Here’s a round-up of luxury travel stories that have caught the eye this week. To make sure you receive these new weekly alerts in your web browser, please click on the red bell icon in the bottom right hand corner of the page and click ‘subscribe’ (works on desktop only – for other ways to subscribe, please click here). This will also alert you to any other posts on the blog. Should you wish, you can unsubscribe at any time, by clicking on the icon again and selecting ‘unsubscribe’.
Tourism hit from coronavirus will carry into 2021, travel experts say
Even as infections of the novel coronavirus seemed to be slowing at one point last week, the effects of the epidemic on the global tourism industry were accelerating rapidly. The impact of the pneumonia-like disease caused by the COVID-19 virus is already being felt across Asia, where leisure and business travel contributed $884 billion to gross domestic product in 2017… [read more]
‘Megxit’ effect could turn Vancouver Island ‘into the next Martha’s Vineyard’
The Kennedys put Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, on the map. The Bush family made Kennebunkport, Maine, a tourist destination. And now, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex may be doing the same for Vancouver Island, Canada, according to marketing experts. Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, have been living on the picturesque island, located on the Northeastern Pacific Ocean, just off the coast of British Columbia, since they officially stepped back from their duties as senior members of the royal family in January… [read more]
Will Greta Thunberg trade her sailing boat for a superyacht?
The world’s 300 biggest superyachts produce close to the same carbon footprint as the African nation of Burundi – but there may be one that even an environmentalist would find both appealing and sustainable… [read more]
Coronavirus triggers boom in private jet inquiries
Private jet operators have seen a big spike in requests from passengers wanting to charter their own planes during the coronavirus outbreak. With airlines scaling back flights in and out of China, some travellers are stuck inside or outside the country. The wealthy ones are turning to private jet operators to ask them to arrange flights, despite the huge costs… [read more]
The Cinque Terre tops the list of the world’s most Instagrammed villages
Perched in the Italian Riviera not far from Genoa, the Cinque Terre is a group of five villages in a national park which is a UNESCO world heritage site. According to an international listing established by Farawayfurniture.com, it is the most ‘Instagrammed’ village destination in the world, with more than two million pictures… [read more]
We really enjoy hearing from our readers and would love to hear your views on any of these stories! Please click on the comments below and share your thoughts. Thank you.
Have a story you’d like to share? Please contact us for details.
Paul Johnson is Editor of A Luxury Travel Blog and has worked in the travel industry for more than 30 years. He is Winner of the Innovations in Travel ‘Best Travel Influencer’ Award from WIRED magazine. In addition to other awards, the blog has also been voted “one of the world’s best travel blogs” and “best for luxury” by The Daily Telegraph.
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7 Comments
No surprise that Hobbiton is in the list of most Instagrammed villages, perhaps the only surprise is that it is no higher than 8th?
Even the prediction that Coronavirus will impact onto tourism until 2021 is possibly optimistic. There’s so many unknowns.
The virus is still young and we don’t know how it will develop. Although there’s a lot of optimism about having a vaccine ready for next winter we don’t know whether we will be dealing with the same virus and if those vaccines will be effective. Another issue is that we tend to assume that once we’ve had the Coronavirus and presumably survived will we be immune or will we still be at risk as with colds and flu? Also we tend to look at it from an affluent First World perspective where the state can afford the vaccination costs. You’ve got to ask whether vaccination will get through to the millions of homeless on the streets of the world’s cities and towns who will be particularly vulnerable due to their underlying poor health condition. We are probably just on the opening chapters of the Coronavirus story.
This is unfortunately true. I’ve been living in Southeast Asia since last September … and it’s been such a different feeling these last few weeks. I was considering travel to other countries in the region but it doesn’t seem too great of a time for that. And I’ve heard conversations from other people living as ex-pats abroad who have had their travel plans canceled as well. I still see Chinese tourists, though. But I can understand that this is a much bigger issue than previously thought, especially for countries in Southeast and East Asia.
…and further afield it would seem. Italy has quite a significant outbreak with over 150 cases now. I am meant to be attending an industry event in Catania in Sicily next month – it’s some distance from the north of Italy of course and, on a separate island, but I do wonder whether it will still go ahead. If so many cases are suddenly identified in a 24-hour period, it must surely have spread much further within the country and possibly to other parts of Europe, prior to detection.
As a travel writer I’ve virtually come to a halt with work recently. I’m not particularly worried about catching the virus as I’d like to think that I’m healthy enough to see it off. Obviously, I worry about bringing it back into Britain from my travels and infecting other people. Even more worrying is the thought of being placed in quarantine for two weeks and then possibly having to face another two weeks in quarantine back in Britain. After the experience of the passengers on the cruise ship in Yokohama you also have to question how effective quarantine is.
Though every cloud has its silver lining. With 4 weeks of confinement I might finally get that best-selling novel written!
I feel like I’m the only one in the UK that just couldn’t care less about ‘Megxit’. Let them do what they want, it’s their choice and they’re entitled to it. Let them lead a happy life in peace. But of course they don’t get much of a choice with being ‘normal’ people any more, so even going to Canada will entail a whole entourage of staff and security.
I saw a super yacht in the news the other day. Can’t remember the name of it but they were saying that apparently Bill Gates has ordered it. The first ever hydrogen powered superyacht, with helipad and all the fancy stuff like an infinity pool. I think it’s somewhere around the $160 – $170 MILLION mark. More money than sense… But it’s good to see eco concerns are driving innovation in leisure and travel.
The stockmarkets have become very concerned about the Coronavirus. The FTSE closed 3.43% down and at the time of writing the Dow Jones has just slid below that negative. It has been travel and flight businesses that have suffered the biggest fall on their shares today.
There’s a painful irony to the fact that many of us will have suffered such losses on our investment portfolios today that even if we had an appetite to travel we probably could not afford to do so.
Tourism hit from coronavirus will carry into 2021, travel experts say
Even as infections of the novel coronavirus seemed to be slowing at one point last week, the effects of the epidemic on the global tourism industry were accelerating rapidly. The impact of the pneumonia-like disease caused by the COVID-19 virus is already being felt across Asia, where leisure and business travel contributed $884 billion to gross domestic product in 2017… [read more]
Tourism hit from coronavirus will carry into 2021, travel experts say
Even as infections of the novel coronavirus seemed to be slowing at one point last week, the effects of the epidemic on the global tourism industry were accelerating rapidly. The impact of the pneumonia-like disease caused by the COVID-19 virus is already being felt across Asia, where leisure and business travel contributed $884 billion to gross domestic product in 2017… [read more]
‘Megxit’ effect could turn Vancouver Island ‘into the next Martha’s Vineyard’
The Kennedys put Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, on the map. The Bush family made Kennebunkport, Maine, a tourist destination. And now, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex may be doing the same for Vancouver Island, Canada, according to marketing experts. Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, have been living on the picturesque island, located on the Northeastern Pacific Ocean, just off the coast of British Columbia, since they officially stepped back from their duties as senior members of the royal family in January… [read more]
Will Greta Thunberg trade her sailing boat for a superyacht?
The world’s 300 biggest superyachts produce close to the same carbon footprint as the African nation of Burundi – but there may be one that even an environmentalist would find both appealing and sustainable… [read more]
Coronavirus triggers boom in private jet inquiries
Private jet operators have seen a big spike in requests from passengers wanting to charter their own planes during the coronavirus outbreak. With airlines scaling back flights in and out of China, some travellers are stuck inside or outside the country. The wealthy ones are turning to private jet operators to ask them to arrange flights, despite the huge costs… [read more]
The Cinque Terre tops the list of the world’s most Instagrammed villages
Perched in the Italian Riviera not far from Genoa, the Cinque Terre is a group of five villages in a national park which is a UNESCO world heritage site. According to an international listing established by Farawayfurniture.com, it is the most ‘Instagrammed’ village destination in the world, with more than two million pictures… [read more]
We really enjoy hearing from our readers and would love to hear your views on any of these stories! Please click on the comments below and share your thoughts. Thank you.
Have a story you’d like to share? Please contact us for details.
No surprise that Hobbiton is in the list of most Instagrammed villages, perhaps the only surprise is that it is no higher than 8th?
Even the prediction that Coronavirus will impact onto tourism until 2021 is possibly optimistic. There’s so many unknowns.
The virus is still young and we don’t know how it will develop. Although there’s a lot of optimism about having a vaccine ready for next winter we don’t know whether we will be dealing with the same virus and if those vaccines will be effective. Another issue is that we tend to assume that once we’ve had the Coronavirus and presumably survived will we be immune or will we still be at risk as with colds and flu? Also we tend to look at it from an affluent First World perspective where the state can afford the vaccination costs. You’ve got to ask whether vaccination will get through to the millions of homeless on the streets of the world’s cities and towns who will be particularly vulnerable due to their underlying poor health condition. We are probably just on the opening chapters of the Coronavirus story.
This is unfortunately true. I’ve been living in Southeast Asia since last September … and it’s been such a different feeling these last few weeks. I was considering travel to other countries in the region but it doesn’t seem too great of a time for that. And I’ve heard conversations from other people living as ex-pats abroad who have had their travel plans canceled as well. I still see Chinese tourists, though. But I can understand that this is a much bigger issue than previously thought, especially for countries in Southeast and East Asia.
…and further afield it would seem. Italy has quite a significant outbreak with over 150 cases now. I am meant to be attending an industry event in Catania in Sicily next month – it’s some distance from the north of Italy of course and, on a separate island, but I do wonder whether it will still go ahead. If so many cases are suddenly identified in a 24-hour period, it must surely have spread much further within the country and possibly to other parts of Europe, prior to detection.
As a travel writer I’ve virtually come to a halt with work recently. I’m not particularly worried about catching the virus as I’d like to think that I’m healthy enough to see it off. Obviously, I worry about bringing it back into Britain from my travels and infecting other people. Even more worrying is the thought of being placed in quarantine for two weeks and then possibly having to face another two weeks in quarantine back in Britain. After the experience of the passengers on the cruise ship in Yokohama you also have to question how effective quarantine is.
Though every cloud has its silver lining. With 4 weeks of confinement I might finally get that best-selling novel written!
I feel like I’m the only one in the UK that just couldn’t care less about ‘Megxit’. Let them do what they want, it’s their choice and they’re entitled to it. Let them lead a happy life in peace. But of course they don’t get much of a choice with being ‘normal’ people any more, so even going to Canada will entail a whole entourage of staff and security.
I saw a super yacht in the news the other day. Can’t remember the name of it but they were saying that apparently Bill Gates has ordered it. The first ever hydrogen powered superyacht, with helipad and all the fancy stuff like an infinity pool. I think it’s somewhere around the $160 – $170 MILLION mark. More money than sense… But it’s good to see eco concerns are driving innovation in leisure and travel.
The stockmarkets have become very concerned about the Coronavirus. The FTSE closed 3.43% down and at the time of writing the Dow Jones has just slid below that negative. It has been travel and flight businesses that have suffered the biggest fall on their shares today.
There’s a painful irony to the fact that many of us will have suffered such losses on our investment portfolios today that even if we had an appetite to travel we probably could not afford to do so.