We found a lot had changed in Dubai when we visited last week. The most noticeable difference was the number of towers being built. Of course, Dubai has long been famous for its skyscrapers, including the world’s tallest, the Burj Khalifa. But the number of new ones going up now seems to far exceed any conceivable future demand. There are also some new tourist attractions and destinations, and we’ll be publishing a post about some of them soon.

Airline uniforms are meant to reflect the carrier’s national heritage, so the new Saudia uniform (above) which is rolling out this year is a bit of a shocker for me. As a woman who has lived in Saudi Arabia and been berated by the religious police for showing a lock of hair, the lovely new Saudia cabin crew uniform doesn’t reflect the country I knew.

It’s spookily similar to Emirates airline’s “look” (above), which I’ve always liked. But don’t be fooled if you fly Saudia, ladies. The rest of us still have to wear “the full black” as soon as we enter Saudi airspace! – SB

All’s well in the travel world according to trends coming from Classic Collection Holidays, the English luxury tour operator. Travel Daily News reports that Brits used their wet, cold and gloomy January evenings to book holidays in Spain (above), Greece, Italy, Portugal and Croatia (in that order of popularity). So they’ve already forgiven their former European partners, then. Egypt is making a strong comeback, as is Turkey, and Madeira can look forward to its best year ever for British holidaymaker bookings. Perhaps the bounce back from Brexit is going to be quicker than expected. – SB.

Space tourism may finally be about to take off after years of delays. Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson, for example, originally spoke about a maiden flight taking place in 2009, but we’re still waiting. However, a new partnership between two companies with proven expertise, Space Adventures and Elon Musk’s SpaceX, could provide a breakthrough. Paying passengers are being offered a chance to blast off in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule on top of a Falcon 9 rocket. The mission plan is based on that of Gemini XI (above), a three-day low Earth orbit flight that in 1966 took two astronauts to a maximum height of 1,350 kilometres. Space Adventures has carried passengers to the International Space Station on board Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The Crew Dragon was designed to fly professional astronauts for NASA, and its first manned mission is due to launch in the next few months. The cost of the private mission has not been disclosed.

It has been evident for some time that green tourism is one of the travel industry’s most promising sectors. Further evidence comes in a new report that says the value of the global ecotourism market is set to expand from $295 billion last year to $508 billion by 2025. This amounts to a compound annual growth rate of a hefty 14.5 percent, according to the study by LP Information. This is a detailed and useful report, but we remain sceptical about just how sustainable some green offerings are. You have to wonder how many companies use the eco label purely for marketing purposes.

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