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Jetflix and chill
FANS of the newly released movie The Little Mermaid are flooding online to book their own underthesea adventure on the shores of Sardinia, with months of build up to the release driving a 216 per cent increase in search results on the easyJet Holidays website.
As setjetting gains popularity, fuelled by the prevalence of international settings in popular TV shows and movies, easyJet Holidays has discovered a significant yearonyear increase in searches for destinations providing TV escapism. The Little Mermaid isn’t the only watch fuelling demand for European travel.
Unsurprisingly, the second season of Emmywinning drama The White Lotus has also seen a tourism spike of 198 per cent to Sicily as wander lusters seek to holiday like wealthy but miserable romantic Tanya McQuoidHunt and her putupon assistant, Portia. Whilst the premiere season of House of the Dragon, has inspired die hard ‘Thronies’ to flock to the Spanish city of Granada, which has seen a 132 per cent increase in searches. Similarly, the iconic capital of France is seeing unwavering interest year on year as hopeful romantics yearn for their own Emily in Paris experience, recording a 143 per cent increase.
LATEST figures show that visitors donated more than £2.5 million to the National Trust through purchasing secondhand books at Trust properties in 2022.
Record-breaking
This recordbreaking income for the Trust in this area could in part be reflective of the growing awareness amongst society of the need to reduce and reuse in a bid to cut consumption. This has been seen particularly strong amongst those with small children, with books aimed at this audience making up a higher proportion of donations. The rapid growth in the preloved economy that was reported by the Centre for Economics and Business Research last October as a result of the cost of living crisis could also be a factor.
The Centre said that Britain’s preloved market grew to approximately £6.5 billion in 2022 and it is expected to double to £12.6 billion over the next five years. The Trust has also seen an increasing number of rare and highvalue books making an appearance.
Anna Ellis
THE Stars Gala is celebrating its 10th anniversary by bringing together the great stars of world ballet at the Teatro Principal in Alicante on July 22 at 8.00pm.
The event, an essential part of the city’s summer programme, will bring together nearly 100 young artists from the Russian Master’s Ballet (RMB) and live musicians.
The gala will feature a stellar cast of principal dancers from the largest theatres in Europe including Anna Ol, Young Guy Choi, Yolanda Correa, Ricardo Castellanos, Svetlana Bednenko, Nelson López,
