Latest news with #RebeccaNoble
GMA Network
03-06-2025
- Business
- GMA Network
Americans slow to book summer travel amid discount hunting
Tourists gather to watch the sunset over the south rim of Grand Canyon National Park near Tusayan, Arizona, May 16, 2025. REUTERS/ Rebecca Noble NEW YORK — This year's hottest summer travel trend? Waiting for deals. Americans are scaling back travel plans from flights to drives or waiting to book only if the price is right, a tell-tale sign of an industry slowdown that's got travel companies worried. Hotel summer bookings are either flat or falling from last year, and airline bookings are down even though airfares have also declined, as economic concerns fuel a pullback in spending. Travel companies including Delta Air Lines, Marriott International, and online travel agency Booking Holdings have withdrawn or revised their 2025 annual forecasts as US demand softens. Airbnb flagged shrinking booking windows as consumers take a "wait-and-see" approach and book trips closer to their check-in dates. That has left companies with less visibility into the second half of the year. Delta said in early April it was premature to project the full year given macroeconomic uncertainty. United Airlines said there's a reasonable chance that bookings could weaken. "It's very clear that consumers are waiting to make decisions, including for the summer," Southwest Airlines CEO Robert Jordan said at the Bernstein Annual Strategic Decisions Conference in late May, adding that demand was stable but lower than expected in January. US summer flight bookings are down 10% year-over-year, according to Flighthub, an online travel agency, even though airfares have dropped. "You can't keep an airline seat on the shelf in a warehouse. If you don't fill that seat tomorrow and the airplane flies, it's gone," Steve Hafner, CEO of Kayak, a Booking Holdings unit, told Reuters. Average summer flight prices declined 7%, with flights to long-haul destinations like Sydney, Australia 23% cheaper year-over-year, according to Kayak. Hotel bookings have "actually fallen off and it gets weaker like a month out," Hyatt Hotels H.N CEO Mark Hoplamazian told an audience at the NYU International Hospitality Investment Forum on Tuesday. "By the time you get to that month, it recovers." Summer bookings in major US cities are flat-to-down year-over-year, according to data from CoStar. Average room rates are expected to rise roughly 1.3% in 2025, down from a 1.8% increase in 2024. "We're not getting that crazy pricing power we got in the early days of the recovery," Marriott CEO Anthony Capuano said, adding that the company was still seeing revenue per available room increase. Weaker dollar Travelers may start to find deals, such as a free third night for staying two nights, as hoteliers look to fill rooms, said Jan Freitag, national director of hospitality analytics at CoStar Group. That's what Jackie Lafferty is hoping for. Her summer plans have shifted from a possible family vacation in Hawaii or Florida to her home state of California instead. "By the time we broke down the cost of the flights, the hotel and the rental car, it looked expensive, it felt unreasonable," said Lafferty, a Los Angeles-based public relations director. The dollar's weakness has driven up the cost of overseas vacations. In March, American travelers surveyed by Deloitte had planned to increase budgets for their longest summer trip by 13%. By April, Deloitte's survey found Americans planned on spending about the same as last year. "The dollar is just not going as far and I think people are starting to realize that," said Chirag Panchal, CEO of the Ensuite Collection, a Dallas luxury travel concierge. The dollar has fallen about 10% since mid-January, when it was its strongest in more than two years. Panchal's clients, who had booked big trips to Europe last year, are either staying domestic or going to closer destinations like Canada or the Caribbean. "We might go international at the end of the summer. If we do, it will be last-minute and spur of the moment based on cheaper flights," said Rachel Cabeza, 28, an actor and fitness instructor based in New Jersey. For now, her only summer plan is a getaway to Martha's Vineyard in nearby Massachusetts. — Reuters
Straits Times
25-04-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
Migrants deterred by Trump's border crackdown wait for UN help to return home
FILE PHOTO: A U.S. Border Patrol agent sits in a vehicle while surveilling a section of the U.S.-Mexico border fence in Douglas, Arizona, U.S., April 20, 2025. REUTERS/Rebecca Noble/File Photo DANLI, Honduras - Migrants deterred by U.S. President Donald Trump's border crackdown are making their way back to their home countries as crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border continue to fall. In the Honduran town of Danli, near the border with Nicaragua, dozens of migrants are waiting for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a United Nations agency, to fly them back to Venezuela and other countries. Betzabeth Bencomo said that after she gave up on her hopes of entering the United States and left Mexico, she thought she'd have to travel once again across the lawless jungle that separates Colombia and Panama in order to reach her native Venezuela. But upon arriving in Honduras, she learned that the IOM was offering repatriation flights for migrants looking to return home. "We've been waiting for two and a half months," she said. "God willing, soon we will be home." Venessa Contreras, also from Venezuela, feels safer now that she knows she will be able to fly home - even if she has to wait. She said that the journey home has gotten even more deadly since Panama took steps to block off parts of the jungle, pushing some migrants to resort to traveling by sea on small boats that occasionally capsize on the reverse migration route. Interest in IOM's assisted voluntary return program has soared since Trump's crackdown began. In January and February, the agency received 2,862 requests for the program, more than triple the requests logged during the same period last year. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
The Star
25-04-2025
- Politics
- The Star
Migrants deterred by Trump's border crackdown wait for UN help to return home
FILE PHOTO: A U.S. Border Patrol agent sits in a vehicle while surveilling a section of the U.S.-Mexico border fence in Douglas, Arizona, U.S., April 20, 2025. REUTERS/Rebecca Noble/File Photo DANLI, Honduras (Reuters) - Migrants deterred by U.S. President Donald Trump's border crackdown are making their way back to their home countries as crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border continue to fall. In the Honduran town of Danli, near the border with Nicaragua, dozens of migrants are waiting for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a United Nations agency, to fly them back to Venezuela and other countries. Betzabeth Bencomo said that after she gave up on her hopes of entering the United States and left Mexico, she thought she'd have to travel once again across the lawless jungle that separates Colombia and Panama in order to reach her native Venezuela. But upon arriving in Honduras, she learned that the IOM was offering repatriation flights for migrants looking to return home. "We've been waiting for two and a half months," she said. "God willing, soon we will be home." Venessa Contreras, also from Venezuela, feels safer now that she knows she will be able to fly home - even if she has to wait. She said that the journey home has gotten even more deadly since Panama took steps to block off parts of the jungle, pushing some migrants to resort to traveling by sea on small boats that occasionally capsize on the reverse migration route. Interest in IOM's assisted voluntary return program has soared since Trump's crackdown began. In January and February, the agency received 2,862 requests for the program, more than triple the requests logged during the same period last year. (Reporting by Hugo Monnet in Danli, Honduras, writing by Laura Gottesdiener, editing by Sandra Maler)
Wall Street Journal
04-03-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Trump's Tariffs on Canada and Mexico Take Effect
Tractor trailers in line for cargo inspections at the the U.S.-Mexico border. (Rebecca Noble/Bloomberg News) The U.S. imposed 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada early Tuesday morning, along with imposing an additional 10% tariff on Chinese imports. The 25% tariffs will apply to all imports from Mexico and Canada, with the exception of energy products such as crude oil and natural gas, which will be tariffed at 10%. Trump has said the duties, taken under the president's emergency economic authority, are being imposed due to fentanyl smuggling over U.S. borders. He previously delayed the Canada and Mexico tariffs for a month to allow for negotiations, but indicated on Monday that the tariffs would go into force. Canada said Monday night that it would impose retaliatory tariffs on $100 billion of imported U.S. goods.
