Priceline Names California as Americans’ Top Booked Summer Destination

After Visit California's recent funding boost to levels of $100 million annually and launching its largest marketing plan to date in May, we can't say for sure if this is what's helping drive Americans to book California more so than other states for summer travel, but it certainly isn't hurting.

— Dan Peltier

If connecting with Americans this summer is a travel brand's ambition, it appears one of their best bets lies on the Golden State's sunny beaches, wineries and backlot movie tours.

California is the most-booked state by Americans this summer based on airfare booking data from Priceline.com which show the state is the most booked U.S. destination for travelers from 26 states. Florida is the second most popular state for bookings with 16 states choosing Florida as the most popular summer getaway. Priceline.com considered tens of thousands of bookings made in April and May 2015 for travel between June 22 and September 21, 2015 to determine the most-booked destinations.

Most of the states of residents choosing California as the top destination are Mid West and Western states, while East Coast states chose Florida as number one. California, however, booked Europe as the most popular vacation (Priceline.com didn't specify which European destinations) and so did Massachusetts, Vermont, and Washington, D.C. Europe also shows up on several other state's top five most-booked lists.

About 82% of travel to and within California is done by car and 85% of that number is travel by Californians according to the U.S. Commerce Department. These numbers from Priceline.com, though, show that Americans are apparently keen on flying to the state in addition to taking the iconic Hollywood road trip.

New York State has the third highest number of states choosing it as the top-booked destination with Connecticut, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina and South Carolina looking for Empire State adventures more so than travelers from other states.

Source: Priceline Names California as Americans' Top Booked Summer Destination

Turkey named as top Israeli destination in July, kind of

Turkey was the top flight destination from Israel during the month of July, showing a jump of nearly a third in the number of passengers arriving in its airports compared to the year before, according to figures released Monday by the Israel Airports Authority.

Greece was the second most visited place followed by destinations in the US, the Ynetnews website reported.

In total, some 172,507 Israelis and tourists flew to Turkey during July, although many then took connecting flights on to other destinations in Europe, Far East, and America.

The number was 30% higher than the figures for July 2014, when Israel was embroiled in a 50-day war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Last month 169,248 people flew to Greece, a 29.7% increase on the same period from the year before, and 136,373 traveled to the US, an increase of less than 10%.

German destinations were in fourth place with 135,000 passengers, a 23% increase over 2014, followed by Italy with 123,176 flyers and a 20% increase over July 2014.

However, the single most used airport by Israelis was Charles De Gaulle in Paris with 81,737 arrivals from Israel, followed by Atatürk Airport in Istanbul, with 66,946 passengers — a 45.5% increase over July 2014. Antalya Airport received 61,713 passengers, a 4 percent increase over last year figures for July.

In the US, the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York received 61,534 passengers — a four-percent decrease over the same period last year as traffic moved instead to Newark Liberty International Airport, which received an increase in traffic from Israel of some 15.5%.

In total, 1,768,3000 passengers passed though Ben-Gurion International Airport in July, exceeding all IAA expectations and showing a 20% increase over the previous year, the report said.

National carrier El Al was the primary service provider, flying 540,000 passengers for a 30% share of the market, followed by Israeli carrier Arkia, which took 85,762 people, and then Turkish Airlines that hauled 74,579 passengers, a 47% jump over last year.

Since the beginning of the year, 8,514,861 passengers passed through Ben-Gurion — up four percent over the same period in 2014.

Source: Turkey named as top Israeli destination in July, kind of

Apple expands Maps Flyover coverage to 20 cities in Europe, South America and Japan

Apple on Tuesday updated its Maps Flyover availability webpage to reflect the addition of 21 cities including multiple destinations in France and a handful of sites in Mexico, among others.

The additions come as part of an ongoing project to build out Apple's mapping service, which boasts 3D Flyover views as a standout feature in comparison to competing offerings like Google Maps.

Aarhus, Denmark

Bobbio, Italy

Budapest, Hungary

Cádiz, Spain

Chenonceaux, France

Dijon, France

Ensenada, Mexico

Gothenburg, Sweden

Graz, Austria

Loreto, Mexico

Malmö, Sweden

Mayagüez, Purto Rico

Millau, France

Nice, France

Omaha Beach

Rapid City, SD

Rotterdam, Netherlands

Sapporo, Japan

Strasbourg, France

Turin, Italy

For its Flyover technology, Apple merges high-resolution aerial imagery with three-dimensional digital modeling to provide users with 3D visualizations of structures, landmarks and other points of interest. The view is also incorporated into Flyover city tours, which are available for highly trafficked locales and tourist destinations.

Aside from Flyover, Apple is slowly introducing new features to its in-house mapping solution, one of the more recent highlights being transit directions in iOS 9. In February, Apple revealed a ground-based initiative that uses vans to collect what appears to be image and positioning data, hinting at a potential Google Street View competitor.

Apple last updated Flyover in June with the addition of seven cities in Spain, Germany, UK and Puerto Rico.

Source: Apple expands Maps Flyover coverage to 20 cities in Europe, South America and Japan

10 truths about Europe’s migrant crisis

When you're facing the world's biggest refugee crisis since the second world war, it helps to have a sober debate about how to respond. But to do that, you need facts and data – two things that the British migration debate has lacked this summer. Theresa May got the ball rolling in May, when she claimed on Radio 4 that the vast majority of migrants to Europe are Africans travelling for economic reasons. The media has followed suit, one example being the Daily Mail's unsubstantiated recent assertion that seven in 10 migrants at Calais will reach the UK.

Foreign secretary Philip Hammond this week not only repeated May's claims about African economic migrants, but portrayed them as marauders who would soon hasten the collapse of European civilisation. Hammond, like many people, could do with some actual statistics about the migration crisis. Here are 10 of the key ones:

62%

Far from being propelled by economic migrants, this crisis is mostly about refugees. The assumption by the likes of Hammond, May and others is that the majority of those trying to reach Europe are fleeing poverty, which is not considered by the international community as a good enough reason to move to another country. Whereas in fact, by the end of July, 62% of those who had reached Europe by boat this year were from Syria, Eritrea and Afghanistan, according to figures compiled by the UN. These are countries torn apart by war, dictatorial oppression, and religious extremism – and, in Syria's case, all three. Their citizens almost always have the legal right to refuge in Europe. And if you add to the mix those coming from Darfur, Iraq, Somalia, and some parts of Nigeria – then the total proportion of migrants likely to qualify for asylum rises to well over 70%.

Related: Europe's migration crisis: how well do you know the facts?

1%

If you read the British press, you'd think that Calais was the major battleground of the European migrant crisis, and that Britain was the holy grail of its protagonists. In reality, the migrants at Calais account for as little as 1% of those who have arrived in Europe so far this year. Estimates suggest that between 2,000-5,000 migrants have reached Calais, which is between 1% and 2.5% of the more than 200,000 who have landed in Italy and Greece. Just as importantly, there is no evidence to suggest that as many as seven in 10 have reached Britain after arriving in Calais. The Daily Mail admitted this several paragraphs into its article.

0.027%

Hammond said that the migrants would speed the collapse of the European social order. In reality, the number of migrants to have arrived so far this year (200,000) is so minuscule that it constitutes just 0.027% of Europe's total population of 740 million. The world's wealthiest continent can easily handle such a comparatively small influx.

A young Syrian refugee in the Greek island of Kos. Photograph: YANNIS BEHRAKIS/REUTERS 1.2 million

There are countries with social infrastructure at breaking point because of the refugee crisis – but they aren't in Europe. The most obvious example is Lebanon, which houses 1.2 million Syrian refugees within a total population of roughly 4.5 million. To put that in context, a country that is more than 100 times smaller than the EU has already taken in more than 50 times as many refugees as the EU will even consider resettling in the future. Lebanon has a refugee crisis. Europe – and, in particular, Britain – does not.

£36.95

Many claim that Britain is a coveted destination for migrants because of its generous benefits system. Aside from the reality that most migrants have little prior knowledge of the exact nature of each European country's asylum system, it is not true that the UK is particularly beneficent. Each asylum seeker in Britain gets a meagre £36.95 to live on (and they are not usually allowed to work to supplement this sum). In France, whose policies are supposedly driving up the numbers at Calais, migrants actually receive substantially more. According to the Asylum Information Database, asylum seekers in France receive up to £56.62 a week. Germany and Sweden – the two most popular migrant destinations – pay out £35.21 and £36.84 a week respectively, only fractionally less than Britain.

Related: Swarms, floods and marauders: the toxic metaphors of the migration debate | David Shariatmadari

50%

In the dog-whistle rhetoric of Hammond and Theresa May, the archetypal contemporary migrant in Europe is from Africa. But again, that's not true. This year, according to UN figures, 50% alone are from two non-African countries: Syria (38%) and Afghanistan (12%). When migrants from Pakistan, Iraq and Iran are added into the equation, it becomes clear that the number of African migrants is significantly less than half. Even so, as discussed above, many of them – especially those from Eritrea, Darfur, and Somalia – have legitimate claims to refugee status.

Royal Marines with migrants rescued off the Libyan coast in June. Photograph: Rowan Griffiths/Daily Mirror/PA 4%

Last autumn, the EU opted to suspend full-scale maritime rescue operations in the Mediterranean in the belief that their presence was encouraging more migrants to risk the sea journey from Libya to Europe. In reality, people kept on coming. In fact, there was a 4% year-on-year increase during the months that the rescue missions were on hiatus. Over 27,800 tried the journey in 2015, or died in the attempt, until operations were reinstated in May, according to figures from the International Organisation for Migration. Only 26,740 tried it in 2014. The disparity suggests that migrants were either unaware of the rescue operations in the first place, or simply unbothered by their suspension – a thesis borne out by my own interviews. "I don't think that even if they decided to bomb migrant boats it would change peoples' decision to go," said Abu Jana, a Syrian I met as he was planning to make the sea voyage earlier this year.

25,670

Contrary to the perception of the UK as the high altar of immigration, it is not a particularly major magnet for refugees. In 2014, just 25,870 people sought asylum in the UK, and only 10,050 were accepted. Germany (97275), France (68500), Sweden (39,905) and Italy (35,180) were all far more affected. When the ratings are calculated as a proportion to population size, the UK slips even further down the table – behind Belgium, Holland and Austria. If the ratings were calculated on 2015 rates, then even impoverished Greece would rise above the UK in the table. Just as tellingly, the UK has welcomed just 187 Syrians through legal mechanisms at the last count. Turkey has around 1.6 million.

€11bn

Hammond and David Cameron argue that the solution to migration is to increase deportations. They believe this will save Britain money, as less cash will be spent on paying each asylum seeker £36.95 per week. However, this strategy ignores the cost of deportations – whose alleged financial cost could rival that of the asylum seekers' benefits bill. According to a series of investigations by the website The Migrant Files, as many as €11bn have been spent on repatriating migrants to their countries of origin since 2000. A further billion has been blown on Europe-wide coordination efforts to secure European borders – money that could have been spent on integrating migrants into European society.

-76,439

Despite the hysteria, the number of refugees in the UK has actually fallen by 76,439 since 2011. That's according to Britain's Refugee Council, which crunched the numbers gleaned from UN data and found that the number of refugees in the UK fell from 193,600 to 117,161 in the past four years. By comparison, the proportion of refugees housed by developing countries in the past 10 years has risen, according to the UN, from 70% to 86%. Britain could be doing far more.

• David Cameron 'shares Philip Hammond's immigration concerns'

• Quiz: do you know your European migration facts?

Source: 10 truths about Europe's migrant crisis

Africa’s Scramble for Europe

THIS summer, a striking, often tragic story has been playing itself out on the outskirts of Calais in France, at the entrance to the tunnel that connects the European mainland to Great Britain. Thousands of migrants, African and Middle Eastern, have been trying to sneak onto the trucks and trains that traverse the tunnel, cutting through wire fences and evading the police along the way. Ten have died, but enough have succeeded for many more to keep trying, while politicians on both sides of the Channel point fingers and a refugee camp outside Calais remains swollen with would-be subjects of Elizabeth II.

In certain ways this crisis resembles last summer's border surge in the United States, when a wave of juvenile migrants overwhelmed the border patrol's ability to cope. But mostly Calais highlights two major differences between the immigration issue in America and Europe, two ways in which migration — from Africa, above all — is poised to divide and reshape the European continent in ways that go far beyond anything the United States is likely to experience.

The first difference is illustrated by the Calais migrants' desire to reach not only the European Union at large but the specific destination of Britain — because of its relatively stronger economy, because they speak English, because the U.K. doesn't have a national identity card, or for other rea sons still.

An immigrant desire to go further up and further in is entirely normal. (Mexican immigrants to the United States do not all settle down in El Paso or Tucson.) But it poses a major dilemma for the European Union, which allows free movement across its internal borders, but which is composed of nation-states that still want sovereignty over their respective immigration policies.

America has a mild version of this tension: Witness the recent debate over "sanctuary cities," or state-federal conflicts over immigration enforcement. But it's understood that immigration policy is ultimately set nationally. Michigan isn't going to close its borders and impose identity-card checks; Maine isn't going to secede in order to set it s own immigration quotas.

But in a less-united and federalized Europe, the desire for real national control over immigration policy may be as dangerous to the E.U. project in the long run as the already-evident folly of expanding the common currency to Greece.

Already the desire for immigration sovereignty is behind Britain's possible referendum on a "Brexit" from the European Union. It's behind Denmark's experiment with reimposing border controls. It's behind the rise of the National Front in France, and Euroskeptical parties the continent over. It's adding to Europe's already-significant north-south divisions, since (poorer) southern European countries are receiving the bulk of recent migrants and (richer) northern European countries would pre fer the new arrivals remain in Italy or Spain.

And these pressures are only likely to increase, because of the second difference between immigration in Europe and America: Namely, the scale of the migration that may be coming to Europe over the next fifty years.

That scale could be set by the staggering growth of Africa's population, and the native European population's stagnation and decline. Consider how much Latin American immigration has roiled U.S. politics (hello, Mr. Trump), when there are just over 300 million people in the United States and just under 600 million in all the countries to our south — a ratio that's unlikely to change much over the next few generations.

Then consider: Today there are 738 million Europeans (500 million of them in the E.U.) and just under 1.2 billion Africans. In 2050, according to the latest U.N. projections, Europe's population will have dipped to (an aging) 707 million, while Africa's population will be 2.4 billion. By 2 100, there will be 4.4 billion Africans – two of every five human beings overall — and Europe's population will be just 646 million.

The Mediterranean is far wider than the Rio Grande, but this is still a wildly unstable demographic equilibrium. What's more, as Noah Millman pointed out recently in Politico, northward migration – a kind of African "scramble for Europe" – is likely to increase whether African states thrive over this period or collapse. Desperation might drive it, but so might rising expectations, the connections forged by growth and globalization. (Many Africans currently braving the Mediterranean, for instance, seem to be ambitious, educated citizens from countries with growing economies, not just refugees.)

If Africans were to migrate to Europe at the rate Mexicans have migrated to America since 1970, Millman notes, by 2050 a quarter of Europe' s population would be African-born. That probably won't happen: The birthrate projections will be off, the migration patterns will be different, European countries will impose restrictions that actually succeed in keeping people out.

But something significant is going to happen. In some form, a Eurafrican future is on its way. And judging by the stumbling response to a few thousand migrants at Calais, Europe is deeply unprepared.

Source: Africa's Scramble for Europe

Roam free... of rocketing phone charges: The best deals when using your mobile phone abroad

By Emma Lunn, Financial Mail On Sunday

Published: 16:02 EST, 8 August 2015 | Updated: 16:02 EST, 8 August 2015

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Whether you are a Facebook addict, cannot take a break from Twitter or simply like to use a mobile for texts or old-fashioned calls, using a phone abroad can result in shockingly high bills.

Using a foreign network for calls and texts, known as roaming, costs a lot more than using a mobile in the UK. Worse still, the cost of data roaming – accessing the internet –whether to download emails, listen to music or tweet while away can send costs skyrocketing.

Consuming just one megabyte (MB) of data – equivalent to just one minute of music streaming – can cost anything from five pence to £12.50 depending on your network and destination.

Relaxed: Charlotte Adlard is happier using Three's Feel At Home service when abroad

The EU is gradually shaving the cost of data roaming in countries within the European Economic Are a. The current cap is 19.2p per megabyte. However, there are no limits outside the EEA, although some networks offer caps on usage.

Traditionally, the answer for making calls abroad was to buy a local SIM card but this brings the problem of having a different mobile number while away from home.

'Dealing with my stolen bag cost me £120 in calls'

Charlotte Adlard (pictured above) travels to the Continent frequently and over the years has returned home to alarmingly high phone bills. 

On one trip her bag was stolen and using her mobile to sort out the aftermath meant she came home owing a huge sum.

'I returned from Barcelona to a £120 phone bill from Three last year and it made the postholiday blues even worse,' she says. 

Since then Three has introduced Feel At Home, which means she can use her phone in 18 countries without incurring extra costs. 

Charlotte, 23, who lives in North London and works in marketing for an auction house, says: 'It's transformed the way I feel when I travel. I am much more relaxed knowing I won't have a shock bill waiting for me. 

'As a young woman sometimes travelling alone, I like to know I can access the internet or call my parents without getting a massive bill.'

Data users can protect their wallets by switching off roaming within the phone's settings and using local wi-fi to access the internet instead. But this is a problem when there is no wi-fi available.

Ernest Doku, telecoms expert at comparison website uSwitch, says more networks have cottoned on that roaming charges are widely loathed and have introduced special packages to help travellers cut costs.

He says: 'There are bundles and bolt-ons that can be applied before leaving the UK, so it can pay to ask the phone network what add-ons are available.'

Here, The Mail on Sunday looks at the best deals when using your mobile phone abroad.

Receiving calls within the EU is free but calling from a Virgin Mobile outside Europe is expensive

THREE

Three offers one of the simplest and best value options. Its Feel At Home lets both monthly contract and pay-as-you-go customers use the internet and call and text home using their UK allowance.

As well as much of Europe, the list of 18 destinations includes Australia, Indonesia, Hong Kong and the US. Visit three.co.uk/feelathome for the full list.

Three customers do not have to do anything – Feel At Home is automatically applied to accounts and the network estimates it saves the average customer £202 a year.

Customers travelling to a non-Feel At Home European destination can buy a Euro Internet Pass for £5 per day, giving unlimited data.

CARPHONE WAREHOUSE 

Mobile retailer Carphone Warehouse has recently launched a new network called iD, which 'piggybacks' off Three's network. Regular travellers in the market for a new phone deal should check out iD's TakeAway plans. These include free roaming in 20 European countries plus the US and Australia. The plans start at £25.50 per month on a 24-month contract.

VIRGIN MOBILE

Travellers within the EU can buy a Virgin Media Travel pass: 10MB for £1.50, 50MB for £6 or 250MB for £20. Outside Europe customers will pay a minimum of £5 per MB, so it is best to turn off data roaming.

Receiving calls within the EU is free but calling from a Virgin Mobile outside Europe is expensive. For example, making a call from Bangladesh costs £4 a minute and data is £12.50 per MB.

How to make calls over wi-fi 

S ome networks offer smartphone apps and services such as EE's WiFi Calling and O2's TU Go that allow users to make and receive calls and send texts using their normal number over wi-fi.

As well as being handy if you have access to wi-fi while you are on holiday, these options can also be useful if you cannot get mobile reception at home.

Virgin Media's SmartCall app uses your home phone plan and Vodafone is due to launch its own offering, Wifi Calling, later on this summer.

VODAFONE 

Vodafone is also competitive for roaming customers, offering bolt-on packages that charge customers a daily fee to take their UK calls, texts and data tariff abroad with them.

Covering 40 destinations, Vodafone EuroTraveller costs £3 a day while Vodafone WorldTraveller costs £5 a day and covers 30 countrie s. Pay-as-you-go customers can get EuroTraveller for £3 a day and use their UK minutes and texts as normal, but data is limited to 100MB per day.

Without these bolt-ons, Vodafone customers will pay as much as £2 a minute to make calls worldwide. Depending on where you go, data can cost up to £6 per MB of data.

O2 

Customers heading for Europe should opt in to O2 Travel. For £1.99 a day, it gives pay monthly customers unlimited data in Europe while pay-as-you go customers have usage capped at 50MB per day.

Contract customers can make and receive voice calls in Europe for a 50p connection fee for a call lasting up to 60 minutes, while pay-as-you-go customers pay 18p a minute.

There is little on offer for pay monthly customers travelling beyond Europe, with call costs varying between countries. Calling the UK from Aust ralia costs 80p a minute.

O2 automatically applies a data usage cap of £40 per month for 50MB of data. Customers can increase the cap to £120 for 200MB or remove it altogether, although at £6 per megabyte of data this is not recommended.

Some networks offer smartphone apps and services such as EE's WiFi Calling

EE 

The network, which includes T-Mobile and Orange, has recently introduced EE Euro Pass, which gives customers unlimited texts and calls and a set allowance for data, for £4 a day while in Europe.

Customers with EE Extra are given unlimited calls and texts in Europe for no extra cost as part of their existing plan. They can add the Euro Data Pass to get 100MB of data for £3 a day.

With both the Euro Pass and Euro Data Pass, a customer gets 100MB of 'full-speed' data , but if they exceed this they can tap into an additional 400MB at no extra charge but at a slower speed.

For those travelling further afield, EE offers a complex array of calls and data add-ons. A useful feature of EE is that data roaming is barred completely unless a holidaymaker purchases a data bundle – so it is not possible to accidentally run up lots of charges.

 The bundle cannot be bought until holidaymakers reach their destination. Customers are presented with a list of options when they open the phone's browser.

Worldwide calls and data add-ons depend on the destination and network brand. To find out where you stand, visit ee.co.uk/roaming and enter the network name and holiday destination.

MOBILE BY SAINSBURY'S 

Sainsbury's offers a decent roaming deal for customers with no bundle or bolt-on required.

The bad news is that it is available only up until September 30, but it will at least carry most customers through the summer holiday season.

Sainsbury's has essentially aligned its European rates with its basic UK non-bundle rates. Calls are 8p per minute and free to receive, texts are 4p and 1MB of data is 5p. Rates revert to 18p per minute, 5p per text and 19p per MB from October 1 in Europe (including the UK).

 

Source: Roam free... of rocketing phone charges: The best deals when using your mobile phone abroad

Russians’ Cutting Back on Vacations Hurt Greek Economy

The Russian currency's exchange rate depreciation, as well as bureaucratic issues, have greatly affected the flow of Russian tourists to Greece. According to the media, Russian tour operators estimated that the flow of tourists from Russia is lower, compared to the same period last year.

The Russians have cut back on their holidays and this has a direct impact in Greece, which is a popular destination for Russian tourists, according to Euromonitor. Russia is a key market for the Middle East and Southern Europe and, therefore, any changes in the people's habit affects those areas as well.

The sanctions, weak oil prices and recession has prevented Russians from traveling abroad. The number of Russian tourists traveling to other European countries decreased by 9% this year, compared to 2014, according to a CNBC report. However, operators also noticed a significant reduction last year, since the Russian economy is struggling with the sanctions imposed on banks and energy companies, as a result of developments in Crimea.

Furthermore, according to estimates formed early in the summer of 2015 by executives of the Tour Operator Union in Russia, the problems that the country's economy is currently facing have significantly limited the number of Russian tourists who choose to travel in Europe for their holidays.

Source: Russians' Cutting Back on Vacations Hurt Greek Economy