How Bristol is breathing new life into its maritime quarter

Airbnb and New York City have often had a tough relationship, one marked by lawsuits and other disputes. Airbnb has argued that New York City’s regulations have hurt its ability to do business, which the company believes will become more challenging when the city starts enforcing its host registration law regarding short-term rentals on September 5.

More than London at the moment, Bristol seems to encapsulate the contradictions, energy and frustrations of the British nation. This city, which straddles the River Avon, is small (the population was just under 500,000 in 2019) but it punches well above its weight when it comes to politics and art. When a group of activists threw the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol harbour in June 2020, it focussed attention on Britain’s historic role in the slave trade. (Colston, who had endowed schools, almshouses and hospitals in Bristol had, in the 17th century, been instrumental in the transportation of at least 84,000 enslaved people during his involvement with the Royal African Company). Nowhere in Britain voted more fervently to remain in Europe (62 per cent versus 38 per cent voting to leave).

In June, a couple of US tourists went viral after they claimed Europeans do not "believe in regular water consumption" and criticized how water costs money in restaurants across Europe. The tourists were met with confused backlash from some viewers, including one TikToker who said she believed people from the US were getting scammed if they were paying for water.

Google Flights has introduced a new feature to help travelers answer the perennial question: “Should I buy my flights now or wait and hope the price decreases?” The tech company has long offered users insight into whether the airfares they’re looking at are low, typical, or high compared with historical price averages for that particular route. Now, Google is offering users data on what time frames have traditionally been the cheapest for the route they’re searching so travelers can make more informed decisions about their booking.

Flight Centre, the Australian-based travel agency well known for its mass-market brands, is firmly fixed on tapping into the rising demand for luxury experiences with an expected 15 percent growth in revenue for the segment.

Although travel is poised to continue making progress in its ongoing recovery in 2023, the industry still faces challenges in its quest to surpass pre-pandemic tourism levels.

Destinations and attractions are investing in virtual and augmented reality technologies to drive interest and foot traffic to historical attractions. During the ITB Berlin conference last week, some attractions, tech providers and destinations discussed how such technologies will heighten the visitor experience.

It’s like that bunny in the old Energizer battery commercials: Still going.

Like many others who follow innovation in the tech space, we’ve been covering advances in how the companies we cover get creative with AI. In order to bring all our coverage together, this week we launched a new weekly newsletter digest that will deliver all of our AI stories to subscribers’ inboxes every Friday. You can read more about the newsletter and also subscribe here.

Tens of thousands of revellers, including hordes of foreign tourists sporting floral shirts and plastic water guns, descended on the streets of Bangkok on Thursday for the biggest traditional new year gathering since the pandemic.

One was an old dairy factory in Stuttgart. Another, an old bread factory in Salzburg. In Cologne, there’s also a former headquarters of German federal intelligence. Now – they are all a&o hostels. You can stay at one for about 43 dollars a day.

As business travel struggles in its post-pandemic recovery, Amex Global Business Travel (GBT) is using its acquisition of the Egencia corporate-travel management platform to focus on securing business from a key growth market: small- and medium-sized businesses.