Every Friday, we help you navigate the week’s most important and interesting travel news stories
Every Friday, we help you navigate the week’s most important and interesting travel news stories.
Alert!
Stories we’re watching closely
Amadeus released air-booking data
showing that several European cities will enjoy major benefits from Olympic tourism. It’s no huge surprise that the UK will
see a 143% increase in visitors compared to the same time last year, but
Brussels, Amsterdam and Paris will experience increased passenger arrivals of
49%, 28% and 5% respectively. [Tnooz]
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Amazing things
that should happen more often
A study on well-being recently found Hawaiians to be the happiest people in the US. That title is
understandable when one takes into consideration the beauty of the state’s
beaches. [The Washington Post]
Two months late, Tokyo’s 634m Sky Tree
— the world’s tallest tower — is finally complete. Yet it still pales in
comparison to Dubai’s 830m Burj Khalifa, the tallest manmade
structure ever built. [CNN International]
Ready for takeoff
All set to go, but
too soon to tell what’s ahead
Astronomer Seth Shostak came up with a
plan to boost space tourism: launch Justin Bieber out of the Earth’s
atmosphere
in a private rocket ship. Is Shostak a clever marketer or an evil genius who
devised a master plan to rid the world of Bieber Fever once and for all?
[Huffington Post]
Turbulence
Hold on folks,
we’re in for a rocky ride
A Delta plane had to
make an emergency landing at Newark airport on Tuesday after
issues with the plane’s nose gear. Airline expert Brett Snyder argues that
this happens
so frequently, it doesn’t warrant news coverage, but the landing still
temporarily shut down one of the country’s busiest airports. No injuries were
reported. [ABC News/CN Traveler]
China has witnessed a series of female-driven protests called “Occupy
Men’s Toilet“. Women are protesting the lack of public bathrooms by
going into men’s bathrooms instead. [ChinaDaily]
British public relations company Gosh
PR, hired to promote tourism to the state of Kentucky, lost its $179,900
contract after launching a mind-boggling tourism campaign that highlighted
the state’s “offensive and stereotyped” features, like the abundance of roadkill. The company also
suggested tourists visit Hazzard County, a fictional place meant to be in
Georgia, not Kentucky. [Daily Mail]