A curated collection of can't-miss news from this week, including 2022 travel trends and more. Sign up to get the TURNER Weekly Download in your inbox.
The New York Times' always anticipated, always inspiring 52 Places list is out—but there's a change in 2022. "In the past, the list has often focused on things like a newly hot restaurant scene, an exciting new museum or the opening of a fabulous beachfront resort," writes Amy Virshup. "This list, instead, highlights places where change is actually happening—where endangered wild lands are being preserved, threatened species are being protected, historical wrongs are being acknowledged, fragile communities are being bolstered—and where travelers can be part of the change."
Trend predicting is a fun pastime in the travel industry. Especially fun if those trends are as bold and outrageous as can be. Skift's editors are on the case. "After the past 21 months, nothing should shock us anymore, let alone a few crazy predictions from our journalists looking to have some fun with the year-ahead coverage. But with every fiction lies a little bit of truth, right? Have some fun reading over these logic-stretching predictions, but also think about the 'what if' factor for what our editors and reporters are postulating."
We've all heard horror stories about getting passports renewed. Well, it's about to get easier (hopefully). President Biden just announced the long-overdue introduction of online passport renewals. It's all part of Biden's executive order on transforming the federal customer experience to rebuild trust in government. In the upcoming months, the Secretary of State will create a new online renewal system "that does not require any physical documents to be mailed."
The pandemic has made business travel dicey, to say the least. But it's creeping back slowly— companies are just keeping it quiet. "Travel managers have no regrets in keeping things hush-hush among employees, because why risk everything when all it takes is another variant to emerge?" writes Matthew Parsons. "Backtracking after a two-year hiatus is, understandably, not something they're prepared to do."