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(CNN) — From a hyper-connected, personalized cabin of the future to rotating airplane seats that make enduring economy that much easier, this year’s Crystal Cabin Awards shortlist is chockablock with the aircraft innovations you didn’t know you needed.Of course, depending on your personal feelings about the trend towards in-air connectivity and high-tech personalization, some may be concepts you’d rather not see become reality.Still, the designers behind these innovative ideas reckon they could transform the airplane interior experience for the better — and now they’ve got the seal of approval from one of the aviation industry’s most prestigious awards.Over 100 entries have been whittled down to a comprehensive shortlist — with categories including “In-flight Entertainment and Connectivity” and “Visionary Concepts” due to be announced at this year’s Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, Germany in March 2020.Exciting ideasEngineering company Heinkel Group designed a concept called “Flex Lounge”, providing flexible configuration for seat rows in economy cabins.Courtesy Crystal Cabin AwardThe question of how to sleep in a budget airplane cabin is only becoming more ubiquitous as super long-haul flights like Qantas’ hop between London and Sydney, dubbed Project Sunrise, start to take off.The Crystal Cabin shortlist offers up a couple of compelling concepts designed to tackle discomfort in long-haul economy.Engineering company Heinkel Group presents its “Flex Lounge” proposal, which suggests a flexible configuration for seat rows in economy cabins. Post take-off, flight attendants can rearrange the rows so that passengers traveling together can face one another, allowing for a more intimate, casual experience for families, groups of friends or co-workers traveling together.Meanwhile, Adient Aerospace noticed the popularity of the airplane bulkhead seat and took that as its jumping off point for their “Space For All” design. In Adient’s vision, the three seats at the front of the airplane include an extending mechanism that expands out from the lower bulkhead wall, transforming the space into a sofa-style flat bed for families to share.Collins Aerospace’s Zero G Attendant Seat — designed to make air travel more comfortable for air crew — is one of the Crystal Cabin Award nominees.Courtesy Crystal Cabin AwardSome of the nominated airplane seat concepts are designed for aircraft that are still in their development stages. The Flying-V airplane, for example, is a fuel-efficient aircraft currently in development at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, in partnership with KLM. Delft has submitted a design for collapsible, flexible seats that turn into flat beds in a bunk-bed style design, for maximum space efficiency.Meanwhile, Ciara Crawford’s ROW1 seat envisages an airplane seat where the wheelchair gets fitted seamlessly into the row, allowing for a more accessible airplane experience.It’s not just passengers whose needs are being considered, however; Collins Aerospace has proposed its Zero G Attendant Seat — pitched as a high comfort seat for cabin crew. The seat stows and folds down for take off and landing, but can also be moved into more comfortable, reclined positions for off-duty flight attendants, who’re ready to unwind on a long-haul flight.Connected cabinsAirbus’ vision for a next gen airplane cabin is one of the nominees.Courtesy Crystal Cabin AwardAirbus’ next generation cabin concept, “Airspace Cabin Vision 2030,” offering more flexible sleeping and seating configurations, as well as a “digitally enabled environment” — the Airspace Connected Experience — is also shortlisted.This includes airplane seats with optional pre-programmed recline preferences as well as overhead luggage cabins lighting up green or red, depending on whether they’re full. Airbus reckons this is what passengers want from their inflight experience — with Ingo Wuggetzer, VP marketing at Airbus, telling CNN Travel back in October 2019, that “what you experience on ground, you continue to experience on board of an aircraft.”A high-tech cabin divider is another contender.Courtesy Crystal Cabin AwardAdditionally, the Airbus Cabin Vision 2030 envisages flexible seating and sleeping configurations in the cabin.German company AERQ also proposes using technology in an innovative way, allowing the cabin class dividers to double up as an OLED information screen, while Moment’s “Flymingo Next” concept is designed to help crew members do their jobs efficiently.Moment’s design incorporates integrated cabin hardware that allows air crew to check seat occupancy, baggage locker use and synthesize onboard procedures.Eco-conscious designs PriestmanGoode submitted a meal tray called Zero that’s made out of edible, biodegradable and/or commercially compostable materials.Courtesy Crystal Cabin AwardAs airlines face increasingly tough scrutiny over their commitment to sustainability, some of the Crystal Cabin nominees seek to tackle the eco-question. PriestmanGoode submitted a meal tray called Zero, aiming to reduce the amount of weight and plastic waste created through meal service on flights.Instead of disposable material, Zero is composed of either edible, biodegradable and/or commercially compostable materials. On a similar theme, Diehl Aviation proposes a “Greywater Reuse Unit” which uses water from handwashing in the basin to flush the toilet — the company suggests this will save 550 tonnes of CO2 per year for a single Boeing 787 aircraft.Stay tuned to see which designs are crowned as winners on March 31.

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Tenerife, Spain (CNN) — Pristine beaches frame the Canary Islands in multicolored sand as the Spanish archipelago sweeps seaward from Africa’s Atlantic coast. Those sunny beaches draw a year-round crowd seeking warm escapes at all-inclusive hotels, which have earned the Canaries a reputation for mass-market tourism.Look past ranks of seaside resorts, though, and you’ll find a wild, otherworldly landscape that’s tailor made for travel adventures. “It’s got a lot more to offer than lying on the beach,” says Tavienne Kelly of Britain’s KE Adventure Travel, whose hiking and cycling trips to the Canary Islands include waterside strolls and high-altitude treks. Men ride their horses at the Enramada beach during a celebration on Tenerife.Desiree Martin/AFP/Getty Images”The islands are really diverse,” Kelly tells CNN Travel. “They’ve got amazing sunrises, laurel forests, fantastic coastal trails and volcanoes. The adventure side of things is definitely growing.” Those adventurous possibilities are spread across an arc of eight main islands whose landscapes range from forest-clad mountains to bare volcanic rock. Dominating the island of Tenerife, the active Teide volcano juts from a skirt of clouds and mist, with a profile that dives more than 12,000 feet from the summit to the nearby coastline. On the desert isles of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, trade winds keep paragliders and kite boarders aloft, while a maze of trails winds through prehistoric forest on La Gomera. For travelers ready to venture beyond resorts, the Canary Islands offer a lifetime of active adventures — here’s where to start. Hike an explosive landscapeGeothermal energy powers barbecues at the Timanfaya National Park at Lanzarote.Getty ImagesThese islands were forged in fiery geologic activity millions of years ago, and traces of that volcanic past are seared into the scenery.Visitors can drive into the park’s Montañas del Fuego, or Mountains of Fire, a lava landscape created by a series of eruptions in the 18th century.Free, guided hikes within the park showcase a culture adapted to life amid the lava, where islanders once used camels to harvest grapes planted directly into jet-black, volcanic soil.But the alpine highlight of the Canary Islands is Tenerife’s majestic Teide volcano, which at 12,198 feet is Spain’s highest mountain. With limited numbers of hikers allowed to approach the summit each day, would-be trekkers make reservations months in advance. If you don’t score one of the coveted spots, you can still experience the wind-whipped landscape of arid rocks and lava flows by climbing nearby Pico Viejo, a caldera that tops out at 10,285 feet. The views from Pico Viejo are just as impressive, and the smaller mountain is often less crowded than Teide, where a cable car shuttles visitors to a viewing station just over 500 feet below the volcano’s summit.Harness the wind and wavesThese paragliders are taking in the views in Playa de la Canteria. Getty ImagesSome of the earliest trans-Atlantic voyagers, including Christopher Columbus, made the Canary Islands a stopover on their way across the sea. That’s because the archipelago is a strategic place to catch a ride on the northeasterly trade winds, dependable breezes that buffet the islands’ north coasts.The windiest islands are Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, which have become pilgrimage places for adventure sports driven by ocean swells and incoming breezes.On Lanzarote, paragliders and hang gliders launch from the towering Famara cliff, winding towards the coast with views of turquoise bays and powdery beaches.Tracing slender wakes just off Famara beach are dozens of kite-surfers from the nearby Caleta de Famara surf camp, where everyone from beginning to expert kite-surfers can brush up their skills. And on neighboring Fuerteventura, waves along the northern coast draw a laid-back crowd of surfers from around the world. Fuerteventura’s most famed ride is La Derecha de Lobos, a right-breaking wave that’s the longest in the Canary Islands. But this island’s complex coast is pocked by coves and headlands, allowing experienced surfers to pick the perfect spot for each day’s swell. Explore a prehistoric forestSpot these laurel trees covered in moss in Garajonay National Park, Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain.Getty ImagesGlossy leaves and moss-furred trunks form green tunnels through the Canary Islands’ laurel forest, a subtropical ecosystem of evergreen broadleaf trees that thrive in the moist sea air. Found only in the Macaronesian Islands of the Atlantic — comprising the Canaries, the Azores, Cape Verde and Madeira — this laurel forest is more than an enchanted-looking woodland. It’s also the last-remaining example of an ecosystem that was widespread in Europe between 15 and 40 million years ago before disappearing because of glaciation.Peer into another galaxy Stargazers regularly have nighttime viewing parties in Teide National Park.Turismo de Islas CanariasThe islands of La Palma, Fuerteventura and Tenerife are designated Starlight Reserves, with night-sky clarity ideal for viewing. (Even professional star-watchers prize a trip to the Canary Islands, and Tenerife is home to Europe’s largest solar telescope.) On Tenerife, stargazing tours ascend the flanks of Teide volcano for the best possible views, offering visitors the chance to use high-powered telescopes that can reach beyond our galaxy. And while the tiny island of El Hierro isn’t designated a Starlight Reserve, it’s still a magnificent place to watch the skies.Head to the remote Orchilla Lighthouse to catch a natural show: It’s the westernmost point in Spain, so visitors can watch the sunset linger later than anywhere else in the country. How to visit the Canary IslandsRuled by Spain since the 15th century, the Canary Islands are geographically closer to Africa than Europe. (The Moroccan coast is just 52 nautical miles from the island of Fuerteventura.) When visiting the Canary Islands from the United States, most itineraries make a stopover in mainland Europe. With the exception of tiny La Graciosa, which joined the archipelago in 2018, each of the Canary Islands has an airport. The majority of international travelers touch down at airports on the islands of Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote. You’re not limited to a single island, however, as a network of ferries and affordable, inter-island flights make it easy to hop along the archipelago. Jen Rose Smith is a freelance writer and award-winning guidebook author whose work explores travel, adventure and food. With a home base in Vermont, her recent adventures include cycling around Peru’s highest mountain and eating her way through Istanbul. Read more of Jen’s work at jenrosesmith.com.

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(CNN) — The opportunity to sit on the same toilet as Frank Sinatra doesn’t come around often.That’s why eager fans paid thousands to snag his gold-seated commodes at auction. Furnishings from his executive suite at the former Golden Nugget Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, were auctioned off Sunday by SS Auction, Inc. Casino mogul Steve Wynn selected décor from all over the world to furnish the gigantic suite, which totaled over 6,000 square feet, for Sinatra. Wynn opened the hotel in December 1980, and Sinatra sang there for several years. No one else was allowed to stay there when Sinatra wasn’t in residence, David Berenblit, marketing manager at the auction house, told CNN. This gold-seated toilet sold for $4,250 at auction. SS Auction, Inc. Sinatra’s Italian marble and gold-seated toilets were highly sought after. One sold for $4,250, and his “basic” marble toilet without the gold seat sold for $1,800. “Typically toilets like those would maybe go for $2,000 online,” Berenblit said.”There must have been some gravitas attached because they were Frank Sinatra’s because they overperformed.” Seems like a lot for a toilet? Those prices were a steal for Sinatra fans wanting a taste of his lavish lifestyle. New marble Sinatra-like toilets would cost around $27,000, he said. But fancy toilets weren’t the only items bringing in the big bucks. Frank Sinatra’s baby grand piano sold for $7,000.SS Auction, Inc. Sinatra’s baby grand piano sold for $7,000, and his Ferdinand Berthoud clock went for $13,000. The top seller was a signed Enid Yandell fountain that sold for $33,000. Even on a skinny budget, buyers could walk away with a piece of luxury: A pair of his ottomans sold for $100. All 197 items that were up for auction did get sold. And even though Sinatra died in 1998, many of his fans still want a part of him in their life some 22 years later. “There are a lot of people with a fascination into Frank Sinatra,” said Berenblit. “Here was an opportunity to own something that he used, and I would think that is pretty cool for a Sinatra fan.”

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The Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, consisting of channels, weirs and dams built from volcanic rocks, is one of the world’s most extensive and oldest aquaculture systems, according to UNESCO. Constructed by the Gunditjmara people more than 6,600 years ago, it is older than Egypt’s pyramids.While the aquatic system was known to archaeologists — it was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List last July — additional sections were revealed by the fires that have ripped through the state in December.Gunditjmara representative Denis Rose, project manager at non-profit group Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation, told CNN that the system was significantly bigger than what was previously recorded.”When we returned to the area, we found a channel hidden in the grass and other vegetation. It was about 25 meters (82 feet) in length, which was a fairly substantial size,” Rose said.He said other new structures resembling channels and ponds were now visible in the burnt landscape. “It was a surprise continually finding new ones that the fires revealed,” he added.According to the Aboriginal Corporation’s website, the aquaculture system — which is part of the Budj Bim National Park — it was built by the indigenous population using the abundant volcanic rocks from a now-dormant volcano in the area.UNESCO said Gunditjmara people used the system to redirect and modify waterways to maximize aquaculture yield.”The Budj Bim Cultural Landscape bears an exceptional testimony to the cultural traditions, knowledge, practices and ingenuity of the Gunditjmara,” it said.The fire near the national park was caused by a lightning strike in late December, which eventually spread to some 790 hectares (3 square miles) in size, said Mark Mellington, district manager for Forest Fire Management Victoria.In order to protect the world heritage, firefighters worked with local groups to identify culturally important sites, and used “low impact techniques” to replace heavy machinery when putting out the fires, he said.”These actions prevented the fire spreading beyond containment lines even on an extreme fire day and protected the cultural sites from damage,” he added.The Gunditjmara was one of several groups of indigenous people that used to reside in the southern parts of the present-day Victoria state before the European settlement, according to the Victorian government. Its population was believed to be in the thousands before the 1800s, but dwindled significantly after the Europeans arrived.Rose said that he was relieved that the fires did not cause too much damage to the region compared to other parts of Australia, and hoped it would provide a good opportunity to further explore the ancient aquaculture system.”Over the next few weeks, we are hoping to conduct a comprehensive cultural heritage survey to check areas that were not previously recorded,” he said. “It’s important because it provided a rich, sustainable life for the traditional people, and has continued to be an important part of our cultural life.”

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(CNN) — If 2018 was the year of overtourism, 2019 was the year destinations fought back. Or, rather, vowed to do so. So how will 2020 shape up?From Amsterdam to Venice, in 2019 authorities came up with new rules to fight the crowds and make life better for locals. But how many of those rules have been implemented, and how many drifted away once the noise (and all-important headlines) about their launch subsided?CNN looked at the measures announced by five of Europe’s biggest destinations: Venice, Amsterdam, Santorini, Barcelona and Dubrovnik. All unveiled plans in 2019 to change tourism for the better. Have any of them worked? And what’s on the cards for 2020?Dubrovnik cracks down on all touristsDubrovnik is cutting back on souvenir stands and outdoor seating.Savo Prelevic/AFP/Getty ImagesMayor of Dubrovnik Mato Franković has cast himself as a crusader against mass tourism, shutting down 80% of souvenir stalls, and restricting cruise ships to two per day.The stalls remain closed, and the two-ship rule was abided to 70% of the time during 2019, he tells CNN. It will be further enforced (with, he says, higher compliance) in 2020. “There’s not such a big impact to the city now,” he says. “Everyone should feel comfortable without any [pedestrian] jams.”In November 2019, Franković proposed an effective ban on new restaurants (the vast majority of Dubrovnik restaurants have seating mainly inside, so the legislation has banned any new outdoor tables). That resolution was passed by the city, and a spokesperson told CNN that it is due to come into force for 2020.Other new rules promised for 2020 include introducing a fixed number of prebooked slots for tourist buses and coaches to avoid overcrowding. On busy days, authorities will reserve the right to move slots around, in order to give the city breathing space. There will also be per-bus charges, equating to around $5.50 per person — effectively a daytripper tax.From 2020, the private shuttle buses for cruise passengers from the port to the town will be replaced with regular public transport buses. Since they’re smaller, there will be less a sense of hundreds of people mushrooming at the gates. “It’ll have an effect for the locals on [foot] traffic,” says Franković.The authorities are also clamping down on the mushrooming Airbnb market, by doubling the overnight tax on apartments — paid by the owners — to 1,500 kuna ($223) per year from 2020. Expect the price of your “idyllic Old Town escape” to rise, in order to factor in the tax.Franković says that it’s crucial for destinations to work with providers — whether that’s cruise lines or tour operators — rather than against them. “When you’re taking steps [to limit tourism] you have to be careful because tourism is very vulnerable and we can make mistakes,” he says.Amsterdam says, ‘Pay your way’Amsterdam wants tourists to pay their way.ROBIN UTRECHT/AFP/AFP/Getty ImagesAmsterdam’s new year’s resolution for 2020 is to clamp down on tourists — at least, the wrong kind of tourists.The Netherlands government was already helping out its beleaguered capital — it no longer promotes Amsterdam as a destination, focusing instead on smaller cities and towns. But this year, the city council took further steps to future-proof itself. From April 1 2020, tours of the Red Light District will be banned entirely, and groups in the city center will be capped at 15.What’s more, from January 1, the tax for visitors staying overnight was increased to what experts say could be the “highest in Europe”: 7% of the room price, plus a flat €3 ($3.30) per person. Visitors taking a boat tour of the canals will see their ‘entertainment tax’ go up from €0.66 to €1.50 ($1.70).”Every year the number of tourists that pay a visit to our beautiful city increases,” Victor Everhardt, deputy mayor for economic affairs, tells CNN. It cost the municipality a lot to keep the city safe and clean, and to make sure the infrastructure — bridges, quay walls, streets and sidewalks — are in a good state.”We increased the tourist tax, because we think it’s a more fair contribution to the use of the public space. Of course tourists are welcome to come and visit, but they have to contribute a bit more.” Santorini goes after heavy-hittersDonkeys are the traditonal means of transportation on Santorini.Todd Warshaw/Getty ImagesIt’s known for its spectacular landscape: a prehistoric volcano turned by eruptions into a croissant-shaped island wrapped around the sparkling caldera, which is now filled in by the Aegean Sea. But its good looks have seen Instagram’s favorite Greek island explode with popularity, drowning the pretty whitewashed towns in tourists and having cruise ships swamp the caldera.Its steep cliffs and the villages perched on top of them mean that passengers arriving on a cruise ship have three options to reach the island proper: walking up the switchback cliff path, taking the funicular or hiring a taxi — which in Santorini is a donkey.For 2019, the authorities announced a cap on cruise passengers of 8,000 per day. A new national code of practice in Greece also recommended that donkeys must not carry loads of over 100 kilograms, or a fifth of the animal’s weight — in other words, no more portly tourists in Santorini.The mayor’s office was not available for comment but the port schedule for 2020 suggests that the 8,000 cap has not been applied. CNN checked five dates at random during the summer 2020 season, and found that on four out of five, there were more than 8,000 people due to drop anchor.On September 2, the four ships scheduled to drop anchor have a minimum combined capacity of 9,176 and a maximum of 11,017.On May 14 there are a paltry 2,639 – 2,793 people due to disembark, but the other dates checked are all between 9,000 and 11,000.As for the donkey weight limit, Catherine Rice from the UK-based Donkey Sanctuary, which has worked alongside the donkey taxi unions to ensure better treatment for the animals, tells CNN: “As far as we are aware the code of practice was passed on to municipal authorities in Santorini and other islands.”But a website selling donkey rides makes no mention of any weight limits. It did not respond when we asked what details were needed to make a booking.Venice declares war on mass tourismVenetians have been at the forefront of the fight against tourism.Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty ImagesFacing increasing headlines over badly behaved tourists, the Venetian authorities have come up with several measures to control the tourism that risks destroying the city. And for 2020, the city is cracking down on mass tourism, Michele Zuin, councilor responsible for finance, tells CNN. “It consumes the city and leaves nothing behind,” he says. “We want a better kind of tourism that brings money directly to residents.”In June 2017 they issued a ban on the development of new hotels in the city center, and followed up a year later with a block on new fast food premises.Zuin says that the council has denied applications for two new fast food joints, and shut down 10 others that applied for permission to operate as a bar, and then opened selling fast food.Any hotels that have opened since 2017 got permission before the ban, he says.The only exception to the hotel ban is for those which also offer a “public interest” — for example a meeting room that could be used by the council. Zuin says there have been “very few” of these applications.The council is currently set to consider the application for a 10-story hotel overlooking the monastery and vineyards of San Francesco della Vigna, the only vineyard in Venice proper. It is also offering a gym for the use of local schools. Local media reports that the application was originally denied, but is being considered now that the gym has been proposed. The monks, however, have warned that it will kill their vines.In 2018 Venice also introduced turnstiles along the main thoroughfares into the city, with the aim of redirecting tourists along lesser known streets when numbers peaked.For the past three years they have also found public funding for the “angels of decorum” who patrol the St. Mark’s Square area, helping tourists where needed but also stopping them from behaving badly, and calling the police if a visitor needs to be fined.And 2020 will see the introduction of a “contributo di accesso” — an “access contribution” for daytrippers paid on entry to the city. (Those staying overnight already pay a city tax.)The announcement made headlines around the world in December 2018, but the implementation has been continually delayed. Initially it was slated for May 2019, then September, then January 2020.Zuin says that the delays are due to a government decision that payment must be made to the transport companies taking visitors to Venice — but the transport companies’ refusal.They have now found a solution that will have the payment appear in a pop-up window any time someone books a trip to Venice.Visitors will then have their paperwork checked on arrival in the city. If you’re staying overnight, and therefore don’t need to pay the charge, that will also be checked on arrival.The price will vary depending on the season and the day. On a normal day it’ll be €3 ($3.40). On a busy day that price doubles. And on a day where Venice is “full of tourists,” if you still want to come you’ll pay €8 ($9), says Zuin.The system will also help the authorities monitor tourist flow and footfall for future use, he says. And the money from the fees will be ploughed back into the community, reducing citizens’ taxes for things like trash collection and city maintenance — areas which are affected by what Venetians call “hit and run” day-trippers. But the council is most anxious about stopping the exploding numbers of Airbnbs and short-term rentals in the city, which are driving down the number of living options for locals. Already they charge the same level of overnight taxes as they do hotels. And in December 2019, they passed an order with immediate effect that they hope will translate into an effective “barrier” on new short-term rentals.Anyone wanting to rent out their property for short-term lets must now construct a septic tank beneath the property. This is already a requirement for hotels, but not for houses in this city which, because of its lagoon location, has never had a real sewer system. “We’ve tried to disincentivize [short-term lets],” says Zuin, adding that in Italy, imposing any kind of restriction on them would need legislation at a national level. Instead, the authorities hope that the septic tank requirement will be expensive enough to deter prospective renters. People planning to rent long-term (in other words, to locals) will not have the same requirement. Rapprochement in BarcelonaYou can barely ramble along Las Ramblas in Barcelona these days.Carl Court/Getty Images Europe/Getty ImagesThe Catalan city has acted defiantly towards tourists in the past, banning groups from La Boqueria food market and cracking down on illegal tourist lets. But Albert Dalmau Miranda, manager for the economy, resources and economic promotion at Barcelona council, takes a different tone at the end of 2019.”We accept that tourism is here to stay, and the industry will continue to grow around the world,” he tells CNN. “This isn’t something we can stop, but Barcelona is looking for a different kind of tourism — more quality but at the same time sustainable.”The authorities’ aim is to keep Barcelona “liveable,” so for 2019, they doubled the number of buses on routes from the beach into town (which had been clogged by tourists), using the money from the overnight tourist tax to do so.And they have introduced “agentes civicos,” like Venice’s angels of decorum, to act as a pre-police step for both locals and tourists (to make complaints about noise, for example). There are around 70 of them, says Dalmau, paid for by the overnight tax for tourists. They’re also using marketing to manage visitor numbers, advertising little known places in and around Barcelona is an attempt to spread the volume of tourists (Dalmau points to New York City, which has encouraged visitors into the other boroughs outside Manhattan). “Our own version of the Napa vineyards are 30 minutes outside Barcelona,” he says. To make that feasible, the council is working with the transportation authorities to make tourist-friendly routes to up-and-coming destinations. The other marketing focus is on culture — getting cultural institutions like the Liceu opera house to encourage tourist visits — in order to attract a different kind of visitor. For 2020, that marketing focus will continue, says Dalmau, and the city is also upping its city tax paid by visitors who stay overnight. They expect to approve a price tag in February and implement it in September. And although he refuses to be drawn on how much it might be, he says that they “noticed our tax was lower than other cities” and want to introduce parity. People staying overnight currently pay €0.65 ($0.72) per person per night for a one to three star hotel, or €2.25 ($2.50) for a five star. In contrast, Venice charges €5 ($5.55) per person per night in a five star hotel or top-rated Airbnb.The final marketing push is towards the Barcelona locals themselves. After years of resentment, Dalmau says that “we don’t want [locals] perceiving tourism as something negative. “We want to protect the locals, but we want to show that tourism provides benefits that we’re reinvesting in the city.”To that end, for 2020, everything that’s made possible by income from the tourist tax will be marked as such. That bus? It’ll bear a notice saying it was bought with tourist tax income. That newly pedestrianized street? A placard. That way, they hope to stabilize the fragile balance between locals and visitors.The other destinations will be watching.

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(CNN) — This drone footage captured over a frozen lake in northwest China looks like the inside of a kaleidoscope. The breathtaking views from CNN affiliate CCTV show the top layer of ice on Butterfly Lake in China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on January 17.CCTVThe cracks resemble tree branches but turn into spooky silhouettes with the icy blue and white hues of the frozen lake. A bird’s eye view shows the massive size of the cracks, with the spin of the drone above, the lake transforms into the childhood toy that mirrors images. Shaped like a butterfly, the manmade like has a pedestrian bridge down the middle, lined with snow-covered foliage.CCTVCCTV reported that the cracks in the ice often occur following sudden temperature drops.It was below freezing on that day in January, which is normal for the region, according to CNN Weather.CCTV The recorded temperature in the early morning was 16 degrees with a high of 32 degrees. It dropped back down to 14 degrees in a few hours and the next day, the temperature was zero.

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