Holiday & Travel

Forget the stresses and strains of modern life and reconnect with the best that Mother Nature has to offer with the Freedom Awaits itinerary, curated by Visit Dean Wye as part of its new Find Your Freedom campaign, which inspires visitors to enjoy easy experiences for their mind, body and soul in the tranquility of the Forest of Dean. With more than 20 million trees stretching over 200 square miles, this is the perfect spot to let mind, body and soul roam unhindered by 21st Century constraints.

The St. Lucia Tourism Authority (SLTA) has released its latest stay-over results, revealing March 2022 as the highest arrivals month since the restart of the industry from the Covid-19 pandemic, in addition to achieving top five performance status in the Caribbean.

Stay-over visitors for March 2022 were recorded at 32,110, (up 21% on the forecasted figure), with a total of 80,811 arrivals year to date (from January to March), marking a strong start to the year.

The City of Wolverhampton Council has appointed its first Independent Travel Training Coordinator, to provide additional support to young people who face barriers to travelling on their own. The Independent Travel Training programme offers one-to-one supports to enable 11 to 19-year-olds to travel a specific route in a safe and responsible way on public transport.

With the UK’s roads set to be extremely busy this Easter. Green Flag, the breakdown provider, expects nearly 22 million people to be hitting the road and is forecasting a 20 per cent increase in breakdowns over bank holiday weekend, which could mean an extra 2,000 breakdowns per day.

Damon Jowett, Director of Roadside and Network Services at Green Flag, said: “People across the country will be looking forward to the first bank holiday weekend of 2022 and, with the weather looking reasonable, it’s no surprise that so many of us plan to hit the road. 

Opening its doors for the first time in September 2021, Le Méridien Maldives Resort & Spa, is dedicated to running with a strong sense of environmental consciousness, with a range of pioneering programmes that promote a culture of best practice through resort operations.  

Fringed by a vast lagoon, the coral reef that forms and surrounds the resort islands is one of the most complex ecosystems on earth. Le Méridien Maldives Resort & Spa, in collaboration with its dive and watersports partner Sub Oceanic, is monitoring the condition of the reefs around the resort.

Details have been released explaining why London Euston station must be closed during essential railway improvements over the Easter bank holiday. Network Rail is investing millions of pounds upgrading sections of track in Watford to improve future journeys on one of Europe’s busiest mixed-use passenger and freight rail routes.

VisitEngland’s Easter Trip-Tracker survey, published this week, shows that 7.4 million Brits are definitely planning an overnight holiday trip in the UK for the Easter weekend, bringing an estimated £1.8 billion boost to the economy.

This is on par with the pre-COVID Trip-Tracker figures for Easter 2019, which were the highest since this survey began and a significant increase on 2018 when 4.8 million Brits were planning an overnight holiday trip for the long weekend. In 2017, the figure was 6.6 million.

With April being National Stress Awareness Month, Discover Puerto Rico, the Island's Destination Marketing Organisation (DMO), has kicked off a month-long consumer-generated activation and sweepstakes titled 'Sand Hassles.' From work and traffic to finances and relationships, everyday stressors occupy mind space.

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.