London (Global Adventures): Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia experience the fastest growth in popularity in Asia, according to Cheapflights UK, a British website for price search and comparison in travel. Searches for Indonesia are up 116 percent, followed by Vietnam with 94 percent and Malaysia with 79 percent. "While Thailand has long been a British favorite, [...]

Atlanta (Global Adventures): The economic downturn took its toll on travel in 2009. 769.6 million international and domestic passengers boarded planes in the U.S. or bound for the U.S. last year, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. This compares to 812.3 million passengers in 2008 and marks a decrease of 5.3 percent in volume. [...]

Berlin (Global Adventures): Choosing the right hotel could get easier in the European Union. Tourism and lodging associations in Germany, Austria, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Holland, Hungary, and Switzerland have agreed on a common standard to rate hotels. The new classification is based on 270 single criteria; where several requirements have to be met to [...]

London, United Kingdom (Global Adventures): The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) announced the 12 finalists for the 2010 Tourism for Tomorrow Awards. The Awards recognize best practice in sustainable tourism in four different categories – Destination Stewardship, Conservation, Community Benefit and Global Tourism Business. Over 160 entries were received this year from over 45 [...]

Zurich (Global Adventures): Swiss hotels are having a hard time to fill their rooms. Overall bookings from January to October 2009 are down 4 percent, compared to 2008. Especially foreign guest are looking elsewhere for better values, according to a report published by NZZ Online. International bookings are down 5.8 percent, while bookings by Swiss [...]

Hendersonville (Global Adventures): The total active hotel development pipeline in the U.S. includes 4,089 projects totaling 435,265 rooms. This represents a 32.7-percent decrease in the number of rooms in the “total active pipeline” compared to October 2008, according to Smith Travel Research (STR). “Total active pipeline” refers to projects in the construction, final planning and [...]

Tokyo (Global Adventures): Japan Airlines Corp (JAL) just announced that it will apply for assistance from the state-backed Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corporation (ETIC). ETIC is able to tap up to 1.6 trillion yen in state-guaranteed funds until March 2010. While Japan Airlines recently announced that it will cut 6,800 jobs to save money, the Kyodo [...]