Rick Martínez shares his favorite travel snacks
January 12, 2024
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Washington Post
19 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Trump moves to lift visa restrictions for Argentina in boost to right-wing ally
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — The United States and Argentina on Monday announced that they are working on a plan to allow Argentine tourists to again travel to the U.S. without a visa. It will likely take two to three years before visa-free travel becomes a reality for Argentine passport holders, but the signing of a preliminary agreement Monday marked a show of support by the Trump administration for President Javier Milei , its staunchest ally in South America and a darling of conservatives around the world.
Forbes
21 minutes ago
- Forbes
Disney Park Operator Unveils 15 Year Masterplan
One Disney theme park operator is already planning for 2040 (Photo by) Building blockbuster theme parks isn't the work of a moment. Typically spanning several hundred acres, design alone takes up to two years followed by as many as six years for construction. Bearing this in mind, it's essential for operators to think ahead which is why one of them is already planning what to do in 2040. In May, Disney's chief executive Bob Iger dropped the bombshell announcement that its next theme park will open on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It was the latest step in a strategy which Yas Island put in place 15 years ago with the opening of the first-ever Ferrari themed park right next to a race track which hosts the season-ending Formula One Grand Prix. Ferrari World Abu Dhabi soon raced onto the radar of theme park fans as its 19 attractions included Formula Rossa, the world's fastest roller coaster. The park's growth quickly accelerated and it now has 43 attractions including a unique cross between a simulator and a roller coaster as this report explained. Attendance increased in line with this expansion and within just five years of opening, the park attracted one million visitors annually. In 2013 it was joined by Yas Waterworld, a water park which combines traditional slides with theme park rides. The following year, Yas Island broke new ground by opening a mega mall which now has 370 shops. Connected to Ferrari World, Yas Mall really is a whole new world as there are usually few independent stores and restaurants within walking distance of theme parks so guests are forced to shop and eat in high-priced on-site establishments. Instead of featuring glitzy gold encrusted eateries, as you might expect to find in the Middle East, Yas Mall is packed with American chains such as Dickey's Barbecue Pit, P.F. Chang's, Texas Roadhouse and Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen. It even has a outlet of See's Candies, a candy store founded in Los Angeles in 1921. The shops are no different as they include Columbia clothing, Hollister, Foot Locker, Toys 'R' Us and, of course, Disney as its first store in the UAE is in Yas Mall. There are also branches of hardware store Ace and Pottery Barn to cater for the hundreds of houses and apartments that have sprung up on the island since the mall opened. Many of the people who live there work on Yas Island and not just in the theme park sector. A UFC demonstration taking place at Abu Dhabi's Yas Mall (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty ... More Images) That's because Yas Island is also home to offices dedicated to the media industry with a new business park currently under construction. The F1 track weaves around a marina with yet more restaurants whilst others opened in a new waterfront district in 2021. The highlight of that area is an arena which hosted the UFC's Whittaker vs. de Ridder event on Saturday and in October the NBA's New York Knicks will play three-time champions the Philadelphia 76ers there. Just a few minutes walk away is the Yas Links 18-hole golf course where a round of the PGA European Tour takes place. With its cream-colored walls, corrugated terracotta tiles, exposed wooden rafters and wrought iron chandeliers, the Spanish-style clubhouse closely resembles the summerhouse at Walt Disney World's high-end Golden Oak residential district. Fittingly, the Yas Links clubhouse was the site of a spectacular drone show which celebrated the announcement of Disneyland Abu Dhabi and set a new record as this report explained. Praise poured in from the local region, known as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and much farther afield. Olivier Garaïalde, chief executive of vacation resort operator Center Parcs, described the announcement as "such an impressive milestone done by Yas Island and Abu Dhabi" while Thomas Hecart, the supremely talented vice president of communication and public affairs at Disneyland Paris posted a statement on social media from Iger saying that the new park will blend 'contemporary architecture with cutting-edge technology to offer guests deeply immersive entertainment experiences in unique and modern ways.' It will be the fifth park on Yas Island as Warner Bros. World opened in 2018 to great acclaim followed by SeaWorld Abu Dhabi five years later. The marine life park made a splash thanks to a one-of-a-kind ride, described here, which is set inside a sphere lined with high-definition LED screens. That's not all. Connected to Yas Mall is CLYMB, an angular building which contains the world's widest flight chamber and the tallest indoor climbing wall, whilst visitors looking for more relaxing recreation can head to a sandy white beach on Yas Island. Its hotels haven't been left out and in 2018 my colleague revealed in Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper that Yas Island was planning the world's first Warner Bros. themed hotel which opened in 2021 and features Art Deco-inspired rooms. The vast array of attractions on Yas Island has one of the most popular destinations in the Middle East and its attendance holds its own against the best in the business. My colleague and I have been analyzing industry attendance for nearly 25 years as we are the only journalists worldwide who specialize in writing about the business of theme parks for national media. We have been covering it since the opening of the Walt Disney Studios park in Paris in 2002 and, as this archive shows, we have written for more than 30 leading outlets including the BBC, The Times of London, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, the Financial Times, The Independent and the London Evening Standard. In 2012 we revealed that Disney would take control of its outpost in Paris and five years later, after the takeover was complete, we broke the news that Disney would invest $2.1 billion in the French resort which is exactly what it did in 2018. Soon afterwards came our next exclusive that the the entertainment district at Disneyland Paris would be renovated and in 2022 it was finally officially announced. In December last year we began research for another exclusive. This time we analyzed the latest attendance data for Yas Island which showed that it recorded more than 34 million visits in 2023, a rise of 38% compared to 2022. Although the announcement initially referred to 'visits', it proceeded to describe them as 'visitors' when it broke the data down as it stated that "theme parks and CLYMB at Yas Island recorded an increase of 83 per cent in 2023 compared to 2022. Visitor numbers from the GCC grew by 125 per cent compared to the previous year." Yas Island recorded more than 34 million visits in 2023 (GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP via Getty Images) It actually makes perfect sense to use the two terms interchangeably. The 34 million visits includes guests at the theme parks as well as anyone traveling to the island to visit the other facilities, such as the mall. Although they may seem to be incomparable, the only practical difference between them is the length of time they spend there. Yas Island is positioned as a resort with services such as shopping and dining in addition to its leisure attractions. Naturally some people will spend less time at the resort than others depending on what they are there for but this doesn't mean they aren't visitors there. Similarly, the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) annual ranking of the world's most-visited theme parks does not state that guests have to spend a minimum amount of time in them to be classed as visitors and there is good reason for this. Many parks don't require guests to scan their tickets to pass through the exit gates so the operators have no way of knowing how long they have been there. Therefore, if the TEA required visitors to be in the parks for a minimum length of time many operators wouldn't be able to provide it. As with the visits to Yas Island, some people may stay in a park for half an hour whereas some may stay all day. To see how it compared with the attendance at Yas Island, I added up the 2023 TEA visitor numbers for Disneyland Park and the neighboring Disney California Adventure which together form the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim. They came to 27.3 million people which was far eclipsed by the 34 million attendance at Yas Island. This doesn't include anyone who visits the 23 shops and 26 restaurants at the on-site Downtown Disney district in Anaheim but there is no indication that they move the needle significantly. This is clear from the fact that Anaheim itself welcomed a total of 25.8 million visitors in 2023 which is lower than Yas Island's tally and even lower than the attendance of the two Disney parks as they also include local guests. Exceeding the Disneyland Resort's attendance seemed to be a major milestone for Abu Dhabi but there didn't appear to be significant excitement about it which made this author think it could because talks were underway between the two parties. That was then confirmed by an extremely senior contact outside the UAE but I waited until three days after the deal had been signed before breaking the news on social media and then forecasting the announcement here. My forecast that opening a park in Abu Dhabi was "the biggest deal Bob Iger has yet to do at Disney" was met with scepticism from fans. Disney Tourist Blog said "I'll eat my words here if this gets announced with detailed aerial concept art." Likewise, Laughing Place described the prediction that Disney would open a park in Abu Dhabi as a "plausible impossible" before it suddenly removed its report ahead of the announcement suggesting that it had been given the same nod in advance that I got. The announcement of Disneyland Abu Dhabi in May came as a complete surprise to many in the industry The news about the new park still caught industry watchers off guard. On the morning of the announcement, my colleague tipped off The Sun's Lisa Minot, one of Britain's most seasoned travel writers, who responded with surprise saying "Disney are opening a new park in Abu Dhabi?" The announcement had been kept firmly under wraps thanks to a smart strategy from public relations firm Weber Shandwick and Miral, the expert attraction operator which runs the parks on Yas Island. Instead of mentioning Disney, Weber and Miral invited media to the announcement on the understanding that it would be a showcase of the "vision for the next five years" of Yas Island. Cleverly, this was in line with the opening window for the new park which Disney parks chief Josh D'Amaro gave to Reuters and The Wrap later reported. Over the past 15 years, Miral has cemented itself as the world's leading theme park operator outside Disney and Universal Studios. Bringing Disney to Yas Island has been seen as the culmination of its plans but in fact it is far from it. In an interview with this author, Miral's visionary chief executive Mohamed Al Zaabi, revealed what is to come on Yas Island over the next 15 years. "We have planned for the coming 15 years, I would say, adding more attractions, more theme parks, more hotels, more rooms and we will keep monitoring the demand. We will keep monitoring the visitation and based on that, we add experiences. Not only that, we also improve experiences. 'An example is Ferrari. When we opened Ferrari, it was only 19 rides and attractions. Today we have 43 and we're still adding. We have plans to add, at least one attraction every one or two years on Yas Island in the coming 10 years, at least in our existing theme parks. Combine that with the new expansion, new theme parks and we are busy for the coming 15 years.' A Harry Potter land is due to open in the next few years along with several new rides at Warner Bros. World and a new coaster at Ferrari World which will set four new records. "If you want to create a global destination, you can't stop," says Al Zaabi. 'I always say to my team, we are not competing with regional destinations, we are competing with global destinations.' It reflects comments that Miral's supremely skilled chairman Mohamed Al Mubarak gave to CNN. "Are we going to be done after Disney? No. We are always going to find ways to bring in more people," he explained. In a recent interview with the Middle East edition of Forbes, Al Zaabi added that Miral studies 25 to 28 ideas every year. "Whenever you design any theme park, you always keep provision for expansion," he told me in 2023. Expansion isn't just limited to the parks. According to leading leisure industry construction tracking website Themeparx, Yas Island is developing an outlet of Topgolf, a cross between a driving range and an entertainment center. Topgolf combines dining, arcade games and a driving range with integrated games themed to movies. More housing is also on the way with the Yas Canal development adjacent to the island currently under construction. There is no shortage of space. Two years ago, Al Zaabi told me that "I would say 60% [of Yas Island is developed already]. Still 40 to go." As this report revealed, Disneyland Abu Dhabi will take up a good deal of that land and could even be the Mouse's biggest-ever park. Alternatively, multiple Disney parks could be built there which could be why Al Zaabi said "more theme parks" are coming to Yas Island. Perhaps alluding to Walt Disney World in Orlando, which is home to four theme parks and two water parks, Al Mubarak said in May that 'what we are creating with Disney in Abu Dhabi is a whole new world of imagination.' The most likely candidate for a second gate would be Disney World's science-themed Epcot park. Its avant-garde architecture would perfectly complement Abu Dhabi's futuristic skyline and, handily, it has an abundance of large indoor pavilions which would help guests beat the heat. It also bears a striking resemblance to Dubai's Expo 2020 site which attracted 24 million visitors in just six months. If those numbers were matched pro rata in Abu Dhabi, it could triple Yas Island's attendance which would certainly make the 15 years time well spent.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
U.S. to help Argentina reenter visa waiver program, DHS says
By Leila Miller BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) -The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is taking steps to bring Argentina back into its visa waiver program in the coming years, the agency said on Monday during Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's visit to Buenos Aires. Argentina was part of the program between 1996 and 2002. The scheme allows citizens of certain countries to travel to the U.S. for business or tourism for up to 90 days without a visa, if their home nations meet counter-terrorism, law enforcement and immigration requirements. Noem in a statement said that Argentina had the lowest visa overstay rate among Latin American countries, and that Argentine travel to the U.S. had been increasing. She noted that Argentina had become an "even stronger friend" to the United States under President Javier Milei. Libertarian Milei has sought to align himself with U.S. President Donald Trump, who has lauded Milei's deregulation efforts and called the Argentine leader his 'favorite president." The DHS announcement comes shortly after Argentina decided to loosen visa requirements for Chinese visitors, saying those with valid U.S. entry visas would not need Argentine visas to enter the country for tourism or business.
