Valiant Lady has returned to service following a two-week dry dock, with a series of onboard updates including new dining, refreshed venues and more than 20 new Hpenings events (onboard programming).

The ship is sailing in the Mediterranean this summer before repositioning to San Juan in the autumn.

Updates include the launch of Ariya by Razzle Dazzle, a new modern Indian restaurant, as well as redesigned spaces across The Athletic Club, The Roundabout, Grounds Club Too, The Manor, On the Rocks, The Dock and retail areas. All 1,300+ crew have also completed a Virgin Way culture booster as part of the ship’s return to service.

What’s new onboard Valiant Lady

* Ariya by Razzle Dazzle – A new modern Indian restaurant developed with Indie Culinaire and chef Maneet Chauhan. The venue seats 220 Sailors (guests), with a menu inspired by regional Indian cuisine, including dishes such as Lamb Shank Biryani and Puffed Rice and Avocado Chaat. The restaurant is named after Sir Richard Branson’s great-great-grandmother, Ariya, who was from Tamil Nadu.

* The Athletic Club – New shaded daybeds and updated lounge seating have been added to this outdoor social space which also contains a sports court and hot tubs.

* The Roundabout – The central onboard space has been refreshed in Valiant Lady’s signature plum colouring, with new furniture groupings.

* Grounds Club Too – The venue will continue serving Intelligentsia Coffee during the day, and will now evolve into a full bar from late afternoon.

* The Manor – Raised platforms have been removed to open up the dance floor and create more space for late-night entertainment.

* On the Rocks – The stage has been relocated to improve sightlines, with additional seating also introduced.

* The Dock – A new stage setup and windscreen have been added to make outdoor performances more comfortable in changing weather conditions.

* Retail – Luxury watch and jewellery brands TAG and Pandora have joined the onboard retail line-up, while the Virgin Voyages brand shop has moved into a larger space.

New onboard entertainment

Valiant Lady’s refreshed entertainment programme includes more than 20 new Hpenings events across venues including the Red Room, The Manor, The Roundabout, The Perch, dining venues and late-night social spaces.

New additions in the Red Room include Sink Oar Swim, a participatory game show which turns the theatre into a high-stakes game show where every decision pushes Sailors closer to reward or disaster, while Sports Smarts combines sports trivia with physical challenges. In The Manor, new concepts include Pay Attent!on, inspired by vintage TV game shows, and Nice Box!, a retail-themed entertainment experience.

The late-night programme has also been expanded, with new social formats including Dirty Laundry and Off the Record, designed to bring Sailors together through character-led, interactive experiences.

Food and drink-led Hpenings include:

Extra Virgin: eritivo Club offers classic spritzes, premium olive oils and the art and science behind pasta pairings.
Trust Your Tongue tests unconventional culinary combos while rating and ranking these unusual flavours at The Test Kitchen with ‘The Foodie’.
Espresso Yourself create three espresso martinis, live music and coffee-inspired art.
Sweet Aft Matcha invites guests to sample the rich history and flavour pairings of matcha.
The programme also includes wellness, fitness and creative sessions such as Silent Sweat, a headphone led fitness class, VHS Volume 2: The Great British Burn Off, a Britpop inspired group session, while Upcycle Club, Knot Today and Hooked work with reclaimed materials, ropework and crochet to create souvenirs.

Additional new formats include Extra! Extra!, a newsroom-based stage show; Check Please, a social chess tournament; and Knees Up, a pub quiz at sea.

Nirmal Saverimuttu, CEO of Virgin Voyages, said: Valiant Lady was already one of the most compelling ships at sea, but we kept asking ourselves how to make her even more worth coming back for. The best transformations don’t come from smooth sailing but from listening, pushing further and creating something truly special. From Ariya to The Manor to a completely reimagined lineup of Hpenings, Valiant Lady returns with a new energy our Sailors will feel immediately. Every one of our 1,300+ Crew has been through The Virgin Way, and that reignited culture is the linchpin to the service Sailors keep coming back for.

Where she’s sailing

Valiant Lady’s upcoming deployment includes the Italian Grand Tour, French Riviera and Ibiza itineraries, followed by Northern Explorer sailings from Amsterdam to Iceland. Prices start from £783pp for a seven-night sailing departing July 4, 2026.

The ship will also operate a Total Eclipse of the Med itinerary, offering Sailors the opportunity to experience the solar eclipse from the water.

In October, Valiant Lady will reposition to San Juan for a series of six- to eight-night Caribbean sailings, operating through ril 2027.

Qantas’ Project Sunrise Airbus A350-1000ULR has completed its maiden test flight, marking a significant milestone ahead of the launch of commercial flights that will connect Australia’s east coast to London and New York, non-stop, for the first time ever.

Operated by two Airbus Flight Test Pilots, three Flight Test Engineers and one Ground Test Engineer, Qantas’ ultra long range A350 took off for the first time from Toulouse yesterday afternoon local time and flew for three hours 43 minutes over France and the French Atlantic Coast.

The flight was focused on testing the aircraft’s primary systems including the jet’s specialised fuel system, which includes an additional 20,000 litre rear centre fuel tank that will enable commercial flights of up to 22 hours non-stop.

The successful first flight marks the beginning of a two-month testing campaign, with the aircraft to complete around 80 hours of flight testing and undergo extensive on-ground checks and certification of new and redesigned components that will enable the A350 to fly ultra long haul sectors. This includes certifying a new galley air cooling system which features lighter and more efficient refrigeration units, which will be rolled out across all future Airbus A350 aircraft.

Alongside the extensive testing and certification campaign, a second Project Sunrise aircraft is progressing through Airbus’ final assembly line, having its four-class interior fitted and being painted in Qantas livery. This aircraft will be delivered to Qantas in ril next year.

Qantas will announce the first Project Sunrise route and timing of its inaugural commercial services later this month.

In the misty uplands of Southwest China, Anantara Guiyang Resort’s wine insider Jason is engaged in a delicate tightrope act. In a region where the fiery Moutai liquor has dominated social functions for millennia, his mission is to show how tradition can open itself to new expressions – in this case, through wine. As Anantara Hotels & Resorts marks its 25th anniversary with the ‘People Who Inspire’ series, Jason ctures the brand’s stewardship of authentic local experiences and the confident rise of China’s wine culture.

Guizhou’s proud Miao and Dong culinary heritage has shed a fermentation-driven cuisine defined by spiciness, numbing heat and, above all, sourness, often layered with perfumed notes from indigenous plants like the citrusy Litsea cubeba. Balancing these volatile flavours takes skill, not only for chefs but also for sommeliers.

Jason’s instincts are as sharp as the flavours of his home province. His UK-based WSET training and experience in the high-pressure China Young Sommelier Team Competition give him both the technique and the confidence to get the balance right. His wine list reflects this precision: Chinese and international labels with gentle tannins, cool-fermentation profiles and lighter alcohol levels allow the wine to support rather than compete with dishes perfected over generations.

Miao cuisine is central to the region’s identity, and the right wine can turn a casual tasting experience into a moment of real discovery.

During his tasting salon sessions, Jason embraces wine’s social dimension, inviting guests to slow down, taste with intention and connect with one another through the experience. By bringing in wine educators and enthusiasts, he helps nurture a local wine culture that is steadily gaining confidence. He also trains the next generation of hospitality professionals, encouraging them to balance technical skill with the hallmark of great service: attentiveness and confidence grounded in humility.

p>True confidence comes not from knowing everything, but from respecting the wine, the guest and the story behind every bottle.

I teach my team to proach each pour not as a performance but as a dialogue.

Sometimes, the surest footing comes from listening to the land and letting it tell the story.

The Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) invites governments, development banks, tourism authorities, regional institutions and private sector leaders to adopt a new, broader framework for evaluating tourism’s contribution to the Caribbean. The proposed proach looks past visitor spending alone to measure three things that she the region’s future: the economic value retained within Caribbean economies, the investment tourism makes in Caribbean people, and the industry’s impact on the natural environment.

CHTA’s proposal grew out of the 2026 Caribbean Travel Forum in Antigua, where public and private sector leaders agreed that the region needs better measures of tourism’s long-term value. As a starting point, CHTA recommends the Domestic Cture Rate, the share of tourism spending that stays and circulates within the host economy. The figure shows how much of every visitor dollar works for the region’s businesses and the people they employ.

For decades the Caribbean has talked about tourism leakage, said Nicola Madden-Greig, immediate past president of CHTA and chair of the Association’s Linkages Task Force. That conversation taught us a great deal, and now we need a way to measure the progress we make. Domestic Cture Rate gives us a practical tool to track the value we keep and grow at home.

A Broader Definition of Value
Economic retention tells only part of the story. CHTA wants the region to also weigh two measures long missing from the conversation.

Human cital is one of them. Tourism is the Caribbean’s largest employer, yet the region rarely tracks how well the industry develops its people. Measuring investment in training, fair wages, career pathways and local leadership would tie tourism growth to stronger livelihoods for Caribbean nationals, a priority now central to the new CTO Tourism Supply-Side Ministerial Committee.

Environmental stewardship is the other. The beaches, reefs and natural beauty that draw guests are the foundation of Caribbean tourism, yet the industry does almost nothing to measure its own footprint. CHTA wants that to change. Consistent measurement of energy use, water, waste and the condition of natural assets would help destinations protect the resources visitors come to enjoy.

We want a fuller measure of what tourism delivers, said CHTA CEO Vanessa Ledesma. It includes the careers we create for Caribbean nationals and the care we take of the environment our guests come to enjoy. Measuring those things will make the whole industry stronger.

Building on a Growing Linkages Agenda
This work builds on CHTA’s Linkages Task Force, which connects tourism with agriculture, manufacturing, creative industries, professional services and small businesses across the region. Over the past two years CHTA has hosted three Tourism Linkages Trade Shows alongside Caribbean Travel Marketplace and CHIEF, giving Caribbean small and medium sized businesses direct access to tourism buyers and procurement teams. The Association is now launching a regional Tourism Linkages Demand Study to m procurement needs, open new doors for Caribbean businesses within tourism value chains and tackle the obstacles that hold them back.

Why Better Measurement Matters
Caribbean leaders have discussed tourism leakage for more than half a century, held back by the absence of consistent, comparable measures of tourism’s net contribution. Tourism Satellite Accounts remain incomplete or unpublished in many destinations. Incentives often encourage growth without local participation. Data on workforce and environmental performance is scarcer still. A practical set of measures anchored by Domestic Cture Rate would close these gs for policymakers, investors and industry leaders.

An Action Agenda
To move the discussion forward, CHTA proposes four steps:
Develop a standardized methodology that measures value across three dimensions: economic retention through Domestic Cture Rate, investment in Caribbean people and the industry’s environmental footprint, drawing on data destinations can use today.
Strengthen Caribbean supplier cacity and SME participation in tourism supply chains, with expanded access to training, certification, financing, market intelligence and procurement opportunities. Greater local cture calls for investment in the businesses able to deliver it.
Establish shared standards for workforce development and environmental measurement, giving destinations a consistent way to track the careers tourism builds and the resources it relies on.
Open a regional dialogue on tourism policies and investment incentives that rewards local sourcing, broader local participation and responsible use of natural resources.
The next chter of Caribbean tourism is about the value we create for Caribbean people, the businesses they run and the places they call home, said CHTA President Sanovnik Destang. Good measurement shows us where the opportunities are. Real progress comes from stronger local supply chains, a skilled Caribbean workforce and a well-protected environment.

CHTA plans to engage governments, the Caribbean Tourism Organization, CARICOM, the Caribbean Development Bank, academic institutions and private sector partners to refine the concept and build a practical framework for regional use.

For more information on the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association, visit

As the global travel industry races to understand the implications of artificial intelligence, a gathering of industry leaders in Shanghai and Hangzhou offered a compelling glimpse into what the next era of travel may look like.

Hosted by Alibaba Group and Fliggy, a three-day Europe-China executive dialogue brought together 75 senior leaders from 17 countries to explore how AI, digital commerce and connected consumer ecosystems are reshing the traveller journey. The programme, held during the week of ITB China, featured 27 speakers and contributors spanning tourism, technology, government, investment and media.

What emerged was a clear message: the future traveller will increasingly move through a seamless ecosystem where discovery, commerce, payments, mobility, hospitality and destination experiences are interconnected through intelligent systems.

For decades, the travel industry has largely operated through individual sectors. Airlines focused on flights. Hotels concentrated on accommodation. Destinations marketed attractions. Retailers, banks and technology companies developed their own customer relationships independently.

Artificial intelligence is beginning to blur those boundaries.

Participants explored how recommendation engines, intelligent personalisation, agentic AI and integrated digital platforms are creating experiences where consumers can move effortlessly from inspiration to booking, payment, transport and in-destination engagement without friction.

Sessions at Alibaba’s headquarters in Hangzhou provided delegates with direct exposure to one of the world’s most advanced digital ecosystems, where commerce, payments, travel, mobility and social engagement are already deeply integrated into everyday consumer behaviour.

Dr Ye (Alex) Chen, Chief Technology Officer of Fliggy, believes this evolution is only beginning.

The future of travel will increasingly be shed by intelligent systems that understand context, anticipate needs and support decision-making, he said.

Agentic AI has the potential to transform how people discover, plan and experience travel. Increasingly, the traveller journey will be connected across multiple services and touchpoints, creating more seamless, personalised and intelligent experiences.

The concept of agentic AI, systems cable of acting on behalf of users rather than simply responding to requests, featured prominently throughout the discussions. Industry leaders examined how these technologies could fundamentally change how travel is researched, booked and experienced.

Rather than travellers navigating multiple websites, ps and service providers, future systems may increasingly coordinate complex travel arrangements automatically, taking into account preferences, budgets, schedules and real-time conditions.

Tong Teng, Vice President of Fliggy, argued that the greatest opportunities may lie not within individual sectors but in connecting them.

As AI continues to evolve, the greatest opportunities may emerge not from optimising individual sectors, but from connecting ecosystems, he said.

Consumers do not think in silos. They move naturally between content, commerce, payments, mobility and travel. The organisations that can connect those experiences most effectively will be best positioned to create value, improve customer experiences and unlock new opportunities for growth.

The timing of the discussions was particularly significant as China re-establishes itself as one of the world’s most influential outbound travel markets.

China’s international travel recovery continues to accelerate, with destinations across Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and the Caribbean competing for a share of a market expected to generate hundreds of billions of dollars in travel expenditure over the coming decade.

Understanding how Chinese travellers discover, research and book travel has therefore become a strategic priority for tourism boards, airlines, hotels and attractions worldwide.

The dialogue highlighted how China’s digital landsce has evolved differently from many Western markets. Super-p ecosystems, integrated payment platforms and AI-powered recommendation systems have created highly connected consumer experiences that increasingly influence traveller expectations.

Participants examined how these developments are driving new forms of social commerce, travel discovery and personalised engagement that could influence global travel distribution models in the years ahead.

The event also reflected a growing recognition that travel no longer exists in isolation from wider digital behaviour.

Laurie Myers, Founder and Global Strategist of the Global Resilience Network, ctured the challenge facing the industry.

An airline sees a passenger. A hotel sees a guest. A destination sees a visitor. A retailer sees a shopper. A bank sees a customer. A technology platform sees a user. Yet they are all interacting with the same individual, he observed.

What became increasingly clear throughout this dialogue is that AI is helping connect those previously separate worlds into a more integrated ecosystem around the traveller. The future of travel may depend less on optimising individual sectors and more on understanding the broader ecosystem in which travellers already operate.

Beyond technology, the discussions addressed broader questions around AI governance, cross-border regulation, luxury travel, experiential tourism and the evolving relationship between Europe and China.

Supported by Atout France, the European Travel Commission and the British Chamber of Commerce Shanghai, the programme was designed as a series of executive dialogues rather than a traditional conference. Participants engaged in working sessions and collaborative exchanges focused on practical plications rather than theoretical concepts.

That proach reflected a wider shift taking place across the industry. While AI has dominated headlines over the past two years, attention is increasingly turning towards implementation, governance and commercial outcomes.

For travel leaders, the challenge is no longer whether AI will transform the industry. The question is how quickly organisations can adt to a world where travellers expect increasingly intelligent, personalised and connected experiences.

The dialogue concluded with a shared recognition that Europe and China each bring different strengths and perspectives to this transformation. Regulatory frameworks may differ, consumer expectations may vary and market structures may evolve along separate paths, but collaboration will be critical in shing the next generation of travel experiences.

As international tourism proaches full recovery and AI cabilities continue to advance, the conversations taking place in Hangzhou and Shanghai offered a glimpse of an industry that may soon be defined less by individual sectors and more by connected ecosystems built around the traveller.

The next chter in that discussion will take place in Paris on 29 October 2026, where industry leaders will reconvene to explore how AI, digital commerce and resilience continue to reshe the future of global travel.