Skift Travel News Blog

Miami startup Foothold.co has launched a real estate crowdfunding platform for investing in luxury vacation rentals.

Following SEC compliance and the finalization of its online investment processing platform, Foothold.co allows both accredited and non-accredited investors, starting from $200. 

Foothold was founded in September 2022 after raising capital to invest in real estate for private investors, the company designed a crowdfunding platform to cater for accredited and non-accredited investors to invest online.

The company has announced availability starting November 8, including an investment opportunity in the “Patagonia Mirror Hotel” resort in Argentina. The company plans to extend its platform to local US investors in 2024, actively seeking partnerships with hospitality and glamping space developers.

According to its website, the company counts over 1200 investors and 21 units under development. 

“Our long term vision is to create a solution to help real estate developers and architects in securing funding to turn their visions into reality. We collaborate with them to create unique short-term rentals with the potential to captivate Airbnb users,”said German Rimoldi, co-founder of Foothold.

Foothold’s concept isn’t new – fractional ownership of vacation rentals, especially in the luxury segment, have been gaining momentum. 

In October last year, luxury vacation rental brand Wander launched what it called the industry’s first vacation rental REIT named “Atlas” — with an attempt to attract investors with high yield-passive income promising eight percent annual returns and 14 percent targeted total return.

Another Miami company Here.co offers a similar proposition: to allow everyone to invest in short-term and vacation rentals.

Saudi Arabia’s two national carriers, Riyadh Air and Saudia have entered a partnership that will start with a codeshare agreement, but go on to include much more collaborative efforts. The pair of Kingdom carriers announced the deal at the Dubai Airshow taking place in the emirate this week.

Along with codeshares, the deal will see each carrier’s loyalty program sync up so that travelers will be able to earn points or credits when traveling on codeshare services operated by the other.

Riyadh Air “Raising The Bar”

Riyadh Air CEO Tony Douglas stated: “Riyadh Air and Saudia will play a significant part in the growth of travel tourism within the Kingdom and so having the national carriers working side-by-side is the best way to accelerate and manage this growth.”

“We are confident that Riyadh Air will raise the bar in air travel and working in cooperation with Saudia will help us achieve this as we prepare for take-off in 2025.”

Riyadh Air was launched earlier this year by the Kingdom’s crown prince, looking to connect to 100 destinations by 2030 and significantly support the country’s lofty 150 million visitor goal that same year. Headed by the former chief of Abu Dhabi’s Etihad, the carrier says it will create 200,000 jobs by the end of the decade and contribute billions to the local economy.

Tourists won’t be allowed to relax in Iceland’s iconic Blue Lagoon for the quite some time. A volcano near the geothermal spa is very likely to erupt soon, according to the Icelandic Meteorological Office. 

Residents of the nearby seaside town of Grindavik have been evacuated. Roads have been closed. There have been around 900 earthquakes recorded in the area since midnight on Monday. Grindavik is located 26 miles away from Reykjavik.

When or where the eruption will happen is uncertain. The location and size of the eruption will determine what the impact on flight traffic will be, according to Visit Iceland.

Blue Lagoon is closed until December 7. The spa has been closed since November 9. “We’re constantly reassessing the situation in accordance with the local authorities,” said a Blue Lagoon spokesperson.

Most tourist attractions remain open. The Golden Circle, the South Coast and the Northern Lights have not been affected and remain open. Tour operators Intrepid Travel, Jacada Travel and Kensington Tours are monitoring the situation and haven’t cut their trips to Iceland.

No flights have been canceled or suspended. All airlines are operating on schedule, according to Visit Iceland. There has been no impact to the Keflavik Airport, according to the U.S. Embassy in Iceland.

UK issued a travel warning. On November 11, the UK advised its nationals to monitor local media for updates and follow the advice of local authorities on travel to the area.

The Reykjanes Peninsula has experienced three eruptions in the last two years.

In 2010, Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano experienced an eruption that disrupted over 90,000 flights.

Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority has launched a new cat-inspired campaign designed to highlight the ‘#PurrrfectVacation’.

The ‘All About You’ campaign was created by FABLEfx, and stars Leo the cat as he journeys across Ras Al Khaimah to discover all that the Emirate has to offer whilst maintaining his ‘laid-back demeanor’.  

According to a release, the feline character was inspired by a real rescue-cat named Leo, who found a home in Ras Al Khaimah and became a social media icon in the process. 

In addition to the creative elements of the campaign, there is also a gamification element where players have the opportunity to win a trip to Ras Al Khaimah and discount vouchers.

“Ras Al Khaimah’s wealth of experiences comes to life in a whimsical way in our new campaign. The decision to choose a cat character for the Ras Al Khaimah’s latest marketing campaign is a strategic one that is based on consumer insights, brand alignment and research that shows ad campaigns featuring mascots are 37% better positioned for greater market share,” said Raki Phillips, CEO of Ras Al Khaimah Tourism and Development Authority.

“This was reinforced with a YouGov survey that validated that the presence of the cat in our campaign resonates with our target audience and adds to its likeability with scores of up to 90% among tested campaigns in all markets. This creative campaign will help put the Emirate on the map for new tourists, with the help of a fascinating and memorable character, who was once a real-life and beloved icon in the Emirate”, said Raki Phillips, CEO of Ras Al Khaimah Tourism and Development Authority.”

Saudi Arabia’s latest national carrier Riyadh Air has shown off its second livery at Dubai Airshow. While its first livery was a striking all-over purple design, the second is more subtle, which, according to the airline “reflects purity and the future-focused vision of Saudi Arabia.”

“This iconic second livery is the latest milestone for Riyadh Air as we shape and disrupt the future of air travel and aviation, with many more things to come,” said CEO Tony Douglas.

In March, Saudi Arabia unveiled plans for the establishment of a second national airline, while concurrently placing a preliminary order for as many as 72 Boeing 787 aircraft, as part of its broader economic diversification efforts, moving away from its traditional reliance on oil production.

Operating from Riyadh as its hub, the airline aims to connect to more than 100 destinations by the end of 2030. It also wants to create more than 200,000 jobs and add $20 billion to the Kingdom’s GDP.

In late September, Hyatt Hotels announced that it was exiting its vacation rental management business while launching an online short-term rental platform soon. Its Destination Residences Management unit was sold to a real estate investor called Lowe, which, through an affiliate, will run it under Lowe and Coral Tree, though no price was disclosed at the time of the announcement.

Now we have the details from Hyatt’s latest quarterly report filing. From the filing, below:

“Destination Residential Management—During the three months ended September 30, 2023, we sold our interests in the entities which own the Destination Residential Management business to an unrelated third party for $2 million of base consideration, subject to customary adjustments related to working capital and indebtedness, and up to an additional $48 million of contingent consideration. The contingent consideration will be earned within two years following the sale upon the achievement of certain performance-based metrics and the extensions of certain contracts related to the rental programs and/or homeowner associations. We recorded a $28 million contingent consideration receivable at fair value in other assets on our condensed consolidated balance sheet at September 30, 2023.

The transaction was accounted for as a business disposition, and we recognized a $19 million pre-tax gain in gains (losses) on sales of real estate and other on our condensed consolidated statements of income during the three months ended September 30, 2023. In conjunction with the disposition, we transferred $10 million of cash to the buyer related to advanced deposits. The operating results and financial position of this business prior to the sale remain within our Americas management and franchising segment.”

Booking Holdings, whose $1.8 billion deal to acquire Sweden’s eTraveli Group was blocked by European Commission earlier this year, paid out $90 million in termination fee this October, according to a nugget in its latest quarterly statement.

Typically deal breakup/termination fees are between 1-5 percent of the total deal value and paid by the seller to the acquirer, but in this case looks like the deal had a reverse termination clause and Booking Holdings had to pay eTraveli as a result, on the higher end of that fee range, in this case 5 percent.

From the filing:

“In November 2021, the Company entered into an agreement to acquire global flight booking provider Etraveli Group. The completion of the acquisition was subject to certain closing conditions, including regulatory approvals. In September 2023, the European Commission announced its decision to prohibit the acquisition and consequently a termination fee of 85 million Euros ($90 million) became payable to the sellers. The termination fee was paid in October 2023.”

In case you missed it before, Booking CEO Glenn Fogel spoke at Skift GLobal Forum in late September and came out swinging, defending the deal. Watch the video below

That’s according to latest research put out by the Global Wellness Institute, in its annual state of the global wellness sector, of which tourism is one part.

From the report: The wellness tourism market plummeted from 2019 to 2020 ($720 billion to $351 billion), but has seen 36% annual spending growth, and 30% annual wellness trip growth, from 2020 to 2022—significantly higher than growth rates for overall tourism trips and expenditures, at 23.8% and 28.4%.

Wellness travelers made 819.4 million international and domestic wellness trips in 2022, a major increase over 2020 (483 million) and 2021 (608 million) levels. Wellness trips accounted for 7.8% of all tourism trips but represented 18.7% of all tourism expenditures in 2022 (so almost 1 in 5 total “travel dollars”). The wellness tourism market is forecast to more than double from 2022 to 2027, with dramatic spending jumps from 2022 ($651 billion) to 2023 ($868 billion) to 2024 ($1 trillion), as the market continues its supercharged recovery. After that, it’s likely to taper off to a still strong, but less overheated growth curve.

There are some wrinkles to the recovery, as the report points out that the wellness tourism, spa and thermal/mineral springs markets were the hardest hit by the pandemic, given widespread travel restrictions and business shutdowns.

All three grew rapidly in 2021-2022, but haven’t quite yet recovered to their pre-pandemic levels. A key factor is the ongoing recovery of the global tourism market: as of 2022, international trips were still at 62% of their pre-pandemic level, and domestic trips were at 73% (Euromonitor data). The Asia-Pacific region has especially lagged in recovery, due to prolonged pandemic restrictions and border closures in China, the dearth of Chinese tourists throughout the region, weakening economic conditions in China and Japan, currency depreciation, and other factors.

Trevor Noah, world-renowned comedian and 2024 Grammy nominee for best comedy album, has taken on a new title: ‘chief tourism comedian for South Africa.’ 

In a new tourism campaign, launched in partnership with the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) Thursday, Noah uses his unique brand of humor to tackle frequently asked questions about his homeland.

The campaign kicks off with Noah walking poolside at a holiday home with the iconic Table Mountain in the background as he addresses common misconceptions and queries he often gets about South Africa. “How cold and snowy is your Christmas?” he jests, “Well, Tracy, unfortunately, we can’t afford snow in South Africa. Nah, I’m just playing. We’re in the southern hemisphere, which means when it’s freezing in Connecticut, it’s fantastic in Cape Town.” 

Noah’s ad doesn’t just answer quirky questions; it also highlights South Africa’s diverse attractions, from spectacular wildlife scenes in Kruger National Park to adrenaline-packed activities like bungee jumping at Bloukrans Bridge, surfing in Durban’s Golden Mile, shark cage diving in Gansbaai, and high-end golf courses along the Garden Route. 

The campaign aims to boost international tourism to South Africa, as the country targets 21 million visitors by 2035, according to TBCSA CEO Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa. Noah’s global appeal and South African roots make him an ideal ambassador to showcase the country’s diverse tourism offerings, added Tshivhengwa.

Last year, South Africa saw 5.8 million inbound international tourists. The country has seen a significant increase in arrivals this year, with over 6.1 million visitors by September, with its peak summer season still ahead. European and UK visitors remain the largest source market, with  862,000 arrivals between January and September, a 50.9% increase in arrivals compared to the same period in 2022. Furthermore, the Americas have shown a notable uptick in interest, with a 59.0% increase in arrivals, led primarily by 206,015 visitors from the United States between January and July.

The campaign debuted across social media platforms and garnered over 66,700 views on TBCSA’s YouTube channel shortly after its launch. Noah has over 8.6 million followers on Instagram and has just launched a podcast called What Now – he has, however, not yet shared the “The Best of Us” video to his Instagram grid. 

Noah’s South Africa ad follows another tourism ad he did earlier in the year. Noah joined Switzerland tourism ambassador Roger Federer to promote train travel across the alpine nation, below.

Emirates has launched a limited edition collection of luggage, bags and accessories created by using upcycled materials from retrofitted aircraft.

‘Aircrafted by Emirates’ consists of a range of made to order suitcases, backpacks, handbags, cardholders, toiletry bags and belts that have been created using old aluminum headrests, leather and seatbelts collected during the retrofit of the carriers A380 and 777 aircrafts. 

The luggage collection has been designed and handmade by tailors in a dedicated workshop at the Emirates Engineering facility in Dubai.

Aircrafted by Emirates is set to go on sale towards the end of 2024 at official Emirates Stores, with all sale proceeds being donated to children in need via the Emirates Airline Foundation. 

“At Emirates, we are committed to constantly evolving our sustainability efforts, and looking at every aspect of our products and supply chain. We knew these materials could be given a second life, because they are originally of very high quality. We challenged our team to be as creative and innovative as possible, and here we are, with our own accessories workshop in Emirates Engineering Centre! This initiative is a passion project for our team, and we are immensely proud of how it aligns with both our innovation and sustainability aims, and even better – that all proceeds will benefit worthy causes via the Emirates Airline Foundation,’ said Ahmed Safa, divisional senior vice president for engineering at Emirates.  

A number of pieces of luggage from the collection will  be on display at the Dubai Airshow next week.