Travel in Russia

The Skift Travel Health Index indicates a bright tourism outlook this summer. The latest June 2023 Highlights Report shows global travel performance outpacing 2019 levels by 4 percentage points. The index now stands at 104, gaining 1 point over the previous month.

Demand for U.S. visas from Indian travelers are at record highs. But 500-day wait times or longer continue to hinder travel to the U.S.  

Born and raised in Hebei—the province that, on the map, appears to wrap two arms around Beijing in a loving hug—restaurateur Amy Li moved to the Chinese capital some 26 years ago to live and work. In the time since, she and husband Jonathan Ansfield have run several food businesses (the latest, Vietnamese restaurant Susu, was conceived after a friend observed a dearth of such cuisine in the city.) Li loves Beijing's multifaceted nature, citing both the “powerful sense of order” wrought by such landmarks as the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and the Wall as well as the messy chaos of Old Beijing's hutong—here, she lays out what you can't miss of the old as well as the new on a visit.

…

The museum owns over 200 aircraft previously operated by the Yugoslav Air Force (both royal and communist), Serbian Air Force, and others, as well as aircraft previously flown by several civil airliners and private flying clubs.

This is an as-told-to essay based on a conversation with Chloe Jade, an influencer who has been documenting her travels around the world on Instagram . It has been edited for length and clarity.

People like to ask travel and food writers about their favorite countries for eating. I name the usual suspects—Italy, Mexico, Japan. And then there’s my dark horse: Georgia (“the country,” I sometimes clarify, depending on my audience). The country is an ancient melting pot at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, Russia and the Middle East; a place with a complicated history; a self-proclaimed capital of life, love, food and wine in the “forgotten backyard of Europe.”

According to the World Economic Outlook (WEO) Report, the global economy will grow an estimated 3.0% in 2023 and 2.9% in 2024. While this is higher than previous forecasts, it is nevertheless below the 3.5% rate of growth recorded in 2022, pointing to the continued impacts of the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and from the cost-of-living crisis.

Emerald Palace Group (EPG) is proud to announce a groundbreaking partnership with Raffles Branded Residences, heralding a new era of high-quality living with the unveiling of “The Contemporary Collection” of Raffles The Palm Residences & Penthouses, strategically situated on the prestigious West Crescent of The Palm Jumeirah Island in Dubai.

After Sri Lanka and Thailand, Vietnam is likely to be the next destination to offer visa-free entry to Indians. According to local media, Vietnam Minister of Culture, Sports, and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung suggested it allow Indians and Chinese to visit without a visa for a short period. As of now, only nationals of Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland can enter Vietnam without a visa.

If you think European holiday destinations have been crowded this year, you’re right.

One knock-on effect of the conflicts taking place in Europe and the Middle East is that airlines and passengers are seeing an increase in costs and flight times, as planes have to be rerouted across large parts of the world.

After he closed Cyrus, the Healdsburg, Calif., restaurant for which he’d earned two Michelin stars, in 2012, it took the chef Douglas Keane a decade to scout the dream locale for his new restaurant.

Go up north for festive fun in the city of Manchester, with the main market hub situated in Albert Square, twinkling beneath the town hall. Follow the trail of market stalls through the city centre to find little Christmas gems – including amber jewellery, Belgian chocolate and French soaps.

Dubai will stage its high-profile aerospace pageant next week against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza that is pushing up demand for weapons while closing airspace and making flights longer and more expensive for some airlines.

The strong earthquake swarm that started this week near Grindavik on Iceland's Reykjanes peninsula is caused by magma forming a dike - a vertical fissure-shaped intrusion at shallow depth, which allows the magma to rise and get closer to an eruption. This now threatens one of Iceland's most important tourism regions and is home to the iconic Blue Lagoon Resort. Civil Protection just declared a Level Orange emergency, and residents of Grindavík were told to evacuate.

In the two years before the war in Ukraine, a private Boeing 737 linked to Russian oligarch Vladimir Yevtushenkov criss-crossed the globe, taking in the French Riviera, the Maldives and Seychelles along with world capitals and financial centres.

There are numerous wellness retreats dotted around the world but it’s hard to find one more comprehensive than SHA Spain, named World’s Best Wellness Clinic 2023 at the World Spa Awards, for its array of wellness/medical analyses and regimens including some pretty esoteric ones. (A notable one I discovered during a stay there: post traumatic stress disorder treatment for kidnapped Russian oligarchs.) All aspects of this clinic are exacting from the skills of the practitioners to the culinary creations, engineered for nutritional aims but with complexity and flavor. It's casual, though: everyone pads around in their terry robes even in the dining room (with the exception of some women who were dressed to the nines with furs.) And for those who want to experience the benefits of their approach closer to the U.S., a new SHA is opening in Mexico in January; reservations opened this week.

Have you heard the news? Paris is positively teeming with bedbugs. Yep, this autumn, the blood-sucking insects have been crawling all over the French capital, taking a bite out of citizens and travelers alike. In addition to being spotted on beds in hotels and private residences—precisely where you would expect the little critters to be hanging out—there have been bedbug sightings on buses & trains, in airports and even at movie theaters. (Hey, I know Barbenheimer was a big deal, but this is ridiculous.)    How did we find out about this infestation? It's 2023, how else? Videos of supposed bedbug sightings were shared via wobbly social media posts, gaining traction with shocked viewers and amateur exterminators alike. Predictably, the bedbug content set the algorithm alight, going viral and spawning memes and many a reaction video from influencers who wanted to talk about bedbugs, you know, "because a lot of you are asking".  Then, the story swept into traditional media. What followed was a slew of news stories about the "invasion", the panic surrounding it and how it all comes a mere 10 months before millions of people from all over the world are set to descend on the City of Light for the Summer Olympics. People wondered why this was happening now. Was it because of the Rugby World Cup? Paris Fashion Week? Or were bedbugs simply just getting out there and traveling again post-Covid? The fervor reached such a level that, back in early October, it was reported by Reuters that Emmanuel Gregoire, Paris's deputy mayor, said in a letter to Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne that "The state urgently needs to put an action plan in place against this scourge as France is preparing to welcome the Olympic and Paralympic games in 2024,". 

About two-thirds of European destinations remain below their pre-pandemic number of international tourist arrivals, according to the European Travel Commission’s quarterly report released Tuesday. The report covered the first nine months of 2023.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand unveiled a new marketing campaign “Meaningful Relationship” at the World Travel Market event in London on Monday.

Egypt tourism is facing cancellations from many American tourists due to the Israel-Hamas war.