Jet Blue airline is offering free flights to family members of victims killed or injured in the Orlando nightclub attack. Photo / Getty Images
Jet Blue airline is offering free flights to family members of victims killed or injured in the Orlando nightclub attack. Photo / Getty Images
We like:
US airline Jet Blue offering free flights to family members and domestic partners of victims killed or injured in the Orlando nightclub attack. It's nice to see a company stepping up to do something decent in the face of tragedy.
We don't like
Shanghai evicting hundreds of residents and businesses to clean the air and make way for the newest Disney theme park, opening this week. Great fun for tourists, but it comes at the expense of the livelihood of locals.
Tell us what you like and don't like in the world of travel.Email:travel@nzherald.co.nz
Kiwis are venturing beyond Honolulu and Oahu and exploring more of Hawaii's islands, according to new numbers released to Travel Wires by Hawaiian Airlines. Rusty Williss, the airline's New Zealand manager, says 12 per cent more travellers from New Zealand visited another island (other than Oahu) compared with the same time last year. "The airline is seeing strong growth in visits to Maui and Hawaii Island - also known as the Big Island," he says. In May, Hawaiian Airlines carried 4.4 million guests globally, an increase of 4.8 per cent over the same period in 2015.
The Remarkables ski area in Queenstown opened on Saturday. Ski area manager Ross Lawrence said: "We're stoked to be opening with 100 per cent learners' terrain, 80 per cent intermediate terrain and 80 per cent advanced terrain, and hiking to those far away lines is available with access off Sugar Bowl, Curvey Basin and Shadow Basin lifts." When all the terrain has full snow cover, visitors will be able to reach 45.5ha of new, lift-accessed skiable terrain.
The Remarkables Ski Field's learners terrain is fully open and 80% of intermediate and advanced terrain open. Photo / Supplied
Cheap walks in Tasmania
Kiwi trampers visiting Tasmania can access the island state's popular new Three Capes Track for half price as part of planned celebrations for the 100th anniversary of national parks. From July 15 until September, the three-night, four-day walk over 46km along part of southeast Tasmania's Tasman Peninsula will cost $261.
Long service
A hotel doorman at Galle Face Hotel - a Sri Lankan hotel that is more than a century-and-a-half old - has clocked 50 years' service. Now 71 years old, Rathnayaka Mudiyanselage Punchi Banda began work at the property on July 17, 1966. He has some way to go before he owns the record for the property: a previous doorman, Kottarappu Chattu Kuttan from Kerala, died in 2014 aged 94, after 72 years of service.
Auckland's hotel boom
Last year was a strong one for Auckland hotels, according to new Tourism Industry Aotearoa research. TIA's 37 member hotels in Auckland enjoyed 84 per cent occupancy, up 1.8 points on 2014 and well above the national occupancy rate of 78.8 per cent. The average daily rate (across all star grades) jumped to $164, up $17 (11 per cent) on the previous year, generating total revenue of $522 million, up $66 million on 2014.
