These tourist hot spots are introducing entry fees and price hikes for 2024
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In travel news this week: Vacation love stories that began and ended in Paris or London, aviation misadventures in Thailand and China, plus a look at why prices are rising as tourist numbers increase.
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More and more tourist hot spots are introducing visitor caps and entry fees to prevent overcrowding – and, whaddya know, it gives their coffers a little boost, too.
There’s a new $13 charge for climbing Japan’s famous (and congested) Mount Fuji, which follows Japan’s 70% price hike for tourist rail passes. The weak yen, however, still makes this a good time for international visitors to make that bucket-list trip.
If you want to see the ornate – and exceedingly popular – Plaza de Espana square in Seville, Spain, expect to soon pony up an entry free. The Louvre art museum in Paris, home to the Mona Lisa, has raised ticket prices by almost a third, ahead of the Paris Olympics this summer.
It’s not just Europe and Asia, either. Walt Disney World Resort in Florida has already introduced higher park ticket prices for next year. Some of the lowest single-day, single-park ticket prices have gone up by $10 for 2025.
Love and loss in London and Paris
Way back in 1984, an Italian teenager arranged a date with a guy she met on a plane to London – but he was a no-show when she waited in Trafalgar Square the next day. Her eyes then fell on an American boy sitting between the bronze lions while reading “Romeo and Juliet.” The stars aligned – he was her future husband.
It was a different story for a Londoner in 2011 who made her first trip to Paris with her boyfriend. Her heart was broken under the Eiffel Tower, but then a decade later, she moved on from that – it was time to write her own ending.