The general manager for the Palm Springs Riviera Resort & Spa told SFGATE that while its 233 employees were told they were laid off, the resort plans to keep on as many staff members as it can during the seven-month renovation, with a commitment to rehire the rest after the modernization is complete.
On paper, it is one of the best things that has ever happened to destination skiers. A single pass can unlock access to an enormous network of resorts across North America and beyond. It makes ski travel easier to justify, easier to plan, and far easier to sell to a group of friends trying to decide where to go.
Artificial intelligence is no longer futuristic-it's functional. Hotels are already utilizing AI to integrate siloed systems, such as PMS, accounting, CRM, and forecasting platforms, to drive faster and smarter decisions. Tools like Placer.ai and PredictHQ help identify ideal customers through demographic, behavioral, and geolocation data. As automation expands, the next opportunity lies in strategic human oversight: consultants and managers will interpret AI outputs, guiding capital investments and operational priorities rather than being replaced by algorithms.
Policy stances from the Trump administration on everything from immigration to tariffs, along with currency swings and stricter border controls, have seemingly proved a turnoff to travelers from other countries, especially Canadians - the single largest source of foreign tourists for the United States. Canadian travel to the U.S. fell by close to 30% in 2025. But it is not just visitors from Canada who are choosing to avoid the United States.
And yet, the U.S. tourism industry is worried. While the rest of the world saw a travel bump in 2025, with global international arrivals up 4%, the U.S. saw a downturn. The number of foreign tourists who came to the United States fell by 5.4% during the year-a sharper decline than the one experienced in 2017-18, the last time, outside the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, that the industry was gripped by fears of a travel slump.
As Visit Florida compiles 2025 tourism figures, the agency's President and CEO Bryan Griffin and Carol Dover, the president and CEO of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, are setting up a meeting with Canadian officials. "We had this opportunity land in our lap, so we're both going to have a meeting ... and see what we can do," Dover said during a Jan. 26 Visit Florida Executive Committee meeting. Dover is also a member of the Visit Florida Board of Directors.
"We continue to see extraordinary demand for travel and experiences," Capuano told Yahoo! Finance. "It feels like a fundamentally permanent shift that consumers are prioritizing spending on travel and experiences versus purchase of hard goods." The hotel chain expects earnings growth in 2026, with revenue driven by adding rooms to its portfolio and higher co-branded credit card fees. While U.S. business was slightly weaker in the fourth quarter due to the government shutdown, Capuano says the fundamentals remain strong.
Despite decades of jokes and occasional bad publicity, cruise vacations are more popular than ever - just ask the tens of millions of Americans who take one every year and together represent more than half of all annual cruise travelers. Today's ships are massive, complex affairs backed by giant corporations and celebrity commercial sponsorships, all commanding big money. And while to the uninitiated, a ship may just seem like any other ship, experienced cruisers increasingly understand that unique offerings make all the difference.
The government of Baja California Sur, home to popular tourism spots like Los Cabos, announced the Embrace It fee - a mandatory tax for visitors over 12 who stay in the country for more than 24 hours - in June. And now, as of January, the price has increased from 470 Mexican pesos (about $25) to 488 pesos (about $28).
On a recent two-week trip to Japan with my fiancé - six cities, six hotels - every stay was gorgeous and perfectly appointed. We wanted for nothing. Except, in most cases, a proper bathroom door. Instead, we spent the better part of two weeks making accidental eye contact through frosted glass and translucent panels while one of us was otherwise occupied. A design choice, apparently. A test of intimacy, definitely.