​Virgin Voyages has announced a new trade incentive, offering £10 per booking on select European sailings.

From now through to May 28, First Mates (agents) will earn £10 per booking, double the standard £5 reward ‘Loot’. The incentive applies to 12 Virgin Voyages cruises onboard Scarlet Lady and Valliant Lady, departing in May and June, 2026.  

​World Travel Awards (WTA) has announced that the paradise nation of the Maldives will host its Indian Ocean Gala Ceremony 2026, with travel industry leaders from across the region gathering for a prestigious VIP reception on 27 September 2026 to coincide with World Tourism Day.

The ceremony heralds the return of the Indian Ocean leg of the World Travel Awards Grand Tour, an annual series of red carpet events hosted in each continent. The decision reflects the strength of the travel and tourism sector in the Maldives and its leadership in the luxury, sustainability and experiential travel domains.  

​Saudia, the national flag carrier of Saudi Arabia, has introduced Google’s Find Hub share item location feature to support the recovery of lost or delayed baggage, offering guests an additional, optional way to assist the airline’s teams during the baggage tracking process.

Through this feature, guests using a compatible tracker tag or Bluetooth accessory can generate a secure, temporary link and share the location of their baggage directly with Saudia when reporting a delayed or missing bag by attaching the shared link to the guest’s baggage claim record. The shared link provides time-limited access to location information, helping ground teams identify and recover baggage more efficiently. Location sharing can be stopped at any time by the guest and expires automatically after seven days.  

​So after incredible scenes yesterday, the 2026 FIFA World Cup is now fully set, and with 48 nations heading to the United States, Canada and Mexico, this is not only football’s biggest stage, it is also one of the biggest tourism showcases on the planet. For some teams, the story is pure football pedigree. For others, it is also about destination power, visitor scale, global recognition and the chance to turn tournament visibility into future demand. France remains the world’s most visited destination on the latest comparable figures, with 102 million international tourists in 2024, ahead of Spain on 93.8 million and the United States on 72.4 million, while Turkey, Mexico, Germany and Japan all arrive with huge tourism weight of their own. Sport and tourism are now so tightly bound together, from airlines sponsoring stadiums to destinations sponsoring shirts, that the two are increasingly inseparable. So with that in mind, Breaking Travel News’ football fanatic Editor in Chief Justin “You’ll Never Walk Alone” Cooke has taken huge liberty and attempted to fuse football with tourism data to create his own ranking for who comes out on top at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.  

​Tribute Portfolio, part of Marriott Bonvoy’s global portfolio of over 30 extraordinary hotel brands, today announced the opening of Varel Singapore, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel in one of Singapore’s most vibrant, character-rich neighbourhoods. Located at the kaleidoscopic crossroads of Selegie Road and Mount Sophia, the 128-room hotel further expands Tribute Portfolio’s footprint in Singapore, celebrating individuality, local character, and a uniquely personal approach to hospitality.

Rising on the former site of Selegie Centre, the newly-built boutique hotel marks a thoughtful transformation for the location, introducing an urban oasis within a neighbourhood undergoing a quiet revitalisation. Set within a heritage-rich precinct that traces stories of early immigrant communities through pre-war shophouses and Art Deco buildings, alongside late-night eateries, cafés, and indie haunts, Varel Singapore reflects the evolving identity of this spirited arts-and-culture district, where history, creativity and everyday life intersect.