If you build it, they will come: Why infrastructure is crucial to tourism growth and competitiveness
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A tourist’s paradise? Here’s how Costa Rica has balanced biodiversity with accessibility
Tuesday 3rd of May 2022
After two years of pandemic lockdowns and border closures, global travel appears to be rebounding in much of the world in 2022. Wilderness is a big tourist attraction – but do countries that protect their natural environments earn a payoff in tourism revenues?
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The world’s first airport for flying cars and drones has just landed
Thursday 28th of April 2022
The world’s first airport for electric drones and flying cars just opened in the centre of a city in the UK. If it’s a success, it will be the blueprint for hundreds more around the world.
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An Airbus powered by cooking oil: Is sustainable aviation fuel the future of aviation?
Monday 11th of April 2022
Used cooking oil is probably not the first thing that springs to mind when you think about your next holiday flight. But that could soon change. Airbus has just completed its first test flight of an A380 jumbo jet with one engine powered entirely by sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The fuel used was a mix of used cooking oil and other waste fats, purified to extract sulphur and other contaminants.
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How quickly is tourism recovering from COVID-19?
Thursday 31st of March 2022
Tourism was hit particularly hard by the pandemic, as lockdowns restricted people to travelling around their homes and neighbourhoods rather than around the world. But there are now signs that tourist numbers are starting to recover as limitations on movement are eased.
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These innovations in Africa are reducing transport inequalities
Monday 21st of February 2022
After a minibus taxi driver threatened to throw her out on the street for asking him to slow down as he raced down the highway, South African nurse Lebogang Matjila scoured the internet for a safer, cheaper way to get to her patients.
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This is the impact of COVID-19 on the travel sector
Tuesday 25th of January 2022
While few industries have been spared by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, even fewer have been hit as hard as the tourism sector. As 2021 drew to a close with severe limitations to travel still in place, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) reported that international tourist arrivals increased by just 4 percent last year, remaining 72 percent below 2019 levels. That equates to more than 1 billion fewer international arrivals compared to pre-pandemic levels, keeping the industry at levels last seen in the late 1980s.
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The number of Americans moving home hit a record low as the pandemic struck
Wednesday 22nd of December 2021
Americans relocated less during the coronavirus outbreak, moving from one residence to another in 2020 at the lowest rate since the government began reporting data more than 70 years ago. And though a declining share of Americans say they want to live in cities, fewer people moved out of them last year than in the period before the COVID-19 pandemic began.
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How bio-waste could fuel your next flight
Tuesday 21st of December 2021
We all know the world must do more to tackle carbon emissions. The Inter-Governmental Panel for Climate Change’s (IPCC) latest assessment report shows climate change strategies submitted in 2015 by nations during COP 21 in Paris are not adequate to contain global temperature rises within 2-degree celsius limits. The report underlines the urgent need to decarbonize the environment by deploying technology in our daily lives that reduces the carbon intensity of our actions across all spectrums of human activity. The zero-carbon future demands immediate action from all of us.
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These are the world’s most dangerous mountains
Friday 17th of December 2021
The 14 highest mountain peaks in the world, also known as the eight-thousanders because they are all more than 8,000 meters above sea level, are all distributed in the mountain ranges of the Himalayas and Karakoram. They are not only wonders of nature, but magnets for adventurers and extreme athletes. Mount Everest alone, as the highest mountain on earth, attracts hundreds of climbers every year who want to reach the summit.
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3 ways we can keep flying with zero-carbon emissions
Thursday 16th of December 2021
Aviation is responsible for around 2% of global CO2 emissions. That’s more than one billion tonnes of carbon added to the atmosphere each year. So, the race is on to find alternatives to fossil fuels for planes.
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How COVID-19 and Omicron are affecting travel this holiday season
Thursday 16th of December 2021
Tourism and travel industries have been once again disrupted by the discovery of the newest COVID-19 Omicron variant. With uncertainty running high, some political decision-makers implemented travel restrictions such as the red-listing of Southern African countries, while scientists are working tirelessly to understand what we do and don’t know about Omicron and how to navigate it.
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Swiss scientists are making jet fuel from sunlight and air
Wednesday 15th of December 2021
Scientists have developed a way to make carbon-neutral jet fuel for hard-to-electrify heavy transport using sunlight and air.The fuels release as much carbon dioxide (CO2) when combusted as they absorb from the atmosphere when produced, so no additional CO2 emissions are generated.
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Flight-free: What Swedish views on travel might tell us about the future
Monday 13th of December 2021
Air travel is often presented as desirable, despite its high environmental cost. In Sweden, however, a movement advocating avoiding flying has gained influence since 2016, and has started to change the way travel is portrayed in the Swedish media.
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Flying taxis might be closer than you think. Here’s what the experts say
Thursday 2nd of December 2021
This article was originally published by McKinsey & Company, www.mckinsey.com. Copyright (c) 2021 All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.
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Coronavirus pandemic could cost global tourism $2 trillion this year
Tuesday 30th of November 2021
According to the latest forecast by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the same amount was lost in 2020, making it one of the sectors hit hardest by the health crisis.
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This is how global car use could change between now and 2050
Tuesday 30th of November 2021
While car use is projected to fall in North America and Europe until 2050, Asia is the continent where the car as a mode of transportation is expected to become much more prevalent. In the next three decades, Asian car use is projected to climb to more than 40 percent of trips taken, up from just 28 percent in 2015.
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7 reasons why global transport is so hard to decarbonize
Monday 22nd of November 2021
Transport accounts for 21% of global carbon emissions. It is now the largest emitting sector in many developed countries. While Europe and North America dominate historic transport emissions, much of the projected growth in emissions is in Asia.
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4 ways airlines are planning to become carbon neutral
Wednesday 17th of November 2021
Launching a 300-ton plane full of people into the sky and propelling it at 500 miles (805 km) an hour requires a lot of energy. So, taking off without adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere will take some doing.
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Museum attendance dropped by 78% in 2020. These were the most visited
Tuesday 9th of November 2021
Even with travel restrictions, curfews and closures of tourist attractions all over the world due to coronavirus pandemic, the Museé de Louvre still saw 2.7 million people visiting its exhibitions in 2020. As our chart shows, the runner-ups for the title of most-visited museum in the past year don’t really come close.
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Antarctica has benefitted from extraordinary global cooperation. Are its days numbered?
Friday 5th of November 2021
Antarctica can seem impossibly remote from our daily lives. With the exception of the occasional lovable penguin in pop culture, we tend to not think about it much.
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Industry Transition Goals: Setting up COP26 for success
Thursday 4th of November 2021
Expectations for the COP26 climate talks are enormous. Growing public concern over climate-related extreme weather events means policymakers are under great pressure to deliver breakthrough outcomes. Likewise, industry will be expected to show up and make ambitious commitments.
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China’s tier-one cities are the testing ground for robotaxis
Thursday 21st of October 2021
Tests with driverless taxi services have been underway in China’s major cities, also called tier one cities, including Beijing and Shanghai. Still a novelty today, robotaxis are expected to experience a quick rollout in China’s main metropolises. Numbers by McKinsey & Company show that less than ten years down the line, driverless taxis are projected to service between a fifth and a quarter of all kilometers passengers travel on shared mobility in those cities.
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These are the world’s most and least powerful passports
Wednesday 20th of October 2021
Some passports afford their bearers more freedom than others. In 2021, Japan and Singapore were named the countries with the world’s most powerful passports by the Henley Passport Index. Holders of these passports have the unbeatable luxury of being able to enter 192 countries without applying for and receiving a visa beforehand. South Korea (not pictured) and Germany follow with visa-free travel to 190 jurisdictions.
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This solar-powered motorhome was designed by students
Tuesday 19th of October 2021
A solar-powered motorhome, shaped like a huge elongated teardrop, silently rolled into Madrid on Friday as part of a month-long journey from the Netherlands to southern Spain to highlight more sustainable modes of transport.
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Chart: Europe’s airlines take to skies again but don’t expect a return to ‘normal’
Monday 18th of October 2021
Europe’s airlines have been cleared for take-off after 18 months during which the COVID-19 pandemic grounded fleets all over the region.