New accommodation stats show total guest nights for 2009 were down one per cent from the year before, but there was a 4 per cent rise in December.

Decapitated bodies dumped on the streets, drug-war shootings and regular attacks on police are all part and parcel of life in Mexico.

Even budget travellers in Italy can afford to factor in some luxury, writes Peter Bills.

A New Zealand luxury lodge has been recognised for its consistent high standards by a century-old English high society magazine.

Big-spending overseas millionaires' superyachts are being turned away from Auckland because of lack of decent berths.

A tour operator is under fire for using fake Maori to attract tourists from cruise ships docking in Tauranga.

Jaqueline Smith put her hand up for a swim in Kelly Tarlton's Shark Cage and was relieved it wasn't bitten off.

Alanah May Eriksen travels to the island nation just a couple of months after the September tsunami which destroyed the southeast coast of Upolu and discovers the tourist industry is in full swing.

The Independent's Simon Calder says it's not too soon for cruise ships to return to the benighted nation.

It may take effort to get to, and be reminiscent of a gentler age, but Great Barrier Island appears to have survived the recession.

Bishop Brian Tamaki has riled Waitomo locals with his commercialisation plans for Te Kopua marae.

A French tourist facing charges over a fatal collision with a motorbike in Waikato on Saturday has briefly appeared in court.