Arts & Culture


  • A MASSIVE OPPORTUNITY: How to win big with sports tourism
    by Staff Writer - New research from Expedia reveals that sports tourism is transforming how people travel and, at the same time, creating massive opportunities for the travel industry. Indeed, the niche now represents 10% of global tourism spending and is projected to reach US$1.3 trillion by 2032; and six in 10 Canadians travel internationally to do so.

  • OSAKA EXPO OPENS IN JAPAN AMID GLOBAL TURMOIL
    by Staff Writer - The Expo 2025 opened in Osaka, Japan, on Sunday with more than 10,000 people singing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony to celebrate the start of the six-month event that Japan hopes will unite the world divided by tensions and wars. Here is what to know about the Expo 2025 Osaka.

  • CANADA COMPASS: New Shaw Festival theatre on drawing board
    by Staff Writer - Ontario will spend $35 million to help the Shaw Festival rebuild the Royal George Theatre.

  • BASEBALL IN JAPAN: Take me out to the old yakyuu
    by Staff Writer - “Take me out to the yakyuu game… buy me some kimchi and dumplings…” Sports is a major driver of tourism and with the Major League Baseball season having opened this week in Japan with the Dodgers and Cubs kicking off in Tokyo, early morning TV viewers got a rare glimpse of the game far from the fields – and culture – of North America.

  • LOOK AT IT THIS WAY: Miami’s Paradox Museum is unique
    by Staff Writer - Part art gallery, science exhibition and 21st century funhouse, the Paradox Museum Miami takes guests on a tour through optical illusions and other enigmas geared for the age of Instagram. Housed in Miami’s trendy Wynwood arts and entertainment district, the attraction features more than 70 exhibits that challenge the imagination,

  • ‘HURT AND BETRAYED’: Come From Away director challenges Trump slur
    by Staff Writer - US President Donald Trump's targeting of Canada has left people feeling hurt and betrayed in central Newfoundland, where on Sept. 11, 2001, residents famously dropped everything to care for thousands of people stranded by terrorist attacks against the United States.

  • MONA LISA THE FACE OF MASSIVE LOUVRE OVERHAUL
    by Staff Writer - French President Emmanuel Macron announced Tuesday that the “Mona Lisa” will get its own dedicated room inside the Louvre – the world’s most-visited museum – under a major renovation and expansion of the Paris landmark that will take up to a decade.

  • AIRPORTS FACE THE MUSIC
    by Staff Writer - Background music is no longer an afterthought at many airports, which are hiring local musicians and carefully curating playlists to help lighten travellers’ moods. London’s Heathrow Airport built a stage to showcase emerging British performers for the first time in 2024 and the program was so successful the airport hopes to bring it back in 2025.

  • CITY OF ART: Milan’s ‘Little Louvre’ gets historic boost
    by Staff Writer - Milan’s Pinacoteca di Brera museum, conceived under Napoleon as a “little Louvre,” is finally getting a modern art addition first envisioned more than 50 years ago with the opening of Palazzo Citterio, home to one of the world’s most important collections of 20th century Italian art.

  • NEW ZEALAND CITY WAVES GOODBYE TO CONTROVERSIAL SCULPTURE
    by Staff Writer - Perched on two fingers on the roof of the city art gallery in Wellington, New Zealand, the giant hand with an unsmiling human face has loomed over the city for five years. Some found “Quasi” disturbing, and now, after five years of provoking controversy and myriad emotions – from horror and revulsion to delight – among residents, the sculpture has been removed taken to a new home.

  • LOSE SOME. WIN SOME.: Rocked by Vienna cancellations, Swifties shake it off and flock to London
    by Staff Writer - For Herve Tram, being a Taylor Swift fan isn’t just about the music. The 28-year-old computer network engineer from Paris sees himself as part of a community, one of the Swifties as they are known. So, when the pop superstar's shows in Vienna were cancelled last week because of a terror threat, Tram took a small personal step: He gave away two extra tickets to her upcoming concerts in London to two fans who missed the chance to see their guiding light in the Austrian capital.

  • MILAN MUSEUM TO FINALLY OPEN AFTER 50 YEARS OF DELAYS
    by Staff Writer - Fifty-two years and 39 Italian governments after it was first envisioned, Milan’s Brera Modern will be inaugurated in the fall, officials have promised. An extension of the famed Pinacoteca di Brera, the new museum will house more than 100 contemporary art works that belong to Brera’s collection that have mostly been relegated to storage.

  • 12 TRENDS OF CULINARY TOURISM
    by Staff Writer - The World Food Travel Association (WFTA), the world's leading authority on food and beverage tourism, has released its "2024 State of the Industry – Food & Beverage Tourism" report, which is available as a free download. The report is the WFTA's annual bellwether assessment and analysis of the food and beverage tourism industry (also known as culinary tourism or gastronomy tourism).

  • SPORTS TOURISM HIGH ON THE SCORECARD FOR CANADIANS
    by Staff Writer - With the hockey playoffs and baseball season now in session – and the Summer Olympics and EURO 2024 only a few calendar page flips off – Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) says its research show that nearly one out of every two Canadians say they are likely to plan a trip focused on attending sporting events.

  • HOTELS THAT PLAY BALL FOR SPORTS FANS, AND OTHER ROAD TRIP TIPS
    by Staff Writer - Baseball’s back! And for some, that means summer road trips to fun cities or famous diamonds like Fenway Park or Wrigley Stadium, sometimes paired with following their favourite teams, or perhaps just the love of the game. After all, sports and travel go together like peanuts and Cracker Jack.

  • PARIS PREPARING FOR INVADER: He comes, he glues, and disappears into the night
    by Staff Writer - For the Paris Olympics, it could almost be a new sport: Score points by hunting down mosaics that a mystery artist who calls himself “Invader” has cemented to walls across France’s capital, the world, and even had carried aloft to the International Space Station.

  • THE SERIOUS DEBATE OVER DAVID’S DOODLE
    by Staff Writer - Michelangelo’s David has been a towering figure in Italian culture since its completion in 1504. But in the current era of the quick buck, curators worry the marble statue’s religious and political significance is being diminished by the thousands of refrigerator magnets and other souvenirs sold around Florence focusing on David’s genitalia.

  • THE GREATEST SHOW ON SNOW: Never boring, meet the quirky sport of skijoring
    by Staff Writer - Nick Burri clicks into his ski bindings, squats to stretch his knees and scans the snowy racecourse. Moments later, he’s zipping past a series of gates at high speed and hurtling off jumps. But it’s not gravity pulling him toward the finish line: It’s the brute force of a quarter horse named Sirius.

  • MAD ABOUT TRAD: Delightful Dublin is music to our ears
    by Michael Baginski - Since the age of four, when my mother first played the irrepressible song “Off to Dublin in the Green” by an obscure group called The Abbey Tavern Singers, I’ve been hooked on traditional Irish folk music.

  • SEVENTH HEAVEN: The world’s most luxurious shopping streets
    by Staff Writer - When holidaying in the some of the world’s top cities, travellers can find themselves with an opportunity to take in (and load up on) some of the world’s most luxurious shopping streets – names that resonate on the big screen, in the pages of glossy magazines, and maybe in our dreams.  From the Champs-Élysées to Rodeo Drive, here are seven sensational streets where one can shop till they drop, and, with a little luck, maybe even mingle with the rich and famous.