The Details of the Very ‘Idiotic’ Public Spat Between Elon Musk and Ryanair Boss
The Details of the Very ‘Idiotic’ Public Spat Between Elon Musk and Ryanair Boss
Stefano Garau/Shutterstock
https://www.fodors.com/news/photos/the-details-of-the-very-idiotic-public-spat-between-elon-musk-and-ryanair-boss
And other news you may have missed.
This week in travel, we have several stories that may have flown under your radar. Among them: A winter storm has caused more than 11,000 flight cancellations in the U.S.; the Australian government will euthanize a pack of wild dingoes linked to a tourist’s death; and Elon Musk is fighting with Ryanair’s CEO.
Dive into these and more as we examine the latest in travel news.
1 OF 5
U.S. Storm Cancels Flights
More than 11,000 flights were canceled across the U.S. on Sunday, making it one of the worst days for aviation since the pandemic. Storm Fern is inundating the country with snow and ice, and more than 19,000 flights have been canceled since Saturday. Airports in New York reported 10 inches of snow, while Washington, Dallas, Atlanta, Charlotte, Denver, Chicago, and Boston were also affected. On Monday morning, travel remained disrupted throughout the country.
Delta extended its travel waiver, allowing passengers to adjust their flights at no extra cost. United Airlines and American Airlines–which was the most impacted on Sunday–also offered waivers.
Eighteen people have reportedly died due to the storm, and a million people experienced power outages. At least 20 states have declared states of emergency. New York closed schools on Monday.
2 OF 5
Dingoes on Australian Island to Be Euthanized
The Queensland government has decided to euthanize a pack of dingoes on K’gari Island in Australia after a Canadian backpacker’s body was found on the beach surrounded by the wild dogs. A post-mortem found “physical evidence consistent with drowning and injuries consistent with dingo bites.” However, they may not have caused the immediate death.
Rangers have been tracking the pack of 10 dingoes, which have shown aggressive behavior that may put humans at risk. Environment Minister Andrew Powell said, “This is a tough decision but I believe it’s the right call in the public interest.”
K’gari Island is home to around 200 dingoes, which are sacred to Indigenous people. However, the Butchulla people, who are the traditional custodians of the island, were not consulted about the decision. Christine Royan, the Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation secretary, called it a disgrace and said, “This government has no respect for First Nations people.” The Butchulla blame overtourism on the island for increased dingo attacks.
3 OF 5
Thai Temple Issues Notice to Travelers After Inappropriate Behavior
A Buddhist temple in Chiang Mai, Thailand, posted a notice on its social media accounts asking for travelers to curb inappropriate behavior. The Wat Pha Lat temple said in its post, “Wat Pha Lat is a Buddhist temple and a sacred sanctuary, not a recreational park or a gym.” The bilingual message featured a woman doing acro yoga with a partner in improper clothing.
Wat Pha Lat is a peaceful place for monks to meditate, but travelers have been seen performing yoga and acrobatics at the site, climbing structures, or wearing swimwear to the temple. Tourists are advised to behave respectfully and follow local customs, especially when visiting sacred sites.
4 OF 5
Former Flight Attendant Accused of Conning Airlines
U.S. prosecutors have indicted a former flight attendant of a Canadian airline for allegedly posing as a pilot and a flight attendant to obtain free flights from U.S. airlines. The indictment alleges that Dallas Pokornik, 33, ran this scheme for four years and secured hundreds of free flights, and once even requested access to the cockpit to sit in the jump seat reserved for off-duty pilots. Pokornik worked in Toronto from 2017 to 2019 and allegedly forged employee documents to dupe three undisclosed U.S. airlines based in Chicago, Hawaii, and Fort Worth.
Pokornik is currently in custody after being arrested in Panama and extradited. He has pleaded not guilty to wire fraud charges.
5 OF 5
Ryanair Boss Michael O’Leary and Elon Musk Have a Public Spat
Last week, the head of budget airline Ryanair traded insults with Elon Musk. The dispute began after Ryanair’s CEO, Michael O’Leary, rejected the idea of installing Starlink internet on Ryanair planes, claiming it wouldn’t be cost-effective. Starlink is one of Musk’s companies. Musk took to X, which he owns, to say that O’Leary’s opinion was misinformed. Both businessmen are known for their provocative language, and both called each other idiots.
The airline mocked the billionaire after a social media platform outage last week. Musk, meanwhile, floated the idea of buying Ryanair with a poll on X and even said he would put a “Ryan in charge.”
The low-cost carrier also ran a “big idiot sale” promotion to capitalize on the feud, and the aviation boss thanked Musk for a boost in ticket sales.
Although Musk has delivered on his threats earlier with X, Ryanair is a European airline. Under E.U. regulations, airlines can be owned only by citizens of the E.U., Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, or Liechtenstein. O’Leary invited the Tesla boss to invest in the company, but he cannot own it.
Lodging CEOs question the value of a hotel investment. Is the industry at an inflection point?
https://hotelsmag.com/news/lodging-ceos-question-the-value-of-a-hotel-investment-is-the-industry-at-an-inflection-point/
by David Eisen
LOS ANGELES — The bad news first. U.S. revenue per available room contracted in 2025, decreasing 0.3% year-over year, according to data released by CoStar. The good news: This year should see an increase—albeit minimal—but like any forecast, subject to change.
So moves the hotel industry—like a Pong ball at the whims of an economy and political climate it can’t control.
The indeterminate swings are a nuisance for hoteliers that thrive on certainty, but lodging company CEOs, speaking at the Americas Lodging Investment Summit, here at the JW Marriott Los Angeles L.A. LIVE, offered optimism regardless of the environment.
“There’s been a disaggregation between the growth of travel and the growth of economies,” Elie Maalouf, CEO of IHG Hotels & Resorts, said of the last few years. He pointed to the record amount of inbound travel to Europe from the U.S. as example.
Inbound travel to the U.S. is another story. In October, U.S. Travel projected a 6.3% decline in inbound visits, and preliminary data through year-end largely confirms that outlook. Total international arrivals are estimated to have fallen from 72.4 million in 2024 to 68.5 million in 2025—a decline of 5.4%. December followed the pattern seen throughout the second half of the year. Visits from Canada were down 25.1% year-over-year, while travel from Mexico increased 4.8% and overseas visitation declined 1.3%. Though Canada still led all countries in U.S. travel spending at nearly $16 billion, the early and sustained decline in visitation reflects deeper challenges that won’t be fully captured by near-term year-over-year comparisons.
Travel to the U.S. is projected to fall to just 85% of 2019 levels in 2025.
“The U.S. is slower,” Maalouf said, citing tariff turmoil, government cutbacks and the government shutdown as three culprits leading to enervated growth rates. He’s more sanguine on 2026, especially since comps will be demonstrably easier and huge demand generators, highlighted by America250 and FIFA World Cup, will have a propitious impact.
Mit Shah, CEO of Noble Investment Group, which invests in and owns hotels, parroted Maalouf, vexed by wigwag performance from late 2024 into 2025. Noble’s Q4, he said, was up 7%, which carried over into January 2025, when they were up 8%. “I was wildly optimistic,” he said. Then came DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, an initiative by the second Trump administration to modernize information technology, maximize productivity and cut excess regulations and spending within the federal government. “It took a significant amount of government travel out of the system almost immediately,” he said. “Then the Canadians started disliking us and then there was Liberation Day and a record government shutdown.”
Even against forces outside his control, Shah remains bullish on the prospects of travel. “I continue to believe that the secular trends out there bode well for travel in general and for global and domestic business.”
Beyond U.S. borders, CEOs cheered the apparent, though still tepid, China comeback, both on the travel and development sides of the ledger, with Tony Capuano, president & CEO of Marriott International, pointing to optimism about growth moving forward. “Even in an environment like that, we signed more deals in China [in 2025] than we have in any year in history, even against the backdrop of weak performance,” he said.
A boardroom panel at ALIS featured, from left, Tony Capuano, president & CEO of Marriott International, Elie Maalouf, CEO of IHG Hotels & Resorts, and Mit Shah, CEO of Noble Investment Group.
Buy, Build or Sell
All of this is against a backdrop that makes building new hotels and buying older hotels difficult, laborious projects. While the consensus is that this year will be better than last, there remain structural issues and pressure points up and down the hotel investing spectrum, including a prolonged gap between seller expectations and what a buyer is willing to pay for an asset. This gums up deal flow, which continues to be a laggard to the consternation of not only property seekers, but third-party management companies that rely on and grow when assets transact and owners seek out new management. Meanwhile, as Shah pointed out, there is a vast swath of hotels in need of Covid-deferred CapEx.
Bucking the trend, however, Shah said Noble had its largest transactional year in 2025 in its 32-year history as a company. Hospitality, he said, is an eight-cap business where buyers can finance deals at SOFR-plus 200. The Fed at its most recent meeting decided to hold the Fed funds rate steady at a range of 3.50% to 3.75%. Lower interest rates decrease the cost of debt, which is a catalyst for increased investor competition and, subsequently, higher property prices that compress cap rates. As financing becomes cheaper, buyers accept lower returns to acquire assets.
Transaction and new-construction activity may still be stilted, but the 30-plus brands Marriott International has in its quiver remain at the ready to fly. The one sharp arrow continues to be luxury, which thrives in this K-shaped economy of haves and have nots. “Luxury has been the strongest performing tier for us,” said Capuano. In the segment, Marriott features such brands as Ritz-Carlton and St. Regis. Since ground-up development has been harder to metabolize, Marriott, and its peers, have leaned on conversions for growth. Capuano said conversions account for as high as 40% of new signings and openings. “We’ve built an infrastructure and a philosophical approach that even when we find ourselves in a booming economy, I don’t anticipate a pullback from conversions. They’ll be a more fundamental part of the growth story for big brand companies on a permanent basis,” he said.
IHG’s Maalouf said that lenders are more friendly to conversions. “You’re adding newer product without adding supply to the market,” he said.
Rendering of the future Ruby Hotel in Chicago planned to open in 2027. IHG acquired the German brand in February 2025.
It’s Expensive Out There
A thaw in deal activity and growth in new development is not a panacea for other ills faced by the industry; namely, expenses up and down the P&L that threaten margins and operating income. “Most expense items continue to grow at pace at or ahead of the historical base and it has put extraordinary stress on the return proposition of the investment,” Capuano said, adding that investors are using it as impetus to explore investments outside traditional hospitality, such as in the alternative-accommodations landscape. “There is a fundamental dilution on the return model for investing in hotels,” Capuano said. Brand companies have aimed to ease the cost burden by examining affiliation costs, ramp-up standards and leveraging scale to save more in procurement. “There is urgency around making these investments as compelling to our partners as they once were, because that’s not where they are,” he said.
Noble’s Shah tracks it closely and gives credit to the brands for trying to find solutions for owners that make hospitality investment more attractive. “There is real dialogue and strong efforts by brands at looking at this operating model,” he said, beyond reliance on the delta between RevPAR and total expense growth. He called profitability a team effort built on partnership. “I’m actually more confident and optimistic than I ever have been that we are down that path,” Shah said.
IHG’s Maalouf tapped into owner frustration by offering both empathy and solutions. “There’s no question that the last five years have been kinder to brand companies than to ownership companies—the share prices tell the story,” he said. “We can’t be successful without hotel investors. If somebody isn’t willing to be asset heavy, then the asset-light game stops.”
As succor, he ticked off various ways through scale and technology to assist owners in revenue management, marketing, on-prem support and more. “AI allows us to keep that quality of service high, but lower the unit cost,” he said. In May 2024, for instance, IHG lowered its standard loyalty assessment fee that owners pay into the fund.
Global brand companies, he said, are adopting technology to help cover escalating costs. “That’s what great businesses do. They don’t adopt technology just to produce more things, but to lower costs,” Maalouf said.
Communal area at citizenM Miami World Center. Marriott International completed the acquisition of the brand in July 2025.
F&B programming and how to use space efficiently has long been a thorn in the hospitality industry’s side—more so now as traveler expectations and experiences have immutably changed. For instance, there are a multitude of hotels, as Capuano said, that are now obsolete, anachronistic product. The white elephants of the hotel industry, if you will. “We built these amazingly efficient boxes in the midscale and select-service tier, but at that upscale and upper-upscale tier, that’s the riddle,” said Capuano. “You’ve got thousands of hotels that were designed for a different era.” He added that traditional roles, from bellman to doorman, are likely due for a reset.
If hotels need a rethink, don’t expect room sizes to get bigger. Marriott and IHG each made big acquisitions in 2025; the former of citizenM and IHG with Ruby Hotels, both European-born brands. CitizenM is known as a tech-forward brand that cracked the code on self-check in, while Ruby Hotels has been described as “lean luxury.” Both favor activated public spaces and smaller room footprints. “We call it urban micro,” said Maalouf. “Where you can shrink the room size, but with artful design, people feel really good about that room.”
In economic terms, smaller rooms gives developers the ability to add more room density, which increases ROI and, as Maalouf pointed out, “your square foot return is much better.”
According to Maalouf, all you need is 140-square foot-rooms and a buzzy public space. “That actually makes money,” he said.
Amsterdam Plans to Push Big Cruise Ships Out of the City for Good
Dirk Schmidt from Pixabayhttps://www.fodors.com/world/europe/netherlands/amsterdam/experiences/news/amsterdam-plans-to-push-big-cruise-ships-out-of-the-city-for-good
Amsterdam is considering a ban on large cruise ships by 2035 as part of broader efforts to curb overtourism, reduce pollution, and reshape the city’s waterfront.
Amsterdam’s city government has sought an alternative to docking large cruise ships right in the city center, and now the leading option on the table is a simple one: a complete ban on large cruise ships by 2035.
The city, which welcomes 20 million visitors per year—far greater than its own population of just under one million—has long sought ways to curb growing tourist numbers; it was even named to the Fodor’s No List in 2023. The city has already put limits on new hotel construction and has ended efforts promoting tourism. Of particular concern are so-called “stag” tourists, who come to the city’s red-light district from Britain and the Dutch communities surrounding Amsterdam, drinking and creating a general nuisance.
For large cruise ships, the nuisance is a different one: pollution. The city had sought to move large cruise ships out of the city center on pollution concerns, and because the terminal’s current location would prevent the construction of a planned bridge across the IJ river.
In July, activists belonging to the environmental group Extinction Rebellion blocked the arrival of 2,850-passenger Celebrity Eclipse using inflatable canoes. The activists said they chose that ship because of its performance on international environmental assessments. After a two-hour delay and intervention by port officials, the ship docked, and five activists were arrested by police.
The city estimates that the loss of large cruise ships would cost €46 million over the next three decades, the cost of an alternative cruise terminal further outside the city center would exceed €85 million, and there would be no guarantee that revenues would ultimately justify its construction.
The current city administration said it would not vote on whether to ban large cruise ships or move the cruise terminal until after local elections are held on March 18, leaving the final decision to the next city administration to issue a final decision, effectively putting the fate of large cruise ships to the city’s voters. The city council decided in 2024 to limit arrivals of large cruise ships to under 100 per year by this year.
A proposed ban would not affect river cruises, which account for significant traffic. Amsterdam has long been a popular turnaround port for European river cruises.
Local party leader Rob Hofland told NL Times that the proposal to ban large cruise ships would benefit the city, “Years after our proposal, we are finally going to free Amsterdam from these floating apartment blocks. They pollute our air, are bad for the climate, bring hordes of tourists into our city, and block a bridge over the IJ. The alderman has shown that relocating the cruise ship terminal within Amsterdam is not possible. That leaves only one option: out of the city. In our view, the right choice.”
A ban on large cruise ships in Amsterdam would not entirely ban cruise tourists from the Netherlands. Large ocean cruise ships also call at Rotterdam—the largest seaport in Europe—roughly an hour away from Amsterdam by rail. Smaller ocean ships also occasionally dock at The Hague.
Governments around Europe are grappling with how to stem the tide of cruise passengers. Greece considered a cruise passenger tax, while Barcelona—Europe’s busiest cruise port—has been shutting down terminals in a bid to reduce daily cruise passenger arrivals by the end of the decade.
The Netherlands is a top tourism destination in Europe, driven largely by interest in Amsterdam, which ranked as the 7th most popular tourism destination in the world in 2025. Inbound visitor arrivals surpassed 2019 levels in 2023 and grew again in 2024. Full year tourism statistics for 2025 are not yet available, but projections indicate another year of growth.
In Summer 2026 several cruise lines, including Celebrity, Carnival, Seabourn, Viking, Oceania, Virgin Voyages, and Ponant are scheduled to dock at the city’s cruise terminal.
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