Dawit Habtemariam travel tips

The U.S. travel industry is cheering on the Biden Administration’s new push to get more federal employees back into the office. 

U.S. tourism businesses just finished their first post-pandemic sales missions to China — their first trips in four years.

International tourism reached 84% of its pre-pandemic level between January and July 2023, according to the UN World Tourism Organization. Around 700 million tourists traveled internationally.

Global companies are investing in tourism projects again after taking a break during the pandemic, but they have a long way to catch up to their 2019 level, according to a report by UN World Tourism Organization and fDi Intelligence.

In the first half of 2023, Europe experienced tis hight number of tourist stays in the past decade, according to the Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency. Europe recorded 1.19 billion night stays between January and June 2023, up by 0.9% and 12.9% from the same period in 2019 and 2022, respectively.

Maui’s tourism recovery has been moving at a sluggish pace since the wildfires devastated the island’s western region in early August. One factor: Tourists have been slow to return out of sensitivity to locals.

Over 10 million Americans traveled abroad in June, a 20% rise from the same period last year, according to the National Travel and Tourism Office’s latest data. June’s volume was 99% of its 2019 pre-pandemic level.

Hawaii will reopen most of West Maui to tourists starting on October 8, Governor Josh Green announced on Friday. Only Lahaina will be remained closed to the public. Tourists will be able to visit Kā‘anapali, Nāpili, Honokōwai, and Kapalua.

Brazil will mandate visitors from the U.S., Australia and Canada obtain an e-visa prior to entering the country starting January 10, 2024, according to Embratur, Brazil tourism’s board.

International travelers spent $18 billion on travel to, and within the U.S. in July., down by $1.5 billion from its pre-pandemic level, according to the National Travel and Tourism Office’s latest data. Spending on strictly goods and services like recreation, lodging and food totaled $9.7 billion in July 2023.

With the pandemic now over, what’s the future of tourism? What does the decline of full-time office employees mean for tourism and business travel? Why hasn’t U.S. solved its visa delay mess? We’ll discuss these topics with the executives of NYC Tourism+Conventions, U.S. Travel Association, Visit Britain, Intrepid Travel and others on-stage at the Skift Global Forum in New York on September 26-28. 

Destination DC will spend nearly $20 million on marketing in an upcoming advertising campaign as the city deals with a slow travel recovery.

Norwegian Cruise Line’s Pride of America will resume its weekly trips to Kahului, Maui starting on September 3, the cruise company announced on Wednesday. Norwegian Cruise suspended trips to the island in early August to avoid taking up local resources dedicated toward relief and combating the wildfires in West Maui.

In just the past few days, there have been two key moves that ease restrictions for travel from China to the U.S. Tourism officials have been clear that the lifting of these restrictions is critical to a full recovery –though key hurdles remain. On Thursday, China lifted pandemic-era group tour restrictions for the U.S. and other key markets. Before the lift, Chinese travel agencies were banned from selling outbound group or package travel to the U.S.

Royal Caribbean Group received a strong boost in its booking volume thanks to relaxed Covid protocols, the cruise company’s executives said on an earnings call Thursday. 

Visit Iceland launched a new campaign to attract space tourists on Tuesday. Called “Mission Iceland,” the campaign kicked off on November 16 with the launch of a billboard into space with the message: “Iceland. Better than Space.”

Croatia will be joining the Schengen area in the new year. Starting January 1, travelers will be able to move passport-free between Croatia and the 26 member countries that make up the Schengen area.

The travel spending gap between outbound American travelers and inbound international travelers amounted to $802 million in September, the third month this year with a deficit for the U.S., according to the National Travel and Tourism Office. In May and June, the U.S. also experienced a spending a gap of $800 million.

Brazil will remain a challenging place for ultra low-cost carriers (ULCC) to successfully operate due to its legal environment, high labor and fuel costs and burdens for flight disruptions.  

Yosemite National Park will not have a reservation system for the summer of 2023 and will embark on a process of gathering community input as whether it should to reinstate it in the future. Yosemite put a reservation system in place for two years because of the pandemic and continued it because of park construction projects. But the reservation requirement set off a chain of consequences for local communities, including traffic jams because cars weren’t allowed to drive through the park.

Norwegian Cruise Line grew its occupancy level despite increasing its pricing in the third quarter. The cruise company expects it will fill its ships in 2023 even with higher pricing and uncertain macroeconomic conditions, executives said during an earnings call Tuesday.