Summer Olympics tips

Many destinations around the world have become more expensive to visit in recent years as governments increasingly levy tourist taxes.

Trips to Bali are getting pricier. Since Wednesday, foreign tourists have been obligated to pay a tax of 150,000 Indonesian rupiah (about $10) when they visit the island.

Los Angeles has long been the West Coast’s star attraction, offering a heady blend of Hollywood glamour and glorious sunshine. Yet recently, away from the plush red carpets and swaying palm trees, it’s been LA’s revitalised downtown, thriving art scene and diverse culinary offerings that have stolen the limelight. While it’s hard to do the wonders of this sprawling, multi-layered city justice in just a couple of days, it’s still plenty of time to get a taste for what makes LA a blockbuster hit. Here's how to spend 72 hours in LA.

As interest in trips surrounding the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris is heating up, suppliers and advisors have forged new partnerships to offer a variety of ways to experience the Games.

The federal government is doubling down on high-speed rail with an announcement it is helping to raise $2.5 billion for Brightline West.

Air France is saying bonjour to Phoenix by making the Arizona city its newest gateway city in the United States.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Friday, January 5. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

The Summer Olympics are returning to Paris exactly a century after it last hosted the event. A country where fine wine and haute cuisine prevail means Paris doesn’t have a reputation for being particularly affordable. To make the Games more accessible, some events around the Seine will have free viewing zones – including the opening ceremony. But we’re still living in a material world and you’ll need to pay the rental on your humble flat. With nightly rates circling $150 or less, these are the most budget-friendly Airbnbs for the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The countdown has begun: France will welcome the 2024 Summer Olympic Games from July 26 until August 11 with the Paralympic Games following from August 28 to September 8. Paris and the Île-de-France region form the cradle of the action where the spectacle will kick off at 8:24 p.m. sharp (or, 20:24 – touché).

2023 is coming to a close, which means the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris are fast approaching. The opening ceremony is scheduled for July 26, with the Games finishing Aug. 11; the Paralympics will run from Aug. 28 through Sept. 8.

The Louvre Museum said it would raise its basic ticket price to 22 euros from 17 euros beginning next month in the latest sign that visitors may face higher costs ahead of next year’s Summer Olympics in Paris.

LOT Polish Airlines is reinstating flights to Athens. LOT Polish Airlines aircraft will be flying to the capital of Greece all year round.

A Vrbo host recently surprised TPG reader Diah Jones with a troubling ultimatum that felt a lot like a shakedown.

It's not only occasional Taylor Swift concerts or regular season NFL games for the Los Angeles Chargers and the Los Angeles Rams that take over the shiny new SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, a Los Angeles suburb. The 70,000-plus-seat entertainment venue is constantly hosting something thrilling, and in 2028 will be a hub for the Summer Olympics. The Kia Forum is also right next door, another home to many diverse concerts and events every month of the year.

Have you heard the news? Paris is positively teeming with bedbugs. Yep, this autumn, the blood-sucking insects have been crawling all over the French capital, taking a bite out of citizens and travelers alike. In addition to being spotted on beds in hotels and private residences—precisely where you would expect the little critters to be hanging out—there have been bedbug sightings on buses & trains, in airports and even at movie theaters. (Hey, I know Barbenheimer was a big deal, but this is ridiculous.)    How did we find out about this infestation? It's 2023, how else? Videos of supposed bedbug sightings were shared via wobbly social media posts, gaining traction with shocked viewers and amateur exterminators alike. Predictably, the bedbug content set the algorithm alight, going viral and spawning memes and many a reaction video from influencers who wanted to talk about bedbugs, you know, "because a lot of you are asking".  Then, the story swept into traditional media. What followed was a slew of news stories about the "invasion", the panic surrounding it and how it all comes a mere 10 months before millions of people from all over the world are set to descend on the City of Light for the Summer Olympics. People wondered why this was happening now. Was it because of the Rugby World Cup? Paris Fashion Week? Or were bedbugs simply just getting out there and traveling again post-Covid? The fervor reached such a level that, back in early October, it was reported by Reuters that Emmanuel Gregoire, Paris's deputy mayor, said in a letter to Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne that "The state urgently needs to put an action plan in place against this scourge as France is preparing to welcome the Olympic and Paralympic games in 2024,". 

Amid the SAG-AFTRA writer strike, actress Danielle Pinnock needed somewhere to channel her creativity. Her friends were in France for Paris Fashion Week, and she had just returned home from her own trip to Europe, so, naturally, the bed bug infestation in Paris was top of mind.

JetBlue will be heading to Dublin and Edinburgh this summer in its latest transatlantic expansion, the airline announced on Wednesday.

Parisians might be sleeping tight, but it's getting hard not to let the bed bugs bite.

The head of Airbnb, the world's largest vacation rental platform, issued a warning to travelers considering a trip to New York City over the next year.

The number of foreign visitors to Japan rose to nearly 500,000 in October, the first month it fully reopened to overseas visitors after more than two years of COVID restrictions, more than doubling the volume from September.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Wednesday, January 18. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.