The Route · The travel desk
Costs it out — for the traveller and for the place.
- The scanner that reads bags better also reads PreCheck worse — TSA’s $800,000 CT scanners cut manual checks but don’t speed lanes, weakening PreCheck’s core sales pitch.
- PATA turns 75. Its membership math hasn’t kept pace — PATA marks 75 years with new leadership as membership dues and sponsorship, not visits, fund most of its budget.
- The waiver that costs Delta nothing on paper and everything off it — Delta erased a $1,000 fare difference for a hospice emergency it wasn’t contractually required to waive.
- A hostel bed at £40 needs the room to sleep four, not two — Generator plans to convert distressed Novotel and Holiday Inn hotels into bunk-bed hostels without touching the walls.
- United’s 11 new routes run on planes too small to lose money — United is betting the A321XLR, not a widebody, makes Ljubljana and Valencia pay for themselves.
- The $20,000 bond only some tourists will be asked to post — A US pilot bond program can charge visa applicants up to $20,000, refundable only if they leave on time.
- A leaf blower found what a $15 billion program could not — Boeing traced 777X thrust-link cracks to a 0.76cm gap using hardware-store leaf blowers, not lab instruments
- The PATA gold award is free. Winning it isn’t. — PATA’s Gold Awards cost nothing to enter but thousands to campaign for, and the return is unmeasured.
- Malaysia’s second India sales mission, priced out — Malaysia runs a second India roadshow chasing 700,000 arrivals. The ringgit math shows why India still books Bangkok instead.
- BRICS countries are building a tourism bloc without visas — South Africa joins Brazil, India and BARMM regions in coordinating tourism policy while the actual visa barriers between them stay untouched.
- Saudi Arabia’s tourism push reroutes the Gulf’s money — Saudi Arabia posted 116 million visits in 2024 and is spending Vision 2030 oil money to make travel a permanent export.
- Southern Europe just took a third of world tourism — Europe now captures a third of global leisure spending, and southern Europe's summer share is the reason why.
- Short-term rental caps are repricing the city break — Registration regimes and night caps are shrinking rental supply in centres. What it means for your booking.
- May is the new July — Heat, crowds and pricing are shifting the travel calendar. The shoulder season became the main event.
- The $49 fare costs $130. Here is the arithmetic. — Unbundled airfares moved the price into the fees. How to read a fare like the airline reads you.
- The ninety-day clock redrew the long trip — Visa windows, not airfares, now shape long travel. How the rolling clock works and how travellers route around it.
- The night train pencils out again — Sleeper routes are returning on real economics: your fare buys transport, lodging and a border crossed by breakfast.
- The entry-fee era: cities are pricing the crowd — Day-tripper charges and timed tickets are spreading. What they cost, what they fix, and what they don’t.