Dawit Habtemariam travel tips

The Bahamas saw a January slowdown in short-term rental bookings — and, to a lesser extent, hotel reservations — following news reports about an uptick in murders and a U.S. State Department alert to travelers.

New York and Jersey are going to host the biggest match in the 2026 FIFA World Cup tournament – the final. But the other cities in the running are are getting solid consolation prizes.

Travelers can easily visit Machu Picchu again: Trains to the Incan citadel returned to service after the end of protests.

Europe may not see a tourism comeback from one of its key source markets: China. Chinese interest in traveling to Europe has dropped, according to a survey released Tuesday by the European Travel Commission.

Brand USA, America’s tourism marketing agency, is going to be advertising internationally during the Super Bowl for the first time. The ad will appear during the international broadcast in Germany and the UK.

New York and New Jersey are going to host the biggest sporting event in tourism: The 2026 World Cup Final. FIFA made the announcement on Sunday.

Iceland’s volcanic eruptions have deterred some tourists, according to an analysis of booking patterns released Thursday.

Tourists will struggle to visit Machu Picchu in the near-term because protestors have for days blocked access — with no end in sight. Peru’s government on Tuesday suspended talks with protesters.

Travelers staying in Las Vegas for the Super Bowl can expect to pay the highest hotel room rates in the football championship’s history, according to a forecast released Monday from CoStar’s STR.

Icon of the Seas, the world’s largest cruise ship, is helping Royal Caribbean compete for tourism dollars with Las Vegas, Orlando and other destinations for multigenerational family vacations, said Royal Caribbean Group CEO Jason Liberty.

Disney plans to invest billions of dollars into expanding the capacity of its theme parks and cruise lines, executives said during a first-quarter earnings call Wednesday.

The future of tourism to New York, Philadelphia, Vancouver, Mexico City and a dozen other cities is going to change next week. On February 4, FIFA is going to announce the schedule of which city gets which World Cup games in 2026 — and the millions in visitor spending that comes with it.

Los Angeles Tourism is launching its most expensive and far-reaching advertising campaign on February 1 in Paris. 

The United Nations’ tourism agency is simplifying its image and will go by “UN Tourism.” It is ditching “United Nations World Tourism Organization” and its clunky acronym, “UNWTO.”

The marketing budget for one of the largest tourism boards in the U.S. is about to get a $15 million trim. The Orange County Board of Commissioners approved a proposal on Tuesday to reduce the amount of money that goes to Visit Orlando.

Egypt received a record-breaking number of tourists in 2023 despite the war between Israel and Hamas, according to a statement by the country’s tourism ministry on Thursday. 

Films and TV shows are having a rising influence over tourists’ decisions to visit France. That’s according to a survey released Thursday by France’s National Center for Cinema and Animated Image.

International tourism will rise by 15% in 2024 from last year, according to data shared by United Nations World Tourism Organization Friday. In fact, it will also exceed 2019 levels by 2%.

An upcoming Russian tourist trip to North Korea is the first such inbound visit by vacationers there in four years. When people think of that country under the strict dictatorship of Kim Jong Un, they don’t think of tourism. So many will have questions about what kind of travel is possible.

Cyprus, Malta, Albania, and other underrated destinations had some of the highest tourism growth rates in Europe last year, according to Eurostat’s latest data. 

Tourists can’t visit Hagia Sophia for free anymore. Since Monday, foreign tourists have had to pay an admission fee of €25 (about $27) to enter the mosque and UNESCO World Heritage Site, according to Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism.