even after the pandemic, bringing an end to its low-cost, long-haul vision and spelling the loss of about 1,100 jobs based at Gatwick airport. The airline said it would retrench to a short-haul European network and domestic Norwegian routes for good, as it outlined its business plan for survival. Continue reading...