News

Experience It Now Travel lands fourth shop but maintains push for more homeworkers to future proof agency

The agency is targeting 100 more homeworkers this year and hopes its retail staff can continue to support the new recruits going forward

Riviera Travel hopes to attract agent partners with new 'always on' AI assistant launching next month

Travel agents using Riva AI can learn about Riviera Travel itineraries, get destination insights, source social media content, build emails for clients and find other sales tools

Iberostar builds on positive results with Zanzibar debut

The hotel company is expanding its global footprint, while maintaining a strong focus on quality and sustainability with transformation projects

Sarawak hopes to exert magnetic pull on adventurers

This WTM London, Sarawak will be inviting visitors to step off the beaten path and into the lush, untamed world of Malaysia’s best-kept secret adventure.

Celebrity Cruises reveals name of sixth Edge series ship as it prepares to launch Xcel

UK and Irish travel agents will be among the first to experience Celebrity Xcel – the line's fifth Edge series ship – next month when it operates two preview cruises from Fort Lauderdale, US

Airport expansion 'a serious risk' to UK's net zero ambitions, say MPs

Parliament's influential Environmental Audit Committee says industry can't be left to decarbonise on its own, and warns new technologies aren't a silver bullet

Travel firms must lobby all political parties before next election, says Labour peer – including 'serious force' Reform UK

Broadcaster and Labour peer Ayesha Hazarika says travel agencies must keep plugging away with their local MPs, mayors and councils despite the UK's 'febrile' political landscape

Heathrow expansion: final decision 'to be made within this parliament', government insists

Transport secretary promises 'swift and robust' review of rules governing airport expansion to ensure a final planning decision on Heathrow's expansion plans can be made by summer 2029

‘If I get in a bit of a tizz, it’s great to have another pair of eyes’: Travel Counsellors assembles support team for agent with dementia

A team of Travel Counsellors have rallied around Jenny Jackson, who is living with vascular dementia, after she switched to the homeworking giant

British Airways adds weekly Glasgow-Palma service to its summer 2026 schedule

BA Cityflyer to operate the seasonal service every Saturday, starting 9 May 2026

Eurostar firms up €2 billion deal for up to 50 new fully-electric double-decker trains

First Celestia trains, set to be the first double-deckers to operate in the UK and via the Channel Tunnel, to enter service in 2031

Foreign Office extends methanol poisoning warning to Mexico and Japan

Mexico and Japan among placed on warning list, which reflects existing guidance for Laos, Thailand and Vietnam

Australasia: 'Biggest delegation in years' heads to WTM London

A large delegation of Australasia exhibitors will head to WTM London this year, despite the absence of Tourism Australia and Tourism New Zealand

Spain's tourism strategy: 'We're finding solutions for all stakeholders'

A new tourism strategy based on “finding solutions for all stakeholders” and a Q&A with a top Tui executive will dominate the Spanish Tourist Office’s presence at WTM London 2025.

Japan's rail news and national park heritage in the spotlight

Updates to its rail offering, a celebration of its historic national parks and shoulder season travel will be talking points for the Japan National Tourism Organisation at this year’s WTM London

Strikes force Aer Lingus to cancel Manchester long-haul services

Members of the carrier's UK-based cabin crew will walk out next week, forcing the airline into pre-emptive cancellations

Scenic Group's third Discovery Yacht 'firmly on schedule' and will debut in Venice in 2028

The 270-passenger Scenic Ikon vessel will feature 135 all-verandah suites ranging from 34 to 250 square metres over five decks

Heathrow gains two new routes, including Cancun, and three new airlines

Start of winter timetables brings new services and carriers to Mexico, India, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia

Dame Irene Hays honoured for 'exemplary leadership and unwavering dedication to careers in tourism'

Hays Travel chair and owner awarded 2025 Tourism Society Award in recognition of her 'outstanding lifetime contribution to the development and success of UK tourism'

Ireland: 'No one does Halloween better than us'

From the origins of Jack O’Lanterns to the first trick or treaters, Halloween is tied to Ireland’s folklore and the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. This heralded the coming of winter, a time when light turned to darkness and the veil between this world and the next was thinnest, allowing ghosts, fairies and demons to pass through and menace the living.

AT WTM London, Tourism Ireland (stand N8-210) will be introducing eight Halloween hubs around the country – where visitors can have a frightfully good time at spooky trails, haunted experiences and hair-raising events.

WTM London to host largest-ever ministers' summit this year

Last year's summit, WTM London's 19th, brought together more than 50 tourism ministers

The Paddington bounce rolls on for Peru

Hot on the heels of Paddington's third movie comes Paddington the Musical – and Lima's new airport is now up and running too, with expanded capacity

Beachcomber's Gary Bagnall reveals 'daunting' decision to jump into homeworking after 25 years with specialist

Gary Bagnall confirmed he built both the Baggers Travel and The Mauritius Club websites over several months although he is yet to make a booking through either brand

Industry rallies around agency team as brand shuts its doors after more than 60 years

'Covid took much away from us... [and] left a financial burden that was becoming more and more difficult to manage,' said director Gavin Morton