New York City Names New Tourism Boss

The New York City Council on Wednesday passed a hotel licensing bill that has sparked an intense debate between supporters who claim it will improve safety and working conditions and opponents who argue it will hobble the hotel industry.

Over the past decade, Louis Vuitton has been gradually expanding its reach far beyond fashion. Since the launch of Fondation Louis Vuitton in 2014, the brand has firmly established itself as a major player in the art world, with biannual exhibitions and collaborations with top artists like Yayoi Kusama. In appointing Pharrell Williams as creative director in 2023, Louis Vuitton tapped further into the zeitgeist, refreshing the brand's image and broadening both its appeal and its dedication to cultural excellence.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Wednesday, October 23, 2024, and here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today. 

NYC Tourism + Conventions, the city’s official destination marketing organization, announced Tuesday that it had named Julie Coker its next president and CEO.

Finland's flagship carrier, Finnair, will expand in the United States next summer, launching its largest-ever schedule from the U.S. to Finland.

Aer Lingus is launching service to a new U.S. city, helped by the arrival of its newest aircraft type.

Newark’s airport is getting a major makeover with a pair of new and enhanced terminals to bring the aging airport into the modern era.

New York City's luxury hotel scene just keeps getting better. And next spring, the city will welcome one of the trendiest hotel brands of them all: Faena.

Four Seasons Hotel New York, one of the most iconic hotels in the Big Apple, is officially reopening next month after years of closure. It's now accepting reservations for stays starting Nov. 15.

In 2014, when the artist Dan McCarthy moved from Brooklyn into a converted schoolhouse in upstate New York, he decided the grand hall would be a future gathering spot for his many Facepots: large, wonky vessels decorated with a spectrum of grins and grimaces. The earliest ones, about a decade old, recall a time of emotional swings. “I hadn’t even found the clay that worked,” McCarthy says of that experimental phase, “so a lot of the pots were breaking in the kiln.” He learned to relinquish control, repairing the salvageable works using the Japanese technique known as kintsugi, in which mended seams are accented in silver or gold. The Facepots brought a new openness to McCarthy’s practice, as did the Hudson Valley. Absent the city’s pressures, he explains, “I was like a kid — on my hands and knees, lost in making a thing.” “Freedom,”a new monograph of McCarthy’s work, charts that arc, with nods to his Southern California upbringing, seen in rainbow-colored paintings of surfers and songbirds perched on guitars. Birds also animate new ceramic works in his solo exhibition at the Tokyo gallery Kosaku Kanechika, on view through Nov. 16. For McCarthy, these first faceless pots offer a shift in narrative. “Instead of a vessel, maybe it’s a nest,” he says, describing a fascination with his neighborhood birds. Kintsugi-like detailing appears on these pieces, too: Silver-leafed slabs camouflage the occasional split, while shiny rectangles evoke the little mirrors tucked inside birdcages. For the artist, fresh off his first flight to Japan, it’s a time of possibility. “I’m 62, which is old and not,” McCarthy says. “I think I’ve got another act in me. It should be an adventure.”

A presidential campaign. A hurricane. A cult-favorite cabbage slaw.

Amtrak currently operates 39 routes, with trains criss-crossing the country to service 500 destinations in 46 states. Starting November 10, 2024, however, the number of Amtrak routes will go down one notch to reach a total of 38. Amtrak is cancelling two routes and launching a brand new one between Chicago and Miami called The Floridian.