Europeans Travelers Opting for Early Summer Trips: European Travel Commission

Brazil will mandate visitors from the U.S., Australia and Canada obtain an e-visa prior to entering the country starting January 10, 2024, according to Embratur, Brazil tourism’s board.

In just the past few days, there have been two key moves that ease restrictions for travel from China to the U.S. Tourism officials have been clear that the lifting of these restrictions is critical to a full recovery –though key hurdles remain. On Thursday, China lifted pandemic-era group tour restrictions for the U.S. and other key markets. Before the lift, Chinese travel agencies were banned from selling outbound group or package travel to the U.S.

Azul Brazilian Airlines doesn’t expect any ultra-low cost carriers to enter Brazil any time soon. The low cost carrier has 165 aircraft that fly to 170 destinations in Brazil and will flies just under 1000 flights a day next month.

Passengers may soon be able to make phone calls on flights in the European Union thanks to a recent ruling by the European Commission. The ruling is one of two that would allow airlines and other transportation providers to provide the latest internet connection service on their trips.

The U.S. Travel Association has launched a website to highlight the negative impact of long visitor visa interview wait times—which now exceed an average of 400 days—is having on global travelers and U.S. businesses. Called USVisaDelays.com, the website lists stories of those affected, loss in industry spending, visitor wait times, impacted markets and a policy fact sheet. 

Some tourism agencies are using geolocation mobile data to identify visitors who stay with friends and relatives to hone their marketing efforts.

International inbound visitors spent more than $15.8 billion on travel to, and tourism-related activities within, the United States in October, making it the highest monthly level of spending since Covid struck in February 2020, according to the National Travel and Tourism Office. 

The pre-Covid world where people could move (relatively) freely across borders for leisure, information, education and work won’t be coming back next year, as the West will continue to shut out millions of people from Africa, Asia and Latin America due to the slow return of their visa processing staff.

Walt Disney Corporation CEO Bob Iger is optimistic about the future of Disney theme parks, even as he announced his company was cutting 7,000 jobs from its workforce, reorganizing and slashing $5.5 billion in costs during Wednesday’s first quarter earnings call. 

Despite rising household expenses, nearly 60 percent of European travelers won’t cut back on traveling or spending on trips in the next six months, according to a survey by the European Travel Commission.

While the share of the global population over the age of 65 continues to grow, the tourism industry remains behind when it comes accommodating, supporting and providing equitable access to them.

International inbound travelers spent nearly $163 billion on U.S. travel and tourism-related goods and services in 2022, up 96 percent from 2021, according to the National Travel and Tourism Office’s latest monthly data. On average, international travelers spent more than $445 million a day in 2022.