● The world’s three most beautiful sights, according to some 452,00 travelers: Four of the sights are in North America. Luxury travel company Kuoni has analyzed 452,148 TripAdvisor reviews to reveal which sights around the world people are raving most about. New York’s Central Park, the Trevi Fountain in Rome and the Fountains of the Bellagio in Las Vegas are the top three most beautiful sights according to visitors.
The top 10 most beautiful sights around the world:
- Central Park, New York City, USA
- Trevi Fountain, Rome, Itally
- Fountains of Bellagio, Las Vegas, USA
- Basilica de la Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain
- Cathédrale Notre-Dame, Paris, France
- Charles Bridge, Prague, Czech Republic
- Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, Cape Town, South Africa
- Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi, UAE
- Stanley Park, Vancouver, Canada
- Chihuly Garden and Glass, Seattle, USA
More details on this article from TravelDailyNews.
● Hotels are overlooking a treasure lode of revenue by overlooking what their British guests want. British hotel guests will pay on average £40 more per night for a hotel that makes their stay personalized, the equivalent of at least £1.8 billion additional revenue across the global hotel market. Yet, reports TravelDailyNews, research from Mews, the hospitality cloud platform, reveals that very few hotels are seizing this opportunity, with over half (59 percent) of returning guests having been overlooked as a loyal customer. This is not just frustrating guests, but it is impacting on hotel’s bottom line as guests take their business elsewhere. For the complete article, click here.
● What about our pets? It’s estimated that 70 percent of U.S. households have pets, and many of them travel. How do we square this with cleaner airplanes and hotels, renewed interest in national parks and the revival of the road trip? All are post-pandemic travel trends, to be sure. But there’s one trend that wasn’t so predictable: the surge in vacationers who bring their pets along for the ride. For more, check out this article from AARP.
● And … Should operators accommodate dogs on holiday? Thanks to Condé Nast Traveler, INBOUND can point to a list of “12 dog-friendly beaches that humans will also love—on the East Coast, West Coast, Gulf Coast, and even inland (hello, lake beaches).” On this list, the reader will notice a few things Condé Nast prioritized: places that allow pups year-round (versus seasonally), have leash-free policies, and could easily prompt the “zoomies” on any given visit. Click here to read the complete article.
- Block Island Beaches, Block Island, Rhode Island
- Baker’s Cay Beach, Key Largo, Florida
- Huntington Dog Beach, Orange County, California
- Fort De Soto Park, St. Petersburg, Florida
- Fort Funston Beach, San Francisco, California
- Cannon Beach, Oregon
- Montrose Dog Beach, Chicago, Illinois
- Herring Cove Beach, Provincetown, Massachusetts
- Dauphin Island, Alabama
- Jupiter’s Dog Friendly Beach, Jupiter, Florida
- Morris Island, Charleston, South Carolina
- Coronado Dog Beach, San Diego, California
● It still takes longer to renew a U.S. passport than it did pre-COVID, but wait times have improved since the trough of the global pandemic, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said last week in a recent conversation with the TravelMarketReport trade journal. According to the source, passports are now being issued within 8 to 11 weeks for routine service and as little as 5 to 7 weeks for expedited service, time periods that cover “when an application arrives at a passport agency until we issue a passport.” TMR reported that this turnaround time is longer than it was in 2019 when the State Department increased the typical processing time from 4 to 6 weeks to 5 to 7 weeks, but still a major improvement over what some travelers have experienced over the last two-plus years. For more information, read the complete article here.
● With overseas source markets making U.S. “outlying cities” a staple of their marketing and promotional activities, U.S. destinations are taking their activity to a new level. Visit Tampa Bay, for instance, now offers German language training for travel agents. In promotional material that encourages agents, it wants agents to show Germans “how to enjoy one of America’s most beautiful outlying cities, and where you can discover an eclectic mix of museums and waterfront activities.” Graduates receive a certificate. Visit Tampa Bay upon completion of German language training. For more information, agents are urged to contact The Travel Institute (www.thetravelinstitute.com)
● The International Trade Administration’s National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) has announced the release of 2021 overseas visitation statistics to U.S. states, territories and cities-MSAs*, and a new data visualization tool called the U.S. States & Cities Visited Monitor. These statistics cover overseas visitation to 45 U.S. states and territories and 91 U.S. cities-MSAs for years 2021 and 2020. Data include visitor volume, market share, volume % change and volume # change for each reported state, territory and city-MSA. 2021 highlights include:
- Top state visited by overseas visitors in 2021: Florida (4,092,000)
- Top city-MSA visited by overseas visitors in 2021: Miami (2,759,000)
- Biggest gain of overseas visitors from 2020: Florida (+1,793,000)
- Biggest decline of overseas visitors from 2020: Hawaii (-503,000)
- Top 5 states’ market share was 91.7% of overseas visitors in 2021
Oerseas visitation statistics to U.S. states, territories and U.S. cities-MSAs can either be downloaded in excel or explored in a new interactive data visualization tool called the U.S. States and Cities Visited Monitor.
* Metropolitan Statistical Area
