News

Board members picked by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to oversee the governance of Walt Disney World say that their Disney-controlled predecessors pulled a fast one on them by passing restrictive covenants that strip the new board of many of its powers.

Visitors to one of Florence’s most iconic monuments – the Baptistry of San Giovanni, opposite the city’s Duomo – are getting a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see its ceiling mosaics up close thanks to an innovative approach to a planned restoration effort. Rather than limit the public’s access during the six-year cleaning of the vault, officials have built a scaffolding platform for the art restorers that will also allow small numbers of visitors to see the ceiling mosaics at eye level.

For Canadians fed up with air-travel disruptions the Federal government says help is on the way. However, travellers will also face higher airport security fees in 2023, according to this week’s budget. And as for help for travel retailers, ACTA says simply it is “discouraged but not surprised.”

Despite two in three Ontarian’s expressing concern about having their travel plans delayed or cancelled nearly the same amount says they intend to travel this spring and summer anyways, according to new research from the Travel Industry Council of Ontario (TICO).

Visitors to the west of England can discover a host of dramatic ways to up the action and see the region in a new light – leaving museums and galleries behind for a day for adventures ranging from simple walking to weaselling, and axe-throwing to hot air ballooning. There’s even shark diving for the more intrepid traveller.

The reconstruction of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is going fast enough to allow its reopening to visitors at the end of 2024, less than six years after a fire ravaged its roof. The cathedral’s iconic spire, which collapsed in the blaze, will gradually start reappearing above the monument this year in a powerful signal of its revival, said the army general in charge of the colossal project, Gen. Jean-Louis Georgelin.

Republicans and Democrats in Congress clashed in an escalating political war over irregular immigration in the US. The two sides squared off Tuesday along an unusual and largely unfamiliar front: the 8,900 kilometres of the Canada-US border.

An 8,000-km seaweed belt lurking in the Atlantic Ocean is expected in the next few months to wash onto beaches in the Caribbean Sea, South Florida, and the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico.

About two-thirds of people with disabilities encountered barriers on federally regulated planes and trains in 2019 and 2020, highlighting a lack of consultation and enforcement by agencies involved, the federal auditor general says in a new report.

Despite ongoing protests and an online petition with 11,000 signatures demanding that work be halted, a zipline on Rio de Janeiro’s world-famous Sugarloaf Mountain is scheduled to be inaugurated later this year.

Celebrating 20 years of marine animal conservation grants, the SeaWorld Conservation Fund announced 22 new grants made in 2022 to support third party research, rescue, and conservation programs to protect marine animals and their habitats. To date the non-profit Fund has provided more than US$20 million in grants to 1,391 organizations across all seven continents.

Departing flights out of the Israel’s main international “airport” were grounded Monday stranding 70,000 travellers as the country’s largest trade union group launched a strike across a broad swath of sectors, joining a surging protest movement against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to overhaul the judiciary – a plan that is facing unprecedented opposition.

Opening hours are being extended at 42 border crossings with the United States and at several airports across the country as the Canada Border Services Agency returns to pre-pandemic hours. The changes will take effect on March 31. The border agency first restricted hours at land border crossings in April 2020, closing many points of entry early and stopping 24-hour service at seven crossings.

Ensemble has launched a new familiarization program for members and Flight Centre is “fizzing with inspo” in a cheeky, new promotional series on YouTube this week’s retail round-up. Also, well-earned acknowledgements for Trevello and The Travel Agent Next Door.

Short-term rental company Airbnb says it is pulling listings in Quebec that don’t have a permit from the provincial government, after a fatal fire earlier this month destroyed a historic Old Montreal building that housed illegal rentals.

An increased number of travellers in Germany boarded trains and planes on Sunday, a day before a major one-day strike that aims to bring the country’s transportation system to a standstill. However, even these advance travel plans were met with disruption.

The Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC) welcomed last week’s US presidential visit and expressed hopes that the meeting between Joe Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would further bilateral relations between Canada and the US, particularly in strengthening both leisure and business tourism.