Overtourism this year will bring admission fees to many major cities next year

Major tourist attractions this year will no doubt accelerate a movement started pre-pandemic to charge fees to access certain parts of cities around the world during peak seasons. This year tourists flooded into many cities like Athens, Rome, Reykjavik, Iceland, Dublin, Ireland, London, and many more.  In an effort to modify the total number of tourists in a city each day, proposals are in place that will charge an admission fee such a $10 to $25 per day to allow tourists into the city. The fee will be for specific days and even specific times. I also see this will become common for tour buses and even independent travelers. All this is pointing to the many advantages of not traveling during the busy summer tourist months of June, July, and August and instead travel on the shoulder seasonal months of April and May, September, and October.

United Airlines claims they are now the largest airline in the world passing American  and Delta – Just a few weeks ago United Airlines claimed they were officially the largest airline in the world, based on most available seat miles (ASM). United has expanded dramatically to Europe this year and all those new seats on large aircraft mean they may not have as many flights but they have more seat miles. Delta Air Lines is the largest airline by revenue and American Airlines is the largest by number of employees.  I wish the airlines would stop focusing on quantity and start focusing on quality customer service. CLICK HERE to see a chart with all the airlines metrics.

Delta offers status match to Business travelers who are Elite members of other airline FF programs – Delta is making a strong push to attract Elite members of other airlines’ frequent flyer programs. Delta’s Status Match program offers 6 month Medallion Status matching similar Elite status on other airlines. This is a good way for airlines who are “stuck” with an airline status program to break out and transition to Delta without losing the key upgrade and other benefits they currently enjoy. CLICK HERE to find out more.

United Airlines plans to offer air taxis in 2025 (Only two years away) – This is starting to feel more and more like George Jetson. United says they plan to bring commuter flights to New York’s heliport and Newark Liberty Airport in 2025 followed by adding the San Francisco Bay Area using electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. I am most excited about how this could work to shuttle people from downtown NYC to Newark Liberty Airport. The key to their success, in my opinion, will be if they can keep the cost to less than $150 one way, as a taxi cab takes about 50 minutes and costs about $100.CLICK HERE to read more.

I am hoping that airfares to Europe will drop this fall as the three major airlines have added hundreds of extra flights this summer over the pond – Delta now has 650 weekly flights over the pond.  United has over 670 weekly flights and has over 500 new large planes on order. All these new flights are full this summer but as things start to cool down, once school starts in August, I am hopeful that airfares to Europe will moderate this fall. I also hope that some frequent flyer business class seats open up as well. It has been hard to find reasonably priced business class seats using frequent flyer miles this summer.