Indonesia Asks Booking, Expedia to Register to Avoid Ban

United Airlines is offering pilots unpaid time off in May due to delivery delays with Boeing aircraft, the airline confirmed Monday. 

Luxury travel has grown in popularity in recent years, with the sector’s boom expected to continue this year. So what are the major trends in luxury travel?

While Baltimore is home to its fair share of world-class museums and historic landmarks, this storied Maryland city is also home to one of the east coast’s most stellar seafood scenes—a fact that local restaurateur Chef Jasmine Norton knows all too well. A Charm City native, Chef Norton’s deep affinity for the world of gastronomy has led to appearances on the Food Network’s Guy’s Grocery Games and Chopped, while 2024 saw a particularly exciting development with the grand debut of her first brick-and-mortar restaurant The Urban Oyster. Officially opened in February, this polished venue serves as the first Black woman-owned oyster bar in the nation, with a wide array of savory seafood dishes all gracing the menu.

Corporate travel could get complicated: Expedia Group has a big stake in Amex Global Business Travel. Booking.com is partners with CWT. What happens to those relationships if the merger between Amex GBT and CWT goes through? Amex GBT CEO Paul Abbott specifically noted CWT’s ties to Booking.com for Business as an upside to the deal as it tries to reach more small businesses customers.

The period after the Great Financial Crisis in 2008-2009 until 2019 was a golden decade for online travel agencies. Booking and Expedia benefitted from the shift to online bookings, a consolidation of the online distribution landscape, and share gains from hotels. They become the most powerful duopoly in online travel. 

India, already the world’s largest emerging outbound travel market, is in the midst of a travel boom as 63% of Indian travelers said they’re planning to increase their travel budgets for 2024. In addition, Indian travelers are projected to become the fourth-largest global spender on travel by 2030.

It’s a not-so-hidden secret that traveling during shoulder season—when prices are cheaper, crowds are thinner, and weather is cooler—can lead to a much more enjoyable trip. But for many families with school-aged children, travel is often limited to major holidays, spring break, and summer vacation; times when prices and crowds can reach a fever pitch.

A flight to tourist hot spot Bali had to make an emergency landing after a disruptive passenger shouted at other customers and banged on the cockpit door.

The Asia-Pacific region is expected to play a key role in the travel industry’s growth this year. Skift Research projected the region would see travel revenue jump 20% in 2024 from the previous year as outbound travel from China is expected to increase substantially.

In Bali, opting for beans made from the poop of civets is the most expensive way to take your coffee. Every year, tourists travel to the Indonesian island and drink civet coffee — locally known as kopi luwak — at the more than a dozen cafés and farms listed on Google Maps.

In one 5-second TikTok from Booking.com, a woman who planned a marriage proposal on an upcoming trip faints when she learns her partner has broken up with her.

The global post-lockdown travel boom has continued year after year with no slowdown in sight, but even by these standards Thailand’s capital is ultra-popular. Bangkok has never been hotter, and last year made travel industry headlines when a Mastercard report named it the most visited city in the world for 2023. This is a distinction a few places claim, and the numbers often conflict, but there’s no doubt that Bangkok is near the top of all cities on earth in popularity, is getting more U.S. travelers than ever, and is both a destination in its own right, the gateway to the rest of Thailand, and a major gateway to the entire Pacific Rim. When I visited the Anantara Siam Bangkok Hotel before the pandemic, I loved it. But when I returned at the end of 2023, it was even better.