Geneva Tourism Unveils Inaugural Geneva Food Guide in Collaboration With Expert Sébastien Ripari

It has been nearly eight years since my three Welsh children have visited my family in the United States. Even though I would have loved to make the eight-hour plane trip with them more often, logistics, the pandemic, and cost have kept us away.

Jun 25, 2024 • 7 min read

The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) today unveiled the remarkable growth of Travel & Tourism in France last year, with the sector’s GDP contribution surging by nearly 6% year-on-year to a record-breaking €246BN. According to the global tourism body’s latest research, in 2023, Travel & Tourism soared 4.3% above the previous peak, representing 8.8% of France’s total economic output, signalling a year of significant growth for the sector.

A delegation from the Capital of the Centre of the World will attend LATA Expo 2024 to interact and network with representatives from the UK and European tourism industries.

Delta Air Lines announced it would launch a new seasonal service between Orlando International Airport and London Heathrow Airport (LHR), starting on October 26.

A touch of French elegance has landed at Los Angeles International Airport — and it’s here just in time for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Air France revealed its new 11,840-square-foot lounge, the airline’s first at LAX and sixth overall in the U.S. 

Welcome back to our Saturday edition! Kylie Kelce and her husband, y'know, the former Philadelphia Eagles power player Jason Kelce, are outnumbered at home. The couple has three girls and are adamant about not letting fame affect their family.

The sun was finally peaking through the storm clouds when I cracked open The New Tourist on a train headed out of Amsterdam. I’d absolutely loved the city, even in pouring rain—canals around every corner, beautiful public parks, some of the most charming architecture I’d ever encountered. But I’d also spent the vast majority of my time outside the inner ring, venturing into the historic, heavily touristed city center just once, to hop on a boat tour. I’d wanted to avoid being part of the overcrowding that much of Amsterdam has experienced due to a surge in tourism in recent years. (In 2010, there were 5.3 million overnight hotel stays in the city. Last year, there were 9.4 million. Complaining about tourism is now a frequent refrain among locals and visitors alike.) Put less charitably, I wanted to avoid any possibility of being mistaken for a “tourist” in the most pejorative sense.

As one of the most famous tourist destinations in the world, the question invariably arises: Do you tip in Paris? For many of us, tipping at restaurants and for various services is an ingrained habit, depending on our local customs. But as always, when traveling to different countries, we inevitably should learn and respect another set of rules—and that includes how much to tip. Fortunately, especially for travelers from the United States, tipping in Paris—and in Europe generally—is really quite simple: Tipping is not expected in French culture, at least not as much as it is in American culture.

After being delayed for years, the EU’s Entry/Exit System (EES) is expected to come into force this autumn.

Spanish tourism is booming. According to its National Institute of Statistics, April saw a record 7.8 million visitors enter the country, which received 24 million travellers overall in the first quarter of 2024, up 18 per cent from the previous year.  

You don't have to be a die-hard Taylor Swift fan for the (record-breaking!) Eras Tour to be on your radar. Each weekend, she lights up the stage—there in her glittering prime, the lights refracting sequined stars off her silhouette every night—during over three hours of sparkly Broadwayesque performances, rolling into cities all over the globe from New York to Tokyo to Melbourne to Madrid. Finally, this summer, London gets its own taste of the Taylor Swift show. The Eras Tour has sold out eight dates at Wembley between June and August, equating to nearly one million Swifties descending on the city.