I was half a mile into the mine shaft, and my heart was racing. Hunched underneath the low ceiling and hardly able to see, I was following along by listening to the splashes of the mens steps in front of me. The water, dripping from above, was up to my ankles. Then we stopped. Wed come to a dead end, one of the miners said. In order for us to proceed, they needed to set off some dynamite.

In a matter of minutes, several packs of explosives were drilled into the mountain and ready to be detonated. I was told to open my mouth and not close it until the last of the dynamite had exploded.

The blasts began, and I sensed the mountain groaning around me. Then: complete silence. Ten seconds later, as the dust began to settle, one of the miners shouted, Lets go! Its time to see what we got.

Less than a month earlier, I was living a comfortable life in Dubai. Though I was born in Colombia, I left the country at age 18 to attend college in the United States and, since then, had followed my work elsewhere around the world.

Lately, though, I felt the need to reconnect with my country. Conveniently, an acquaintance in Dubai knew a respected emerald dealer and mine owner in Colombia. He invited me to visit and witness some of the countrys mining operations.

The miners I visited live and work in the department of Boyac, which is six hours by car north of Bogot, the countrys capital. Boyac sits on a branch of the Andes known as the Cordillera Oriental. Here, hidden in a series of small mining towns Muzo, Chivor, Otanche, Peas Blancas, Coscuez are some of the most valuable emerald mines in the world.

Its no secret that the miners in this region work in difficult and often dangerous conditions some in sanctioned and regulated areas, some illicitly. They labor under the threat of collapsing mines, falling rocks and temperatures in excess of 110 degrees.

Despite the risks, many of the miners speak to me about their work with pride, as if buoyed by a sense of tradition.

The economics of the trade can vary significantly. Some miners operate informally and independently, scouring debris fields or venturing into unregulated mines and profiting directly from the sale of stones to merchants or gem carvers.

Others officially work for mine owners or mining companies. These miners might be paid steady salaries or make commissions on the stones they find. (The specific circumstances of the financial arrangements whether the miners are paid upfront, for example, or only after a stone is sold to a merchant, carver or customer often depend on the level of trust between the owners and the miners.)

The harsh reality inside the mines is contrasted by the grandeur outside them: the smell of the clean air in the mornings, the ever-present sound of the rivers, the imposing peaks of the Andes.

During the dry season, miners set up small tents by the river to protect themselves from the intense sun. After long hours of work, they relax in view of the breathtaking beauty that surrounds them.

Over the course of the five days I spent with them, the miners shared countless stories of how the emeralds, and the surrounding mountains, had changed their lives.

One miner, an older man who lived in a modest house, claimed to have made exorbitant sums of money on several choice stones only to have squandered it all, he said, forcing him to return, reluctantly, to the mines.

Others have seen family members and friends killed during the intense fighting much of it tied to the illicit emerald trade that took place here in the mountains during the 1980s. And some have just been waiting patiently for decades, hoping that one day theyll find an emerald that will change their lives.

The future of these local miners is largely uncertain. In recent decades, corporations some of them foreign have ascended into Boyacs mountains and taken control of large swaths of the hills. Some of the companies offer salaries, health care and a sense of stability.

Still, many miners opt for the rewards, and the risks, of working alone.

Many of the men I met described mining as a gamble and an addiction. The mines, they said, are like casinos in the middle of the Andes: One stone could change it all.

And finding such a stone, they say, is ultimately what they live and are willing to die for.

Juan Pablo Ramirez is a Colombian photographer based in Dubai. You can follow his work on Instagram.

Read more here:

Playing the Green Lottery: Life Inside Colombias Emerald Mines - The New York Times

Editor's Note CNN Travel updates this article periodically. It was last updated in its entirety on December 28.

(CNN) If you're planning a trip to Spain, here's what you'll need to know and expect if you want to visit during the global coronavirus pandemic.

The basics

Spain has suffered greatly from Covid-19, with a high number of cases and deaths. After one of Europe's strictest lockdowns in spring, it reopened to visitors over the summer, but has since entered a state of emergency that is due to run until May 2021.

What's on offer

One of Europe's biggest hitters for good reason, Spain pulls tourists in by the millions thanks to its warm weather, laidback vibe and excellent food and wine. Plus, of course, there are some of Europe's best beach resorts, mountains, and cultural cities like Madrid, Seville and Barcelona.

Who can go

Travelers from the European Union, Australia, China, South Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Rwanda, Singapore, Thailand and Uruguay are all allowed to enter Spain without having to undergo quarantine. However, arrivals from the UK are restricted until January 6, 2021.

Visits from other countries are not permitted to enter, unless they gain special permission from the Spanish government.

What are the restrictions?

Health assessments take place on arrival into Spain, with a temperature check and visual examination as standard.

What's the Covid situation?

Spain has been in a state of emergency since the start of November 2020, with curbs due to be in place until May 2021. It has seen over 1.85 million infections and nearly 50,000 deaths. Case rates have recently dropped to their lowest since August, however, with signs that new measures are having a positive effect on transmission.

What can visitors expect?

Under the state of emergency, a national curfew is in place, effective from 11 p.m. until 6 a.m. Masks must be worn in public at all times (children aged five and under are exempt), while gatherings indoors and outdoors are limited to six people.

Restrictions vary by region, with some closing their internal borders to prevent transmission of Covid-19. Catalonia shut its bars and restaurants throughout November, while Madrid opted to keep them open. This regional approach means that restrictions often change depending on the local government. Curfew times may change as a result.

Hotels are operating at limited capacity, limiting guest numbers to ensure social distancing. Smoking outdoors is banned where two meters' social distancing cannot be maintained.

Useful links

Our latest coverage

Joe Minihane and Julia Buckley contributed to this report

Continue reading here:

Traveling to Spain during Covid-19: What you need to know before you go - CNN

Banking has traditionally been considered a high-touch industry based on relationships and human interaction. Investment bankers normally jet around the globe for face-to-face meetings, where million- and billion-dollar deals are made based on gut instinct, trust, and reputation as much as on financial analysis. Trading, too, was long seen as a relationship game. Even as some asset classes electronify, the $128-trillion-dollar world of bonds has been particularly slow to go digital.

But COVID-19 put a freeze on all this in-person interaction. In the span of days, Wall Street and City of London firms shut their doors, with the majority of employees made to work from home. Suddenly, bankers were doing deals from their kitchen tables, while traders got to skip the commute before their notoriously early-morning starts.

Rather than business careening to a halt, however, things carried on smoothly. Balance sheets held firm. Deals got done. By April, Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman said his bank had proven it could "operate with no footprint" and would require "much less real estate," going forward. Others made similar comments, reporting better-than-expected earnings and signalling they could implement permanent flexible working structures.

So how did these massive, global institutions pull it off? Many of this year's Transformers lead innovative strategies that came to the rescue for the world's biggest banks.

In traditional investment banking, UBS' head of investment bank technology, Zoe Evans, is leading a new way of working through the bank's "hybrid pod" model a cross-functional business model designed to enhance collaboration.

Instead of the traditional, "waterfall" method of organization, hybrid pods are self-organizing teams made up of 4 to 9 people with different competencies, directly connected to their business purposes via dedicated product managers, that execute a clearly-defined digital book of work. The bank says the shared-ownership model reduces lead time and increases the quality of work delivered. And, according to Evans, it worked well during the pandemic.

"New hybrid pods were formed to build solutions for traders to work from home, delivering a solution within days," she told Business Insider. "The challenge is that, to implement hybrid pods, we need to move away from traditional methods of structuring and funding teams that have been in place for decades [and] not everyone is open to change."

So far, the transformation affects 6,000 employees around the world.

Evans is also leading the migration of apps to the cloud, as well as transitioning all engineers onto the investment bank's newly-launched developer platform on the cloud. She said the pandemic has been a "clear reminder" of the importance of having stable, secure, and scalable platforms.

"The most significant change that is going to shape the future of the investment bank...is the way our bank is transforming to become truly digital," she said. "To do this we had to change the way we work."

When it comes to sales and trading divisionsoften the global banks' largest businessesdigitization has been particularly slow in the fixed income department. But some of this year's Transformers have been making inroads there too.

JPMorgan's Chi Nzelu runs eCommerce for macro products out of the bank's London office. He is responsible for all electronic trading for foreign exchange, commodities, and interest rates markets, as well as for driving the execution component of the firmwide digital markets strategy.

Nzelu helped build JPMorgan's institutional currency trading franchise one of the largest on the Street through automation, research, and machine learning techniques. He was also integral in JPMorgan's mobile trading efforts, which proved particularly useful when lockdowns swept the globe forcing people to work from home.

"Evolution is happening all around us, and in finance, the last 40 years has been unprecedented in that respect," Nzelu said. "Trading has evolved at warp speed since the 1980s and my job is to form a path to the future of trading."

At Citigroup, Alaa Saeed is also working to electronify fixed income trading. Saeedthe global head of electronic platforms and distribution at CitiFXis responsible for the design, development, and distribution of Citi's foreign exchange and local markets capabilities, electronically.

He also spearheaded the development of Citi Velocity, a flagship proprietary trading platform that "basically kept clients going during the pandemic," according to a spokesperson, who said "the mobile trading app usage shot up when we were in the thick of it."

The Citi Velocity platform allowed clients to continue trading amid volatile markets with minimal interruption throughout the network. In the peak weeks of the pandemic in the spring, usage of Citi Velocity hit double-digit growth, and client mobile hits increased 138% year-over-year, according to the bank.

Saeed said his biggest challengeand opportunityis "dealing with the increasing complexity associated with the fragmentation of FX liquidity, and the proliferation of connectivity providers and platforms."

"Our work simplifies the electronic platforms landscape and sets out common standards and criteria to benchmark comparable offerings and performance," he said.

The pandemic also necessitated innovation in retail banking, and Starling Bank founder and CEO Anne Boden another one of this year's Transformers responded to the crisis quickly.

In April, Starling launched the Connected Card, a secondary debit card designed for people who are self-isolating and need others to handle their shopping. It is controlled by the Starling app and has its own PIN and other security blocks. The bank also launched a check-imaging service, allowing customers to skip the in-person hassle of mailing checks and process them remotely using the app instead.

For small business owners, freelancers, and contractors, Starling launched a business toolkit complete with an invoice generator, VAT calculator, and self-employment tax estimator. It also launched a US dollar account for small businesses, and has lent some 1.5 billion to small businesses under UK government-backed pandemic-recovery schemes.

"When I launched Starling in 2014, I wanted to change banking in the way that Amazon changed shopping and iTunes changed music," Boden told Business Insider. "I hope that Starling can give people a fairer, smarter, and more human alternative to the banks of the past."

View post:

How four of this year's Transformers helped the world's biggest banks surviveand thrive... - Business Insider - Business Insider

Editor's Note CNN Travel updates this article periodically. It was last updated in its entirety on December 28.

(CNN) If you're planning a trip to Antarctica, here's what you'll need to know and expect if you want to visit during the global coronavirus pandemic.

The basics

Antarctica reported its first cases of Covid in late December 2020. While scientists who observed strict quarantine rules sailed to the continent from the UK in November 2020, tourism remains severely restricted, with many cruise companies canceling their operations for the brief summer season.

What's on offer

A remote icy wilderness at the end of the world, trips to Antarctica have grown in popularity in recent years, with travelers sailing across the Drake Passage from South America to catch a glimpse of sprawling penguin colonies, breaching whales and rare seabirds.

Who can go

Because Antarctica is a scientific preserve, special teams have been able to restart research work on the continent from the end of 2020. While tourism isn't banned, the fact that most visitors can only arrive via ship means it's currently virtually impossible to go, as many cruises are not running at this time.

What are the restrictions?

Antarctica's unique position as an internationally administered region means that it isn't subject to Covid restrictions. However, because tourists access the continent from Chile and Argentina, they are subject to the entry rules of those countries. Travel to Argentina is off limits to all but nationals and permanent residents, who must present a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours of departure.

Chile has been open to tourists from all countries since December 8; however all travelers must have proof of a negative PCR test taken 72 hours before departure, complete a health form and have travel insurance to cover the cost of Covid-related health care up to $30,000.

However, all major cruise companies have cancelled operations for the 2020/21 season. Cruise ships remain a concern when it comes to Covid transmission, meaning sailings are not likely to take place until the next summer season in the southern hemisphere, in late 2021.

What's the Covid situation?

The first cases of Covid on Antarctica were reported on December 22, with 36 researchers and military personnel testing positive at a Chilean research base.

What can visitors expect?

Any ships that do make it to Antarctica will find the waters far quieter than usual. If you're on a ship that allows disembarkation, expect there to be strict protocols about handling equipment and protective gear.

Useful links

Our latest coverage

Joe Minihane and Julia Buckley contributed to this report

Read the rest here:

Travel to Antarctica during Covid-19: What you need to know before you go - CNN

Another week, another email newsletter. This time, the story is Punchbowl, a politics-centric newsletter founded by a crop of recent Politico alums including Jake Sherman, Anna Palmer and John Bresnahan. Ben Smith has the story, as does Maxwell Tani at the Daily Beast with some more juicy details.

Why do we need another newsletter analyzing Beltway politics in a world of Politico Playbook, Axios, The Daily 202 and a hundred others? In fact, why do we need the voluminous output of tech-oriented newsletters covering startups (by my count, there are at least several thousand newsletters covering our industry)? Why, in a media world that was supposed to be all about the long-tail, does it seem that every new media startup is targeting the same single niche over and over again?

Thats where the cauldrons of gold come in. Media is not unlike many startup markets there may be infinite needs for diverse products, but there are only a handful of those needs that have serious dollars attached to them.

In media, these are beats like DC politics, or investment banking / M&A, or VC coverage in our quaint little world of startups, where the winners get to own massive audiences and, by extension, massive dollars from subscribers and advertisers. There are thousands of other niches, but they are impoverished with limited readership, users and recourse to revenue.

Put another way, these are tournament markets, where the winners can take all and where it is worth the gamble to have a small chance at a massive outcome rather than a good chance at a mediocre one. In medicine, everyone wants to cure cancer, not some neglected tropical disease (which might well have millions of people who could benefit from a cure). After all, the Nobel Prizes dont go to merely good science, they go for the biggest advances of the century that have the right level of notability. In startups, founders want to target the largest business and consumer markets, not the small application that might be useful but wont become a juggernaut.

Unicorns are not born in small markets.

There are of course hugely negative externalities to this model for many markets. All that competition to dominate the first-read newsletter on Capitol Hill or along Sand Hill Road means that we are overwhelmed with identical analyses on the same subjects rather than being able to select from a wide spectrum of different options. We probably should have more coverage of emerging market tech or state capitols than we do today.

In startups, we have way too many entrants in some extremely valuable layers of fintech, for example. There are at least 50? 100? wealth-management startups and incumbent products that focus on automated investing in ETFs (so-called roboadvisors). Yet, there is so much money to be made in some of these layers, that every founder with sense is essentially saying Ill take my chances for the reward at the end of that particular road.

You would sort of think the free market would work itself out in these niches. All that competition for attention in the DC media world or for wealth management users should ultimately lower costs and divide the pie thinly enough that it becomes less attractive for new entrants and makes other niches and markets look far more relatively competitive.

That would be true if the pie did actually subdivide further and further. Experience over the last decade though has proven to me that this is quite often not the case. DC politics is the cauldron of gold for politics coverage, and there are one to three newsletters that will always dominate that beat. M&A coverage on Wall Street is the cauldron of gold of business journalism, and a handful of reporters are going to own that beat by being the switchboards for all the most important sources. And VC coverage is the cauldron of gold for startup media, which is why TechCrunch and a few of our friendly competitors work so hard to cover it every day.

New markets do get invented and old markets expand and contract. There are absolutely startups that sort of come from nowhere and dazzle us with their originality and ability to create whole new categories. Yet, for every unicorn that gets its start that way, there are 10 others that get built in existing major markets and compete for the big reward offered to the winner.

There isnt anything wrong with investors who want to fund the fifteenth startup in a space. It makes sense thats where the rewards are, or at least, where we perceive the rewards to be. What needs to change is how to make some of those other niches offer the same incentives for innovation. How can more markets offer cauldrons of gold? Is that even possible? Or are we destined to read 100 newsletters on McConnell and Schumers machinations while getting ads for Marcus?

Originally posted here:

The cauldrons of gold theory of media and startups - TechCrunch

This is part 2 of a story about Chris McGinnis' fantastic voyage as a travel writer. You can read part 1 right here.

Like many of my trips, my path to becoming a travel writer took a circuitous route; the road I took was "the one less traveled by," to quote Robert Frost's famous poem.

I never took a journalism course in my life, and I even earned an F in English in eighth grade, which is probably why I still make typos and grammatical errors, most of which are thankfully caught by better-trained copy editors. But thanks to a few good English teachers, voracious reading, a habit of letter writing and keeping a journal throughout my early life, I honed my ability to write.

As mentioned in the previous post (part 1 of this story), my education was in international business. As a management consultant, I used my writing skills a lot, assigned to write up the letters and various reports my company submitted to clients. That part of my job was somewhat rewarding, but the greatest reward of my consulting work was that I got to travel and travel a lot. For several years, I was flying two or three times a week on the company dime, taking mental notes and learning the tricks of the frequent flying trade.

As it ended up, I loved the travel, but hated the corporate part of my consulting job the actual work was just not appealing. So after several months working on a project at a copper mine in Australia's outback, I quit. With a nest egg earned from consulting, and the frequent flier miles I'd racked up, I decided to, you guessed it, travel, taking the long road home to Atlanta via New Zealand, Hawaii and California.

Taking that time off gave my brain a rest, and helped me come up with a new career path. I would take the skills I learned as a trainer (part of my job as a consultant) and combine them with my encyclopedic knowledge of travel to form my own company, Travel Skills Group. My product? A traveler training program that I would sell to large corporations to help their travelers learn how to save money, stay safe and not burn out by learning "the art of traveling smart."

The idea caught, and I was soon delivering seminars across the country, doing well, but not really making enough money to survive. I had to drum up more business.

Using those writing skills I'd honed, I was a master at penning and promoting press releases about my new company and ended up snagging a lot of ink in big publications, such as USA Today and the Wall Street Journal. I became a regular, quotable source for my local newspaper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, so much so that I convinced editors there to let me write a column in the paper's business section about business travel. This was 1990, and a travel column in a newspaper business section was a novel idea.

The Business Traveler column very quickly became one of the paper's most popular features given that Atlanta was such a large travel hub, and there was a hunger among business travelers for news and practical advice to make travel better and take advantage of those still nascent frequent flier programs. It was a unique, helpful tool that no other local paper offered back then and filled a vacant niche, which would ultimately be filled by the internet.

Landing a weekly column at one of the largest newspapers in the country was my "big break" into travel writing, and a position I held on to for 10 years. As a newly minted freelance writer, I used that experience and exposure to land several other jobs, such as writing for Entrepreneur and Fortune magazines. To pad my income further, I wrote business travel newsletters for big corporate travel agencies and picked up a few speaking gigs.

It was at this point I learned an important lesson: making a career as a travel writer was not only about "traveling around the world and writing about it," as many people frequently assume. To earn a living at it meant being an entrepreneur, taking risks, hustling multiple gigs, doing great work and being asked back to do more. This meant spending at least half of my time in the office, writing, researching, making connections, sending out invoices and searching for my next gig.

In 1994, an editor for McGraw-Hill read my AJC column when flying through Atlanta and asked me to write a book, "202 Tips Even the Best Business Travelers May Not Know," which elevated me even further from not just columnist, but also "author." (The first edition did so well, the publisher had me write a second edition four years later called "The Unofficial Business Travelers Pocket Guide.")

Since I was located in Atlanta, and so was CNN, I became a regularly cited source there as well, and eventually parlayed that into a stint as an on-air travel correspondent in 1995 that lasted in various forms through 2005. (You can see my on-air reel here or below, which shows snippets from a grueling, but energizing year, post-9/11, when I rose every morning at 4 a.m. to deliver travel news to a nation frightened by the 2001 World Trade Center attacks.)

Around that time, I dove into another one of those life-changing, long-distance relationships, and ended up flying back and forth every couple weeks to San Francisco, and finally, moved there. I brought with me The Ticket, a popular travel newsletter I was writing in Atlanta, which eventually morphed into the TravelSkills newsletter with a West Coast spin.

At the same time, I picked up a job as travel columnist for BBC.com, wrote the quarterly Expedia Travel Trendwatch report and served as Expedia's spokesperson and travel expert on morning shows like Good Morning America. Eventually, editors at SFGATE took notice that a travel expert was in town, and I began to share my content here until I came on as a full-time contributor in 2018.

So that's how I created a career that started out as a kid flipping through National Geographic magazines in bed at night and dreaming of a far-flung life, which eventually ended up in San Francisco. What's next? I'm not sure, but feel like I'm at one of those inflection points where it's time to jump, and wait for the net to appear!

Now let's talk about one of the best parts of being a travel writer: the trips! Over the past 30 years, I've had many. Here are some highlights:

In 1999, I was asked to appear on a media panel at the World Travel and Tourism Council meeting in Berlin. The WTTC is a club of CEOs of the worlds top travel companies like American Express, British Airways, Hertz and the like the type of people for whom a journey on the Concorde is a normal part of doing business. And lucky for me, part of the deal for appearing on the panel was a trans-Atlantic leg on British Airways supersonic Concorde. Here's a post about my experience.

On a bright spring day in 2011, Virgin America was celebrating the opening of SFO's Terminal 2 and its new Virgin Galactic spacecraft. In typical Virgin style, it was a big to-do. Richard Branson was there. So were Buzz Aldrin and his wife. California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, too. There were also plenty of airport dignitaries and a handful of lucky media! Watch the exciting video of my experience here.

Like many Americans, I felt the rush of excitement when President Barack Obama normalized relations with Cuba in 2016 and was thrilled to ride on the first U.S. cruise ship to land in Havana in 50 years. Here's the complicated story of that historic voyage.

Way back in 1992, at the beginning of my travel writing career, Elton John invited me to London for a whirlwind trip that included being backstage for his concerts at Wembley Stadium, staying over at his townhouse in central London and his rambling estate in Windsor, meeting royals, attending a star-studded garden party and racing around town in police-escorted Bentley limousines. Read about this amazing trip here.

An exciting part of travel writing is going behind the scenes, like I was able to do on a Cathay Pacific "delivery flight" from the Boeing factory near Seattle to Hong Kong with only a handful of people onboard. Here's my most viewed video ever, showing the crew rest area on a Boeing 777.

Queen Latifah invited me to LA for a travel tips interview in front of a live audience from two first class airline seats in the middle of the set! She was warm, personable and a LOT of fun (I expected no less!). Did you know that Queen Latifahs real name is Dana Owens? Thats what everyone backstage was calling her. (I just called her "your majesty!") See the segment video here.

Back when Airbus A380 sightings were new and exciting, Air France asked me to make a video of its first A380 arrival at SFO on a cold rainy day in 2011. To be on the ramps, runways and up close and personal with a big bird like that was quite a thrill! See the video here.

Visiting cities to write about their newest business class hotels was a regular part of my beat for BBC and SFGATE. One trip to Sydney, Australia, coincided with the city's big, raucous Mardi Gras celebration, which included a drag queen welcome at the airport, which got the trip off to a fun start! Here's my post from the most recent trip.

Contact Chris McGinnis via email here.

Read more from the original source:

Tracing the steps of a fantastic voyage, part 2 - SF Gate

Discovery launched its new streaming service Discovery+ in the U.S. on Monday, hoping to carve out its own unscripted corner of the already crowded streaming space.

Discovery+, which previously launched in several other countries, dubs itself "the definitive non-fiction, real-life subscription streaming service." Its library includes more than 55,000 episodes of more than 2,500 shows from TV brands including HGTV, Food Network, Animal Planet, TLC, ID and more. It will also offer original series and exclusives, like BBC's "Planet Earth."

The service has a $4.99 monthly ad-supported tier (on par with NBCUniversal's Peacock's premium tier with ads) and a $6.99 monthly ad-free tier (which costs the same as Disney+). It's also working with Verizon to give 55 million customers up to 12 months of Discovery+ for free, depending on their plan. Other competitors include AT&T's HBO Max, which costs $14.99 a month, and Netflix, which has a standard plan costing $13.99 in the U.S.

The service can be streamed using Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku and Samsung devices, along with mobile, web and game consoles.

"Our No. 1 goal was to be available on every platform in America," Discovery President and CEO David Zaslav said Monday on CNBC's "Squawk Alley."

He added that he believes the service is differentiated from its existing peers.

"We believe that we'll let the rest of that group fight out scripted series and scripted movies, but we have a great lane in the U.S. and around the world, and that lane is we have great content that people love: '90 Day Fiance' Chip and Joanna Gaines, Oprah Winfrey," he said. "And we're completely differentiated."

He said that makes the service a complement to popular existing services.

"We're a great companion to Disney and Netflix," he said. "If you have Disney or Netflix, you have two great products, but we're completely different and we go really well with them."

Zaslav wouldn't share projections for how much the company expects subscribers to grow in the next year.

"We think ... that we can be very, very big," he said. "That's our bet, we're putting a lot of resources behind it, and over the next couple of quarters we'll be reporting out our numbers and then we'll be projecting out how big big really is."

Go here to see the original:

Discovery+ enters the streaming wars with a big bet on reality TV - CNBC

Epic Games is buying an old shopping mall with nearly one million square feet of space and plans to convert it into its new global headquarters by 2024.

The deal, first reported by the Triangle Business Journal, gives Epic the 980,000 square foot Cary Towne Center for $95 million. Cary Towne Center is about 2 miles from Epics current HQ.

Epic Games has been based in Cary, North Carolina since 1999, and has 2,200 employees in its global workforce. The company, best known for developing the Unreal Engine and Fortnite, has about two dozen subsidiaries and studios in other locations around the world, acquiring or establishing more than half of them since Fortnite Battle Royale launched at the end of 2017.

Sitting on 87 acres, Cary Towne Center, like many shopping malls in the United States, has struggled to remain open as anchor tenants have left or closed altogether thanks to shopping trends moving online. WRAL-TV of Raleigh noted that only a few stores remain open there, and much of the mall is blocked off. Its current owners picked it up in 2019 for $31 million, then got the Cary Town Council to approve its rezoning, which would permit office use, hotel rooms, and multi-family housing in addition to commercial space.

Its unclear how much of those plans will go forward under Epic, but because of the rezoning, Epic can get started on its new campus immediately. The company said it will work with the Town of Cary on a $193 million sports and recreation center that had been planned for the site. An Epic Games spokesperson told the Triangle Business Journal that the campus would include office buildings and recreational spaces.

Privately-held Epic Games reported a $1.78 billion round of new funding in August 2020, valuing itself at $17.3 billion. The company had planned to expand its existing location in Cary, which it has owned since 2015, with a 500,000 square foot facility that would accommodate up to 2,000 employees. Those plans are off, WRAL reported.

Continue reading here:

Epic Games buys enormous shopping mall, will convert it to global HQ - Polygon

Another perfect phone call.Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

On Saturday, in a phone call that might have been even more brazen than the one that got him impeached, Donald Trump pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to find 11,780 votes for him in order to flip the state into his column in the presidential election. During the hour-long call, which also included White House Chief of State Mark Meadows, Raffenspergers general counsel Ryan Germany, and several election lawyers working for Trump, the president repeatedly insisted that hed actually won Georgia, marshaling a number of falsehoods about voter fraud to support his claims. The Washington Post published a recording of the call as well as a transcript on Sunday.

Throughout the call, Raffensperger and Germany calmly rebutted each of Trumps claims, versions of which theyve apparently encountered as Trump, his campaign lawyers, and far-right media sources have insisted that the vote in the Peach State was fraudulent. (In fact, there have been two hand recounts and a voter signature audit that affirmed Joe Biden won Georgia, as well as multiple lawsuits on behalf of Trump, some of which have failed and some of which are pending.) At one point, Raffensperger said, Mr. President, the problem you have with social media, theypeople can say anything, to which Trump replied: Oh, this isnt social media. This isTrumpmedia.

While little Trump said during the phone call had much to do with the truth, its worth decoding his claims as he continues to try to overturn the election. They tell you a lot about the information well Trump is immersed in, and which sources are continuing to poison it.

They ran out because of a water main break, and there was no water main. There was nothing. There was no break.

They werent in an official voter box; they were in what looked to be suitcases or trunks, suitcases, but they werent in voter boxes.

Trump referenced an incident in which a water leak at State Farm Arena, which served as a polling place in Fulton County, Georgia, held up voting for two hours on Election Day. Right-wing conspiracy theorists have alleged there was an evacuation to allow poll workers to sneak in fake ballots, partly based on surveillance footage showing workers at the arena retrieving containers that look like suitcases. This footage surfaced on Dec. 3 in Trump attorney Rudy Giulianis presentation before the Georgia state senate, from multiple prominent conservative social media accounts like Restoration PAC, and on the pro-Trump One America News Network and Sean Hannitys Fox News show.

In actuality, a urinal leak did occur that resulted in a delay, but poll watchers at the arena werent asked to leave because of it. In addition, the suitcases were in fact storage containers that poll workers typically use for packing and transporting ballots. Investigators with the Georgia secretary of states office watched hours of surveillance footage and ultimately found that nothing was amiss.

We had at least 18,000 thats on tape, we had them counted very painstakingly18,000 voters having to do with [redacted name]. Shes a vote scammer, a professional vote scammer and hustler [redacted name].

Trump was referring to a poll worker in the State Farm Arena footage who has been the target of false allegations that she introduced thousands of invalid ballots from the suitcases in to the count. (News organizations have been withholding her identity since the claims Trump has made against her are unfounded.) As NBC News reports, she and her daughter have faced harassment from followers of QAnon, a conspiracy theory holding that the worlds major institutions are controlled by satanic pedophiles. QAnon accounts further fueled false rumors that shed been arrested. Gateway Pundit, a far-right blog known for misinformation, also revealed the workers identity and has continued to disseminate the hoax.

And this may or may not be true ... this just came up this morning, that they are burning their ballots, that they are shredding, shredding ballots

False claims that election fraudsters were destroying ballots in Georgia took root online in late November, when the state was conducting a recount. AP News reported at the time that L. Lin Wood Jr., the pro-Trump lawyer and conspiracy theorist, was key in disseminating this misinformation when he posted a series of photos and videos taken by a Georgia resident of shredding trucks stationed at the West Parking Government Center and Jim R. Miller Event Center in Cobb County. After Wood amplified the images, Cobbs election officials refuted the claims by explaining that the truck at West Parking Government Center was in fact there for a routine shredding of tax documents; the county tax commissioners office shares the building with the elections office. The truck at the Jim R. Miller Event Center, on the other hand, was helping with the routine destruction of nonrelevant election materials. Items essential for the recount remained on file.

Wood has since then tweeted out QAnon-linked conspiracy theories that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is part of an elite pedophile ring and called for Vice President Mike Pence to be executed for treason.

In Pennsylvania, they had well over 200,000 more votes than they had people voting.

Trump mentioned this supposed irregularity while trying to convince the Georgia officials that widespread voter problems had appeared in other states as well. According to Snopes, the apparent source of this false factoid, which Trump has tweeted out a number of times, is a press release that Pennsylvania State Rep. Frank Ryan issued on Dec. 28. (Ryan joined dozens of his fellow lawmakers in requesting that Pennsylvanias congressional delegation not recognize the states electors.) The Pennsylvania Department of State subsequently released a statement in response to the representative, pointing out that his analysis used incomplete data that was missing several counties. The department called it another perfect example of the dangers of uninformed, lay analysis combined with a basic lack of election administration knowledge.

But they had as an example, in Michigan, a tremendous number of dead people that voted. I think it was, I think, Mark, it was 18,000.

The New York Times reported in early November that Republican Twitter circles were rapidly spreading spurious claims that thousands of ballots bearing dead peoples names had been submitted in Michigan. According to the Times, one of the main purveyors of this theory was Austen Fletcher, a prominent right-wing internet personality also known as Fleccas. He tweeted a day after the election that he had found registration documents for four Michigan voters who listed their birth dates as falling between 1900 and 1902. He later released a list of 10,000 supposedly dead voters. Conservative figures like Candace Owens and James Woods soon glommed onto his claims. It turns out, however, that hed in many cases ended up highlighting typical clerical errors such as digital voter roll systems defaulting to 01/01/01 when a birth date wasnt on file. The BBC gathered a sample of 31 names from his list and found that all but three were still alive. Fletcher has made other unfounded claims, some of which have been amplified by the Trump family, and was instrumental in promoting lawyer Sidney Powells false narrative about widespread voter fraud.

I mean, in other states, we think we found tremendous corruption with Dominion machines, but well have to see.

Do you think its possible that they shredded ballots in Fulton County? Because thats what the rumor is. And also that Dominion took out machines. That Dominion is really moving fast to get rid of their, uh, machinery.

Trump repeatedly suggested during the call that the election technology company Dominion had either removed machines from Fulton County, Georgia, or replaced certain parts in those units in order to cover up supposed vote tampering. As NBC News reports, QAnon dabblers like Sidney Powell and L. Lin Wood Jr. have been the principal drivers of elaborate conspiracy theories surrounding Dominion. Trump has also recently been retweeting One America News Network interviews about vulnerabilities in Dominions machines featuring Ron Watkins. Watkins is famous for being the administrator of 8kun, the seedy imageboard where Q, the leader of QAnon, posts messages to his followers. Though he claimed to have resigned from his position on Election Day, Watkins has the ability to take over the Q account whenever he wants to and has played a crucial role in Qs rise. NBC also notes that many of the rumors that Watkins has been spouting about Dominion are sourced from 8kun and its predecessor 4chan.

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Where the President Got His Lies About Georgia - Slate

Iran and Israel's ongoing feud has attracted international concern once more after the assassination of Tehran's top nuclear weapons scientist. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh's death came after a firefight in Tehran last week, with Iran's leaders blaming Israel for the attack.Fakhrizadeh was believed to be a crucial figure in Iran's nuclear weapons programme, meaning his death comes with huge implications.

The two countries have been engaged in an arms race for some time, as highlighted by former Israel Missile Defense Organisation Director Uzi Rubin.

He told I24 news an Israeli broadcaster last year that his country is "ahead" in the arms race but warned of the threat Iranian weapons could pose.

He said: "Whatever is in service you need to test from time to time, and also the enemy is not standing still.

"It is introducing improvements to its missile, so you have to introduce some improvement in your missile.

"I think we are one step ahead, but I don't underestimate the Iranians. They adopt science and adopt technology, they have a vast array of technical education.

"They also have a lot of engineers now. But I still think we are way ahead of them.

"However, I agree it is a race and you have to keep one step ahead of them all the time."

During the live broadcast, one presenter asked if Iran's "thousands of rockets in Lebanon" was a cause for concern.

Hezbollah, a group which wields significant power in Lebanon and is sympathetic to the Iranian regime, boasts missiles which Israel fears could be used to target its civilians.

READ MORE:Iran SNUBS US with huge boost to nuclear programme after assassination

Mr Rubin added: "If they have precision rockets, it raises the level of the threat.

"You have to build your missile defence of course."

According to Global Fire Power a website that gathers data on militaries around the world Iran has far more rocket projectors and artillery with 2000 of each while Israel boasts just a few hundred.

However, Israeli forces have more presence on the ground they have slightly more combat tanks and over 10,000 armoured vehicles to Iran's 4000.

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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised speech on Saturday that his country will retaliate for the killing of its prominent nuclear scientist at the proper time.

Fakhrizadeh was rushed to hospital after the attack by helicopter, the Iranian Government said, but was pronounced dead.

Experts have warned this could also have a severe impact on President-elect Joe Biden's foreign policy approach, while presenting a more imminent threat during the Trump administrations final months.

President Trump's incoming replacement would have been hoping to mend the worsening relationship between Tehran and Washington since the breakdown of the nuclear deal, agreed when Barack Obama was President and Mr Biden was Vice-President.

The deal limited Tehran's ability to make nuclear weapons by restricting the uranium that could be enriched a part of the process of creating nuclear missiles.

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World War 3: Israel told dont underestimate Irans weapons as tensions soar - Daily Express

China: US trade war is about economic dominance says expert

John Ratcliffe, director of national intelligence, wrote in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal: The intelligence is clear: Beijing intends to dominate the US and the rest of the planet economically, militarily and technologically. On Thursday, the Trump administration revealed the latest action of its hardline stance on the eastern superpower by adding four Chinese firms to a blacklist over alleged links to the Chinese military.

He wrote: If I could communicate one thing to the American people from this unique vantage point, it is that the Peoples Republic of China poses the greatest threat to America today, and the greatest threat to democracy and freedom world-wide since World War II.

Mr Ratcliffe was appointed to the role of top US intelligence official last spring.

While China has not yet responded to his opinion article, the nations foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying answered questions on the US at a briefing on Thursday.

Ms Hua told reporters: China urges the US government to view China and China's development in a more rational, calm and impartial manner.

We hope they can work with China to enhance the correct understanding of each other through dialogue and communication, and jointly push for the sound and stable development of China-US relations.

This is the only way that serves the fundamental and long-term interests of both Chinese and American people and meets the common aspiration of the international community.

President Trump has imposed more than $360bn (268bn) of tariffs on Chinese goods since taking office.

Beijing has placed $110bn of its own tariffs on American produce.

READ MORE: WW3: USA furious at China 'flagrant violation' over North Korea

The two countries have locked horns in a number of areas, including trade, the coronavirus and the South China Sea after the US agreed a multibillion dollar arms deal with Taiwan.

Australia has received support from the UK and US this week after Zhao Lijian, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, shared a fake image of a soldier appearing to slit the throat of an Afghan child.

The US ambassador to Australia accused the official who posted the image on Twitter of spreading disinformation through fabricated images and disingenuous statements.

The US and Australia are also joining forces to develop hypersonic cruise missiles to counter similar plans by China.

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Chinas ongoing trade war with the US also shows no sign of slowing down after the eastern giant introduced new laws stopping the export of controlled items.

The measures follow moves by the US to restrict tech firms such as Huawei.

The law is similar to the US Export Administration Regulations.

On a list of controlled items is nuclear, technology and military items while anyone who intends to export requires a licence.

It means China can retaliate against nations they deem to have endangered national security.

A new report, published on Tuesday, said NATO must think harder about how to handle China and its military rise.

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China branded 'greatest threat to democracy and freedom since WW2 by US spy chief - Daily Express

William Evanina, from the office of the US Director of National Intelligence, issued the warning at the Aspen Institute Cyber Summit on Wednesday.Mr Evanina said Chinese agents efforts toward Mr Bidens team was an influence campaign on steroids.

He added: So thats one area were going to be very keen on making sure the new administration understands that influence, what it looks like, what it tastes like, what it feels like when you see it.

His warning came as Congress announced a new law to bar Chinese firms from US stock exchanges unless they enable US auditing measures.

Chinese companies targeted by the US House of Representatives included tech giant Alibaba and oil firm PetroChina.

As on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump introduced a ban on cotton imports from an influential Chinese entity that has some military ties.

According to the Trump administration, the Xinjiang organisation violates human rights by using the forced labour of Uighur Muslims.

The US Customs and Border Protection agency said the withhold release order would veto the import of cotton and cotton by-products from the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC).

Mr Biden told the New York Times his main targets when it came to China relations were establishing an alliance and create trade policies to fight Chinas abusive practices.

He said: The best China strategy, I think, is one which gets every one of our or at least what used to be our allies on the same page.Its going to be a major priority for me in the opening weeks of my presidency to try to get us back on the same page with our allies.

The warning comes after experts expressed concern over Mr Bidens stance on Brexit and whether he would support Brussels in any future disagreements.

German MEP Manfred Weber told Euronews last month that Mr Bidens presidential victory would hand the EU a huge advantage.

He said: "The message is clear from Trump's defeat. That is why a lot of populists in Europe have lost their hero. The immediate impact will be on the Brexit talks in London.

It has got better for us Europeans because Johnson cannot tell the citizens in Great Britain anymore that he will get an immediate trade deal with the Americans.

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"Biden was also a clear supporter of the Good Friday Agreement, which will strengthen the Irish position in the talks. So this is creating again a positive leverage for us as Europeans in the talks with our British friends."

Andrew Goodwin, chief UK economist with Oxford Economics, told DW News that Mr Biden will create "problematic" challenges to the UK as it plans to push its Global Britain agenda.

He said: "Global Britain seems to be coming up against both political and practical challenges, both of which were always likely to prove problematic.

"Trade deals involve ceding some degree of sovereignty and, given the Government has sent a clear message that it prioritises sovereignty, it was always going to be difficult to make the concessions required to do trade deals."

Similar remarks were made by Dr Nigel Bowles of Oxford University, who toldExpress.co.ukthat the UK has "no leverage" with the US and would have to make "painful concessions" in order to reach a post-Brexit trade deal with Mr Bidens team.

The US politics expert said: "If Boris Johnson wants a trade deal with the US, the agreement he forged with the EU in late 2019 will have to be observed.

"His current approach will not work, and everyone around Boris Johnson knows that. I think that the EU and US have all the cards. All the leverage is with them.

He added: Whether Trump or Biden is President, the House of Representatives won't pass a trade deal with the UK if the EU-UK understanding is overridden. I think there is a trade deal to be struck, but there will have to be painful trade-offs on environmental standards, food safety standards. There will be losers."

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China THREAT as US intelligence chief warns Bidens team targeted amid trade tensions - Daily Express

World War 3: Vision 2020 outlines plans for full dominance

Ex-First Sea Lord of the Royal Navy, Lord Alan West, toldExpress.co.ukthe UK could do more to support its Five Eyes ally against China. Lord West also criticised Beijing for its appalling behaviour towards Australia. A deepening rift between has emerged between China and Australia resulting most recently with the publication of an altered image of an Australian soldier on social media.

The incident comes amid a series of crippling trade actions taken against Australia by the Chinese government.

Lord West toldExpress.co.uk: China has acted appallingly.

The way they have bullied Australia has been outrageous.

We do have strong ties with the Australian government but we probably could do more for the state.

China has placed severe tariffs on Australian wine, barley and enforced a reduction in coal trade between the states.

The tariffs on wine have risen to up to 212 percent and are crucial as China accounts for 39 percent of Australian exports of the product.

Prior to the move from Beijing, Australia had also admitted its concern over the outbreak of coronavirus and also banned Huawei kit from its 5G network.

Australia has also strengthened its naval ties with India, Japan and the US in order to a show of force against Chinas aggressive land grabs in the Asia-Pacific.

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Lord West has also called on the UK to increase its naval presence in the region.

In October, the UKs Carrier Strike Group assembled to conduct drills ahead of its first operational exercise next year.

The HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier will lead the group through its exercises in the Asia-Pacific in 2021.

It is also expected the NATO group will join exercises with Japan and Australia next year.

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Lord West labelled the strike group as essential in maintaining Britains interests abroad, while also claiming the UK Government must make sure the Navy retains its place as one of the strongest in the world.

The Navy chief also claimed the increase in funding for the armed forces from the spending review was a welcome boost.

Last month, the Prime Minister told MPs a four-year funding deal would create thousands of jobs in the industry while ensuring the safety of the nation.

Overall, the Prime Minister pledged 16.5billion in defence spending after years of cuts to the sector.

Mr Johnson said: The international situation is more perilous and more intensely competitive than at any time since the Cold War and Britain must be true to our history and stand alongside our allies.

To achieve this we need to upgrade our capabilities across the board.

This is our chance to end the era of retreat, transform our Armed Forces, bolster our global influence, unite and level up our country, pioneer new technology and defend our people and way of life.

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Boris must act now before its too late! Navy chief calls for UK to stand up to China - Express

The First Daughter praised the countries alliance in promoting global security, stability, and economic prosperity.In a tweet published on Monday, Ms Trump said: Fond memories from the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in India with Prime Minister@narendramodi!

As the world continues to battle COVID-19, our countries strong friendship in promoting global security, stability, and economic prosperity is more important than ever.

Ms Trump also shared some pictures of her alongside Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

However, the message did not go down well with some of her followers, some of whom accused her of pulling cons.

One Twitter used said: Ivanka has so many memories visiting countries in an official capacity while seeing to Trump family business.

Trumps are always working angles and pulling cons. Its in their DNA.

Another person added: Id swear you're living in a parallel universe.

You're talking about prosperity when food lines are longer than they've ever been, unemployment off the charts, people being evicted.

Im amazed at how out of touch you are.

But other followers took to Instagram, where she posted the same images, to praise the First Daughter.

One person wrote: "No doubt you have unconditional love towards India and you're the best."

Another Instagram user added: "I love what you have done for the Trump administration.

The msm has not reported any of your accomplishments but we the patriots are aware of what you have done for America and other countries. Kudos to you Ivanka."

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Recently Ms Trump received criticism over a tweet in which she said she was deeply thankful for our President and my father this holiday season!

But the tweet, which gathered over 145,000 likes, received replies from outraged followers who claimed Mr Trump was incompetent when it came to handling the pandemic and hence why the country had soaring coronavirus figures.

Others simply called on President Trump to concede the election to President-elect Joe Biden.

One person said: While others are missing their Dads this holiday season because of your Fathers incompetence in a pandemic.

Yes you should be grateful hes alive and he was one of the very fortunate to get excellent health care. Just keep rubbing peoples noses in it we wont forget.

Another person added: Then tell him to let the country move on. How about showing some class and dignity for once.

He should call Joe Biden, concede the truth - that Biden won, and tell Biden he will support the transition now that his legal efforts to overturn the election have failed.

Mr Trump is yet to concede the US 2020 election despite Mr Biden being projected as the next President to take office.

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Ivanka Trump blasted over India intervention as POTUS set to leave White House - Daily Express

ByMike Broida

As the coronavirus pandemic has forced many schools and universities around the world, including Johns Hopkins, to conduct classes remotely, one Johns Hopkins campus has opened its doors to students and faculty this fall: SAIS Europe, the School of Advanced International Studies' campus in Bologna, Italy.

One of two overseas SAIS campuses, SAIS Europe has the distinction of not only being the sole Johns Hopkins division holding in-person instruction this semester, but also hosting students from the school's Washington, D.C., and Nanjing campuses as well.

"Our students, faculty, and staff are happy to be here," says Michael Plummer, director of SAIS Europe and a professor of international economics. "We're all very grateful to have an in-person experienceand after last spring it's not one we're taking for granted."

Last spring, Italy was one of the countries hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. In March, as the country locked down to limit the spread of the virus, SAIS Europe swiftly switched to online instruction for the rest of the semester.

With the pivot to remote instruction, many students returned to their home countries, with some choosing to remain in Bologna. In May, after the end of the semester, SAIS Europe worked with school and university leaders to plan for a safe reopening in the fall. Over the summer, SAIS Europe transformed the Bologna Center to reflect best health and safety practices due to COVID-19 and to upgrade its existing remote learning infrastructure to accommodate students who were unable to take classes in person.

As the fall semester approached, another issue became a greater concern for the SAIS Europe staff: securing visas for international students. Administrators worked with incoming students from around the world to help them navigate the new and uncertain visa requirements due to the coronavirus pandemic. But as the visa scenario gradually became clearer for SAIS Europe, the same was not the case for SAIS' other overseas campus, the HopkinsNanjing Center.

Though coronavirus infections remained relatively low in China, HNC faculty and staff soon realized that many international studentsincluding Americanswould not be able to attain visas to enter the country. As HNC moved toward a remote fall semester, faculty and staff were conscious of a significant number of students who still wanted an in-person academic experience.

Image caption: A student works in the library at SAIS Bologna, where social distancing measures have been put in place to protect students, faculty, and staff

Image credit: Anna Fantuzzi / Johns Hopkins University

"In July, we started asking the question of whether we could be 'in exile' away from Nanjing," says Adam Webb, American co-director of the HNC and resident professor of political science. "Before COVID, we'd talked generally about fostering some type of exchange with our sister campuses in D.C. and Bologna, but once it was clear that we weren't going to open in person in Nanjing, we worked with SAIS Europe and leaders at SAIS to set a plan in motion."

In August, when SAIS Europe began its fall semester, it not only welcomed its own students but also 19 HNC students and 5 HNC faculty members, who joined "in exile" for the fall semester after quarantining for two weeks. In addition, SAIS Europe was also able to welcome 16 students who had planned to start their academic year in Washington. Students that are "in exile" take most of their classes remotely through their home campus, though they are able to make full use of the Bologna Center's resources this semester, including taking one or two courses from the SAIS Europe curriculum.

"We were planning on having a full house this fall," Plummer says. "And we certainly do have one nowjust not quite how we expected."

Michael Plummer

Director, SAIS Europe

In response to this unanticipated hybrid community, students and faculty are hoping to take advantage of the opportunity to forge new collaborations, relationships, and learning opportunities, while also maintaining health and safety measures. This semester, registration at SAIS has been expanded to allow students from HNC, SAIS Europe, or Washington to register for at least one class listed at another campus. HNC faculty are also planning to hold events in both Mandarin and English for students at the Bologna Center, some of which will also have online participation.

For SAIS, the integration at SAIS Europe this fall is emblematic of a future marked by greater collaboration and exchange among its three campuses. Plans are already underway to ensure that these continent-spanning partnerships remain in place beyond this semester.

"The coronavirus pandemic struck while SAIS was already in a time of major transformation," says SAIS Dean Eliot Cohen. "I couldn't be prouder of the way our team pulled together to unsnarl all the complications involved with having HNC and D.C. students taking classes in Bologna. Johns Hopkins is a place that really fosters this ability to make something good come out of awful circumstances. Folks here are always asking how can we use this moment to make ourselves better? This is a great example of that."

One of the HNC students "in exile" this fall is Nick Kaufman, who was previously a Fulbright grantee in the Chinese province of Anhui. When it was clear that HNC classes would be online, with a special option to temporarily join SAIS Europe in Bologna, Kaufman immediately warmed to the idea of starting his year in Italy. He was also excited by the opportunity to see China from a new, unconsidered perspective.

"At times, China studies can feel like tunnel vision, and very focused on China and the U.S.," he says. "Coming to SAIS Europe has been a great way to see how China interacts with Italy and Europe, and the way Europe interacts with China. It's a good opportunity to see China writ large, and I'm already learning a lot about how the EU relates to China. It's a unique perspective I wouldn't have received anywhere else."

Image caption: Natalie Smith

Image credit: Anna Fantuzzi / Johns Hopkins University

Joining Kaufman at SAIS Europe is Natalie Smith, a second-year SAIS master's student who spent her first year in Bologna. After the SAIS campus in Washington turned to remote instruction in August, Smith reached out about returning to Bologna for the fall semester, adding in-person instruction at SAIS Europe to the classes she was taking remotely.

"I'm a hands-on, interactive learner, and for me so much of the draw of SAIS and SAIS Europe has been the in-person engagementespecially in my coursework," Smith says. "I wasn't sure I would get as much out of my SAIS experience from taking classes online. I'm really grateful for the way SAIS and SAIS Europe has gone above and beyond to make in-person instruction happen and also to welcome in so many HNC or D.C. students to Bologna."

While classes are in session at SAIS Europe, many of the hallmarks and traditions of past years in Bologna look radically differentfrom classrooms rearranged to allow for social distancing to much more limited offerings at the on-campus caf. Some changes, however, represent a more permanent change, like new smartboards and cameras that have helped improve remote instruction. Despite the challenges and setbacks from the coronavirus pandemic, for SAIS, the potential for greater collaboration, both in person and online, is only just beginning.

"We are currently facing a world in extraordinary turmoil from a number of serious issues, not just the coronavirus," Cohen says. "There isand will bea tremendous need in every sector for the skills that our graduates possess. SAIS will be one of the institutions adapting to meet this need as we add more opportunities for students to learn in a time and mode that works for them. Even in this challenging moment, it's exciting to see this potential come to fruition."

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SAIS students from around the world travel to Italy for in-person instruction - The Hub at Johns Hopkins

When confidence reemerges, and travel comes back to a life we recognize, and incontrovertibly it shall, the full experienceincluding travel safetywill be viewed through a different prism.

The best business partnerships are those that have a shared mission and vision at the heart of it all. GeoSures partnership with the travel community is connected to the soul of what motivates online travel agencies (OTAs), travel management companies (TMCs), travel managers, industry platforms, destination marketers and others in our ecosystemwhich is a calling to help people find and afford opportunities to expand their personal horizons.

We are all driven by a fundamental urge to experience diverse places and cultures and make more of the world our own. GeoSure shares that goal, and our role in this mission is one we take seriously.

This goal of widened experiences extends broadly and powerfully, which is why a statement by Kim Albrecht earlier this year was so meaningful. As the visionary CMO of SAP Concur, Albrecht recognizes that the power of new technologies designed for women and LGBTQ+ travel safety is necessary and long overdue. She wrote: In 2020, these kinds of features wont be considered added; they will become an expected and common part of the traveler experience.

Just a year before that statement, Albrecht articulated an enlightened vision for the role of safety in the wider realm of corporate responsibility, predicting: safety will go hand-in-hand with employee satisfactionand female traveler safety, in particular, will rise to the top of corporate agendas.

The prescience of leaders like Albrecht, as well as trendsetting organizations, is even more consequential in todays world. The pandemic, and the consequent economic shockwaves it created, has inspired a searchat the highest levels of global corporate leadershipto identify new ways to engender trust and reassurance, improving both the leisure and business travel experience.

I have continually been impressed by the way that leaders have embraced new and more expansive obligations to their stakeholders in the wake of COVID-19. They have recognized that there is an unprecedented need for investment in the science and technology that can lead to a new culture of safety. The travel ecosystem has conceptualized and launched new ways to tackle the current insatiable demands for timely information as the world has become increasingly unpredictable. This data appetite is for usable and actionable statistics relating to the current spread, pervasiveness and manifestations of the coronavirus on the most localized levels possible.

These investments in travel safety correspond with what we have seen in the health care industry, including pharma, as unprecedented resources and efforts have been unleashed to treat COVID-19 and develop vaccines.

In short, there are many ways to address the existential challenges of this virus.

As noted above, the healthiest business partnerships emerge from common brand roots and shared values. We launched GeoSure into the world seven years ago, with a mission to open global horizons in parallel with what travel actors and others were focused on.

Long before COVID, we built a platform designed to use artificial intelligence, machine learning and the latest in information technology to capture and distribute travel safety insights in the form of proprietary GeoSafeScores. These scores are a confidence-driving set of metrics that benefit everyone in our industry.

The nature of society and our world has changed, and as a result, companies of all sizes are rethinking their obligations through a new lens. This widening of responsibility does not have a single source. Its predicated on a confluence of circumstances that call for new safety transparency and standards: the extraordinary data demands of COVID-19 transmission; societal demands for greater diversity, equality and inclusion; and awakening of the need to give the LGBTQ+community and other at-risk groups tools to help them stay safe.

We call that a #newdutyofcare.

Conventional duty of care was previously limited to a narrow scope of the risks of physical harm pertaining to business travelers on the road, those whom had access to precautions and risk mitigation measures provided through their employers.

The #newdutyofcare goes far beyond those responsibilities. It now includes the use of innovative technology to assure employee and associate well-being, confidence and empowerment across multiple dimensions of travel, including the safety and security of women and members of at-risk groups.

GeoSures vision of the #newdutyofcare for business travel has further widened the aperture to include leisure travelers.

As many of us now work from home, the lines between our business and personal lives have forever blurred. Corporations are recognizing they need be attentive to, and supportive of, the entirety of their employees lives, including areas that were outside the roles that employers traditionally played.

Self-care and respect for individual and family wellness are essential parts of a full and healthy life. Companies are starting to pay for stress-reduction and mindfulness programs, expanded child care and other enlightened programs that were unheard of just a few years ago.

We see the implications of those changes in the world of travel as an expansion of the traditional corporate duty of care to a new duty of self-caremaking safety a part of not just business and leisure travel, but indeed everyday life in ones own community.

Imagine searching for a hotel or destination, filtered by characteristics such as whether you are a solo female traveler, whether you are Black, white, Latinx, Caucasian or of Asian descent, straight, gay, transgender or otherwise. Imagine specific searches for your journey, and relevant safety results, as a function of your preferences and personal experience, returned by location. You select accordant safetyyou now have agency, youre in control. Not the other way around.

There is no doubt how empowering that experience would be. Contemplate how much travel will be boosted based on the self-confidence and trust that can be surfaced and made easily accessible. For everyone, anywhere. And thats only one element of GeoSures vision of the future of travel. And as Albrecht added, there is more to come. Much more, especially looking at enhanced individualization.

When confidence reemerges, and travel comes back to a life we recognize, and incontrovertibly it shall, the full experienceincluding travel safetywill be viewed through a different prism. Risk management and active travel safety will become embedded across the entire planning and booking process, along with the users itinerary, and perhaps even after we return home. Rich capabilities will be developed, costs will decline dramatically, usage will spike and organizations will deliver the most expansive definition of travel safety possible.

Fueled by this new dimension of expanded safety, paired with intelligent technologies, travel will arise stronger and smarter than ever before. The heretofore $8+ trillion global industry juggernaut will reach new economic heights and traveler fulfillment.

Our partners across the travel ecosystem will join us in reopening the world to joyful and unencumbered participation.

Together with destinations, organizations, travel platforms and communities, the shared missions of GeoSure and our partners will forever change the travel experience and well-being of the world, for the bettera safer, more predictableworld indeed.

Michael Becker is the cofounder ofGeoSure, a data science startup which aggregates thousands of data sources and signals through its proprietary predictive analytics and risk modeling platform.

An indispensable guide to finance, investing and entrepreneurship.

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New World, New Duties: Creating Tomorrows Travel, Today - Worth

WILMINGTON, Mass., Oct. 29, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Cond Nast Traveler announced this month the results of its annual Readers' Choice Awards, with Villas of Distinction recognized in the Villas category. Villas of Distinction is the world's premier full-service luxury villa rental company and creates one-of-a-kind getaways at the world's top villas for its guests.

More than 715,000 Cond Nast Traveler readers submitted an incredible number of responses rating their travel experiences across the globe.

"The results of this year's survey, conducted at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, are a testament to the lasting power of a meaningful travel experience," said Jesse Ashlock, U.S. Editor of Cond Nast Traveler. "The winners represent the best of the best for our audience and offer plenty of trip-planning inspiration for all the adventures we can't wait to have next."

The Cond Nast Traveler Readers' Choice Awards are the longest-running and most prestigious recognition of excellence in the travel industry. The full list of winners can be found here.

"It is a distinct honor to be named one of the best-of-the-best by the readers of Cond Nast Traveler," said Willie Fernandez, general manager and vice president of Villas of Distinction. "We couldn't have received this honor without the loyalty of our guests, as well as the dedication of our travel advisor partners, and our Villas Specialists and Concierges, who as a team, not only book villa stays but create truly unique vacation experiences."

Villas of Distinction provides a better solution for consumers and agents looking for trustworthiness and effortless vacation planning. Each guest is assigned a personal Concierge to tailor the perfect travel experience down to the last detail. The luxury provider may not boast the largest number of villas, but it is known for having the highest quality because it ensures every villa meets strict standards so that each home exceeds expectations. Pair that with expertise, Villa Specialists average 14 years of experience, and that is how Villas of Distinction has gained its guests' trust.

The 2020 Readers' Choice Awards are published on Cond Nast Traveler's website at http://www.cntraveler.com/rca and celebrated in the November issue of Cond Nast Traveler US and UK print editions.

About Villas of Distinction Villas of Distinction, as part of World Travel Holdings, is an award-winning, full-service premier luxury villa experience creator with an extensive portfolio of thousands of privately-owned villas in more than 50 luxurious destinations worldwide including the Caribbean, Mexico, Hawaii, Europe, Central America, the United States and many private islands. Many villas feature private pools, butlers, maids and chefs. The luxury villa provider has gained its guests' trust by ensuring every villa meets strict standards so that each home exceeds expectations. Since 1989, Villas of Distinction's team of experts have made vacation planning effortless by helping travelers find their perfect vacation home and creating one-of-a-kind getaways and lasting memories at the world's top villas. http://www.VillasofDistinction.com.

About Cond Nast Traveler Cond Nast Traveler is the world's most distinguished travel title providing inspiration and advice for discerning travelers. Authoritative and influential, Cond Nast Traveler is a multi-platform, transatlantic brand. Publishing US and UK print editions under Editor-in-Chief Melinda Stevens, Cond Nast Traveler offers award-winning expertise in luxury travel from around the world. For more, visit http://www.cntraveler.com. For press inquiries, please contact: awards@condenasttraveler.com

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Villas of Distinction Recognized with Cond Nast Traveler's 2020 Readers' Choice Award in Villas Category - Benzinga

(CNN) Overtourism was the travel buzzword of 2019, as destinations around the globe, from the hiking trails of Machu Picchu to the canals of Venice, battled the impact of throngs of visitors.

Amid all the planning, predicting and projecting, there's one thing these destinations couldn't envisage: the travel industry grinding to a screeching halt as Covid-19 spread across the world.

Travel bans, quarantines and nationwide lockdowns have forced most travelers to stay home, and destinations that previously struggled with too many tourists have been left reeling.

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Tourists in Dubrovnik in July 2020.

IVAN VUKOVIC/AFP via Getty Images

A sea of terracotta red roofs, a fortress-like Old Town and an association with one of the most popular TV series of the 2010s led the Croatian city of Dubrovnik to witness a surge in tourism numbers in recent years.

Alongside travelers who flew in for long weekends, Dubrovnik also saw footfall from thousands of cruise ship passengers who disembarked for the day, flooding the city's Old Town and leaving by nightfall.

Over the past couple of years, mayor Mato Frankovi and other city officials vowed to get the situation under control, as the city featured in "Game of Thrones" became increasingly packed.

New regulations came into place in 2019 to restrict the number of cruise ships in the city's old port to just two at a time, the result of a partnership with the Cruise Line International Association (CLIA).

As 2020 began, officials questioned whether such new rules would make an impact.

Then in March, the pandemic hit Europe. Croatia closed its borders and the tourists stopped coming.

When Dubrovnik left lockdown in early summer and tourism tentatively restarted, the tourists returning to Dubrovnik were mostly Croatians on staycations. It wasn't until flights started up again in the summer that international visitors began to return.

But it wasn't to last -- Covid numbers began to rise again and tourism declined once more.

"The UK put us on the red list, and then it went all down again. The airlines just one by one cut the number of flights," Dubrovnik's deputy mayor Jelka Tepi tells CNN Travel. "Without flights and without the UK market, Dubrovnik has very low tourist figures."

"The atmosphere this summer is the atmosphere like in the 90s, when the war was going on, only the grenades were not flying all over our heads," he tells CNN Travel.

The city may have grown from the ashes of war into a thriving tourism destination -- perhaps too thriving, in many locals' eyes -- but now the question is whether it can use the catastrophe of Covid-19 as a chance to reset.

Ivan Vukovic, Dubrovnik tour guide

Tepi says the cruise rules -- and Dubrovnik's other overtourism restrictions -- will not be relaxed when international flights recommence and the city encourages visitors to return.

Dubrovnik wants to make it clear to future visitors that the city takes both overtourism -- and the virus -- seriously.

"At the entrance of the Old City, we have a big banner warning people to wear masks, to keep distance, to wash hands, use the sanitizers etc. and beside those rules, we have the Respect the City program rules as well," says Tepi.

Unlike most European destinations, Croatia is permitting Americans to visit -- as long as they present a negative Covid-19 PCR test that's no older than 48 hours. A lack of flights makes this difficult for the average American to take advantage of, but some elite travelers with access to private jets are making the most of it.

Luxury tourism, says Tepi, is something the city will continue to focus on going forward.

That said, city officials and those in the private sector are keen for all kinds of visitors to return -- they just want a more sustainable, focused future.

The aim, says tour guide Vukovic, isn't a return to overtourism -- it's "some kind of 'normal' tourism, if possible."

Barcelona, Spain

A Barcelona restaurant sits empty on July 27, 2020.

Cesc Maymo/Getty Images Europe/Getty Images

The Catalan city of Barcelona, with its soaring Gaudi spires, sandy beach and al fresco bars, has been a tourism hotspot since the 1992 Olympic diving competition showcased the city's beauty to international audiences.

Today, tourism generates between 12 to 14% of the city's GDP and 9% of overall employment, says Xavier Marc, Barcelona City Council's councilor for Tourism and Creative Industries.

But in recent years, city officials and locals, worn down by overtourism, have started re-examining this reliance on holiday business.

The pandemic has served to further reinforce the importance of creating spaces in the city center that can be enjoyed by locals as well as tourists, Marc tells CNN Travel.

The restaurants and businesses in Barcelona's Ciutat Vella have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, he explains.

Prior to Covid-19, Barcelona had introduced a series of measures designed to combat some of the throes of overtourism.

The city clamped down on vacation rentals, introduced a tourism tax and encouraged travelers to visit neighborhoods outside the overcrowded old town.

Marc says Barcelona will "maintain its firmness intact" when it comes to these management strategies.

There are no plans to change the way the city clamps down on illegal rentals or tourist behavior -- "although logically, the decrease in activity has led to a reduction in incidents in these areas," adds the councilor.

Following the end of its strict lockdown, Barcelona only had a brief window in which international travelers could easily visit, before Spain found itself on other countries' quarantine lists.

By September, international tourism was down by 77%.

Today, the city, like others in Europe, is struggling to quash a fresh surge of Covid-19 cases, and a nighttime curfew is in place to try to stop rising figures.

Marc says he isn't worried about tourism failing to recover in the future, but he emphasizes the importance of avoiding the pitfalls of the past.

Machu Picchu, Peru

Machu Picchu has been largely off limits to visitors since the beginning of the pandemic.

PERCY HURTADO/AFP via Getty Images

The famous Inca citadel of Machu Picchu is atop many travelers' bucket lists, thanks to those soaring views of archaeological wonders framed by verdant mountains.

But for much of 2020, Peru's most famous landmark was out of bounds.

The South American country went into a strict lockdown on March 15, which lasted through June.

In the summer, it was announced that Machu Picchu would open to domestic tourism, but this failed to materialize as Covid cases in Peru rose.

Sarah Miginiac, general manager for South America at adventure company G Adventures, who lives in Peru, tells CNN Travel that tourism operators have been working closely with Peru's Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Environment to establish new protocols to keep visitors to Machu Picchu Covid-secure -- and ensure tourist numbers remain under control.

Since then, tourists must pre-book tickets that are valid for up to four hours. Under this system 5,000 people can complete the trek per day.

When Machu Picchu reopens, this number will be cut further in order to ensure social distancing.

"The new rule is that there's going to be only 75 persons allowed in Machu Picchu at a time," says Miginiac. "The size of the group is going to be a maximum of seven people, plus a guide -- we're going from over 5,000 to only 675 per day."

Ensuring travelers return to Machu Picchu in a more sustainable way is also key, with Miginiac suggesting that the current restrictions on visitor numbers could provide an opportunity to promote other beautiful, lesser known destinations within Peru.

Venice, Italy

A couple takes a selfie in Venice's normally bustling St. Mark's Square on October 3, 2020.

MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP/AFP via Getty Images

A visit to the Italian city has long been a popular city break, but as tourist numbers have soared over the past decade, locals have increasingly fought back -- protesting the cruise ships in the city's lagoon and vocalizing worries that Venice could become a theme-park-version of itself.

Various regulations and new rules designed to handle the influx of visitors have been introduced over the years -- including bans on new hotels and city center fast food spots. A steep access fee for day-trippers on popular dates was set to launch in July 2020, but ultimately postponed.

On top of its overtourism woes, last year the Italian city battled catastrophic floods.

Northern Italy became one of the first European regions to feel the brunt of Covid-19 in late February.

Venice went into lockdown and so began months with no tourists.

When international borders reopened in the summer, visitor numbers were nowhere near comparable to previous years.

For some locals, it was the bizarre culmination of what they'd been dreaming of for years -- just in terrible circumstances.

Jane da Mosto, Venice resident

"Everyday life is a lot more pleasant without the congestion created by the crowds of tourists that came in large groups," says Venetian Jane da Mosto, co-founder and executive director at We Are Here Venice, a non-profit association that's been campaigning for several years to reclaim Venice for locals.

As in Dubrovnik, cruise ships became a moot point as the industry shut down.

Pre-Covid, an estimated 32,000 cruise ship passengers visited Venice per day and many campaigners were actively discussing their impact on the city.

Fewer tourists means "the beauty of the city, it's architecture, water and views is much more evident," da Mosto tells CNN Travel.

"But it has come at an enormous cost - a lot of people are out of work, shops aren't selling much and the cultural sector has been drastically affected," she adds.

Expert view: Tourism will bounce back

A woman walks along Kuta Beach on the Indonesian resort island of Bali on August 15, 2020.

SONNY TUMBELAKA/AFP/AFP via Getty Images

Many other destinations around the word -- from historic cities like Amsterdam and Prague to beauty spots like Thailand's Maya Bay and the beaches of Bali, Indonesia -- have also suffered the consequences of too many tourists in recent years.

Now, they too are suffering the consequences of a lack of visitors.

And while overtourism might have wreaked havoc on destinations, the phenomenon also followed some predictable patterns: a destination became popular, people flocked there, the destination struggled to cope, solutions -- some effective, some less so -- were proposed.

Covid-19, however, is not particularly predictable, at least not in the long term.

This, says Tony Johnston, head of tourism at the Althone Institute of Technology in Ireland, makes planning for the future difficult.

"The [tourism] industry is an industry which has traditionally relied on very stable and very predictable models of growth," he tells CNN Travel. "And that's just been completely removed.

"Nobody knows how the next six months, 12 months or even longer-term future is going to look -- so it's very difficult for policymakers to plan, and very difficult for the commercial side of the industry to plan."

Johnston posits that no matter a destination's intentions now, when and if the Covid threat is mitigated, it'll be difficult for planners and policy makers to juggle pressure from industry lobby to bring tourists back quickly, while avoiding a return to the overtouristed problems of the past.

That said, there will be some travelers who will remain unwilling or unable to travel again, whether due to health concerns or considerations of their carbon footprint.

Still, there's a reason these destinations were overtouristed to begin with -- a lot of people want to visit them.

That's not likely to change irrevocably, even if numbers take a while to stabilize. After all, if you've never visited Venice, living through a global pandemic might make you wonder why you never got around to it.

"Bucket list travel locations are going to be one of the things that stimulate the recovery, for sure, people will want to do things immediately, once they have an opportunity to do so," suggests Johnston.

The tourism industry is "very volatile, but very, very resilient, and very adaptable," he adds.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to Dubrovnik as the Croatian capital.

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These destinations were overwhelmed by tourists. Here's how they're doing now - CNN

Final Report will add the analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on this industry

The report titled Global Sports Tourism Market is one of the most comprehensive and important additions to Alexareports archive of market research studies. It offers detailed research and analysis of key aspects of the global Sports Tourism market. The market analysts authoring this report have provided in-depth information on leading growth drivers, restraints, challenges, trends, and opportunities to offer a complete analysis of the global Sports Tourism market. Market participants can use the analysis on market dynamics to plan effective growth strategies and prepare for future challenges beforehand. Each trend of the global Sports Tourism market is carefully analyzed and researched about by the market analysts.

TheTop Manufacturers/playersincluding- Expedia Group, Priceline Group, China Travel, China CYTS Tours Holding, American Express Global Business Travel, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, BCD Travel, HRG North America, Travel Leaders Group, Fareportal/Travelong, AAA Travel, Corporate Travel Management, Travel and Transport, Altour, Direct Travel, World Travel Inc., Omega World Travel, Frosch, JTB Americas Group, Ovation Travel Group

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If you are involved in the Sports Tourism industry or intend to be, then this study will provide you a comprehensive outlook. You must keep your market knowledge up-to-date segmented by Applications, Product Types, and some major players in the industry. If you wish to customize study with different players/manufacturers according to target geography or needs regional or country segmented reports we can avail customization according to your requirement.

Major types covers, Very Motivated, Partially Motivated, Accessory, Accidental, Not Motivated

Major applications covers, Below 30 Years, 30-40 Years, 40-50 Years, Above 50 Years

Report highlights: Report provides a broad understanding of customer behavior and growth patterns in the global Sports Tourism market report sheds light on lucrative business prospects for the global Sports Tourism market Readers will gain insight into upcoming products and related innovations in the global market of Sports Tourism The report provides details on the main strategic initiatives adopted by the main players in the global Sports Tourism industry The authors of the report examined the segments taking into account their profitability, market demand, turnover, production and growth potential In the geographic analysis, the report examines current market developments in various regions and countries.

Key Questions Answered in ROY Sports Tourism Market Report:

The Global Sports Tourism market report gives an uncommon and satisfactory investigation of the market size, examples, division, and post in the creation and supply of Sports Tourism with Global Scenario. It likewise talks about the market size of various fragments that are rising and their advancement includes alongside development patterns. Different partners like speculators, brokers, providers, CEOs, Research and media, Global Director, Manager, and President were associated with the essential information determination to think of bits of knowledge on Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threat to the business or rivalry.

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Also, the report serves the important statistical data points gathered from the administrative foundations and other key sources, investigating the development of the business for the assessed period (2020-2025). As far as utilization, this report centers on the utilization of Sports Tourism by locales and applications. The exploration incorporates different factors about the market, its prominence in the worldwide market, division, current patterns that are being followed, innovative progressions, and future figures.

Table of ContentsSection 1 Sports Tourism Product DefinitionSection 2 Global Sports Tourism Market Manufacturer Share and Market Overview2.1 Global Manufacturer Sports Tourism Shipments2.2 Global Manufacturer Sports Tourism Business Revenue2.3 Global Sports Tourism Market Overview2.4 COVID-19 Impact on Sports Tourism IndustrySection 3 Manufacturer Sports Tourism Business Introduction3.1 Expedia Group Sports Tourism Business Introduction3.1.1 Expedia Group Sports Tourism Shipments, Price, Revenue and Gross profit 2015-20203.1.2 Expedia Group Sports Tourism Business Distribution by Region3.1.3 Expedia Group Interview Record3.1.4 Expedia Group Sports Tourism Business Profile3.1.5 Expedia Group Sports Tourism Product Specification3.2 Priceline Group Sports Tourism Business Introduction3.2.1 Priceline Group Sports Tourism Shipments, Price, Revenue and Gross profit 2015-20203.2.2 Priceline Group Sports Tourism Business Distribution by Region3.2.3 Interview Record3.2.4 Priceline Group Sports Tourism Business Overview3.2.5 Priceline Group Sports Tourism Product Specification3.3 China Travel Sports Tourism Business Introduction3.3.1 China Travel Sports Tourism Shipments, Price, Revenue and Gross profit 2015-20203.3.2 China Travel Sports Tourism Business Distribution by Region3.3.3 Interview Record3.3.4 China Travel Sports Tourism Business Overview3.3.5 China Travel Sports Tourism Product Specification3.4 China CYTS Tours Holding Sports Tourism Business Introduction3.5 American Express Global Business Travel Sports Tourism Business Introduction3.6 Carlson Wagonlit Travel Sports Tourism Business IntroductionSection 4 Global Sports Tourism Market Segmentation (Region Level)4.1 North America Country4.1.1 United States Sports Tourism Market Size and Price Analysis 2015-20204.1.2 Canada Sports Tourism Market Size and Price Analysis 2015-20204.2 South America Country4.2.1 South America Sports Tourism Market Size and Price Analysis 2015-20204.3 Asia Country4.3.1 China Sports Tourism Market Size and Price Analysis 2015-20204.3.2 Japan Sports Tourism Market Size and Price Analysis 2015-20204.3.3 India Sports Tourism Market Size and Price Analysis 2015-20204.3.4 Korea Sports Tourism Market Size and Price Analysis 2015-20204.4 Europe Country4.4.1 Germany Sports Tourism Market Size and Price Analysis 2015-20204.4.2 UK Sports Tourism Market Size and Price Analysis 2015-20204.4.3 France Sports Tourism Market Size and Price Analysis 2015-20204.4.4 Italy Sports Tourism Market Size and Price Analysis 2015-20204.4.5 Europe Sports Tourism Market Size and Price Analysis 2015-20204.5 Other Country and Region4.5.1 Middle East Sports Tourism Market Size and Price Analysis 2015-20204.5.2 Africa Sports Tourism Market Size and Price Analysis 2015-20204.5.3 GCC Sports Tourism Market Size and Price Analysis 2015-20204.6 Global Sports Tourism Market Segmentation (Region Level) Analysis 2015-20204.7 Global Sports Tourism Market Segmentation (Region Level) AnalysisSection 5 Global Sports Tourism Market Segmentation (Product Type Level)5.1 Global Sports Tourism Market Segmentation (Product Type Level) Market Size 2015-20205.2 Different Sports Tourism Product Type Price 2015-20205.3 Global Sports Tourism Market Segmentation (Product Type Level) AnalysisSection 6 Global Sports Tourism Market Segmentation (Industry Level)6.1 Global Sports Tourism Market Segmentation (Industry Level) Market Size 2015-20206.2 Different Industry Price 2015-20206.3 Global Sports Tourism Market Segmentation (Industry Level) AnalysisSection 7 Global Sports Tourism Market Segmentation (Channel Level)7.1 Global Sports Tourism Market Segmentation (Channel Level) Sales Volume and Share 2015-20207.2 Global Sports Tourism Market Segmentation (Channel Level) AnalysisSection 8 Sports Tourism Market Forecast 2020-20258.1 Sports Tourism Segmentation Market Forecast (Region Level)8.2 Sports Tourism Segmentation Market Forecast (Product Type Level)8.3 Sports Tourism Segmentation Market Forecast (Industry Level)8.4 Sports Tourism Segmentation Market Forecast (Channel Level)Section 9 Sports Tourism Segmentation Product Type9.1 Very Motivated Product Introduction9.2 Partially Motivated Product Introduction9.3 Accessory Product Introduction9.4 Accidental Product Introduction9.5 Not Motivated Product IntroductionSection 10 Sports Tourism Segmentation Industry10.1 Below 30 Years Clients10.2 30-40 Years Clients10.3 40-50 Years Clients10.4 Above 50 Years ClientsSection 11 Sports Tourism Cost of Production Analysis11.1 Raw Material Cost Analysis11.2 Technology Cost Analysis11.3 Labor Cost Analysis11.4 Cost OverviewSection 12 Conclusion

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Trending Now: Sports Tourism Market Share, Growth, Demand, Trends, Region Wise Analysis of Top Players and Forecasts - Aerospace Journal

Theres something about director Wes Andersons style thats instantly recognisable. Immaculate composition, symmetrical lines, pastel colours, idiosyncratic and strangely alluring sets are trademarks in films from The Darjeeling Limited to The Grand Budapest Hotel.

But a new photography travel book, Accidentally Wes Anderson, is full of places in the real world that look as though they are from one of his films (but arent). Its the latest offering from the man behind the @accidentallywesanderson Instagram account, Brooklyn-based Wally Koval.

It started as a travel bucket list for me and my wife Amanda in 2017, inspired by images of places around the world that reminded me of a Wes movie, said Koval. We posted pictures from our travels, people started following, conversations began, ideas were swapped the response was phenomenal.

Today, the Instagram account has more than 1.2 million followers sharing discoveries across the globe.

Kovals love of Andersons style started young. I remember my dad was watching [1998 Anderson comedy] Rushmore and I was intrigued. I love his aesthetic, the symmetry theres something oddly soothing about it. Everything fits together like a puzzle, but theres always something darker beneath, a chaos within the characters ...

The book features 200 colourful images (whittled down from about 15,000 photos with a lot of arguments and tears), along with the stories behind them researched by Koval and his team.

From the Crawley Edge Boatshed on Australias Swan River, once threatened with demolition by the government and now the most-photographed spot in Perth, to Marfa Central Fire Station in Texas, founded as a water stop to replenish steam engines running trains between San Antonia and El Paso, and today run by 17 volunteers, each building has a tale to tell.

Other images from the Americas include the interior of the Post Office in Wrangell, Alaska, built as part of Roosevelts New Deal public works project and decorated with paintings of the American scene to soften the austerity of the architecture.

In Europe, theres pink Hotel Opera in Prague: nationalised by the Communist regime, the building then sat unused for decades but today is a family-run hotel once again. In Lisbon, the bright yellow Ascensor da Bica, a funicular railway built in 1892, is pleasingly framed in a gap between buildings. In Asia, striking pictures include 16th-century Amer Fort, overlooking Maota Lake in Rajasthan, with guards in white tunics a contrast against the ochre wall.

Its impossible for me to choose a favourite, said Koval. It changes all the time. There are so many layers to each one something might fascinate you about a photo and then you delve further into the stories behind them and theres always more to discover. We had to dig deep to gather the information we joined a local historical society, infiltrated private Facebook groups, and spent hours phoning and faxing far-flung places!

As well as being a perfect armchair travel read and an unusual guide, Koval hopes AccidentallyWes Anderson will inspire people to open their eyes and see the world differently.

We have travelled a lot, but we have always held that you dont need to go far to find interesting places. The pandemic has proven this. We couldnt go to Scotland or Spain as planned, but went to Delaware, where Amanda and I are from, and were blown away by things we found.

The ultimate stamp of approval came from Wes Anderson himself, who wrote the foreword to the book. The photographs in this book were taken by people I have never met, of places and things I have, almost without exception, never seen but I must say, I intend to. I now understand what it means to be accidentally myself. I am still confused about what it means to be deliberately me, if that is even what I am, but that is not important.

Accidentally Wes Anderson by Wally Koval is published on 29 October (Trapeze, 25). To order a copy for 21.75, including UK p&p, visit The Guardian Bookshop

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Where Wes Anderson films 'accidentally' come to life - The Guardian