Holiday & Travel

Due to popular demand, luxury river cruise line Scenic (www.scenic.co.uk) has released a selection of European river cruise itineraries available to book for 2023 ahead of schedule.

This early access provides greater flexibility for guests – allowing more availability on preferred itineraries, suite category and sailing day before the full collection is released. New bookings will also benefit from generous launch savings and early booking discounts.

The return of international cruise lines to Colombia is a reality. On Tuesday August 24th, the first cruise docked at the Port of Cartagena, after more than a year and a half without shipping companies arriving in Colombia. 

This means the cruise season 2021-2022 officially begins in the country! So far, 26 cruise lines are projected to arrive in Cartagena and seven in Santa Marta, both cities located in the Greater Caribbean region of the country. This represents a recovery of 57% of the calls the country had for the 2019-2020 season.

Jamaica will prohibit residents from leaving their homes for seven days spread over three weekends to contain an upsurge in coronavirus infections and shield its healthcare system, Prime Minister Andrew Holness said. The Caribbean nation has been battling a third wave of infections, with the presence of the highly contagious Delta variant confirmed on the island.

"Our case numbers are unacceptably high and rising, and the rate of hospitalization is beyond - and I want to stress this - beyond the capacity of our health system, to cope," Holness recently told a virtual news conference.

With so many of us planning trips closer to home, online motorhome insurance price comparison specialist The Insurers has crunched its data to pinpoint where ‘staycationers’ will be setting off from this summer – and the research reveals that footloose retirees are most likely to be hitting the UK’s roads this year. 

The results, taken over a 12-month period up to May 2021, show that retirees accounted for a whopping 57 per cent of all quotes processed by The Insurers, followed by HGV drivers and builders, respectively.  

Leading UK travel agency, Barrhead Travel, is set to host its first hybrid cruise event this weekend from Friday August 27 to Monday August 30. The travel group held virtual events during pandemic to continue to “inspire and inform” their customers.

Following positive feedback from virtual event attendees, the Glasgow-based travel agency is easing back to face-to-face events with a hybrid concept for its flagship summer cruise event. Pre-pandemic, the agency hosted annual exhibitions in its Glasgow city-centre superstore, which would welcome between 300 and 500 customers throughout the course of each event. During lockdown, the travel group invited customers to join them for a virtual exhibition, bringing inspiration and expertise to living rooms across the country.

The Days Out by Rail campaign, coordinated by Community Rail Network, aims to inspire and encourage day-trippers and leisure travellers to jump aboard a train, for exciting, fun, eco-friendly outings. Days Out by Rail draws on local insights and ideas from community rail, a grassroots movement spanning Britain, which involves communities and volunteers with their local railways and stations.

The initiative is raising awareness about rail as one of the greenest ways to travel – especially combined with walking, cycling and buses – avoiding traffic jams, parking and pollution. The campaign encourages people to leave the car at home and take the train to cut carbon emissions by two thirds, while enabling exploration of lesser-known spots as part of a day out, short break or staycation.

Leading UK travel company, Barrhead Travel, plans to have a “wellness champion” in every store by the end of the year. The initiative, which was originally launched two years ago, is accelerating to deal with the knock-on effects of the pandemic. 

The rollout of the key plan to help the company’s people follows the valued experience of existing champions in the business’s stores and offices. The business launched their original Wellness Steering Programme in 2019 as it pledged to prioritise the health and wellbeing of its employees across the business. 

Of the millions of people clogging airport security lines, passport control and gate areas, one crowd is still largely missing: business travellers. Their absence is noteworthy because they are a key source of revenue and profit, underpinning a record-breaking stretch of financial gain for airlines that ended with the coronavirus.

Business travellers tend to pay higher fares, and that is especially true on international flights, which are also still deeply depressed by the pandemic and travel restrictions around the globe. Because their fares subsidize other passengers, experts say their absence is leading to higher leisure fares on many routes.

Turks and Caicos will be the latest country to require adult travellers to be vaccinated. All visitors 16 and over must be fully vaccinated to enter the Turks and Caicos, effective Sept. 1. Accepted vaccines are Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca.

Travelers must show proof of vaccination through the TCI pre-travel portal. Handwritten vaccination cards will not be accepted; the vaccination proof must come from an electronic vaccination database or through a letter signed by a physician or registered nurse and include medical license number.

The streets of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, have been lit up with colourful lights for the 3^rd Light Festival on August 13-15^th. The event, which attracted 200K spectators last year, this time has created an illuminated route from the New to the Old Town, with almost 20 light installations by Lithuanian and foreign artists along the way.

The colourful light art highlights the allure of city squares, red-roofed buildings, and green spaces.

AMResorts has signed two new resort brand management deals: Zoëtry Casa Del Mar Los Cabos and Zoëtry Marigot Bay St. Lucia. The two properties are conversions from independent resorts and will expand the Zoëtry Wellness & Spa Resorts portfolio to seven branded properties.

“Demand for boutique resorts is at a high, as travellers crave more intimate experiences in a setting that prioritizes luxury, personalization and safety. Understanding how to optimize this segment for profitability can be a challenge, especially in a volatile market,” said Javier Coll, Group President of Global Business Development, Apple Leisure Group.

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.