War tips

Global travel retailer Gebr. Heinemann made an important acquisition at the end of January at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport, named after Israel’s first prime minister. The Hamburg-based company bought the shares of James Richardson in the duty-free joint venture retail business JR/Duty Free, which was established in 2017.

Oscar-winning filmmaker and artist Steve McQueen (12 Years A Slave, Shame, Hunger) shows us in his engrossing new documentary, Occupied City, how the not so distant past events of the second world war still haunt present day Amsterdam. His film, made with his historian wife, Bianca Stigter, evokes the ghosts of the past, felt everywhere in the city, inside buildings where often harrowing things happened but the film also leaves us with the positive reminder that “the Nazis didn’t win.”

The UNESCO World Heritage sites of the former capital Kyoto give unforgettable insights into Japanese history, but across Japan are numerous, less heralded (and less visited) destinations that can transport travelers back in time. Be it the tales unearthed in castle ruins or fortresses that have withstood the tests of time, a journey to Japan's Kansai region and the islands of Okinawa can offer travelers fresh insights into Japan's past and the moments that shaped its future.

In the winter of 1969, Santa Barbara’s coastal ecosystem was blitzed by three million gallons of crude oil. Responding to the catastrophic spill, and the ongoing assault of ecosystems throughout the United States, Senator Gaylord Nelson called upon American youth to rally for the environment as strenuously as they’d protested the Vietnam War.

Towering mountains. Rushing rivers ideal for white-water rafting (one of National Geographic’s top 20 Best of the World travel adventures for 2024). America’s newest national park. Appalachian cuisine and folk music.

When we talk about traveling to upstate New York, with its fall foliage and shimmering lakes, the land above and beyond New York City is never called what it was known as for a thousand years—the homeland of the Haudenosaunee, ‘the people of the longhouse.’ The Haudenosaunee were a confederation of five (and later six) nations known to colonizers as “the Iroquois Confederacy"—the Mohawk, Seneca, Onondaga, Cayuga, Oneida, and Tuscarora—who lost much of their land after the Revolutionary War.

Over the last five years, the world has changed a lot. A global pandemic ground much of the global population to a halt with travel the most restricted it's ever been in my lifetime – and most likely yours too. Russia’s war on Ukraine and now Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza are causing shockwaves around the world, reshaping the statuses of countries and the rights of their citizens.

Rather than a city with a single, unified style, London is a collection of distinct neighborhoods, each with their own unique character. One walk around the British capital and you’ll discover the distinction is marked by the architecture of each—from the pastel flat facades of Notting Hill to the stately, stark white townhouses of Kensington to the 19th century, industrial brick buildings of the South Bank.

Welcome back to another episode of the TravelPulse Podcast! 

When the wooden gunboat Spitfire sailed into battle as part of a flotilla engaging British naval forces on Lake Champlain in 1776, she carried an unlikely crew: ragtag American soldiers with little naval experience, under the command of a swashbuckling patriot and hero, Brigadier General Benedict Arnold. Arnold, still years away from becoming the nation’s most infamous traitor, sacrificed several vessels in what would be called the Battle of Valcour Island, after one of the islands dotting the narrow, deep lake that stretches from Québec south along the New York-Vermont border. The clash ended in defeat for Arnold, but bought valuable time for the Continental Army.

An Asiatic black bear, which endured severe trauma in a zoo in Russian-occupied Ukraine, is set to be adopted by a zoo in Scotland.

It’s been hidden from public eyes for more than a hundred years. But in a few weeks time, the former Old War Office in London, Whitehall will finally open its doors after a multi-million-dollar transformation.

Raffles London at The OWO is set to open in London on Friday 29th September, the first hotel in the UK for Raffles Hotels & Resorts.

There are many historical properties turned into luxury hotels.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Monday, January 30. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Ethiopia’s tourism sector has been hit hard in the last two years by Covid and a brutal civil war, with spending down by more than $2 billion. The tourist sites and infrastructure have been spared, but the sector doesn’t have the confidence of governments, travelers and tour group operators that the conflict is over and the country is a safe destination.

Friday marks the one-year anniversary of the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a cataclysmic act that has significantly impacted travel worldwide. In just 12 months, 19 million refugees have crossed the border out of Ukraine, 7,200 innocent civilians have been killed, including 438 children, and countless lives are still being put at risk day and night by a war that shows no signs of ending.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Friday, February 24. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

It’s been over a year since Russia invaded Ukraine. The war has had ripple effects on the global tourism economy. Ukraine and its tourism sector have suffered immensely in lives, infrastructure and more, but after a year into the conflict, they are seeing some bright spots.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Friday, March 10. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

In the weeks-long bidding war for Starwood, Anbang’s latest offer was demonstrably superior to Marriott’s, at least in the short term. And it appeared that Marriott was standing pat, hoping that Starwood shareholders would buy the argument that a Marriott-Starwood tie-up could deliver better returns over the long term.