Miguel Praga

🏛 Egypt faces a tourism issue with its national museum located in Tahrir Square, Cairo, which has been insufficient for over 20 years. A new museum near the Pyramids, partially opened after a $1 billion investment, awaits completion. The highly anticipated new museum's opening, originally set for late this year, has been indefinitely postponed by the government to add new galleries and expand with a second museum. Currently, only 10% of the museum, including Ramses II statues, is open to visitors, with the main gallery of 5,500 works pending a launch date. Tourists must visit both distant museums, amidst concerns over regional conflicts like Gaza affecting tourism.

🏢 Ávoris, after integrating brands acquired from Globalia in December 2022, including Halcón and Travelplan, launched the Ávoris Store platform to streamline the booking process between its agencies and tour operators. The group, led by Juan Carlos González, now boasts an extensive wholesale division with over a dozen brands and a retail division led by Halcón, B travel, and Ecuador, totaling over 2,300 agencies. The platform consolidates offerings from Travelplan, Jolidey, Catai, Special Tours, and others, and is fully operational.

🚂 SNCF, the French train operator, as of this past Monday, penalizes passengers carrying more than two bags on high-speed trains; previously, there was no strict bag limit as long as passengers could carry their luggage themselves. Contrastingly, in Spain, Renfe allows three substantially sized items per passenger, with minimal enforcement. Budget train services like Avlo and airlines such as Ryanair impose stricter limits, charging extra for baggage beyond a small backpack or cabin-sized suitcase. Ouigo and Iryo also impose baggage limitations correlated to ticket prices. These train luggage policy changes have not faced the same social opposition as in the aviation sector.