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 10 times forward EBITDA. Morgan Stanley has committed the debt financing. The deal is expected to close in early 2027, subject to approvals, and Royal Caribbean expects it to add to earnings that year. It's the cruise … [Read more...] about Royal Caribbean Buys 50% of Sandals Resorts for About $3 Billion, Bringing Cruises and All-Inclusives Together
Travel Insights
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. TOURISE positions itself as a global platform for the tourism sector, bringing together government officials, investors, and travel executives to talk about partnerships and funding for tourism projects. The 2027 theme points toward … [Read more...] about TOURISE Summit 2027: March 23-25, 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 again like a "proper" architecture shot. Then I looked at it for a second longer and just left it alone. This is the corner of Wrocław's Rynek where the brick tower of the Old Town Hall meets that wild, spiky roofline on the east … [Read more...] about Wrocław’s Market Square in Fisheye: Why I Kept the Distortion
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 city Salamanca turns gold at the end of the day, when the sandstone quarried from the Villamayor hills catches low light and holds onto it for longer than seems fair. Stand in the Patio de Escuelas long enough and … [Read more...] about Salamanca’s Stone Faces: A Photo Essay in Five Frames
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 occupied and your eyes down for four seconds while somebody else works the bag on your shoulder. The bracelet is a tool. So is the clipboard petition, the ring supposedly found on the pavement in front of you, the stranger who insists on taking … [Read more...] about Europe’s Tourist Crime Belt: Pickpockets, Bracelet Scams, and Why the Same Offenders Keep Working
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 to the sea and swim in it without paying anyone. Then you arrive in August and find a turnstile. The gap between those two sentences is where the money is. The rent nobody collects Start with what the state charges for the … [Read more...] about The Beach Racket in Italy, Greece and Spain: Turnstiles, Cheap Concessions, and a Shoreline You Can’t Reach
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 on the wall next to the door, calçada underfoot. Maybe fifteen people at four tables, most of them in their twenties or thirties, most of them not Portuguese. One woman sits slightly apart with a phone in both hands and a red … [Read more...] about Why Lisbon Cafés Are Putting Up No Laptops Signs: Coffee, Instagram, and the Remote Work Terrace
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 the picture from the one spot where the angle works. Nobody else in the square is watching. Behind her there are maybe two hundred people, and a fair share of them are lining up the same joke thirty meters away, out of … [Read more...] about Four in Ten Travelers Visit Landmarks Mainly for the Photo: How Instagram and Reels Reshaped Tourism
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 Lisbon, cross the Sado, and within an hour you're moving through kilometres of umbrella pine, orange sand tracks and flooded rice paddies with almost nothing built in sight. Storks stand on poles by the roadside. The turning for the beach … [Read more...] about Why Comporta Still Feels Empty: The Rice Estate Behind Portugal’s Most Coveted Beaches
Travel in 2026: Five Photos That Explain the Year’s Real Trends
I do my year in review in August. Nobody asked me to, and the calendar disagrees, but by August the folders are heavy enough to tell the truth and December is too close to the eggnog for honest work. That picture up there is Lyon on a warm night. Fourvière burning gold on the hill, Saint-Jean glowing underneath it, the Saône doing that thing where it turns every lamp into … [Read more...] about Travel in 2026: Five Photos That Explain the Year’s Real Trends