Travel Week in Review – March 3rd, 2023

It all started with one dumb law. A plush hotel in New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport seems to be haunted by the ghost of aviation’s good times. The TWA Hotel offers guests a luxurious stay with 500 rooms, a rooftop pool, and a bar in an old retrofitted airplane. It also contains echoes of its past life as the TWA Flight Center. In TWA’s heyday, airlines competed on experience, luring elite passengers with lavish meals and comfortable seats. Read More…

From new sustainable tourism strategies and developments to reports on cities’ and countries’ post-pandemic economic recoveries, February saw its fair share of big news in the destination category. Plus, February now has a new day of recognition for the industry: Global Tourism Resilience Day, which was celebrated for the first time in over 90 countries on February 17, 2023. Curious to read the biggest headlines? Click through this slideshow to see them, and click the links in each slide to read the full stories. Read More…

Travelers planning to go abroad this summer are being advised by the State Department to renew their passports now due to longer wait times. According to a Tweet from the department, routine passport service is currently taking eight to 11 weeks, while expedited service will set you back five to seven weeks and cost an additional $60. However, these estimates only cover processing time and do not include mailing time, which could add several more weeks. Read More…

As travel returns with a bang, but rising airfares are making long-haul journeys difficult for many, destinations are doing all they can to encourage visitors to come and boost their economies. The latest is Taiwan, which is planning to offer tourists $165 each to vacation there. Cash rewards will also be offered to tour groups to encourage them to visit the island. Taiwan’s Premier Chen Chien-Jen announced Thursday that the government aims to attract six million tourists in 2023. Read More…

The Federal Aviation Administration is awarding nearly $1 billion to 99 airports across the country as part of U.S. infrastructure bill signed into law in November 2021, the agency announced Monday. These awards are on top of the $1 billion for airport terminals announced for 85 airports last year. The funds will help “meet the growing demand for air travel and invests in key areas to help get travelers in and out of airports more quickly and improve the passenger experience.” Read More…