easyJet has today launched flights from East Midlands Airport to Belfast International Airport in Northern Ireland for the first time, providing customers in the midlands with even more domestic connections this summer, to reunite with friends and family or take a long-awaited break.

Flights to Belfast are now operating up to four times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays throughout the summer and are on sale at easyJet.com with fares available from just £34.99. Belfast is the ideal location for a city break. Travellers can step back in time at Victorian-era tourist attractions, learn about Belfast’s past on a walking tour, dive into the city's maritime history in the Titanic Quarter and sample the local food and drink scene in award-winning independent restaurants and pubs.

Holidaymakers wishing to explore the scenic countryside can take a day trip to the world-famous Giant’s Causeway. All customers booking flights with easyJet benefit from some of the most flexible policies under its ‘Protection Promise’ which means that customers can book now for later this year with the confidence that if their plans change, so can their booking. 

Ali Gayward, easyJet’s UK Country Manager, said: "We are excited to be celebrating the launch of our inaugural flight from East Midlands to Belfast today, and are confident this new route will be a popular addition for passengers in the East Midlands needing to travel for business or those wishing take a well-deserved break or to visit loved ones." 

East Midlands Airport’s Managing Director, Clare James, says: “After one of the most difficult years in the history of aviation, it’s great to be announcing some positive news and waving off passengers on board an easyJet flight from this airport for the first time in 11 years. Domestic connectivity to other parts of the UK is an important part of our offer and I’m confident that this route to Belfast will be popular with travellers across the East Midlands region and beyond. We look forward to continuing to work with easyJet to explore further opportunities in the future.”

All customers booking flights with easyJet benefit from industry leading flexible booking policies under its ‘Protection Promise’ which means that customers can book now with confidence that if their plans change, so can their booking. All easyJet customers will now be able to change their flights this summer without a change fee at any time up to two hours before departure, providing even more last-minute flexibility. Unlike other airlines, there are no restrictions on dates or destination; customers can transfer to any flights currently on sale up to the end of September 2022, and to any other destination on the airline’s network which spans 35 countries across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

This means that if some travel restrictions are impacting their destination country, such as self-isolation in destination or on return to the UK, customers can easily change their trip to another country on easyJet’s network. Plus, should a mandatory hotel quarantine impact a customer’s travel destination this summer, customers can now request a refund for their flight within four weeks before departure if the restriction is still in place, even if their flights are still operating.

The safety and wellbeing of all customers and crew remains easyJet’s highest priority and the airline continues to have a number of biological safety measures in place onboard in line with guidance from the relevant authorities. This includes daily enhanced cabin disinfection effective in protecting against coronavirus for at least 24 hours and mandatory mask wearing for customers and crew.

All easyJet aircraft are already fitted with HEPA filters, similar to those used in hospitals, which filter 99.97% of airborne contaminants in the cabin, including viruses and bacteria.

The Pavilions Hotels & Resorts has enhanced its guest experiences by becoming the first international boutique hotel group to accept cryptocurrencies from any country for hotel bookings, leading the tourism industry into the future of secure online payments. Partnering with UK-based, world-leading global crypto-payment gateway, Coindirect, all of The Pavilions’ hotels and resorts can now be booked confidently and securely with digital assets including Bitcoin, Ethereum and 40 other virtual currencies.

"We pride ourselves on providing partners a platform for instant secure payments with over 40 Cryptocurrencies; this was a critical factor for The Pavilions Hotels & Resorts to ensure the end-to-end payment service is safe, flexible and easy for guests, when booking their next experience at any of The Pavilions Hotels & Resorts' across the globe." said Jesse Hemson-Struthers, CEO and Co-founder of Coindirect. 

"Guests can take advantage of paying in the Cryptocurrency of their choice, based on the currency and location they are situated in at the time of booking, offering more freedom and a contemporary, personalised service." he continued.

"Personalised experiences are at the core of our DNA; allowing this flexibility in payments combined with security and peace of mind for our guests is the next step in personalised and bespoke services. We are proud to lead the industry and enhance ourselves in the digital world with this exciting new crypto payment method available at all of our unique and distinct Hotels and Resorts across the globe." said Gordon Oldham, Founder & Owner, The Pavilions Hotels & Resorts. 

The Pavilions Residences, which are available for sale at the group’s Phuket and Niseko resorts, will also accept cryptocurrencies for property sales. 

The Pavilions Hotels & Resorts recently announced several new hotels, most recently The Pavilions Anana Krabi in Thailand, and The Pavilions El Nido, Palawan Island in the Philippines, expanding its portfolio to 14 locations across the globe including Phuket, Bali, Himalayas, Mongolia and Niseko in Asia, and Amsterdam, Madrid, Lisbon and Rome in Europe.

Unique to the luxury hotel group are ‘Curated Journeys’, which immerse the guest in the discovery of the very essence of the destination; a Pavilions Spa brand that delivers locally inspired treatments with locally sourced products to ensure authenticity; F&B concepts derived through destination research which offer an authentic, local experience, and comprehensive focus on CSR initiatives.

Payments using cryptocurrencies will be available for direct bookings through each hotel's reservations centre from today (July 7). In the near future, it will be available on website booking engines as well.

The confirmation on the lifting of the remaining Covid-19 restrictions on 19 July is clearly making an immediate impact on Britons’ summer plans, as many have swapped the UK for traditional European destinations for their summer holidays.

Spain has now toppled the UK staycation from its top spot with 29% of bookings, the UK is 12% of bookings and Greece remains at 8% of all summer holiday bookings made by Travel Counsellors.

Holiday bookings were already up by 10% and are expected to rise further. The latest booking figures from leading independent travel agency, Travel Counsellors, show that 50% of all new holiday bookings and re-bookings made last week (w/c 28 June) are for summer 2021.

For bookings further down the line, USA, Spain and the Maldives are very popular for winter 2021/22; while Greece, USA and Spain are leading the bookings for summer 2022.

Kirsten Hughes, UK Managing Director at Travel Counsellors, says: “We welcome today’s announcement, which removes the quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated travellers returning from an amber list country. This is a positive step in the right direction for both the travel industry and consumers looking to get a much-needed break away. We have been waiting for this clarity, which will certainly give Britons more confidence in booking late summer holidays to popular European destinations once again.

However, travel remains more complex than ever at the moment, with the traffic light system and latest FCDO advice to navigate. Placing travel plans in the hands of an experienced travel professional has never felt so important – a sentiment that is clearly reflected in our latest consumer survey report”, Kirsten concludes.

The release of these stats from Travel Counsellors coincide with the publication of the company’s latest consumer survey report of 1,000 customer responses in June 2021. Insights highlight there is still an appetite to travel in the current climate, with over 40% citing the fact they ‘just want to get away’ as the main reason for booking a holiday. Booking with a trusted advisor is still very important in these uncertain times, with 60% of consumers saying that ‘booking with someone you can trust’ is the most important factor when considering travel plans. Whilst some 22% are planning to travel in the autumn, clear guidelines are also needed, with 61% of respondents saying they require more clarification on individual country requirements to boost confidence.

Travel Counsellors has almost 1,500 experts across the UK who offer support, local expertise and reassurance from ‘inspiration to destination’. For more inspiration on the next destination, take a look at Travel Counsellors postcard film, written and performed by incredible poet, Tony Walsh.

The crash in international tourism due to the coronavirus pandemic could cause a loss of more than $4 trillion to the global GDP for the years 2020 and 2021, according to an UNCTAD report published on 30 June. The estimated loss has been caused by the pandemic’s direct impact on tourism and its ripple effect on other sectors closely linked to it.

The report, jointly presented with the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), says international tourism and its closely linked sectors suffered an estimated loss of $2.4 trillion in 2020 due to direct and indirect impacts of a steep drop in international tourist arrivals. A similar loss may occur this year, the report warns, noting that the tourism sector’s recovery will largely depend on the uptake of COVID-19 vaccines globally.

“The world needs a global vaccination effort that will protect workers, mitigate adverse social effects and make strategic decisions regarding tourism, taking potential structural changes into account,” UNCTAD Acting Secretary-General Isabelle Durant said. UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili said: “Tourism is a lifeline for millions, and advancing vaccination to protect communities and support tourism’s safe restart is critical to the recovery of jobs and generation of much-needed resources, especially in developing countries, many of which are highly dependent on international tourism.”

With COVID-19 vaccinations being more pronounced in some countries than others, the report says, tourism losses are reduced in most developed countries but worsened in developing countries. COVID-19 vaccination rates are uneven across countries, ranging from below 1% of the population in some countries to above 60% in others.

According to the report, the asymmetric roll-out of vaccines magnifies the economic blow tourism has suffered in developing countries, as they could account for up to 60% of the global GDP losses. The tourism sector is expected to recover faster in countries with high vaccination rates, such as France, Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States, the report says.

But experts don’t expect a return to pre-COVID-19 international tourist arrival levels until 2023 or later, according to UNWTO. The main barriers are travel restrictions, slow containment of the virus, low traveller confidence and a poor economic environment.

A rebound in international tourism is expected in the second half of this year, but the UNCTAD report still shows a loss of between $1.7 trillion and $2.4 trillion in 2021, compared with 2019 levels. The results are based on simulations that capture the effects of international tourism reduction only, not policies such as economic stimulus programmes that may soften the pandemic’s impact on the sector.

The report assesses the economic effects of three possible scenarios – all reflecting reductions in international arrivals – in the tourism sector in 2021. The first one, projected by UNWTO, reflects a reduction of 75% in international tourist arrivals – the most pessimistic forecast – based on the tourist reductions observed in 2020.

In this scenario, a drop in global tourist receipts of $948 billion causes a loss in real GDP of $2.4 trillion, a two-and-a-half-fold increase. This ratio varies greatly across countries, from onefold to threefold or fourfold.

This is a multiplier and depends on the backward linkages in the tourism sector, including the unemployment of unskilled labour, according to the report. For example, international tourism contributes about 5% of the GDP in Turkey and the country suffered a 69% fall in international tourists in 2020. The country’s fall in tourism demand is estimated at $33 billion and this leads to losses in closely linked sectors such as food, beverages, retail trade, communications and transport.

Turkey’s total fall in output is $93 billion, about three times the initial shock. The decline in tourism alone contributes to a real GDP loss of about 9%. This decline in reality was partly offset by fiscal measures to stimulate the economy.

The second scenario reflects a 63% reduction in international tourist arrivals, a less pessimistic forecast by UNWTO. And the third scenario, formulated by UNCTAD, considers varying rates of domestic and regional tourism in 2021.

It assumes a 75% reduction of tourism in countries with low vaccination rates, and a 37% reduction in countries with relatively high vaccination rates, mostly developed countries and some smaller economies. According to the report, the reduction in tourism causes a 5.5% rise in unemployment of unskilled labour on average, with a high variance of 0% to 15%, depending on the importance of tourism for the economy.

Labour accounts for around 30% of tourist services’ expenditure in both developed and developing economies. Entry barriers in the sector, which employs many women and young employees, are relatively low.

In July last year, UNCTAD estimated that a four- to 12-month standstill in international tourism would cost the global economy between $1.2 trillion and $3.3 trillion, including indirect costs. But the losses are worse than previously expected, as even the worst-case scenario UNCTAD projected last year has turned out to be optimistic, with international travel still low more than 15 months after the pandemic started.

According to UNWTO, international tourist arrivals declined by about 1 billion or 73% between January and December 2020. In the first quarter of 2021, the UNWTO World Tourism Barometer points to a decline of 84%.

Developing countries have borne the biggest brunt of the pandemic’s impact on tourism. They suffered the largest reductions in tourist arrivals in 2020, estimated at between 60% and 80%.

The most-affected regions are North-East Asia, South-East Asia, Oceania, North Africa and South Asia, while the least-affected ones are North America, Western Europe and the Caribbean.

The USVI management of the COVID-19 public health crisis along with savvy marketing tactics are being credited for the confidence airlines have placed in adding and increasing service to both St. Croix and St. Thomas.

Speaking at the recent 2021 Routes Americas air service development event in Orlando, Commissioner of Tourism Joseph Boschulte said the multi-agency approach to curbing the spread of COVID-19 in the Territory has helped travelers and airline executives to select the USVI (U.S. Virgin Islands) as a leading choice for leisure travel.

“Despite the global travel lockdowns, we have had incredible winter and spring seasons, and we expect to experience one of the strongest summer months in the history of the U.S. Virgin Islands,” said Commissioner Boschulte, who reported St. Croix and St. Thomas are registering about 10,000 and 30,000 weekly seats respectively this summer.

“We have welcomed new nonstop service from places like Dallas, Miami, Orlando, New York City and Newark, New Jersey, and increased lift across several gateways,” said Commissioner Boschulte, who disclosed that plans are in the works for new service to St. Croix from the mainland United States. “We are also close to consummating a deal for new flights from Canada to St. Croix, and will continue to work on resuming seasonal flights from Denmark,” the tourism executive disclosed.

Commissioner Boschulte said the response from airline executives in Orlando was exceptional, and as the Territory moves towards the post-vaccination period, he was confident of increased business as refreshed hotels such as Divi Carina Bay Beach Resort & Casino and Renaissance St. Croix Carambola Beach Resort & Spa on St. Croix come back online in the months ahead. He was also optimistic about the eventual return of the iconic Frenchman's Reef Marriott Resort and Noni Beach, a St. Thomas Resort, Autograph Collection, to the accommodations inventory on St. Thomas.
“But what has really been remarkable throughout the pandemic is the sharing economy – Airbnbs, condos and villas – which has kept our economy ticking as we continue to safely welcome thousands of travelers to our shores every day,” he said.

Moving forward, the Commissioner said the work of an expanded sales team in the marketplace as well as the continued deployment of innovative marketing tactics, especially across digital platforms, will be critical to maintaining the momentum: “We feel good where the USVI is positioned and are heartened by the intelligence we are receiving about plans for continued growth during the 2021-2022 winter season.”

During Routes Americas, the Commissioner and his team met with representatives from Air Canada, American Airlines, Cape Air, Caribbean Airlines, Copa Airlines, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines, Sun Country Airlines and WestJet Airlines in addition to representatives from data-focused aviation service companies.

The USVI team also hosted an educational travel industry luncheon to provide destination updates to meeting planners, travel agents and journalists in the Orlando area.

Leading international boutique hotel group, The Pavilions Hotels & Resorts, proudly announces the launch of its new and highly anticipated hotel brand, Explorar Hotels & Resorts, with its first resort - Explorar Pawapi Koh Mook, opening on 01 October 2021. The inaugural 24 key resort sits on an unspoilt stretch of private sandy beach on the peninsula of Koh Mook Island in Southern Thailand's secluded province of Trang.

The name, 'Explorar' meaning 'Explore' in Spanish, was inspired by the heritage of one of the world’s first great explorers, Christopher Colombus, who first started traversing and uncovering new lands in the 15th century. Explorar Hotels & Resorts is aimed at the millennial traveller looking for a light-hearted space in which to socialise, make local connections, and enjoy easy, fun living whilst enjoying a meaningful experience that provides value to the community.  

Offering modern-day travellers the opportunity to explore and enjoy destinations from a vibrant, comfortable base, the Explorar crew is central to ensuring they get the most from their stay, utilising their local knowledge to ensure easy access for guests. The crew at each hotel or resort is a small and dynamic team of local experts who will work across multiple areas. The focus is on building relationships with guests and providing insight into the destination, and ensuring a hotel experience that is easy and uncomplicated, where everything is within reach. Explorar will offer hotels and resorts a new vibrant energy; 'The Exchange', a social space traditionally dedicated to a lobby or reception, is reinterpreted as somewhere to exchange information, to grab something to eat, a local snack or something more, and to talk about tales of adventures over a cocktail or local brew with other guests or one of Explorars' crew members. 

Focused on creating a community and engaging socially with guests and the world through the website and social media platforms, Explorar hotels’ online exchange will be an organic forum that will allow guests to interact, gather information and ask questions, from recommendations on other hotels in the group to local restaurants.

Explorar Pawapi Koh Mook will provide guests with a genuinely untouched, quintessentially Thai island paradise experience. Bungalows and villas are located directly on the white sandy beach, with an open-air restaurant offering authentic Thai cuisine alongside creative culinary experiences. Guests will be spoilt for activities in the resort and adventures within the surrounding areas. Spa salas are dotted through the island landscape offering traditional Thai spa treatments to the soundtrack of the ocean lapping on the beach and the tall palm trees swaying in the tropical breeze.  The lobby, or The Exchange, will house a pool of local knowledge via a 'Walls of Discovery', an old school place for guests to pin up their stories and experiences, in analogue form, for the next traveller looking to explore Koh Mook and create their own memories.

Koh Mook Island is one of Thailand's hidden gems. It lies between Trang and Krabi on the west coast of southern Thailand, providing panoramic views of the Andaman Sea, with Koh Lanta to its North and Koh Lipe to its South. Renowned for its Emerald Cave - where the only way to enter is to swim under dark limestone to reach a magical hidden and secret beach - it also allows visitors to participate in activities such as dugong observation and scuba diving in some of the clearest waters of the Kingdom.

Explorar Hotels & Resorts is looking to develop within Asia and Europe both into urban and resort’s locations and offers four innovative themes depending on the hotels' location and unique experiences. Beach, Eco, Cultural and Urban themes unite the brand and offer the traveller clear choices for their individual experience. 

Explorar Pawapi Koh Mook will open its doors to guests after an extensive upgrade on 01 October 2021.