This year brought many new developments to the global tourism industry, so we’ve selected our favorites. Enjoy our summary of the top travel news stories of 2024.
A quick heads-up before we begin. The following list will focus on positive news for destinations, travelers, and tourism in general. Tragedies, war situations, financial problems for transport companies, or other similar events that occurred this year have been omitted, yet not ignored.
The world will never stop being complex, so we choose to focus on inspiring developments that motivate us to get to better discover and protect it.
Video (TL; DR)
Top Travel News Stories of 2024
10 Venice Debuts Tourist Entrance Fee
We start with an initiative by Venice to counter excessive tourism. Since this past April, the Italian city requires its visitors to pay a five-euro entrance fee per person.
Venice joins other popular European destinations that also charge similar “tourist taxes” in order to limit their visitors and preserve their infrastructure.
This ticket applies mostly to daytime weekend visitors during peak tourism season. Children under 14 years old and overnight tourists in the city’s hotels are exempt from this fee.
9 50 Years of Casa de Campo
One of the Dominican Republic’s most historic and exclusive tourist complexes, celebrated its fiftieth anniversary last April.
Located in the southeast region of La Romana, Casa de Campo evolved from a private community to a luxury tourist destination for locals and international celebrities.
The resort includes villas, spas, golf courses, an equestrian club, a marina with a shopping complex, as well as Altos de Chavón with its art school and amphitheater.
8 Self-Screening Airport Security Checkpoint Opens
In other top travel news stories of 2024, the United States Transportation Security Administration (TSA) launched its first passenger self-screening system at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada.
This security checkpoint screens both the passenger and their carry-on luggage with little-to-no interaction from a TSA agent.
Travelers go through security at their own pace and, surprisingly, much faster than through a traditional security checkpoint.
For now, this self-check system is exclusive to English-speaking passengers who register for the TSA PreCheck program.
7 YouTube Labels AI Content
This is an important step in promoting and protecting tourism. YouTube now requires its creators to disclose which of their videos include AI-generated content.
These videos will carry a “Synthetic or Altered Content” label in their description. The initiative aims to protect impressionable audiences from misleading content generated with malicious intent on services like DALL-E, Canva, Sora, and deepfake software.
Channels with synthetic content videos that do not carry the label risk losing their monetization or even being shut down. This will make it harder for fake tourism news to spread on social media.
6 Disney and Royal Caribbean Launch New Cruise Ships
Those looking for an escape on the high seas have two new options. In January, Royal Caribbean launched its Icon of the Seas, the largest cruise ship in the world. Meanwhile, Disney Treasure, Disney Cruise Line’s newest ship, set sail this December on its inaugural voyage.
The Icon of the Seas features the largest glass dome, slide, water park, and waterfall on a cruise ship. It also has a skating rink, beach club with infinity pool, art installation, and much more.
Meanwhile, the Disney Treasure offers the AquaMouse theme park attraction, an immersive restaurant based on Marvel superheroes, various Broadway-style shows, and multiple adult-only areas.
Both are available to book in 2025 and 2026. Contact us to plan for a trip on these or any other cruise ship.
5 The Moulin Rouge Recovers Its Blades
Back in Europe, one of the most characteristic buildings within the city of lights had a strange mishap this year. The Moulin Rouge windmill’s blades collapsed onto the sidewalk during an early morning in Paris last April.
Authorities did not determine the cause, but ruled out foul play. Fortunately, there were no injuries and the building’s structure was not damaged.
The Moulin Rouge’s famous burlesque show performances continued and the windmill got new blades three months later, just in time for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
4 Dominican Republic Debuts New Destination with “Airplane Hotel”
The country’s Ministry of Tourism, along with local and foreign investors, declared its commitment to developing Miches as a travel destination through a 100-million-dollar investment.
The initiative was announced on the land where Volaville is being developed, a 7Palms Group hotel concept with rooms housed inside three actual decommissioned airplanes integrated into the natural landscape.
During the activity, two more future hotels for Miches were announced, La Quinta by Wyndham and Downtown 7Palms Miches. Another property, Zemi Miches All-Inclusive Resort, already operates in the area.
The municipality of Miches in the Dominican region of El Seibo is known for its beautiful Playa Esmeralda beach and its mountainous geography.
3 Disney World Announces Massive Remodeling
Disney’s theme park division teased multiple new areas and attractions for its global properties, especially Walt Disney World Resort, during its Horizons: D23 Disney Experiences Showcase panel.
Its Orlando parks will be the most updated in an attempt to compete with its rival neighbor’s newest additions. Disney World changes include a new Monsters, Inc. land at Disney’s Hollywood Studios; Disney Villains and Cars lands at Magic Kingdom; as well as Indiana Jones, Encanto, and Zootopia attractions at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
However, this does mean that several popular park attractions and areas will close over the next few years (like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad), most permanently (like DINOSAUR and Muppet*Vision 3D), to make way for everything new in development.
- Delta Develops Personalized Airport Screen
This one caught us by surprise in a good way. Delta Airlines debuted its new Parallel Reality Experience for airports in Detroit.
A large display inside the terminal shows your flight data to your eyes only. Likewise, travelers next to you only see their information without perceiving your own.
This technology does not require an intermediary device (like your smartphone screen and camera) to show you this information. It promises to save you airport transit time, as well as other new interactions in public locations.
- Notre Dame Cathedral Reopens
We close this list in France with one of our favorite end-of-year stories, the reopening of Notre Dame in Paris.
The iconic cathedral opened its doors once more to the public in December after five years of painstaking restoration following the April 2019 fire that caused extensive damage to its roof and infrastructure.
Although there is still work pending inside the monument, it’s once again available for mass, events, and sightseeing visits.
Thanks for All Your Support
This concludes our countdown of the top travel news stories of 2024. Let’s take this opportunity to thank you and every one of our fans for your support throughout this year.
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We wish you happy holidays and a awesome new year!
