Viking sailing ships added to UNESCO list

For hundreds of years, wooden sailboats allowed the peoples of Northern Europe to spread trade, influence and sometimes war across seas and continents. In December, the U.N.'s culture agency added Nordic "clinker boats" to its list of traditions that represent the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden jointly sought the UNESCO designation. Supporters hope it will safeguard and preserve the boat-building techniques that drove the Viking era. If "you hadn't had any ships, you wouldn't have had any Viking Age," said Triona Sørensen, curator at the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, Denmark.

Associated Press

It's an age-old question: "Business or pleasure?" For airline passengers these days, the answer increasingly is both. The growth in so-called "bleisure" trips blending personal getaways with remote work has helped fill seats on planes during the pandemic and marks a shift in travel patterns. The share of business trips that include a weekend has increased 23 percentage points to 38% since 2019, according to TripActions Inc. "They may travel to a beach or a mountain destination, but they're actually going to work remotely for the week," American Airlines President Robert Isom said.

Bloomberg News

A record number of visitors flocked to Yellowstone National Park last year despite fewer hotel rooms and campsites being available because of the pandemic and construction. About 4.86 million visits were tallied in 2021, breaking the prior record set in 2016. It's a million more people than visited in 2020. Yellowstone will mark its 150th anniversary in 2022. Other national parks such as Zion in Utah also set visitor records in 2021 as tourism bounced back from the shutdowns imposed during the early days of the pandemic.

Associated Press

The Crystal Symphony left Miami on Jan. 8 on a two-week cruise. On the way back, things took an unexpected turn. Midtrip, a U.S. federal judge ordered the cruise ship seized over unpaid fuel bills. The ship changed course for Bimini, in the Bahamas, rather than sail into the clutches of authorities. Passengers were provided with an extra night of accommodations and taken by ferry to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Crystal Cruises said in a statement. The ferry ride, the company added, was "uncomfortable due to inclement weather." "This end to the cruise was not the conclusion to our guests' vacation we originally planned for," the company said.

New York Times