The U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Tourism, in partnership with the Division of Festivals, is proud to announce the 2026 St. John Celebration, will be taking place from June 14 through July 4, 2026. This beloved annual festival will once again bring together residents and visitors for weeks of culture, music, cuisine, and community under the vibrant theme: History and Collaboration with a Musical Mix.

Rooted in tradition and cultural pride, St. John Celebration culminates in a vibrant fusion of festivities honoring both Emancipation Day and Independence Day in the territory. From lively village nights and cultural showcases to boat races, parades, and fireworks, the celebration reflects the rich heritage and enduring spirit of the Virgin Islands.

St. John Celebration is one of the Territory’s most cherished cultural traditions and an important opportunity to showcase the vibrant spirit of our people and natural beauty of our islands, said Jennifer Matarangas-King, Commissioner of Tourism. Each year, the celebration brings together generations of Virgin Islanders and visitors alike to honor our history, embrace our culture, and experience the warmth and hospitality that define the U.S. Virgin Islands.

2026 St. John Celebration honorees will also be recognized for their outstanding contributions to the culture, service, and spirit of the Virgin Islands. This year’s honorees include Jennifer Williams as Food Fair Honoree, Tishelle Knight as Village Honoree, and Lisa Penn as Parade Marshal.

Key Events Include:

June 14: Pan-O-Rama – An evening of electrifying steel pan performances at Franklin A. Powell Sr. Park.
June 20: Royalty Show – Celebrating the poise, talent, and cultural pride of St. John’s ambassadors.
June 21: Food Fair, Coronation & Boat Races – Featuring local cuisine, cultural displays, and the official coronation festivities at Franklin A. Powell Sr. Park. Exciting boat races will also take place in Cruz Bay Harbor showcasing the Territory’s maritime traditions.
June 27: Beach Jam – A lively waterfront event with music and entertainment at Cruz Bay Harbor.
June 28: Opening of Celebration Village 2026 – The official opening of Celebration Village featuring nightly entertainment, food vendors, and cultural activities in Cruz Bay.
June 28 – July 4: Village Nights – Evening events with live music, food vendors, and community activities.
July 3: J’ouvert, Emancipation Day Program, & Torch Light Parade– An early morning street celebration filled with music, dancing, and revelry beginning at sunrise in St. John National Park followed by a program honoring the abolition of slavery in the Virgin Islands. The torch light evening procession will begin at 7pm
July 4: St. John Celebration Parade & Fireworks Display 2026 – A colorful parade through Cruz Bay highlighting cultural groups, performers, and community organizations followed by a spectacular fireworks show over Cruz Bay Harbor closing out the celebration.
The festival’s signature events will spotlight local musicians, artisans, dancers, and chefs. Residents and visitors alike can enjoy performances by local musicians, dancers, and cultural groups, as well that highlight the creativity and traditions of St. John.

Our goal each year is to preserve and celebrate the cultural traditions that make St. John so unique while creating memorable experiences for everyone who attends, said Ian Turnbull, Director of Festivals and Events. From traditional performances to the local cuisine, St. John Celebration continues to showcase the true spirit of island culture.

St. John Celebration 2026 is open to the public and welcomes attendees from around the world to experience the culture, history, and festive energy of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

For more information and a full schedule of events, please visit

Sandbox VR, the world’s premier destination for premium location-based virtual reality experiences, today announced the opening of a new location at Town Square near the Las Vegas Strip. This marks the third location in the city, which can draw more than 40 million tourists per year (

Sandbox VR, which operates both corporate-owned locations and a robust franchise program, recently hit $300M in lifetime sales and has scaled to more than 80 global locations across five continents and 12 countries since launching in 2016. The company has been redefining group entertainment with immersive experiences that transform any outing into lasting memories. Built by a team of veteran developers from EA, Sony, and Ubisoft, Sandbox VR delivers full-body immersion through exclusive content and original experiences, including the recently launched Stranger Things: Catalyst, in collaboration with Netflix, offering guests the opportunity to step out of everyday reality into unforgettable adventures with friends and family.

Las Vegas is one of the world’s most visited destinations, making it a natural choice for expansion as we continue to meet growing consumer demand, said Steve Zhao, CEO and Founder of Sandbox VR. We’re energized by our global momentum and excited to bring even more immersive experiences to guests through additional locations.

Town Square is becoming a vibrant hub for social entertainment, and we are thrilled to open our doors alongside neighbors like Activate and Popstroke. We are thrilled to be part of the Future of Entertainment. We want to invite our guests to step into the world of next-generation virtual reality, where technology and storytelling merge to create mind-blowing, immersive experiences. Introducing something as exciting as Sandbox VR to the local community is a dream come true for my team and me, said Cory Zhong, Owner and Manager of Sandbox VR Town Square.

Sandbox VR’s new Las Vegas location in the entertainment wing of Town Square is an entertainment space featuring four private rooms for virtual reality gameplay, where groups of up to six guests suit up with headsets, htic vests, and motion sensors for full-body immersion. This technology allows players to see and physically interact with one another, creating the feeling of living inside the action together. The premium experience extends from arrival to exit, with personalized highlight videos allowing guests to relive and share their adventures.

Guests can choose from any of eleven exclusive immersive experiences created by Sandbox VR’s in-house team of video game industry veterans, including the newly launched, family-friendly Age of Dinosaurs experience, created in partnership with the Natural History Museum of London and leading dinosaur experts. Age of Dinosaurs features the most realistic 3D dinosaurs ever presented in virtual reality. Additional experiences include the horror-thriller based Stranger Things: Catalyst, Deadwood PHOBIA, Deadwood Valley, and Deadwood Mansion; sci-fi fantasies Rebel Moon: The Descent, Seekers of the Shard: Dragonfire, and Amber Sky 2088; family-friendly experiences Squid Game Virtuals and Curse of Davy Jones; and the action-combat UFL: Unbound Fighting League.

For more information, visit

Loews Hotels & Co today announces an expansion to its Loews Little Legends programming, with a new summer promotion designed to transform everyday hotel moments into hands-on experiences rooted in curiosity, creativity, and connection. Blending science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM) into the travel experience, the brand will unveil a variety of discovery-driven programming this summer.

Building on the brand’s legacy Loews Loves Families program, this new extension blends experiential programming with tangible touchpoints, introducing new discovery-led experiences for Loews’ littlest guests.

The new brand promotion comes to life through two complementary components: STEAM Explorer Kits and on-property Discovery Days, each designed to encourage exploration and connection at every touchpoint.

Loews Little Legends: STEAM Explorer Kits
Going beyond traditional kids’ amenities, these custom-created exploration kits encourage young travelers to actively engage with their surroundings while reinforcing Loews Hotels as a destination for discovery, connection, and imagination. Each explorer kit includes a curated set of science-forward tools, such as binoculars, a compass, a magnifying glass, and a kaleidoscope, paired with a thoughtfully designed companion activity book. Through simple prompts and interactive challenges, children are encouraged to observe, experiment, and uncover new perspectives throughout their stay.

Loews Little Legends: Discovery Days
Designed with flexibility in mind, the program will also be seamlessly integrated across the Loews portfolio with on-property Discovery Day activations.

Examples include:

Loews Arlington Hotel: In partnership with the Arlington Museum of Art, Loews Arlington Hotel invites hotel guests to explore their creative side with a new complimentary summer program for kids ages 6–12. Every other Saturday from Memorial Day through Labor Day, guests can enjoy an art class led by certified AISD art teachers. Kids will craft their own masterpiece to take home after each session.

Loews Miami Beach Hotel: At Loews Miami Beach Hotel, explorers can enjoy a set of activities created by the Frost Science Museum specifically for the property to experience at the SoBe Kids Club. The property will also host a guided photogrhy class with FocalPoint, where kids ages 4–12 can learn how to compose and cture the perfect shot with a Polaroid camera. Kids will leave with 10 photos, 1 magnetic pocket photo, a certificate of completion, and a $50 print credit toward a family portrait session.
Today’s families are looking for more than just a getaway — they’re looking to truly be together, said Kristie Goshow, Chief Commercial Officer at Loews Hotels & Co. With Loews Little Legends, we’re creating moments that spark childlike wonder and invite families to put down their screens, reconnect with each other, and engage with our incredible natural world. It’s about turning simple experiences into lasting, shared memories.

The launch of this new STEAM-focused programming underscores Loews Hotels’ continued commitment to delivering innovative, family-friendly experiences designed to inspire true connection, creativity, and exploration at every touchpoint.

Explorer Kits and Discovery Days will be available at participating Loews Hotels & Co properties, excluding Loews Hollywood Hotel, Loews New Orleans Hotel, and Loews Orlando properties, from June 1 through Labor Day.

For more information about Loews Hotels & Co or to book your upcoming travel, call 1-800-23 LOEWS or visit Loews Hotels online.

Artificial intelligence is changing how people search and book travel, and hotels are entering a new era of digital competition.

Instead of scrolling through long lists of hotel results, travelers are increasingly using natural language to ask AI tools for specific recommendations. A user might search for a quiet hotel with a west-facing balcony, a romantic hotel in the south, or a pet-friendly hotel with a spa. These detailed requests are changing the way hotels think about their online visibility.

Hotels spent years focusing on traditional SEO, OTAs, paid listings and review sites. Now they have a new challenge: getting AI models to understand, rank and recommend their properties.

AI Travel Search Is Changing Hotel Discovery

AI-powered travel search is different from traditional search. A Google search may show dozens of hotel links, ads, ms, and booking options. An AI assistant, however, may return only a few recommendations.

That shift makes visibility more competitive. Hotels are no longer just trying to pear somewhere on a search results page. They are trying to become one of the few properties an AI system chooses to mention.

This creates a major challenge for hotel brands. AI tools do not only look for keywords. They interpret meaning, context, traveler intent, reviews, descriptions, amenities, location data, and other signals across the web.

A hotel that performs well in traditional search may not automatically perform well in AI-generated recommendations.

Hotels Must Prepare for Natural Language Queries

The biggest shift is the move from keyword search to conversational search. Travelers no longer search solely by typing in terms such as best hotel Paris or che hotel Tokyo. They can now ask for very specific experiences. For example:

Find me a calm boutique hotel near the beach with a balcony and good breakfast.

That kind of search means hotels need to describe their property with much richer detail. Basic information such as room size, location, price and star rating may no longer be enough.

Hotels may need to provide clear information about the atmosphere, guest experience, room features, accessibility, views, noise levels, pet policies, wellness services, nearby attractions and even little details like where power outlets are located or work-friendly spaces.

AI Visibility May Depend on Trust and Data Quality

AI systems depend on the quality and consistency of information available online. Hotels with incomplete, outdated or inconsistent digital profiles may find it harder to pear in AI-generated travel recommendations.

Hotels might have to improve their presence on many trusted sources like official websites, booking platforms, customer reviews, travel guides, ms, and structured business listings to increase visibility.

Reviews may also gain additional importance. AI models can read guest feedback to get a sense of what a hotel is really known for. If guests mention a quiet location, friendly staff, fast Wi-Fi or a strong breakfast offering those could inform AI systems to align the hotel with relevant traveler requests.

Hospitality Brands Are Already Responding

Major hospitality groups are beginning to study how AI models interpret hotel data and make recommendations.

For large hotel companies, this is not just a marketing issue. It is a data infrastructure issue. Many hotel databases were built around standard categories such as price, location, room type, and amenities. AI search requires more semantic understanding. Meaning systems need to understand the meaning behind vague or experience-based requests.

A request for a romantic hotel, for instance, could encompass a range of signals: room design, location, dining options, privacy, guest reviews, spa services, and general atmosphere. Hotels that can organize and display this information clearly may gain an edge in AI-powered search.

AI Could Disrupt Online Travel Agency Business Model

AI travel search may also change the online travel agency and hotel distribution costs.

Hotels currently pay commissions to online travel agencies for bookings. With the advent of AI assistants as part of the travel planning process, a new form of competition may emerge around AI visibility, recommendation placement, and algorithmic prominence.

This could create a new kind of paid discovery, where hotels and travel platforms are competing not only for search rankings, but also for relevance within AI-generated answers. For travelers, the change could accelerate, and customize, trip-planning. For hotels, it could complicate and add cost to digital visibility.

What This Means for Travelers

For the consumer, AI travel search offers a more convenient way to find hotels that match specific preferences. Instead of filtering through hundreds of options, travelers can describe what they want in plain language and receive a shorter list of tailored suggestions.

But shorter recommendation lists also raise questions. If AI tools only show a handful of hotels to travelers, they may not see the full range of available options. As a result, transparency, ranking quality and source credibility become more and more important.

Conversational Hotel Search Is The Future

The emergence of AI travel search is part of a larger trend in the way people search for products and services online.

Hotels are one of the first industries to feel this impact, because people have so many detailed preferences when they plan their travel. But the same trend could affect restaurants, local businesses, real estate, shopping, and other industries where users depend on recommendations.

The message for hotels is clear: traditional SEO is not enough anymore. The next wave of digital visibility will depend on whether or not AI systems are able to understand a property, believe in its data and confidently recommend it.

As AI becomes more integral to travel planning, hotels that adt early may have the best chance of being found — and booked.

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The new Travelport Cognizant AI partnership is a significant step for both companies. Travelport is taking a significant step into AI-enabled travel technology through a new collaboration with Cognizant. The companies will incorporate Anthropic’s Claude AI into Travelport’s retail and distribution platforms.

The partnership is designed to help fast-track the rollout of artificial intelligence tools across Travelport’s ecosystem. This includes services used by airlines, hotels, travel management companies, online travel agencies and retail travel agencies.

It represents another big step for the travel industry to automate bookings, servicing and workflows with AI.

Travelport Ts AI to Refresh Travel Retail

Travelport, the global travel technology company, is teaming with Cognizant to deploy Claude AI across its platforms. The goal is to speed up travel retailing, make it smarter and less dependent on manual workflows.

The collaboration will focus on embedding AI cabilities into Travelport’s existing technology stack. As a result, these tools are expected to help travel sellers offer more relevant options. They will simplify servicing processes and automate repetitive tasks that often slow down agents and travel management companies.

This is all the more important as the complexity of travel distribution increases. Agencies today often need to manage multiple content sources, airline offers, hotel inventory, fare rules, exchanges, refunds, and disruption scenarios. AI could help simplify that process by identifying the most useful information faster.

How Claude AI Will Be Used in Travelport’s Platform

Under the partnership, Anthropic will provide the AI models and tools, while Cognizant will contribute engineering and implementation support. Together, the companies will work to bring AI cabilities into Travelport’s retail and distribution systems.

One of the most important areas of focus is Travelport Trip Services. This is the company’s platform for bookings, exchanges, refunds, and servicing.

Travelport is adding AI to those workflows to help travel agents and travel management companies work more efficiently. For example, automation will help by automating exchanges, assisting with rebooking, or helping agents find better options for travelers when plans change.

AI Could Cut Manual Tasks for Travel Agencies

Travel agencies and travel management companies are expected to be among the first beneficiaries of the partnership.

Travelport said the AI tools could help remove manual work by surfacing relevant travel options quickly. Rather than spending time searching across systems and manually comparing alternatives, agents may be able to rely on AI-assisted workflows to identify the best choices faster.

This could be particularly useful during disruptions where timing and accuracy are critical. For example, an AI-powered tool could assist agents in finding routes with a lower risk of disruption for business travelers. This would give them more informed recommendations.

Disruption Intelligence Becomes a Key AI Feature

One of the most notable planned features is what Travelport describes as disruption intelligence embedded into workflows.

In practical terms, this means AI could help travel sellers evaluate potential travel issues before they affect the customer. For business travel, this could be a major advantage. A corporate agent might use AI to compare routes not only by price and schedule, but also by the likelihood of delays, cancellations, or operational disruption.

As travel demand grows and travelers expect faster service, AI-powered disruption intelligence could be a competitive advantage. This is true for agencies and travel platforms.

Why the Travelport Cognizant AI Partnership Matters

The Travelport Cognizant AI partnership is part of a larger trend in the travel industry. Big technology companies are no longer treating AI as an experimental feature. Instead, they are building it into the core travel infrastructure.

The deal could help Travelport to modernize the way agencies, suppliers and travel platforms interact with travel content. For Cognizant, it further cements its standing as a technology services partner helping companies to ply AI at enterprise scale.

The partnership also highlights the growing role of large language models in travel operations. While consumer-facing AI travel planning tools have attracted attention, the bigger transformation may hpen behind the scenes. There, AI can improve bookings, servicing, exchanges, and disruption management.

Customer-Facing AI Features Expected This Year

Travelport said customer-facing cabilities from the partnership are expected to become available this year.

That timeline suggests the companies are moving quickly to bring AI features from development into real-world use. If these tools prove successful, agencies may be able to increase productivity, reduce service costs and provide faster travel-related responses.

The travel industry has long struggled with fragmented systems, complex content and time-consuming servicing tasks. AI could help solve some of those pain points by making disconnected data and workflows smarter and more automated.

AI is becoming increasingly central to the future of travel technology

Travelport CEO John Mangelaars said AI is already transforming the travel technology industry. He stressed that companies that move the fastest and most intelligently will help she the next era of travel technology.

That view reflects a sense of urgency among travel platforms to get on board with AI before competitors gain the upper hand. As AI tools become more cable, travel companies are seeking ways to ply them not only to search and recommendations, but also to operational efficiency and better customer service.

The Travelport Cognizant AI partnership is another example of how travel infrastructure is increasingly being constructed around artificial intelligence.

What This Means for Travel Agents and Travelers

For travel agents, perhs the biggest change will be less manual work and faster access to relevant information. AI-powered tools could help agents make better decisions, rebook trips faster, and handle complicated travel disruptions more efficiently.

Benefits for travelers include faster service, better routing suggestions and easier handling when plans change.

AI will not replace the need for human expertise in travel. However, it could be a valuable assistant to agents who have a lot of bookings, changes and customer requests to deal with.

The Bottom Line

Travelport’s partnership with Cognizant to deploy Claude AI is a major step forward for AI-enabled travel retailing. By incorporating artificial intelligence into booking, servicing, disruption intelligence and travel distribution workflows, Travelport is setting itself up for a future in which AI will play a larger role in how travel is sold and managed.

The use of AI across the travel industry is accelerating, and partnerships like this could help define the next generation of travel technology platforms.

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