Meanwhile, Travel Weekly‘s office dog is sharing the love with her favourite teddy bear. Perhaps a little too much love, if you get what we mean.

Sydney Harbour Bridge shows NSW the love

On Friday night the southern pylon of the Sydney Harbour Bridge was illuminated with #LoveNSW imagery as a timely reminder that the recovery of NSW’s tourism industry from the effects of drought and bushfires is in everyone’s hands.

The projection builds on the momentum of Destination NSW’s new campaign, “Now’s The Time To Love NSW”, a rally cry to stay ‘local’, buy ‘local’ and post photos and videos of our favourite places with the hashtag #LoveNSW”.

SA Tourism’s INDABA to go ahead

South African Tourism (SAT) has advised it currently has no plans to postpone or cancel Africa’s Travel INDABA 2020, scheduled to take place from 12 to 14 May 2020.

SAT is in daily contact with its partners and stakeholders in South Africa as well as the relevant authorities in the travel and health sectors.

For association meetings and conferences, SAT will continue to work with the health and safety authorities to ensure that we have up to date information provision for organizers to keep them at ease of South Africa’s readiness to host business events. The Grading Council of South Africa is working with its convention venues to continuously enhance their hygiene protocols and ensure that scanning facilities are used for the safe management of our visiting delegates.

We are also carefully considering and consulting widely with regards to the measures that we will put in place at the show to provide delegates with the requisite reassurance that the situation will be effectively managed. These measures will be communicated in due course.

World-famous collection ‘Dalí and the Surrealists’ is coming to Te Papa 

Dalí and the Surrealists: Masterpieces from Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen | Dalí me ngā Ringatoi Pohewa: He Toi Marupō Muhiama o Boijmans Van Beuningen, opens 5 December 2020 and runs until 26 April 2021 in Te Papa’s gallery, Toi Art.

The 180 fascinating pieces include major works by artists such as Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, Leonora Carrington, René Magritte and Marcel Duchamp.

Te Papa is the only venue in the Asia Pacific region to host the exhibition.

The renowned collection is coming from Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam and includes sculpture, furniture, paintings, graphic design, prints and photography.

Visitors will be able to see iconic Surrealist works such as Dalí’s Mae West Lips Sofa (1938), a playfully subversive couch shaped as a lush pair of red lips, and René Magritte’s La maison de verre (1939) (The glass house); an uncanny masterpiece in which a man’s face looks out from the back of his head.

Campsite design released for Grampians Peaks Trail

The design of new hiker campsites on the Grampians Peaks Trail (GPT) has been finalised as progress on construction of the 160km world-class walking experience continues.

There will be 12 campsites along the GPT when it is completed in December, each with a communal shelter for meal preparation, tent pads, gathering spaces, boardwalks and internal tracks positioned to minimise impact on the environment.

Eleven hiker campsites are being created as part of Stage Two of the GPT project, ten of which are to be available for general use and one that is intended for groups, including schools. Campsites are currently being built at Cassidy Gap, Mt Christabel, Stockyard Saddle and Stony Creek.

As with the rest of the GPT, the campsites have been designed to sit discreetly in the environment, and are being built following extensive cultural heritage and environmental assessments, in accordance with statutory obligations.

Once complete, the GPT through the stunning Grampians/Gariwerd landscape will be open for people to experience as days walks, overnight sections, or as one 13-day journey. The first stage opened to the public in 2015 and construction is well underway on a three day/two-night experience in the northern Grampians and a three day/two-night experience in the southern Grampians.

By 2025, up to 34,000 walkers are set to experience the wonders of the Grampians National Park, generating $6.39m of economic benefit and tourism development opportunities locally and to the region.

Ubud food festival 2020 postponed due to coronavirus

Due to the current worldwide concern of Coronavirus (COVID-19), Yayasan Mudra Swari Saraswati as the organizer of Ubud Food Festival 2020 Presented by ABC (UFF20) has decided to postpone the Festival until 26–28 June 2020.

Year of Scotland in Australia inspires travel to Scotland for local music experiences

The Year of Scotland in Australia (YOSA) is just getting started. In the next couple of months, Scottish artists from contemporary folk and trad scenes will take centre stage at leading festivals across the country in Canberra and Adelaide – but also at the heart of smaller communities across Australia with The Festival of Small Halls – an appropriate nod to the origins of Scottish traditional music.

While the National Folk Festival in Canberra (April 9th – 13th) will showcase some of Scotland’s most celebrated musicians – including Elephant Sessions and The Jellyman’s Daughter – the YOSA program of festivities for March and April 2020 is packed with unique opportunities to discover a broad variety of Scottish traditional music.

WOMADelaide starts this weekend (March 6th – 9th) and will feature multi-award winning Scottish act RURA, while the intimate and relaxed atmosphere of Blue Mountain Festival in Katoomba (March 13th -15th) is the perfect set up to enjoy the soulful music of quartet Fara and the high-energy, extravagant fusion act The Langan Band.

In the year-long, rich and varied program of YOSA, there is one festival that resonates a little bit more with the very essence of Scottish traditional music: The Festival of Small Halls (March 6th – April 14th – VIC, SA, NSW, ACT), Australia’s largest regionally dedicated music tour. Small Halls brings live contemporary folk music to communities that are sometimes too small or too remote to host artists from abroad.

ANZ numbers to Switzerland rise

Switzerland Tourism has reported the country enjoyed a 2.4 per cent increase in Australian and New Zealander stays in 2019.

Recording 349,705 Aussie and 48,241 Kiwi overnights throughout 2019, the annual report shows that cities and mountainous continue to win the hearts and interests of Australian and Kiwi nature-loving travellers.

NSW strengthens trans-Tasman ties through new partnership

New South Wales is set to bolster tourism from New Zealand, after the NSW Government through Destination NSW signed a fourth consecutive Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the nation’s flagship airline carrier, Air New Zealand.

The 2020-2021 MoU between Destination NSW and Air New Zealand will include joint consumer advertising campaigns, trade partner campaign promoting packages to Sydney and regional NSW, sharing of digital assets including promotion on websites, database marketing and trade and media familiarisations.

Restaurants in Vilnius celebrate Lithuania’s 30th Independence Anniversary

Sixteen restaurants in Vilnius, Lithuania, have joined the celebration by introducing independence-themed dishes created for the occasion. For four months, diners in Vilnius will be able to literally taste freedom and witness the progress Lithuanian cuisine made after its food traditions were neglected for fifty years.

Thirty years ago, on the 11th of March, 1990, Lithuania declared its independence from the Soviet Union. To join the nation-wide commemoration effort, restaurants in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, are adding unique, independence-inspired dishes to their menus.

Until 6 July, guests and locals alike will be able to taste Lithuanian independence as imagined by the best chefs in the city.