Travel in city Delhi, India

Eighteen months ago, when the New York-based T writer at large Aatish Taseer began planning his reporting trips for this month’s three-part feature story — an exploration of religious travel in Bolivia, Mongolia and Iraq — he was already well acquainted with the idea of pilgrimage. His first book, the 2009 memoir “Stranger to History,” opens with what is arguably the world’s best-known faith-motivated journey, the hajj to Mecca, and ends with what he describes as a personal pilgrimage to meet his estranged father in Pakistan. In Delhi, India, where Taseer grew up, quick trips for the purpose of worship were commonplace. “People would do a pilgrimage on an ordinary Sunday,” he says, “instead of going to an amusement park.”

3,300 departures per week, 160 destinations around the globe.

We are excited to announce the venue for the inaugural Skift India Summit – The Leela Ambience Gurugram Hotel and Residences, located in the heart of Delhi, India. Set against the backdrop of luxury and sophistication, this iconic five-star venue will play host to the Summit on March 19-20, bringing together leaders and visionaries from across the travel industry.

Sometime around 1933, two teenage cousins, Harry Hall and Will Cubbon, paid a visit to a new friend of theirs named Gef. Gef lived in a remote, windswept farmhouse on the Isle of Man. He was very shy, and the cousins could hear and talk to him, but never saw their new friend. From behind a wall, Gef would guess heads-or-tails when a coin was flipped or play catch with a rubber ball through a hole in the attic ceiling.

A revival in domestic air travel to nearly pre-pandemic level propelled India to the big leagues of major aviation markets, according to the trade body, the International Air Transport Association’s latest market analysis report. Domestic travel in India missed the pre-Covid level by 2.2 percent in February 2023 in terms of passenger revenue kilometers, the study said. The country also emerged as the top domestic market in terms of passenger load factor — which studies how efficiently an airline fills seats and generates revenue — when compared to countries such as the U.S., China and Japan, the report said. India recorded passenger load factors of 81.6 percent in February, 85.2 percent in January, 88.9 percent in December 2022, and 87.9 percent in November 2022. Domestic air passenger traffic for all markets measured for February surged 25.2 percent over the year-ago period. Besides aircraft manufacturers, international airlines too are eyeing the growth potential of the Indian aviation market. Just last week, Hungary budget carrier Wizz Air’s CEO Jozsef Varadi said India is a growing opportunity. Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways is another airline that is planning to expand its capacity in the country, as it looks to drive 20 percent growth from India in the next year, the airline’s CEO Antonoaldo Neves said during his recent visit to the country.

We’ve all seen the pictures – crystal blue waters in Venice’s canals, Delhi’s India Gate without its usual blanket of smog and pollution, and wildlife encroaching on towns and cities in ways never seen before. We’ve witnessed road traffic in the UK return to 1970s levels and marvelled at how loud the birdsong seems without the ambient noise of traffic and construction that has become the norm in built-up areas, while homes under flight paths have found themselves blissfully free of noise pollution. This brief hiatus, which has seen planes grounded, car journeys restricted and cruise ships quarantined, has prompted talk of a “reset” in travel – an opportunity to look at how we can travel in a more sustainable and responsible way.

Nicknamed ‘The Main’, this is one of the most central streets in Montreal as it links the old town to Chinatown, and Little Italy to the seaport. In summer, some of the stretch is closed to traffic while arts and jazz festivals take over and hundreds flock to the street to take part.