News & Stories

Wellness or gimmick? Sleeping in a bed of hay is well known by now. But guests at the Romantik Hotel Maison Hornberg in Switzerland can now sleep in a bed of leaves.

Hiking is not just a popular leisure activity in nature. It also brings money into rural regions. Tourism professionals are therefore devising new offerings centered around hiking—including in extreme variants.

Holidaymakers repeatedly engage in bizarre battles for the best spots by the hotel pool. Such a dispute has now escalated to extreme lengths in Greece, while Tenerife recently launched a pilot project. Towel or app?

For Europeans, frankincense is inextricably linked to visiting a church. In Oman, the tree resin is deeply rooted in the culture. Now, the Hilton Muscat is home to the world's first frankincense sommelier.

The British Government intends to give mayors in the regions the option of levying a tourist tax in future. Housing Minister Angela Rayner has set out plans to this effect.

Just last week, the EU proposed a new law to regulate tourist short-term rentals with the "Affordable Housing Act". HotellerieSuisse is demanding that clarity be brought to this area in Switzerland too.

An analysis of the data reveals which visitors contribute most significantly to local turnover in restaurants and hotels abroad. In Austria and Italy, the hospitality sector benefits particularly from German travellers.

Whether it's taking an Uber to a wine tasting or parking your camper van right at the vineyard and staying overnight: around the city of Frankfurt, there are new initiatives to boost wine tourism.

Tirol accounts for around a third of Austrian tourism. How do you structure this influx and develop it into year-round tourism? Balance is required. Hotels, destinations, and a "Future Lab" are working on the solution.

A new practical paper offers guidance on the transparency obligations for AI-generated and AI-edited content—applicable to tour operators, hotels, intermediaries, and other tourism businesses since 2 August 2026—with specific guidance on images, video, text, and chatbots.