Hotels Lose Direct Bookings at the Checkout Page When Mandatory Fees Show Up Late
A guest who sees one price on the room page and a bigger one at payment doesn’t feel tricked by the fee. They feel tricked by the timing. Here’s how hotels can show the real price without losing the sale.
Small Hotels Can Turn Local Partnerships Into Better Direct Bookings
A small hotel rarely has the advertising budget to compete with large booking platforms. It does have something else: a place in a neighborhood, and…
I Own a Small Pension Hotel. Should I Participate in Travel Trade Shows to Promote It?
Can travel trade shows bring profitable bookings to a small pension hotel? A practical look at costs, tour operators and when attending makes sense.
Where to Find the Perfect Burnt Basque Cheesecake in Spain
From San Sebastián’s legendary La Viña to contemporary cheesecake specialists in Madrid and Barcelona, discover where to taste Spain’s celebrated burnt Basque cheesecake.
One Airline App, Two Carriers: oneworld Tackles the Check-in Gap
oneworld’s expanded digital check-in connects member airline systems, helping passengers manage multi-carrier journeys through their preferred airline’s app.
Clear Security in Sonoma, Take a Bus Straight to Your SFO Gate
Landline’s Sonoma–SFO service moves check-in and security closer to home, offering a new way for regional airports to connect travelers with global flights.
Malta’s Trip.com Partnership Turns Tourism Diversification Into a Distribution Strategy
The Malta Tourism Authority and Trip.com Group have signed a strategic cooperation memorandum covering 2026–2029, with an emphasis on promoting Malta internationally and developing demand from…
Royal Caribbean Buys 50% of Sandals Resorts for About $3 Billion, Bringing Cruises and All-Inclusives Together
Royal Caribbean Group is buying a 50% stake in Sandals and Beaches Resorts for about $3 billion. That values the Caribbean all-inclusive chain at roughly…
TOURISE Summit 2027: March 23-25, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
TOURISE has unveiled the theme for its 2027 summit, “Alliances That Move the World.” The event runs March 23 through 25 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.…
Wrocław’s Market Square in Fisheye: Why I Kept the Distortion
I almost reached for the correction tool on this one. Old habit — see a curved horizon, straighten it out, make the building lines vertical…
Salamanca’s Stone Faces: A Photo Essay in Five Frames
SALAMANCA, SPAIN A city built out of sandstone and documents, and it never quite stopped writing itself. Photo essay · Five frames from the sandstone…
Europe’s Tourist Crime Belt: Pickpockets, Bracelet Scams, and Why the Same Offenders Keep Working
Nobody ties a bracelet on your wrist at the bottom of the Sacré-Coeur steps because they want €10 for a bracelet. They want your hand…
The Beach Racket in Italy, Greece and Spain: Turnstiles, Cheap Concessions, and a Shoreline You Can’t Reach
Every metre of Italian beach below the high-water mark belongs to the state. It’s demanio marittimo, public property, and the law says you can walk…
Why Lisbon Cafés Are Putting Up No Laptops Signs: Coffee, Instagram, and the Remote Work Terrace
A café terrace in Lisbon on a hot afternoon. Teal awning, three words on it: coffee, brunch, bistro. Mint green stools, white folding chairs, azulejos…
Four in Ten Travelers Visit Landmarks Mainly for the Photo: How Instagram and Reels Reshaped Tourism
A woman tourist stands in Piazza della Signoria with her arm raised, pretending to hold the David’s testicles for an Instagram photo. Her friend takes…
Why Comporta Still Feels Empty: The Rice Estate Behind Portugal’s Most Coveted Beaches
Everybody has found Comporta by now. The remarkable thing is that you can’t tell from the road. The drive explains most of it. You leave…
Travel in 2026: Five Photos That Explain the Year’s Real Trends
Year in Review Twelve months, two cameras, roughly four hundred keepers. These are the five that kept nagging. Frame 01 · Lyon, the Saône at…
Tiny Tourism: Why Travellers Are Choosing Towns Nobody Photographs
The trade press has already reduced tiny tourism to a number of nights. Average trip length is falling, one-night hotel stays are up, and the…
In Defence of the Hop-On Hop-Off Bus
I’ve spent a lot of evenings standing on street corners in other people’s cities waiting for the light to do something interesting, and a fair…
EasyJet Agrees £5.7bn Apollo Takeover: What Changes for Passengers and What Doesn’t
The airline that taught Europe to fly for the price of a train ticket is going private. EasyJet’s board has accepted a firm £5.7bn cash…
Taormina Beach Guide: Mazzarò, Isola Bella, and What Nobody Tells You About the Pebbles
Taormina sits on a cliff. The beaches do not. That single fact shapes everything about a beach day here, because the town you booked and…
Juliet’s Balcony in Verona Was Added in the 1930s and the Crowds Do Not Care
The queue is not for the house. Nobody comes for the house. They come for a courtyard about the size of a generous parking space,…
St Mark’s Basilica in Venice: The Gold Mosaics Are Dimmer Than the Photographs Suggest
You come in off the piazza, where the light bounces off pale stone and water and hits you from every angle, and for the first…
China Fines Trip.com $770 Million for Locking Hotels Into Exclusive Deals
China’s State Administration for Market Regulation closed a six-month investigation into Trip.com Group on Saturday with the heaviest antitrust penalty imposed on a single Chinese…