Holiday & Travel

The British Virgin Islands is abuzz with excitement as the highly anticipated Emancipation Festival draws near, commemorating the emancipation of slavery in the BVI. From 28th July to 11th August, an exciting and culturally rich celebration awaits, inviting locals and visitors to immerse themselves in a series of festivities.

At the 66th meeting of the UNWTO Regional Commission for Africa, Member States joined representatives from international organizations and the private sector to focus on opportunities around tourism jobs and investments while also recognizing the vital need to address challenges including the climate crisis.

Jamaica’s tourism Minister was just elected Chair of the Commission of the Amerikas at UNWTO, and the fresh wind blows in this part of the World Tourism Organisation and the busy travel and tourism industry in Jamaica loves it. Buoyed by the full recovery of Jamaica’s tourism, Hon Edmund Bartlett, Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism is aggressively pushing to reengage this large source market in Latin America.

As the Sandals Foundation celebrates its 14th anniversary this year, the CHTA Education Foundation’s Grenada program, which was generously supported by the Sandals Foundation, delivered exuberance, joy, and call to action as it delivered Caribbean Supercharged Service Training in Grenada

Targeting more tourists during the next two years, the Tanzania National Parks Authority is currently upgrading its tourist infrastructure.

This is meant to ensure the provision of the best services to visitors touring its parks and other places connected to nature and wildlife conservation. Tanzania National Parks is the conservation custodian for 22 protected wildlife and premier parks which pull crowds of tourists every year, and now the National Parks Authority wants to attract five million tourists between 2025 and 2026 from the estimated 1.5 million tourists visiting Tanzania this year. 

Jamaica Minister of Tourism, Hon Edmund Bartlett has urged delinquent employers in the tourism industry “to step up to the plate and honour their commitment to workers to match the 5 percent contribution” made by members of the Tourism Workers Pension Scheme (TWPS).

The call came at the first annual general meeting of the scheme, held in hybrid form at the Montego Bay Convention Centre recently. The TWPS was launched in January 2022 and Minister Bartlett stressed that “up to July 21, 2023 membership enrolment stood at 6,214, with contributions totalling approximately $876 million.”

London’s Heathrow welcomed 37 million passengers in the first half of 2023 which included some of the busiest days on record.

London Heathrow Airport issues a press release saying the airport started strong in 2023 with 37 million passengers flying in and out of this London airport in the first 6 months. Security lines improved with waits of 5 or fewer minutes on average.

According to Tokyo media reports, the number of domestic tourists who visited Japan’s capital in 2022 has bounced back to pre-pandemic levels.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government estimated that about 542.67 million Japanese tourists visited Tokyo last year, down only 0.1 percent compared with the number in 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic, local media reports. Japanese domestic tourists are estimated to have spent about 4.62 trillion yen (about 32.7 billion US dollars), which is also back to pre-pandemic levels, said the report.

Corfu has become the latest Greek island to issue an evacuation order, as the country grapples with wildfires. Photos uploaded to social media show flames engulfing Corfu. A fire broke out on the northern part of the island which is popular with British tourists.

It is the second island to evacuate due to rampant wildfires after around 19,000 people had to leave Rhodes. Many were forced to flee their hotels as the flames continued to spread from the centre of the Greek island.

Millennial travellers, also known as Generation Y travellers, are individuals born roughly between the early 1980s and the mid-1990s. As a large demographic group, they have had a significant impact on the travel industry and have unique preferences and characteristics when it comes to exploring the world.

Jamaica will host the 42nd edition of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association’s (CHTA) Caribbean Travel Marketplace, May 20-22, 2024.

CHTA President Nicola Madden-Greig thanked the Jamaican government, particularly Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett and the Jamaica Hotel & Tourist Association (JHTA), for generously partnering with CHTA to host the association’s most important event, which brings together buyers and sellers of the region’s tourism products and services.

Monday 17 July marked the start of Coral Awareness Week, a global celebration of coral reefs, their wildlife, and their protection. An ocean cruise with Scenic Luxury Cruises and Tours offers opportunities to join on board teams of naturalists, guides, and professional divers to safely explore the world’s most exceptional reefs.

Scenic’s 2024 Pacific cruises will be onboard the 6-star luxury Scenic Eclipse II yacht

UK passport holders will now be able to enter Vietnam without a visa for up to 45 days, a threefold increase on the previous limit of 15 days, effective 15 August 2023. Currently, British Nationals can enter Vietnam for up to 15 days for tourism, transit, and business (but not paid or voluntary work) without needing to apply for a visa.

Continuing to expand ease of access to the island for US travellers, Jamaica will welcome new air service from Denver International Airport (DEN) to Sangster International Airport (MBJ) in Montego Bay (MoBay) starting on November 4, 2023, by United Airlines. Operating weekly on Saturdays, it will be the only carrier serving Jamaica non-stop from the Denver gateway.

“We are very pleased to expand our partnership with United with the launch of this new non-stop flight from the legacy carrier’s Denver hub,” said the Hon. Edmund Bartlett, Minister of Tourism, Jamaica.

From January 2024 travellers from more than 60 countries who currently able to travel through the EU’s Schengen travel area without a visa will now need to apply for an EU Travel Information & Authorization System – or ‘ETIAS’ – travel authorisation ahead of travel.

This will include countries whose passport holders are not used to applying for permission to travel to many counties, such as Canada, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Singapore and the United States. Whilst the requirements are relatively simple and the plans is that approvals should be quick, nonetheless those who don’t have the necessary ETIAS approval in place will face not being able to board their flights or rejection at the EU borders.