Holiday & Travel

The U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Tourism is making inroads into the Denver, Colorado market, drumming up support and earning engagement from travel agents, meeting planners and media representatives during a special USVI presentation last month.

Commissioner of Tourism Joseph Boschulte led the USVI team, which included Assistant Commissioner of Tourism-Marketing Alani Henneman-Todman and Virgin Islands cultural ambassadors, in encouraging travel professionals to “Reconnect with Paradise” and to experience “St. Croix: a vibe like no other”, the marketing tag line for the “Big Island”.

In the lead-up to the launch of Emerald Azzurra, small ship specialist, Emerald Cruises has unveiled two brand-new itineraries in the superyacht’s 2022 schedule. Both itineraries will take guests on a voyage which includes Saudi Arabia, a new and exciting addition to Emerald Cruises’ expansive list of destinations 

The 10-day Mysteries & Treasures of the Red Sea and Saudi Arabia voyage will sail from the Cypriot city of Limassol, with its tavernas and medieval castle, and ends in Saudi Arabia’s second largest city, Jeddah. Located in the Hejaz region, the UNESCO World Heritage Site is famed for being a gateway for pilgrims travelling to Mecca and Medina. En route, guests will visit the Great Pyramids of Giza and the Great Sphinx, when calling at Port Said.

Qatar Airways enhanced its presence in Southern Africa with the launch of a new linked service between Doha and Lusaka, Zambia and Harare, Zimbabwe. To mark this milestone, the new linked service was inaugurated by the airline’s state-of-the-art Airbus A350-900 featuring 36 seats in the award-winning Qsuite Business Class and 247 seats in Economy Class.

Qatar Airways now operates to Lusaka’s Kenneth Kaunda International Airport (LUN). The country’s largest city and commercial centre, Lusaka is the gateway to experiencing Zambia’s legendary tourist attractions from the Victoria Falls which it shares with Zimbabwe, to game reserves and a variety of wildlife.

As part of The Bahamas' continued efforts to provide a safe and healthy island experience for everyone to enjoy, new testing requirements have been announced for persons applying for a Bahamas Travel Health Visa to enter The Bahamas or travel inter-island within The Bahamas.

Effective Friday, August 6, 2021, all fully vaccinated travellers, as well as children ages 2-11, will be required to obtain a negative COVID-19 test (either a rapid antigen test or PCR test) taken no more than five (5) days prior to the date of arrival to The Bahamas. Unvaccinated travellers ages 12 and older must still obtain a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken no more than 5 days prior to the date of arrival. All children under the age of 2 are exempt from any testing requirements.

With Summer holidays across much of the UK now in full swing, many families will be setting off on staycations. However, new research commissioned by Europcar UK has found that the lack of car use over the last 18 months could be cause for concern for some drivers. There’s also a question mark over whether the family car is ‘fit for purpose’ for the big trip away.

The research found that over half of UK motorists (58%) worry that their car is unreliable and will not be able to make the trip. Despite this, 55% admitted they don’t do basic vehicle checks, such as oil levels or tyre pressure before embarking on a long journey, with a worrying one in ten admitting to never doing this. 

Nickelodeon's renowned Slimings and Character Experiences are combined with Karisma Hotels & Resorts' and Grupo Lomas' unmatched hospitality, with the brand's first all Oceanfront Swim-Up Suite resort featuring an enormous six-acre Aqua Nick water park, new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles themed penthouse suites, World-Class Gourmet Inclusive dining with fan faves Good Burger and Piazza and endless play-all-day entertainment. 

Qatar Airways passengers will be able to explore even more of Africa following its new partnership with Rwanda’s flag carrier, RwandAir via their hubs at Doha and Kigali. As a part of the strategic partnership, the extensive interline agreement will give customers access to the networks of both airlines, providing a seamless travel experience and enhanced customer service including in the frequent flyers programmes. 

Customers can pick and choose from over 160 destinations in the combined networks of both airlines, which are perfectly connected via their home hubs of Doha and Kigali. This latest cooperation comes hot on the heels of the airlines’ recent loyalty partnerships announcement, giving RwandAir Dream Miles and Qatar Airways Privilege Club loyalty members, access to each other’s destinations with the opportunity to ‘earn and burn’ points across their reciprocal route networks.

The Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) has launched the Caribbean Community Tourism Network (CCTN) to provide a platform to support the continued development of CBT in the Caribbean. The network will facilitate the exchange of best practices among CTO member countries and interested tourism development partners and help identify capacity-building needs as well as challenges and opportunities for CBT development.

“Community-based tourism offers an opportunity to bridge the social and economic gap of local communities, allows community members a path to sustainable livelihoods, and is a conduit for the active participation and empowerment of local people in the tourism industry,” said Amanda Charles, the CTO’s sustainable tourism specialist. “This network provides an avenue for CTO members to share knowledge, resources, and best practices to improve community tourism experiences and economic impact.”

The UK is preparing for a bumper summer, with 33 million people expected to enjoy staycations over the next couple of months. That should provide a welcome £30 billion boom for the domestic holiday sector, according to Sykes Holiday Cottages’ 2021 Staycation Index.

In 2019, half of Britons planned to spend their main summer holiday in the UK. In 2021, that proportion has risen to 62%, with the Peak District, Bournemouth, East Anglia and Lyme Regis among the most popular destinations. For Quay Holidays, based in Poole, near Bournemouth, this certainly rings true, with Lettings Assistant Hannah Challis reporting that, “Most of our properties are solidly booked for the rest of the season”.

Packed with natural spectacles, warm locals and ritualistic cultures, those seeking their next dream getaway, should look towards southeast Asia’s Indochinese peninsula with small ship experts, Emerald Cruises.

With 2022/23 dates now bookable, Emerald Cruises’ Vietnam, Cambodia and Mekong river cruises offer a contemporary luxury cruising experience through the quintessential heart of southeast Asia.

After 17 months of paused operations, Scenic has today resumed its luxury sailings on Portugal’s Douro River.

To celebrate the return, Scenic has released a series of new short films to showcase the exceptional guest experience, on board health and safety protocols and first-hand accounts of what guests can expect when sailing in Portugal with Scenic. Scenic will operate a combination of eight and 11-day round-trip sailings from Porto on board its spacious, boutique Scenic Azure Star-Ship.

The UK is preparing for a bumper summer, with 33 million people expected to enjoy staycations over the next couple of months. That should provide a welcome £30 billion boom for the domestic holiday sector, according to Sykes Holiday Cottages’ 2021 Staycation Index.

In 2019, half of Britons planned to spend their main summer holiday in the UK. In 2021, that proportion has risen to 62%, with the Peak District, Bournemouth, East Anglia and Lyme Regis among the most popular destinations.

WTM London has announced that China Travel Online is the show’s newest buyer partner and media partner in China. China Travel Online is a leading China outbound travel portal that connects destinations, attractions, hotels and other travel suppliers around the world to Chinese operators and professionals.

The new partnership means that China Travel Online will invite up to 50 Chinese buyers to network and do business with suppliers and destinations across the globe during WTM Virtual on 8-9 November.

New research from Churchill Motor Insurance reveals the factors which make for the most stress-free driving experience during staycations this year.

With some 29 million people (55 per cent) planning a staycation this year, having as least stressful a journey as possible will be a priority for millions of families. As motorists predict their holiday will be around a 236-mile round trip, this means 9.9billion staycation miles will be driven this year.

St. Kitts and Nevis is welcoming the return of cruise tourism Thursday with the arrival of the Seabourn Odyssey.

The Seabourn Cruise Line ship will make a port call every week during the period July to October 2021. The twin-island federation planned a symbolic ship-to-ship salute, live steelpan performances, and the renowned drummers to greet the Odyssey as it docked at South Friars Bay.

That marks a number of ships increasing arrivals to St. Kitts over the summer, beginning with Celebrity Summit on July 29. Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas will arrive August 11, followed by Celebrity Summit on August 12, Celebrity Equinox on Aug. 24, and Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Seas on August 26. 

Currently, the minimum protocols for any cruise ship visiting in St. Kitts & Nevis include vaccination for all crew and passengers over the age of 18; all passengers, crew, and children under the age of 18 must present a negative RT-PCR test within 72 hours of home-port embarkation; and passengers and crew are not permitted to interact with the general population.

Additionally, only bubble-vaccinated tours and attractions will be offered to cruise passengers. All tours will leave the dispatch area within the secure perimeter and return. In conjunction with the Ministry of Health, the St. Kitts Tourism Authority has worked with stakeholders to develop fully vaccinated ‘Travel Approved’ bubble tours to showcase the island’s one-of-a-kind attractions such as UNESCO World Heritage recognized Brimstone Hill Fortress, the St. Kitts Scenic Railway, and Caribelle Batik.

St. Kitts became a Marquee Port after reaching the one million passenger mark in two cruise seasons in a row, 2017-2019 and 2018-2019. The Federation was anticipating a third consecutive year of a million arrivals before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

With the 2021 summer season underway, there is increasing evidence in the marketplace that pent-up demand is roaring back much earlier and at a much quicker pace than forecasters had predicted.

At the same time, the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) is encouraged by the data from our member countries, who have worked tirelessly to contain the coronavirus and reopen their economies. Although on the surface, a 60 percent decline in the first quarter of 2021, compared to the same period last year, may not seem encouraging, a closer examination would suggest that the Caribbean is beginning to reverse the slide which began at the end of March 2020.

This is being demonstrated by a decrease in the levels of decline which the Caribbean has been recording for the past fifteen months. The first quarter of 2020 was the last period of regular levels of travel, when 7.3 million international overnight visitors (tourist arrivals) visited the region.

In January and February 2021, arrivals to the region declined by just over 71 per cent when compared to the same two months last year. However, the 16.5 per cent drop in March 2021 compared to March 2020 is an indication of a level of reversal of the trend of declining numbers of tourist arrivals. 

The data collected from twelve destinations reporting tourist arrivals for April 2021 shows that each of these destinations registered growth, when compared to April 2020, when tourism activity was curtailed globally.

Similarly, tourist arrivals bounced back in the destinations reporting data for May. It must be pointed out, however, that the number of stay-over visitors is still below the corresponding levels in 2019.

Recent statements made by key aviation players for whom the Caribbean is an important market, have been encouraging. During our recent series of online discussions, both the CEO of British Airways, Sean Doyle, and the VP of sales for the Caribbean at American Airlines, Christine Valls, spoke of the high levels of interest in travel to the region.

In fact, Ms. Valls indicated that the Caribbean has been booming for American Airlines, with an average 60 per cent load factor by late May 2021, and that the airline planned to have more daily flights to the region this summer than it did in 2019. American Airlines told the CTO this week that it added five new routes to the Caribbean this summer, with a sixth to be added in November – and will serve 35 destinations in the Caribbean.

Based on these indicators, the CTO is guardedly optimistic about the prospects for summer travel, and for the rest of the year into 2022. It is recognised that any optimism must be tempered by the fact that new COVID-19 cases are rising rapidly in both the UK and the US, two of the Caribbean's major source markets.

These are signs that the virus remains a major threat which can quickly reverse any progress we have made.