Etihad Airways' beloved Airbus A380 has returned to the US after four years. It landed at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport just after 10 a.m. on Monday after a more than 14-hour trek from Abu Dhabi.
08.04.2024 - 15:35 / insider.com
As millions of Americans get ready to watch the total solar eclipse on Monday — an event NASA has described as rare and "spectacular" — the phenomenon also stands to lift local economies.
Various industries are poised to benefit from the millions of tourists flocking to cities in Texas, Ohio, and New York, which are on the eclipse's "path of totality" and offer the best views of the ring around the sun.
According to NASA, this year's eclipse is set to last three to four minutes, longer than the last solar eclipse in 2017. People who miss this one will not be able to see another in the contiguous US until 2044 or 2045, the agency said.
Up to 3.7 million people are slated to travel tothe path of the eclipse, joining the 31 million people already living along the stretch, according to predictions by eclipse-tracking website Great American Eclipse.
Visitors are expected to spend big: They'll shell out up to $1.6 billion on lodging, activities, food, and gas, Texas-based economic consultancyPerryman Group estimates.
Here are some of the industries seeing big boosts from Monday's eclipse.
The budget hotel chain Super 8 has over 300 locations within the path of totality, per the New York Times. About 100 of these hotels are sold out for Sunday or Monday, according to the hotel chain's website.
One two-star Super 8 branch in Grayville, Illinois, is advertising rooms between $765 and $949 from Sunday through Tuesday. On most days, the rooms typically cost $80, the Super 8 website shows.
Higher-end hotels are also seeing similar spikes. A JW Marriott in Dallas listed a standard room for $1,039 for Sunday night. It typically costs between $355 and $482, the website said.
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Visitors are flocking to Airbnbs, too. As of March 25, occupancy rates for April 7 soared to 88% across 110,000 active listings on the path of totality, according to vacation-rental data company AirDNA.
People can permanently damage their eyesight by looking straight into the sun during an eclipse, so NASA recommends specific solar-filtering glasses.
The eye-protection guidelines translated into huge sales for some glasses manufacturers.
Tennessee-based American Paper Optics, the country's largest producer of protective eclipse eyeglasses, has seen a big jump in sales, compared to the last total eclipse in 2017.
The company started taking eclipse orders two years in advance, John Jerit, the company's founder, told NPR on Friday. The glasses sold for $1.50 to $2 a piece.
"We've shipped already about 70 million glasses, and I suspect I'm going to approach right at 75 million by the time next week comes," Jerit said.
American Paper Optics sold out of glasses this year, after producing about 30 million more glasses than it did for
Etihad Airways' beloved Airbus A380 has returned to the US after four years. It landed at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport just after 10 a.m. on Monday after a more than 14-hour trek from Abu Dhabi.
Indian travelers have an increased interest in weekend getaways and spiritual tourism, according to online travel agency MakeMyTrip’s first-ever travel trends report. Searches for destinations with or around religious spots increased by 97% in the last two years, the platform stated in the report, which was released on Monday.
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Mainland Europe’s first total solar eclipse since 1999 is just 850 days away. Where will you be? As excitement dies down from the “Great American Eclipse,” eclipse chasers are turning their attention to Wednesday, August 12, 2026, when a 183-190-mile-wide moon shadow moves across remote Siberia, Greenland, Iceland and Spain.
For the April 8 total solar eclipse, photographer Levi Mandel traveled to Buffalo, New York, to observe the celestial event—and the many others who journeyed for it. Below, he shares the experience through text and photos.
The totality of an eclipse is never long enough. My first total solar eclipse experience in 2017 made for the shortest two minutes of my life: the sun transforming into a blazing diamond ring, the beautiful delirium of darkness, that perfect circle in the sky. Before I knew it, the eclipse was over—and my friends and I were plotting how we could catch our next.
It'll be two decades before the next total solar eclipse hits the US.
Accurate weather forecasts for Monday’s path of totality weren’t available until a few days ago, but scientists have confirmed that cumulus clouds over land begin to disappear almost instantly when a partial solar eclipse begins.
A total solar eclipse is coming to the U.S.—but not everyone is invited. On Monday, April 8, the moon will be close enough to Earth to appear just larger than the sun as it crosses its disk, casting a shadow that will move across the planet at about 1,500 mph.
Ninety-nine years ago, there was a landmark total solar eclipse in New York City. It split the city into two—the haves and the have-nots—with those to the north of 96th Street glimpsing a totally eclipsed sun and those to the south merely seeing a partial eclipse.
On Monday, April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse will be visible within parts of North America. If weather is permitting and there aren’t cloudy skies, total visibility will start along Mexico’s Pacific Coast. In the United States, the path of totality, which is the narrow ribbon of places where the full eclipse can be viewed, goes from Texas to Maine. NASA is offering a map that shows the path of totality as well as a timetable of when the eclipse should appear in some of the major locations where it can be viewed.