D/R DOWNLOAD 3.17

What’s Trending

01/ On Google

• This week “swift city erazona” trended 100%+ due to the mayor of Glendale, Arizona, temporarily renaming the city to celebrate the kick-off of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in the destination on March 17 and 18.

02/ With Media

• Astrid Taran has been appointed as a Senior Travel Editor at Forbes.

• This week journalists expressed interest in new hotel openings this spring, eco-friendly/sustainable hotels and travel experiences, autism-friendly resorts, and more.

03/ In The Zeitgeist

• This year's Oscars attracted an average audience of 18.8 million viewers, up 13% from the previous year. For her performance in Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian woman to receive an Oscar for Best Actress.

•  Meghan Markle may relaunch her blog, The Tig, after shutting it down in 2017 ahead of her engagement with Prince Harry. The revived website will primarily be focused on travel, interior design, health and wellness, food preparation, and other lifestyle areas.

• California Representative Mark Takano’s bill proposing making a four-day workweek federal law was reintroduced to the House of Representatives. The 32-hour workweek act aims to improve the quality of life of workers and still allow time for personal lives while still getting their work done.

• Microsoft previewed a new AI "Copilot" for Microsoft 365, a product suite including Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, and Outlook emails. The AI will offer content drafts for these applications, aiming to speed up the process of content creation.

Industry Insights

• Hawaii’s state legislature proposed to pass a bill requiring travelers to pay a Hawaii Green Fee, an annual $50 per person fee to visit the state’s natural wonders in order to help protect them for generations to come.

• According to a June 2022 report by Grand View Research, global wellness tourism is expected to exceed $1 trillion by 2030. Hotels and resorts are adding treatments like salt-float baths and mattresses, breathing meditation and oxygen therapy, and professions that help build healthy habits.

•  In partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery, Airbnb is giving Ted Lasso fans the opportunity to stay in Lasso’s favorite pub, The Crown & Anchor located in Richmond, London for up to 3 nights. Up to four guests can enjoy the merchandise from the show, while discussing their favorite moments from the show, and sitting at Lasso’s favorite table in the pub.

• Nepal banned solo travelers from hiking through their landscapes without a licensed guide or a group. Due to the prime location, much of the country is isolated making it a high expense to continue running search-and-rescue missions to find lost or stuck travelers.

• New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced that the plans of building an AirTrain to La Guardia have been abandoned due to the cost of the project having increased to $2.4 billion, five times the original projection.

• The TSA introduced a new AI software based on an updated algorithm used on TSA’s body scanners designed to substantially decrease the number of false alarms that lead to erroneous pat-downs.

• Pet Valu, a Canadian specialty retailer of pet food and pet-related supplies, launched a pet-first digital travel guide that includes dog-friendly travel plans all over Canada with restaurants, hotels, and hikes.

Health-Related Updates

• The CDC announced that travelers arriving from China will no longer be required to test for COVID-19 following China’s declared “major victory” over the virus.

Best Practices

01/ The Good

• Visit Finland announced that it is seeking applications from around the world for its upcoming “Masterclass of Happiness”. Ten participants will be chosen to travel to Finland for in-person coaching on how to find their inner happiness. Being known as the “World’s Happiest Country” for the past 5 years, they will be connecting participants with expert coaches who will provide insight into living a balanced way of life.

02/ The Bad

• NYU student, Stacia Datskovska, faced backlash from her personal essay on Insider recounting her experience while studying abroad in Florence which readers found to come across as entitled. Datskovska claims to have learned to detest her time in Italy because of rude encounters with locals, and the unfamiliar living arrangement/environment. The personal essay instantly went viral on Twitter this week after podcaster Ciarán Dold shared screenshots of the article to Twitter captioning the tweet “No self-awareness,” which has since been viewed more than one million times.

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