After seeing a huge revival during the Covid pandemic as restrictions were imposed on international travel, the domestic holiday looks like it is set to remain the most popular option for price-conscious European travellers for now. In 2021, domestic holidaying in the European Union made up almost 70% of all vacations, measured in nights spent at a tourist accommodation. This topped the 55% recorded in 2022 as France and Germany saw increases of between 50 and 100 million each. Before the pandemic, there was an even split between domestic and international destinations, according to Eurostat. And although global international passenger numbers had by May topped 90% of those recorded for the same month in 2019, domestic flying was around 5% above the pre-pandemic level, according to figures from the International Air Transport Association. The domestic holiday has seemingly been revived, in a way perhaps unseen since before the advent of budget airlines and cheaper flying in the 1990s.
Global passenger traffic is almost back to what it was before the Covid lockdowns, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), an industry body made up of around 300 airlines. European passenger traffic was up by over 19% year-on-year in May 2023, while globally the increase was 39.1%, the Geneva-based IATA said. The increases meant global passenger traffic, which the IATA measured using the industry metric of revenue passenger kilometres, was at over 96% of the May 2019 level. Domestic traffic topped the pre-pandemic mark, as did international traffic across North America and the Middle East.
Despite the hype that artificial intelligence could revolutionize workplaces and boost profitability, less than half of British businesses are likely to be using the technology by 2025. "Only 36% of UK employers have so far invested in AI and machine-learning technologies," according to research by the universities of Cambridge, Leeds and Sussex, with only 10% of those who haven't invested yet planning to do so in the next two years. The "nationally representative" survey, which was published by the Digital Futures at Work Research Centre, showed most businesses find it "difficult to recruit people with the right digital skills" but at the same time these businesses were not planning to invest in training.
In mid-2022, Sri Lanka’s leaders were driven from office by mass protests after the island nation’s economy collapsed in the wake of the government banning the import of fertiliser. A year on, and two British government advisors are warning that "re-wilding" and the promotion of organic farming are making wealthy countries more dependent on food from abroad and off-shoring habitat damage to Asia, Africa and Latin America. Environmental and agriculture policies in Europe and Japan are "driving up food imports and thereby having an impact on wildlife overseas," according to Ian Bateman of University of Exeter and Andrew Balmford of the University of Cambridge, writing in the journal Nature. According to Bateman and Balmford, when wealthy nations take land "out of agriculture without lowering food demand or raising yields elsewhere," it usually means a greater need for imports. And this in turn leads to environmental damage elsewhere.
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