Emirates, TUI Cruises reaffirm partnership for next two seasons

The world of luxury travel has never been so buoyant. Recent launches by innovative and renowned brands are catering for a new group of ultra-luxury travellers who don’t need to look at the bill and who are demanding an increasingly exceptional way to see the world.

Ennismore’s Delano brand will open in Dubai this year on Bluewaters Island, the location of the former Caesars Palace. Delano is the same upmarket flag already found in Las Vegas and Paris.

Ever heard of “fifth freedom flights” and “the freedoms of the air”? The latter may sound more like poetic prose than legal jargon, but this phrase—unbeknownst to most casual fliers—actually denotes the five official rights that make international air travel possible.

The World Travel Awards - dubbed the ‘Oscars of tourism’ - have been announced for 2024 and two Scottish distilleries plus a number of hotels have triumphed.

There’s an old joke where a travel consultant asks a customer, “Are you interested in a world cruise?” The customer responds, “No, I’d rather go someplace else.”

The maritime and tourism authorities of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Oman have formalised the Cruise Arabia alliance. This regional partnership will promote the Arabian Gulf as a global cruise ship destination. Dubai Department for Economy and Tourism (DET) announced on Friday that an official Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by the stakeholders at the Internationale Tourismus-Börse Berlin (ITB Berlin) travel trade convention.

HCM City has been awarded “Asia’s Best MICE Destination” for a fourth year in a row. The award was announced at the 4th annual World MICE Awards gala ceremony held on March 6 in Berlin. The award is a recognition for the continued efforts of the city’s tourism sector and demonstrates global confidence in the city’s tourism potential, said Bùi Thị Ngọc Hiếu, deputy director of HCM City Department of Tourism, who received the award at the ceremony.

Minister of Tourism, Hon Edmund Bartlett is driving future tourism investment for St. Thomas which is gearing up to become Jamaica’s newest tourist destination. In a meeting with German leisure, travel and tourism company, TUI Group, it was confirmed that the company is exploring expanding its footprints in Jamaica and is showing signs of interest to invest in St. Thomas.

The World Travel Awards are some of the travel industry’s most prestigious accolades, and the winners in the European categories have been crowned at the thirty-first edition of the ceremony in Berlin. Leaders in tourism, airline, hotel and hospitality sectors are all included in the programme, but it’s the destinations themselves that we’re most excited about. And claiming the award for Europe’s next emerging destination, a title won by Batumi in Georgia for the last five years, it was Braga, a city not too far from the coast nestled in north-western Portugal.

Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Oman have signed a pact to promote cruises across all four destinations. The Cruise Arabia Alliance was forged at this week’s ITB Berlin travel trade show and is the latest development in trying to promote multi-country holidays in the Gulf.

Travel from Germany to the United States of America has returned to pre-pandemic levels. Speaking at ITB Berlin, on Wednesday the US ambassador to Germany, Amy Gutmann, stated that the two million mark has again been exceeded, and is now within 85 per cent of the 2019 figure.

Dublin’s tourism chief thinks AI can replace generic top 10 lists and travel guides – at least that’s one of the potential outcomes of his group’s new project with OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT.