Universal Resort Just Released More Details and Photos of Its Epic Universe Debuting in 2025

Online travel agency Cleartrip has announced that its travel agent partners increased by 40% in 2023 as compared to 2022. The company’s business-to-business platform Agentbox 2.0 recorded four times higher volume of business in 2023 than the previous year, it added. 

Good morning from Skift. It’s Wednesday, February 28. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel.

Though her work on Saturday Night Live keeps her tethered to New York City, comedian Chloe Fineman can most often be found criss-crossing the country to film in Los Angeles or back to the Bay Area, where she grew up. Recently, for her campaign with Nütrl Vodka Seltzer, she got to see a new place: Mexico City. “First of all, my brain still can’t understand how it’s a three-hour flight from LA [and five hours from New York], so I could meet all my friends in the middle,” she says. “And it was the most beautiful city. We saw luchadores wrestling, and the food was unbelievable. Some of the best meals in my life were in Mexico City!”

The Swiss city of Lugano is an outlier, radically different in feeling from counterparts like Zurich, Geneva, Lausanne, or Basel. It has a 19th-century feel, a measured pace, and traces of the Belle Epoque. Situated on Lake Lugano with tree-lined promenades and a backdrop of domed mountains, the views might have been lifted from an Art Nouveau poster.

A new flight connection calls for a landing ovation – and a new set-jetting package for Sandals Resorts and Beaches Resorts guests – as the first-ever U.S. commercial flight descends upon majestic Ocho Rios, Jamaica on February 24th. In homage to the swift and seamless journey directly into the Caribbean Riviera, Sandals’ and Beaches’ new “Love and Let Fly” package transcends traveler wanderlust from the silver screen to the golden Jamaican beaches coveted for decades by film producers and vacationers alike. MORE TIME TO ‘BOND’, LESS TIME IN TRANSIT

Altree Developments, a Toronto-based, multi-generational, full-service development company is set to redefine luxury living in St. Maarten and today announces they have launched sales at their newest development, Vie L’Ven (life to life), a luxury resort and residences with 280 units, that is slated for completion in 2028. “Vie L’Ven seamlessly coalesces the influences of both French and Dutch cultures which are truly represented in this incomparable development through exceptional living, dining and wellness experiences,” says Zev Mandelbaum, founder of Altree. “Serving as a love letter to St. Maarten, Vie L’Ven encourages homeowners and guests to embrace living life to the fullest, while soaking in the island’s natural beauty and tranquility, where European culture blends effortlessly with Caribbean aptitude.”

Mountain lovers can experience the new must-visit winter destination as COTTON CLUB ANDERMATT throws open its doors offering guests luxurious comfort, winter sun, and an immersive experience in the clear, bright, Alpine glow – Switzerland’s coolest new location. The brainchild of Norwegian entrepreneurs Christian and Merete Marstrander, COTTON CLUB ANDERMATT brings the COTTON LIFESTYLE to life. Known for their passion for both snow and sand, the Marstranders have created a forward-thinking vision of hospitality that has now arrived in Andermatt. With world-class service, meticulous attention to detail, and a dedication to ensuring each guest feels the special effect of the Cotton Club lifestyle, they have transformed Andermatt into a winter destination like no other.

Holland America Line is elevating its award-winning Alaska Cruisetours in time for the 2024 season with room upgrades at McKinley Chalet Resort and a new, included tour in Dawson City, Yukon. Alaska Cruisetours combine an Alaska cruise with an overland tour to Denali, and Holland America Line is the only cruise line that extends those tours into the Yukon. Balconies will be added to 28 river-view rooms at McKinley Chalet Resort — Holland America Line’s hotel property at Denali National Park — upgrading them to the Denali Suite category. In addition, a new Deluxe category of non-balcony rooms with suite amenities is being introduced. For the excursions, guests on select Denali and Yukon Cruisetours will have a new “Klondike Gold Tour” that expands on the region’s famed gold rush experience. The tour visits the original discovery claim site that launched the gold rush and Gold Dredge 4.

Jamaica’s position as a leader in tourism resilience building has been further bolstered following the announcement that UN Tourism (formerly UNWTO) has forged a major partnership with the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre (GTRCMC), which is being rebranded as the Global Tourism Resilience Centre (GTRC). It was also outlined that UN Tourism will continue to partner with Destination Jamaica in hosting the Global Tourism Resilience Day Conference moving forward. The announcements were made jointly by Minister of Tourism, Hon Edmund Bartlett and UN Tourism Secretary-General H.E. Zurab Pololikashvili as they marked the second annual observance of Global Tourism Resilience Day (February 17) at the Montego Bay Convention Centre.

I've been going to Disney World since I was a kid, and I've grown accustomed to the routines necessary to get on the most possible rides during my visits. Whether it's getting to the parks before the gates open and beelining to popular attractions like Seven Dwarfs Mine Train or Peter Pan's Flight at rope drop or mastering techniques for using Disney's virtual queue system to get on rides like Tron Lightcycle / Run, I have lots of pixie-dusted tricks up my sleeve.

When my husband and I started toying with the idea of taking my teenagers on a whale-watching expedition cruise, we had no idea what to expect. While we’d cruised on several major cruise lines in the past, hopping on a 100-passenger ship run by National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions felt far different than anything we’d done before.

Currently, Greece ranks extremely high as an attractive target for foreign investors looking for visas through real estate investment thanks to a confluence of factors that includes narrowing alternatives in the rest of Europe, a resurgent Greek economy and a relatively low minimum threshold for acquiring property.