Holiday & Travel

River cruise specialist, VIVA Cruises, has welcomed its first new build ship to the family. VIVA ONE was christened in its home port of Düsseldorf (Germany) on Thursday last week, in a ceremony attended by over 160 guests. VIVA ONE will be offering a variety of exciting itineraries on the Rhine and Moselle rivers throughout this year, with more to come in 2023.

American Airlines will launch new service from Miami to Ocho Rios, Jamaica, in November, marking its third destination in the island nation, following Montego Bay and Kingston.

The carrier is the first U.S. airline to serve Ian Fleming Airport in Ocho Rios, near the James Bond beach, Dunn's River Falls and a number of resorts on the island's north coast.

Corendon Airlines, the European leisure carrier, has started flying from Birmingham Airport. Its fleet of 1New89-seat B737-800 aircraft are now operating flights twice a week to Dalaman and three times a week to Antalya. 

Yesterday’s departure to Antalya took off with a full plane of customers seeking some Turkish sun.

Passengers travelling between London Euston and Scotland over the Easter bank holiday are being urged to travel either side of the long weekend.

This Easter Network Rail is investing £22m to improve future journeys for passengers and freight on the West Coast main line and key routes in the Midlands and North West Between Good Friday (15 April) and Easter Monday (18 April), Euston station will be closed to main line train services due to major track upgrades in Watford, including work to build Britain’s new zero-carbon railway HS2.

The West Midlands tourism sector paid tribute to the stars of its visitor-facing venues, with 13 prizes handed out at the 2022 West Midlands Tourism Awards.

Organisations from across the region’s accommodation, arts, food and drink, visitor attraction and heritage sectors were honoured with awards in categories including Experience of the Year, New Tourism Business and Accessible and Inclusive Tourism.

The team of marine biologists of Reefscapers based at the Sheraton Maldives Full Moon Resort & Spa witnessed, for the second time since the beginning of the coral restoration project, four coral spawning events with 10 species of coral that spawned over four consecutive days from the 20th to the 23rd of March 2022.

After over 14 nights of dive monitoring and months of coral spawning research, the team successfully witnessed this event: one of nature's most magical spectacles and the most rewarding event that shows the success of the coral restoration project.

The Best Tourism Villages by UNWTO initiative will return for a second year as it establishes itself as the world’s leading network focused on tourism for rural development.

Launched in 2021, Best Tourism Villages by UNWTO promotes and enhances the role of tourism in safeguarding rural villages, along with their landscapes, natural and cultural diversity, knowledge systems, and local values and activities, including gastronomy.

UNWTO has successfully celebrated the 48th session of its Regional Commission for the Middle East. Returning to Egypt for the third time since 2018, the Commission addressed the pressing challenges faced by tourism and looked to the future as the sector’s recovery gathers pace across the region.

According to the latest UNWTO data, international arrivals to destinations in the Middle East were 52% higher in January than in the same month of 2021.

Jamaica is preparing for the launch of new Frontier Airlines services from Denver, Colorado. The carrier will launch up to three weekly services from the American city later in the year, it was confirmed earlier.

The deal to open the route was signed by Jamaica tourism minister, Edmund Bartlett, and Frontier chief executive, Barry Biffle, as the latter visits the Caribbean destination this week.

easyJet, the UK’s largest airline, is this week celebrating carrying over three million passengers to and from Birmingham airport. To mark the occasion the airline surprised two lucky travellers Terri and Stephen Powell from Rowley Regis, flying today from Birmingham to Belfast, with a pair of easyJet return flights.

The airline has also announced today that it will be launching a brand new, twice-weekly service to Faro in Portugal.

Eden Villas, the leading luxury villa expert in Sri Lanka, is delighted to introduce its latest brand new and renovated, relaunched properties along the southern coast.

Braganza House, Unawatuna, Galle - brand new property

Braganza House is an imaginatively designed bohemian tropical home, set amongst almost two acres of walled gardens with far reaching countryside views.

The UK government have said that all remaining coronavirus measures for travellers, including passenger locator forms and the requirement that unvaccinated people be tested for COVID-19 before and after their arrivals, will end to make going on holiday easier for the Easter school vacation.

“The changes will mean people can travel just like in the good old days,” Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said.

Belize Prime Minister John Briceno is on a visit to Taiwan for five days to enhance bilateral ties between the Commonwealth country and its East Asian counterpart – which is a Caribbean ally.

The Central American country is one of the 14 diplomatic allies Taiwan has around the world. The two countries have maintained official diplomatic ties since 1989, reported Focus Taiwan.

The Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry launched its 2022 telethon to raise $50 million for the Cornwall Regional Hospital in St James. The funds are to be used to purchase much-needed equipment to support western Jamaica's Type A hospital.

The launch, which was held at the S Hotel in Montego Bay under the theme 'Cornwall Regional - a fi wi hospital,' came ahead of the telethon's planned opening at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in Rose Hall.

Islanders in the Caribbean nation of Aruba celebrated the shining example their homeland sets for International Women's Day.  In addition to having a woman prime minister, three leading roles for this Dutch Caribbean's economically-vital tourism industry are filled by women.

Eveleyn Wever-Croes became Aruba's first female prime minister in 2017, leading the island's first coalition government through many issues, including the turmoil of Covid. Meanwhile, the two top posts in the Aruba Tourism Authority are held by women, while the influential Aruba Hotel and Tourism Association's (AHATA) president and CEO is Tisa LaSorte.

The annual VisitEngland Awards for Excellence are now open for nominations for the category of Travel Content Award, which recognises the important contribution that media and influencers make in championing the huge array of amazing tourism experiences on offer in England.

This year judges are particularly interested to see submissions of features/blogs/vlogs that bring to life the VisitEngland Escape the Everyday campaign ethos, which first launched back in 2020 and aims to encourage people to take domestic day trips and overnight stays once again, embracing new experiences or destinations across the country.