Bad news for the extremely wealthy: airplane pilots are abandoning their gigs flying private jets for more steady work at commercial airlines.
Pilots seem to be attracted to steady jobs that provide regular pay rather than the hourly wages and short notice that come with captaining some rich folks’ private planes, according to The Independent. The result is a labor shortage that’s not only keeping the wealthy grounded but hurting private jet sales as well.
Buying and selling citizenship is now a global industry worth an estimated $25bn a year
You can be born into it, you can earn it, and you can lose it. Increasingly, you can also invest your way into it.
The “it” is citizenship of a particular country, and it is a more fluid concept than ever before. Go back 50 years, and it was uncommon for countries to allow dual citizenship, but it is now almost universal.
More than half of the world’s nations now have citizenship-through-investment programmes. According to one expert, Swiss lawyer Christian Kalin, it is now a global industry worth $25bn (£20bn) a year.
Mr Kalin, who has been dubbed “Mr Passport”, is the chairman of Henley & Partners, one of the world’s biggest players in this rapidly growing market. His global business helps wealthy individuals and their families acquire residency or citizenship in other countries.
He says that our traditional notions of citizenship are “outdated”. “This is one of the few things left in the world that is tied to blood lines, or where you are born,” he says. He argues that a rethink is very much due.
Gatwick first trialled facial-recognition-based checks at some of its departure gates last year
Gatwick has become the UK’s first airport to confirm it will use facial-recognition cameras on a permanent basis for ID checks before passengers board planes.
It follows a self-boarding trial carried out in partnership with EasyJet last year.
The London airport said the technology should reduce queuing times but travellers would still need to carry passports.
There are plans to start running test flights of the ‘hypersonic’ jet in the mid-2020s.
Developers are working on a “hypersonic” jet engine that could see commuters flying from Sydney to London in four hours, and London to New York in one. It’s called a SABRE—that is, Synergetic Air Breathing Rocket Engine—and it allows planes to hit speeds of Mach 5.4 (6400 kilometres per hour). Hence the “hypersonic” moniker: whereas “supersonic” refers to a rate of travel that simply exceeds the speed of sound, “hypersonic” speeds typically exceed it five or six times over.
The hybrid hydrogen-oxygen engine is also way greener and cheaper than current air travel, The Telegraph reports, and will give aircraft the potential to fly in space.
Global tourism is set to rise by 50% over the next decade. But who goes where on holiday?
This article is part of the World Economic Forum on Africa
Spain, France, Germany, Japan and the United States are the world’s most travel-ready nations, according to the latest travel and tourism ranking of the World Economic Forum.
There’s little change since the last edition was released two years ago, with only one country altering its position: the United Kingdom has slid to sixth place, behind the United States.
The Moxy Chelsea in New York City. Though their rooms are small, microhotels often have spacious lobbies that invite hanging out and co-working.
They appeal to senior citizens and millennials, business travelers and backpackers. And they’re particularly attractive to hotel developers, who can pack in more guest rooms than in a typical hotel.
They’re known as microhotels, inspired by the Japanese capsule or pod hotels of 40 years ago that offered cheap, tiny accommodations to businessmen.
The new versions — which are most common in but not exclusive to big, expensive cities like New York, London and Paris — are designed, as one hotel expert put it, down to their last square inch. Their guest rooms are small — often half, or less, the size of a typical room in an urban hotel — with furniture that often can be folded up or stowed away, and bathrooms that usually have showers and toilets but no bathtubs. Wall-mounted TVs are also major space savers.
A 35-km-long (21.- mi) hyperloop test track is planned for Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Economic City
Virgin Hyperloop One has expanded its relationship with Saudi Arabia, with the two announcing plans to develop a new test track in the country’s west. The facility would become the world’s longest Hyperloop tube, and would be used to test out the technology as the gulf nation eyes a wider rollout of the futuristic transport system.
Hilton has installed its Digital Key technology at more than 4,250 properties over the past five years.
Technology that allows hotel guests to use their phones as room keys is expanding, taking aim at those environmentally unfriendly plastic cards.
The demonstration using the cellphone as a digital hotel room key didn’t quite go as planned. The hotel manager held his phone up to the room’s door lock and nothing happened. Realizing his Bluetooth was turned off, he tried again. Now the door’s sensor flashed green, while the phone screen informed him that the door was unlocked.
Like the majority of travelers, I had never before used a mobile hotel key, even though the first version of the system was installed nearly a decade ago. Today, about a million hotel rooms worldwide are estimated to have some version of a lock that can accept a cellphone-generated digital key, according to Nicolas Aznar, president of the Americas division of the Swedish-based lock maker Assa Abloy. Hotels are accelerating the installation of these systems to increase revenue, drive customers to their loyalty sites, and offer a better guest experience.
As the holiday season approaches, we look at the rise and rise of tourism and find out where the world’s 1.4bn international travellers go on vacation
How many people travel abroad on holiday?
Tourism is on the rise. In 2018 there were a record 1.4bn international tourist arrivals, according to the World Tourism Organization (UNTWO), a rise of 6% over 2017. That doesn’t mean 1.4 billion people travel abroad for their holidays, as many people will clock up more than one trip.
But it does mean tourism is playing an increasingly important role in the global economy. In 2018, it was worth about $1.7tn (£1.3tn), or about 2% of total global GDP. Even the UNWTO is struggling to keep up, with current figures vastly exceeding expectations.
The giant wine barrels have been transformed into luxury hotel rooms and they’re right in the heart of a vineyard
The wine barrels have been transformed into glamping pods
The Wine House Hotel – Quinta da Pacheca , in Portugal’s famous Douro Valley, has transformed a series of its giant wine barrels into cosy hotel rooms, so you can sleep in the heart of the vineyard. Basically, it’s the ultimate glamping experience for any wine connaisseur. The wine barrels are nestled amidst the Quinta da Pacheca vineyard, meaning that guests can open up the doors and enjoy unrivalled views of the breathtaking landscape.
Inside, there’s everything you need for a comfortable stay; a large double bed, a shower room, sink and toilet. It’s got a rustic chic vibe thanks to the wooden interiors, but still plenty of little luxurious touches for a luxury feel.
The Bitcoin Family are traveling the world, unencumbered by centralized currency.
When I jumped on a WhatsApp call with 41-year old Didi Taihuttu, he was a few days away from joining his family on CoinBank’s annual Mediterranean “Blockchain Cruise” — a combination vacation getaway and crypto symposium at which all the movers and shakers in the decentralized finance arena get together to discuss a hypothetical future where government-printed money is rendered obsolete, dropping by Mallorca and Marseille along the way.
According to Taihuttu, invitations to blockchain conferences and seminars have piled up ever since he liquidated almost everything he owned (yes, including his house and his cars) and invested his remaining capital in bitcoin. It’s a financial pivot that’s both irrational and dangerous to an outsider, but within the crypto nation, it can make you a legend.
Dream Cruises which is a luxury cruise line based in Asia has revealed further details about its huge new 204,000-ton mega ship which will arrive in 2021. She will have the largest cabins in the industry, groundbreaking features including a roller coaster and will even cruise from the U.S. west coast.
If you thought the Oasis-class cruise ships were big then how about the new Global-class from Dream Cruises! They rival the world’s largest class cruise ships at an impressive 204,000 gross tons and a maximum passenger capacity of 9,500 or 5,000 at double occupancy across a total of 2,503 cabins.
