News

Brazil Launches Digital Football Route to Elevate Tourism Experience

Embratur, Brazil’s national tourism promotion agency, has launched the Football Route, a digital platform featuring four tourism itineraries inspired by the “history, spaces and experiences” tied to the country’s most popular sport. Created to “transform the global passion for the sport into a structured tourism experience,” the digital guide offers suggested itineraries and activities that allow visitors to discover Brazil through its football culture – exploring historic stadiums, museums, club headquarters, traditional fan bars and other spaces linked to the sport’s memory and lived experience, according to Embratur. The project is centered in Rio de Janeiro, a city that is home to some of the country’s most iconic stadiums and clubs, with a deep-rooted football tradition. Embratur envisions the initiative as a pilot project, with potential expansion to other destinations across Brazil.

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Spain’s Top Destinations Shine for Unforgettable Holy Week Experiences

Discover Spain’s top spots to experience Holy Week, from the passion of Seville and Málaga to the hush of Zamora and the unique rites of San Vicente de la Sonsierra, on a journey from north to south through the country’s most spectacular celebrations. Every spring, Spain is transformed as its streets fill with incense, silence, drums and emotion. Whether you are a believer or not, Spanish Holy Week is a cultural phenomenon: a blend of art, tradition, spirituality and spectacle that spans generations. From the austere solemnity of Castile to the passion of Andalusia, via the unique traditions of the Mediterranean and the north, the country offers a diversity that is hard to match.

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Swedish City Promotes ‘IQ Tourism’ for Mindful Travel Experiences

Visitors to Uppsala are invited to discover more about the area’s history from the Vikings to more modern day inventions like the Celsius scale. Selfie tourism has taken over some of the world’s top destinations, with travellers queuing for hours to secure “the shot” without actually engaging with whatever it is they are pointing their camera at One Swedish destination has come up with a novel way to combat the trend: An “IQ Tourism” programme. Rather than pointing visitors towards the most photographed sights, Uppsala, a university city that’s just a 40-minute train ride north of Stockholm, is using an IQ symbol to direct them to experiences that offer “depth, clever stories, and unexpected layers of history”. “We want curiosity to be the primary reason to travel here,” says Helena Bovin, head of marketing at Destination Uppsala. “It’s a shift towards travel centred on meaning and context rather than just another experience to tick off a list.”

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Netherlands’ Tulip Season Draws Travelers with Expert-Led Experiences

Nienke Panis-Ringersma has made a career out of following the region's famous blooms. Here are her favourite ways to experience the season, from road trips to bulb picking. Few images are as indelible as the sight of candy-coloured tulips bursting through the dark winter ground. But in the Netherlands – the world's largest exporter of the magical bloom – venerating tulips is a way of life. In the weeks leading from icy winter to spring, rows of flowers stud the country's landscape in technicolour streaks, most famously in the Bollenstreek "Bulb Region", stretching between the towns of Haarlem and Leiden, arching towards the North Sea. And with tulips come tourists; eager to experience the blooms for themselves.

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Finland Invites Travelers to Experience Happiness with Free Lakeland Trips

Visit Finland is inviting tourists to apply for a seven-day, all-expenses-paid trip this summer, where you’ll sauna bathe, go for dips in the lakes and head on forest walks in a bid to relax like a local. Last month, Visit Sweden announced it was “giving away” private islands (and a week-long stay) in a bid to introduce people to the country’s perspective on freedom and nature. Now the Finnish tourism board is getting in on the action, too, by offering up all-expenses-paid trips where you will learn how to “chill like a Finn”. Pointing to its credentials as the world’s happiest country, Visit Finland has said that a key part of being content in life is regularly resetting and recharging through time spent in nature. Come summer, Finns flock to Europe’s largest lakeland region where they can bathe in saunas at waterside cottages, take cold dips in the lakes themselves, and head on forest walks.

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Japanese Airline Offers Free Domestic Flights for European Travelers

Amid rising overtourism in popular cities such as Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan has introduced a new way of encouraging travel to lesser-visited areas. The Japan National Tourism Organisation (JNTO), along with All Nippon Airways (ANA), is offering free domestic flights across the airline’s entire Japanese regional network to UK and European travellers. The initiative, which will run from 24 November to 31 January 2026, has been introduced to encourage visitors to travel to Japan’s lesser-known regions and ease pressure on crowded destinations like Kyoto and Tokyo. It is part of a “Stopover & Add-on Free Fare” offer, which will allow eligible economy passengers from the UK and Europe to book up to two free domestic flights on an international booking by 31 January. However, the actual departures of these flights can take place anytime after 31 January. It means that whether you are heading to Tokyo or travelling on to Hiroshima, Aomori or the Izu Peninsula, you’ll pay the same airfare. ANA says it allows travellers to build a multi-stop itinerary for no extra cost.

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