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Faial island’s first five-star hotel, The Book Hotel, will open its doors in June 2026, setting a new benchmark for hospitality in the Azores. Located on Faial island - known as the blue island for the hydrangeas that bloom across its landscape - the Book Hotel is a new boutique hotel that combines heritage, culture and contemporary luxury, bringing a new level of high-end hospitality to one of Portugal’s most captivating island destinations.

Icelandair, Iceland’s national carrier, is proud to announce the selected candidate in its viral quest to find the world’s worst photographer, ready to become the unexpected name behind a new global ad campaign.Icelandair launched this unconventional recruitment drive after discovering that many people believe images of Iceland look “too good to be true.” By championing imperfect photography – whether blurry, poorly composed, or poorly lit – Icelandair aims to prove that Iceland’s natural beauty is so breathtaking it transcends technical photographic prowess. No filters. No AI trickery. Just raw, authentic moments that remind us why Iceland actually deserves all the hype.

Raven, the aviation growth specialists, today launched the Customer Growth Index (CGI) at the 82nd IATA Annual General Meeting in Rio de Janeiro: a single, comparable rating of the digital experience that wins or loses airline bookings. The CGI scores carriers on four measures of airlines’ digital estates - speed, accessibility, booking flow and AI findability - and ranks each one against a bespoke competitive set matched by both business model and geography. In practice, this means a low-cost carrier is judged against comparable low-cost carriers in the same region rather than against a long-haul flag carrier or an operator in another market.

The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) celebrated leading storytellers, broadcasters and digital creators from the U.S. and Caribbean during the annual Caribbean Media Awards Luncheon, a signature event of Caribbean Week in New York. Sponsored by The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, the luncheon honored outstanding journalism and content creation that showcase the Caribbean’s people, culture, environment and evolving tourism landscape.

My first Caribbean Week in New York came with a degree of curiosity. Over the past year, I have covered many of the defining gatherings in global travel, from the WTTC Global Summit in Rome, the UN Tourism General Assembly and TOURISE in Riyadh, FITUR in Madrid and ITB Berlin, to ILTM Africa and WTM Africa in Cape Town, ITB China in Shanghai, Caribbean Travel Marketplace in Antigua & Barbuda and the IATA Annual General Meeting in Rio de Janeiro. Against that backdrop, I arrived wanting to understand why Caribbean Week continues to hold such an important place in the region’s tourism calendar.

Most airline passengers interact with an alliance before they realise one exists.The lounge access waiting at the other end of a long-haul flight. The frequent-flyer miles earned on a carrier they have never flown before. The ability to check baggage in London and collect it in Sydney despite travelling on multiple airlines with different owners, different liveries and different national identities.Today these experiences feel routine. In the late 1990s they represented one of the most ambitious experiments the aviation industry had ever attempted.

Curated Spaces - the world’s first travel booking platform powered by tastemakers - expands internationally into Europe. The next phase of growth will see the platform introduce a curated portfolio of independent stays across countries such as, France, Italy, Germany, Portugal and Greece, including storybook châteaux, seaside hideaways, romantic rural retreats, and characterful countryside escapes, each selected with the same focus on soul, design, and community.

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The mood around European aviation at the IATA Annual General Meeting in Rio de Janeiro is one of cautious optimism tempered by growing frustration.Airlines are preparing for another busy summer. Passenger demand remains strong. Aircraft are full. Airports are crowded. Yet beneath the surface, many of the industry’s biggest challenges are becoming more acute rather than disappearing.Speaking at the AGM, IATA’s Regional Vice President for Europe, Rafael Schvartzman, painted a picture of an industry squeezed from multiple directions. Geopolitical instability, rising fuel prices, border delays, taxation, sustainability costs and airport charges are all converging at a time when Europe is attempting to maintain its competitiveness in an increasingly connected global marketplace.

For years, the aviation industry’s centre of gravity has been slowly moving east.At this year’s IATA Annual General Meeting in Rio de Janeiro, that shift felt less like a prediction and more like a reality.While much of the discussion around Europe focused on regulation, taxation and competitiveness, the conversation around North Asia centred on growth, digital transformation and the emergence of China as a force that is increasingly shaping the future direction of global aviation. According to IATA’s Regional Vice President for North Asia, Xie Xingquan, the region’s story is no longer simply about recovery. It is about scale, influence and transformation.