No Pause on Hotel Deals in China Despite Recovery Setback 🔒

Even short-term headwinds in China's hotel recovery from the pandemic isn't deterring global hotel companies from flooding the market with new developments. -Cameron Sperance

Tripadvisor Takes Unusual Route With Private Equity Help to Build Its New Subscription Offering

Private equity firm Certares is leveraging its brand assets the way a Booking Holdings might do when Booking.com shares inventory with sister company Priceline. This isn't the usual private equity playbook. -Dennis Schaal

Qantas, Virgin Face New Challenger on Australia’s Local Routes

Domestic air travel is still slow in Australia, but Rex is positioning itself for the eventual return of local flyers, particularly on routes popular for leisure travel. -Tom Lowry

Literary breaks: stay in the former home of a famous writer

From Betjeman’s London townhouse to Keats’ seaside cottage, these atmospheric writers’ homes all have a tale to tell South Lodge at Greenway, Devon The main house is so well preserved it’s as if Agatha Christie just stepped outside. In the drawing room it takes little imagination to picture yourself listening to one of her manuscript readings. If you are inclined to detective work, you’ll work out for yourself that the scratch marks on the bedroom door were made by the family dog. Christie’s holiday house, Greenway, is gracious and beautifully proportioned. It sits high above the River Dart, amid extensive grounds that slope steeply down to the water. “The loveliest place in the world,” is how she described it. Christie left it to her daughter, who passed it to her son, and he gifted it to the National Trust in 2005. Staying in South Lodge – once the gardener’s cottage, and one of three NT cottages to rent on the estate – you could spend all day watching light dance on the river, boats passing and the steam train puffing through woods to Greenway Halt. Wander down through the gardens, past the Battery with its two cannons (site of the murder in Five Little Pigs) and you’ll arrive at the Boathouse, which Christie used as a location for a grisly murder in Dead Man’s Folly. It also appeared in the 2013 film adaptation, David Suchet’s last appearance as Poirot. Ring the bell at the quay and a ferryman arrives to take you across to Dittisham for lunch at the atmospheric Ferry Boat Inn, or take a cruise to Dartmouth on the Christie Belle riverboat and look back at the house from the water – elusive, fascinating, like all the best mysteries. • Sleeps 6, from £621 for two nights, nationaltrust.org.uk Continue reading...

Not Messin’ — New Zealand’s Auckland Goes Into Lockdown After Single Covid Case

You can probably guess why New Zealand has had such great success mitigating the spread of coronavirus. Officials are hoping that discipline bodes well for a fast tourism recovery. -Tom Lowry

Five unspoiled UK coastlines with spectacular walks

Most of us will holiday at home this year, but that needn’t mean busy resorts. These unsung shores offer seclusion and hikes galore According to the Ordnance Survey, mainland Britain has around 11,000 miles of coast, which may seem excessive in a country that is just over 600 miles long. That is because we wiggle a lot – what mathematicians soberly call the Hausdorff dimension. But if you swam around the island, keeping about half a mile offshore, you’d probably only need to cover about 2,000 miles (which seems so much more doable!). Whichever number you choose, long stretches of the UK coast don’t get the attention they deserve – and as lockdown drags on, their salty call intensifies. Here are five of my favourites – worthy of exploration, as restrictions allow. Continue reading...

Should you book a holiday for 2021 yet? And what about refunds?

Travel sites were buzzing after Boris Johnson unveiled his Covid lockdown exit plan, but much is still uncertain It has been one of the main topics of conversation all week: can we – should we – book a holiday for 2021? And will we be able to get our money back if it does not work out? Within hours of Boris Johnson presenting his plan on Monday to move England out of lockdown, travel websites were reporting a rush of reservations from people desperate to get a date for a break in the diary. Continue reading...

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

Explore the dynamism and contradictions of one of Asia’s most beguiling cities through its culture, novels and cuisine Few cities assail the senses as viscerally as Bangkok, from the kinetic cacophony of its street life to its aromatic herbal cures and the incendiary spice of the food. Social distancing has only briefly withheld the touch of Thai massage and the jostle of its markets. Juxtapositions startle the eye, with designs often decided by fortune tellers or sacred colours. Timber shacks abut glitzy towers of novelty shapes in the world’s third least equal society. Breakneck modernisation has sparked tensions between the cosmopolitan “hi-so” (high society) and grassroots values, while young reformers protest at the seniority system that enforces a hidden order behind the apparent chaos. Amid the hi-tech towers, a vast informal economy wheels food stalls and makes street furniture from found materials. It’s both fun and poignant to ride around the teeming centre on motorcycle taxis, converted pickup trucks or canal boats with a hinged canvas roof that lowers under bridges. Continue reading...

'Firefall' 2021 lights up in orange glory -- and Yosemite has extended the viewing

For all the world, it looks like dangerous hot lava streaming down the side of a cliff. But no, that's not volcanic activity in Yosemite National Park in California.

‘Monument to hard graft’: a post-industrial walk on Teesside’s Black Path

Maxïmo Park’s lead singer, a local, walks the trail from Middlesbrough to Redcar, through a landscape that influenced Blade Runner and Brave New World On a slow June Sunday back in 2019, I walked the historic Black Path route, from Middlesbrough to Redcar, through the heart of industrial Teesside. I was part of a “sketch-crawl” organised by Black Path Press, a community book publishing project in the South Bank district of Middlesbrough. Artist Philip Boville had been invited along to offer insights into industrial locations along the way. The walk was coordinated with River Tees Rediscovered and Groundwork, whose expert guidance opened up a part of my local area I might never have discovered. I packed a rucksack with sketchbook, pens, pencils and a picnic, and made my way to South Bank station, a half-hour walk from the start of the path, behind the Navigation Inn in Middlesbrough. Adam Phillips and Deborah Bower from Black Path Press had heard conflicting stories about where the path’s starting point might be, but felt the station was the easiest access point for visitors. As Adam pointed out, the southern side of the stunning Transporter Bridge, by the River Tees, would make a dramatic entry point for those unfamiliar with the area. Perhaps one of the reasons for this uncertainty is that the path itself fluctuates from patchy Tarmac to worn “desire paths” through the grass, even veering off on to the Trunk Road, a mundane dual carriageway, for half a mile or so. Grimy steel slag, a byproduct of steelmaking, was used for the foundations for the path, and, combined with the accumulation of industrial cinders underfoot, helped give it its name. The slag has helped to fertilise the earth around the path, allowing the pink-bloomed crown vetch, native to the Mediterranean, to thrive in this unlikely environment. Continue reading...

The 20 best soups around the world

If a bowl of soup strikes you as the ultimate in comfort, you've got plenty of company. So here are 20 of the world's best soups -- from Mexico to Japan -- to fill stomach and soul.

Dolphin 'stampede' caught on camera

A dolphin tour off the coast of Newport Beach, California, got a special treat when they encountered a "stampede" of dolphins.

Airplane seat revolution creates one of biggest beds in the sky

One of the largest beds in the sky is set to debut in just a few months time when JetBlue starts flying its A321neos from Boston and New York to London.

Risky business? Balancing Mexico's pandemic response with tourism

Along the beaches of Mexico, typically teeming with vacationers, there is a struggle between two powerful forces that won't be going anywhere anytime soon: The very real concern for health and safety during the pandemic and an equally valid concern for economic survival.

New Report: Five Trends That Will Define the Future of Business Travel

The corporate travel sector is evolving in response to the dramatic changes caused by Covid-19. But what does the future hold? Skift and TripActions explore what's next for this critical sector in this new report. -

Marriott’s New CEO Is Global Development Exec Tony Capuano

New Marriott CEO Tony Capuano can't celebrate for long: the world's largest hotel company still faces a long recovery from the global pandemic. -Cameron Sperance

Mystery of 60-year-old photos is solved

After a collection of mysterious photographs of Alaska were published on CNN, the people featured in them have step forward to identify themselves and revealed their delight at reconnecting with a past that they thought had been lost for good.

Royal Caribbean Reports $1 Billion Quarterly Loss Amid Dim 2021 Outlook

As cruises remain stuck while awaiting full vaccine rollouts, Royal Caribbean is holding out for what it calls "strong demand" for 2022. -Lebawit Lily Girma

This man has climbed every mountain in Hong Kong

Surrounded by photos, maps and other documents, 45-year-old photographer Simon Wan Chi-Chung is planning his next great Hong Kong adventure.

Airbus CEO: Could ramp up production by second half of 2021

Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury discusses how UK production levels remain competitive and how he expects air travel to go back to pre-pandemic levels by 2024 with CNN's Richard Quest.

Expedia, Others Poised for Hotel Market Share Battle Over Wholesale Sales

Hoteliers sent about $50 billion of rooms a year through wholesalers in normal times. Expedia Group and WebBeds want to take larger shares of that market. But private equity-backed companies like Hotelbeds and Fastpayhotels see an opportunity, too. -Sean O'Neill

Lunch at Venice’s Locanda Cipriani – and the recipe I took home

The Venetian lagoon is home to one of Italy’s greatest restaurants. Our gourmand recalls a dazzling lunch on its terrace, and shares one of its classic pasta recipes It was autumn in Venice. Pale mist hung over the canals in the early mornings before vaporising as the sun rose, and the city dressed up in its familiar, magical brocade of opulence and decay, like a raddled courtesan donning her finery for one last flourish. It should have been a time of melancholy, as my great adventure – spending six months pottering around the Italian islands on a Vespa – came quietly to an end in this, the most romantic and melancholy of all cities. But it wasn’t remotely melancholic. I’d met my daughter, Lois, and my old Australian chum and former rugby compadre, Rory, beneath the lions in the Piazza San Marco, and gloom and despondency proved impossible in their humorous and diverting company. The day we met, we’d dashed off to a Venetian version of a crowded English pub to watch Australia trounce England in the Rugby World Cup, a victory that naturally had to be celebrated with numerous beers and several bottles of prosecco. That rather set the pace and the tone for the days that followed – high spirits, the rambling anecdotes of two old codgers, the amused tolerance of my daughter, food here and there, drink there and here, and a dash of culture in between. Continue reading...

TSA Hiring Binge of 6000 Airport Screeners Is a Big Bet on a Travel Recovery

Travel industry executives are loathe to predict the timing of a travel recovery because there will be so many obstacles. But the U.S. Transportation Security Administration has to ensure it has the staff to handle all of that pent-up demand so it is staffing up now. -Dennis Schaal

Hilton’s Deep Loss and 9 Other Top Travel Stories This Week

In Skift's top travel stories this week, we covered Hilton's red ink, the passing of Marriott's Arne Sorenson, Tripadvisor's new subscription plan, hotel openings in Asia, and South Africa's historic equity fund. -Dennis Schaal

Six Flags Will Begin Hiring Thousands as Theme Parks Reopen

Jobs and reopenings. Those are two words the tourism industry hopes to repeat over and over again, as vaccines offer hope for a return to some kind of normal. -Tom Lowry

U.S. Airlines to Begin Voluntary Traveler Data Collection for Covid-19 Tracing

U.S. airlines will begin collecting traveler data for contact tracing as part of a new partnership with the CDC. But the voluntary nature of the program raises questions over its effectiveness slowing the spread of Covid-19. -Edward Russell

Tripadvisor’s New Subscription Plan Geared to Address Major Flaw in Its Instant Booking Initiative

Tripadvisor is trying to become a much larger transaction site again. But here are two challenges: Will the benefits be so superior to discounts you can get for free booking on HotelTonight or elsewhere? And hotels will get a break on commissions, but do they really want to train guests to book on Tripadvisor? -Dennis Schaal

4 Takeaways From Skift’s Online Travel and Distribution Summit

Profit, revenue and trends became less relevant during the pandemic so many travel businesses with deeper pockets used the standstill to rethink their strategies. Plenty of the new efforts will fail, but on the other side of the crisis, some of these businesses will look significantly different. -Dennis Schaal

Finding the middle of nowhere: hiking to Scotland's great wilderness

Memories of a winter trip to the most remote spot in Britain are a reminder of the raw beauty of the Highlands It started with a warning: “Weaklings and novices must expect to perish.” Guidebook writer Alfred Wainwright didn’t mince his words when describing the glacially scoured tract of land known as Fisherfield in Scotland’s far north-west Highlands, between the tiny townships of Kinlochewe to the south and Dundonnell to the north. It has earned the reputation of Scotland’s “great wilderness” and offers a cluster of vertiginous mountains, veined with a multitude of rivers; it is also home to a population of deer that easily outnumbers people. Continue reading...

More Than 70 Percent of Americans Intend to Travel in 2021: New Skift Research Travel Tracker

U.S. travel rate dipped to 21 percent in January, marking the second worst month since the pandemic started. But Americans are hopeful for a better 2021 ahead and travel companies need to be prepared. -Haixia Wang

Vaccine Passports Give Spain Hope To Revive Summer Tourism

Spain's was one of the hardest-hit countries from the global pandemic, yet the government has no plans to introduce quarantines on foreign visitors for the remainder of the year.  -Reem Abdellatif

Top 10 books that take children on a travel adventure: readers' tips

Here are classic tales to inspire infant wanderlust, from wizard’s haunts to wordless worlds and the remote Australian bush My six-year-old daughter Daphne and I love to say au revoir to our four walls and escape to Paris with Ruby the hare in Ruby Red Shoes Goes to Paris by Kate Knapp. Along with her grandmother Babushka, Ruby samples all the delights of Paris – the Eiffel tower, Café de Flore, markets, fountains and florists. We dream of the day when we can lie in a Parisian park eating “buttered baguettes and huge peaches” so delicious they make Ruby light-headed. Heaven! Sarah Hamilton, Norwich Continue reading...

Marriott’s Arne Sorenson Upended Travel Distribution 🔒

Arne Sorenson was a maverick in his own way. He quietly visited Airbnb headquarters in 2014 to get a better understanding of short-term rentals, which culminated in Marriott's Homes & Villas. And he found a way to have a mutually beneficial relationship with those "evil" online travel agencies. -Dennis Schaal

30 classic Italian dishes that everyone should try

Think of Italy and you're likely to think of food first, and all the other beautiful things it offers second.

The Role of Vaccines in the Travel Rebound: Latest Skift Recovery Index

The world has become obsessed with vaccination drives, testing, and health passports. How best to reopen destinations to domestic and international visitors in coming months will be much discussed. The efficacy around all of those approaches will certainly play a central role in governments’ decision-making. -Wouter Geerts

Quarantine hotel users in England face £1,200 bill for positive Covid test

‘Red list’ arrivals will run up charges to extend stay if they test positive, on top of £1,750 initial fee * Coronavirus – latest updates * See all our coronavirus coverage Travellers in quarantine hotels in England face an additional bill of up to £1,200 if they test positive for coronavirus during their stay, the government has revealed. British and Irish nationals or UK residents who have been in so-called red list countries in the previous 10 days are required to book a 10-day quarantine package costing £1,750 per adult, as the government seeks to limit the spread of new and potentially more dangerous coronavirus variants arriving from abroad. Continue reading...

'Sweetheart clause' allows couples to reunite amid pandemic

Thousands of long-distance couples have been separated by travel bans since the pandemic began. Some countries, including France, have introduced a "sweetheart clause" allowing non-married binational couples to reunite. CNN's Cyril Vanier has more.

Portugal’s Once-Booming Tourism Sector Suffers Worst Slump Since 1980s

Portugal may have fared better than other European nations in the first wave of Covid-19, but the country's flourishing tourism sector still wasn't able to withstand the storm of the global pandemic. -Reem Abdellatif

Dubai Airport Expects Tough Year After 2020 Passenger Numbers Fall 70 Percent at Middle East’s Busiest Hub

Dubai Airports is set to face another brutal year in terms of traffic. The road to recovery is uncertain since the once-busy emirate and the wider UAE don't have domestic flight networks to lean on as the drop in global travel takes a heavy toll on the economy. -Reem Abdellatif

Why this will be the hottest airplane seat in 2021

Premium economy. The two words might seem a weird combination in airline terms, since it's a rare airline where economy seats feel premium these days. But these seats between coach and business class on international flights were heating up even before Covid-19, and as we all start to travel again in 2021, they're set to be a must-fly for many passengers.

The falafel is part of my Israeli psyche – here’s my recipe

This London chef and author is missing proper streetside falafel dripping with hot sauce and tahini – but they can be recreated at home If there is one thing I learned after a year away from my home country it is that I am, in fact, an Israeli cliche. What I miss most – family, friends and winter sunshine not withstanding – is a proper streetside falafel. There are a lot of good things to eat in Israel; the produce is amazing: tomatoes taste good all year round, cucumbers are sweet and crunchy. There are lots of traditional and modern bakeries and, now more than ever before, there are great restaurants with local and international cuisine. But for me, it is still the local falafel stall that is my first port of call, for a portion (mana – a whole pitta) or a half (hetzi mana). This delicacy needs to be eaten in the street, in the sun, in a pitta stuffed to the brink of explosion Continue reading...

How Italy changed Stanley Tucci

A year in Florence as a boy changed the actor's life and put him on the path he's still on today. Now, he's returned to the country of his origins to explore how the history of Italy is entwined with its food - and why what Americans think of as Italian food is far from the reality.

Pitch perfect: how glamping could salvage our summer

Demand for pitches, caravans and campsites in the UK is off the scale, with new venues appearing regularly While transport secretary Grant Shapps might not be planning a summer break given his declaration that “people shouldn’t be booking holidays right now”, it seems that many others are. Bookings for glamping and camping places have surged to record levels, a rise matched by the rapid growth in new sites. “We’ve had the busiest January and February yet in terms of bookings,” says James Warner Smith, founder of Cool Camping. Continue reading...

In search of light on the edge of Ireland

In a window between lockdowns, we discovered the cinematic coastline of Louth, Ireland’s smallest county, with its wide, empty beaches and rare wildlife At the very beginning of our first lockdown, I copied a line from US poet Maggie Nelson’s book Bluets and stuck it to my wall. The words are about aiming to be “a student not of longing but of light” . In these oddly boned days, that quote guides me onwards. Now that travel of any form has shape-shifted so vastly – as we’re held so firmly in one place – how might we navigate those delicate paths between longing and reality? Travel, for many of us, has long been a way to keep our creative flames lit. Seeing new places, experiencing unfamiliar things, meeting people different from ourselves: these are the kindling for our fire. Here in Ireland we are once more locked down to within 5km of our homes. Rather than giving in to the ache for all the places I cannot go, I’ve been gazing back at when I discovered the east coast of this island for the first time. In summer, as soon as we could leave our county, my partner and I decided to visit the smallest Irish county of all – Louth, north of Dublin on the Northern Ireland border. We packed the dog, swimming gear, books and a picnic and headed off: in search of light. There is something quite ancient in feeling about setting off from the exact centre of a piece of land in search of one of its edges. I wonder if our views on pilgrimage might now shift a little, as we become more measured and mindful in the places we seek out, and the ways we interact with them. Continue reading...

Travel Execs Branson, Sternlicht Latest to Join SPAC Craze

The momentum for so-called SPACs, or blank check companies, shows no signs of slowing down with some high-profile names getting in on the action. Let the deals begin. -Tom Lowry

30 UK campsites to book now for summer 2021

We’ve rounded up the best camping and glamping getaways … assuming the Great British Summer gets the green light, that is Before you book, check individual campsite Covid refund and rescheduling policies Continue reading...

Why Air Canada Is Leaning Into a Covid Testing Mandate as Other Airlines Balk

Air Canada places the blame for a "grim" 2020 on Covid-19 and what it sees as onerous restrictions from the Canadian government. But it's betting that it can convince the government to replace quarantines with a testing mandate, and maybe even some financial relief for airlines. -Edward Russell

Portugal’s Tourism Sector Will Get Government Support

The impact of the travel industry collapsing is so much greater than the cost of supporting it during this pandemic. It is essential for governments to help. -Jason Clampet

'We cannot live like this for ever': readers on booking summer holidays

Four Britons on the pros and cons of taking trips in the UK amid conflicting government advice * Coronavirus – latest updates * See all our coronavirus coverage Amid confusing messaging from the government on whether or not to book summer holidays in the UK, Matt Hancock on Thursday asked people to be “patient”, warning that there was still “a lot of uncertainty”. On Tuesday, Hancock said he had booked a family holiday to Cornwall. The Guardian spoke to four Britons about their plans to attempt at least a UK getaway this summer. Continue reading...

Ministers to discuss 'vaccine passports' as patience urged over holidays

Proposal is still at early stage but could become global approach to reopen international travel * Coronavirus – latest updates * See all our coronavirus coverage Ministers are to discuss the development of “vaccine passports” for travel on Friday, after the health secretary, Matt Hancock, urged the public to be patient about making holiday plans. If the proposal gets the go-ahead, several Whitehall departments are expected to be involved in drawing up the system, which would form the UK’s contribution to what could become a global approach to proving who has been vaccinated. Continue reading...