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Back in 2023, in response to a growing number of young male British tourists partying, getting drunk and generally behaving badly, the city of Amsterdam launched a “digital discouragement” campaign aimed at suggesting that these visitors would not be welcome and should skip their trips. At the time, the campaign was widely shared, and many criticized it … Read more
New Zealand’s Dunedin Airport launched a sign that limits the time you can hug someone to say goodbye in an effort to ease airport traffic congestion. It went predictably viral, with people calling the sign and rule behind it “inhumane” while sharing it widely. All those detractors might be missing the point. This is clearly … Read more
“The first rule of casinos in the UAE: You do not talk about casinos in the UAE.” Intrigued yet? This week an article from travel site Skift sorts through the rumors and follows the money in early investments to piece together an inside look at the emerging plans for creating a Las Vegas style gambling destination in … Read more
Anyone who follows the Olympics knows there are some media narratives that happen every four years and always turn out the same. There are myths and then reality. Since so many people ask me about those stories, I built my own list over the years. For your entertainment, I thought I’d share them. I could go and … Read more
Driverless vehicles are obviously going to be part of humanity’s future, but they aren’t experiencing a great PR moment right now. Every day it seems there is another story about an incident involving a driverless vehicle hitting someone, mistaking something on the road or generally malfunctioning. Not to mention the justifiable fears of hacking that … Read more
Residents in every city love to complain about the daily minor or major frustrations they endure in order to live where they do, but what if the things they gripe about are the same reasons someone else might choose to visit? That’s the insight behind a clever campaign that has been going viral this week … Read more
Just in time for the feast of Saint-Honoré, a day honoring the patron saint of bakers and pastry chefs, La Poste in France released a limited edition set of scratch-and-sniff stamps featuring a baguette wrapped in the national colors of the French flag. The effect was achieved through “microcapsules of fragrance embedded in ink” and … Read more
The future of entertainment will be driven by more immersive experiences. This week, there was a story about how the Meta Quest VR headset will be accessible by passengers on long haul flights. The possibilities to tie this into tourism, destinations and the overall travel experience are vast. Also this week, Airbnb has been getting some attention … Read more
Portugal is one of several countries investing big into industrial tourism – a term that describes experiences where travelers can visit factories to see how products get made. Of course, vineyards and liquor distilleries along with many food manufacturers have long offered this sort of experience. But Portugal is taking it one step further. In São João da Madeira, … Read more
Apparently it has been a dream of dogfood subscription brand BarkBox for more than a decade to create an airline dedicated to flying dogs and their human companions around the world. Now they are making it a reality through a partnership with private jet charter company Talon Air and the way they are doing it is … Read more
Non-Obvious Thinking is my latest book about the 4 secrets of becoming a non-obvious thinker - relesaed 10/01/2024.
Rohit Bhargava is a trend curator, founder of the Non-Obvious Company and the 3-time Wall Street Journal bestselling author of ten books.
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In addition to Non-Obvious Thinking, Rohit is the author of 10 books on trends, the future of business, building a more human brand with storytelling and how to create a more diverse and inclusive world.
