West African Tourism Organisation Forges Strategic Data Alliance with Geotourist

The Secretary-General of UN Tourism has concluded an official visit to the Islamic Republic of Iran.

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.

Although many give Bruce Brown's 1966 film, The Endless Summer, credit for introducing surfing to fishing communities in Ghana, Senegal, and Nigeria, the sport has been happening along the shores of Western Africa, including Ghana's 300-mile coastline, for centuries. West Africans independently developed surfing before outsiders arrived; since at least the 1640s, sea merchants knew surf patterns well and used wooden surf-canoes to fish and ride 10-foot tall waves. Yet in present-day Ghana, surfing is largely the domain of tourists.

Experience some of Africa’s extraordinary wildlife while staying in one of these recently opened (or soon-to-debut) safari lodges and camps built for luxury travelers. Whether you’re searching for game, fine dining or an infinity pool overlooking the savanna, these properties offer an abundance of nature and nurturing.

You could say that brothers Oliver and Zach Hyman were like kids in a candy store when they created their new direct-to-consumer brand, Bubblegum Kids.

West Virginia’s Blue Ridge peaks, dramatic gorges, and rushing rivers put it on the map for hikers, rafters, and rock climbers. But the Mountain State isn’t just an adventure destination—it’s also home to historic Civil War sites, old-time music venues, and some of the best stargazing in the United States. We consulted local artists, chefs, and Nat Geo staffers from the region to plot your course in the place that the classic country song calls “almost heaven.”

We are thrilled to announce the inaugural Skift Data + AI Summit, set to take place in New York City on June 4.

Southwest Airlines is putting spring flights on sale in celebration of Valentine's Day this February.

The great Modernist designer Le Corbusier’s only architectural project in Africa was a seaside home for Belgian industrialist Lucien Baizeau who was based in Tunis. Built between 1928-1930, Villa Baizeau is on the ancient Roman site of Carthage. No one has lived there since the family left in 1961. The villa is currently in the hands of the Tunisian intelligence service and beside the Presidential palace so it is not open to the public. It's also not well known outside of Tunisia. The villa has never been featured in exhibitions about Le Corbusier’s many architectural accomplishments and it's not even in Le Corbusier’s list of works on Wikipedia.

“In July 2021, two years before my twins were born, my husband, Philip, and I took a road trip through the American West. Road trips are my favorite kind of trip—between Boys Don't Cry and Million Dollar Baby, I drove from Los Angeles through the South to New York using only highways and byways, never freeways, because then you just speed past everything. I always love the sense of discovery when you don't plan ahead. This time around, we had no plan beyond keeping a route in mind. I'd also run out of motels that would let me stay with all of my dogs—Kai, Teddy, Sufi, Moon, and Dunton, plus whomever we picked up along the way, as there are so many homeless dogs—so we were in our Tiffin RV. We started in Colorado and ended in the Pacific Northwest, but one of my favorite days came when we were somewhere between Santa Fe and Taos, when we had all of this drastic weather, like having four seasons in one day. It was raining so hard—a crazy summer thunderstorm. And then all of a sudden, it cleared, first with intense wind but then stillness, and as we drove we watched the heat from the road, the condensation going up, the mirages in the distance, and this big beautiful blue sky. That led us into the night—we stopped and built a bonfire and just sat by it. Sometimes we chatted about something that crossed our minds, but it was really then that we found and welcomed the endless stillness, beneath the unpolluted night skies. A moment like that is why I keep doing this.” —as told to Charlie Hobbs and Matt Ortile

In January 2023, Geotourist and Dr Keith Dinnie, from the University of Dundee, launched a shared project to identify and assess Geotourist’s economic and social benefits to Scottish tourism. With over 60 applications from Scotland’s Destination Management Organisation and tourism-related organisations, 21 partners were invited to onboard the project. Each partner brought one or more multimedia trails to the Geotourist platform, showcasing their destination or brand, and were granted access to Geotourist’s data dashboard for analysis and review.

Frontier Airlines is courting a new class of travelers.