Skift Travel News Blog

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company has expanded its partnership with artist Louis-Nicolas Darbon on a series of travel posters to celebrate the brand’s ongoing partnership with the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team. 

The series features seven posters inspired by the cities featured in the 2022 Formula 1 season – including Miami, Montreal, Mexico City, Melbourne, Budapest, Singapore and Abu Dhabi – as well as special edition portraits of drivers Sir Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.

Each poster is available as an original canvas or limited edition print, with signed portraits also available. The canvases and posters are available for purchase here, with all proceeds from the sales being donated to the Sutton Trust, as part of the brands Community Footprints program. 

“The Ritz-Carlton has a long history of giving back,” said Jenni Benzaquen, senior vice president and global brand leader, at The Ritz-Carlton and St. Regis in a press release. 

“As we continue to expand our relationship with the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team, we are proud to support their partner, Sutton Trust, and its commitment to championing social mobility.”

The new Eurostar – which has been created following the merger of Eurostar and Thalys – has launched with a new brand identity, all underpinned by its new motto, ‘Together We Go Further’.

The launch, which includes a new website, mobile app and loyalty program, has kicked off with a new 60-second advertisement created by adam&eveDDB and DDB Paris, which will launch across the rail operators European destinations from 16 October 2023.

In addition to the TV spot, the campaign also features a number of out of home and digital elements, for which ten artists were commissioned from the cities served by Eurostar, with the aim of ‘bringing each destination to life’. 

“Travel inspires us and renews our sense of creativity, which we wanted to bring to life in our new campaign. We wanted to create the feeling of excitement customers feel when they are about to embark on a journey to discover Europe. We have packed the commercial and OOH ads with hidden details for the public to enjoy and discover the more they revisit, in the same way we explore our destinations,” said François Le Doze, chief commercial officer at Eurostar.

Virgin Voyages have expanded their partnership with Chief Entertainment, Lifestyle & Celebration Officer, Jennifer Lopez, with the introduction of Jen AI, a new personalized invitation tool.

Thanks to the newly launched campaign, customers will now have the opportunity to create a personalized invitation from Jennifer Lopez, or at the very least, an impressive resemblance of her, thanks to the Jen AI tool.

By simply answering a few questions, guests will have the power to generate a personalized invitation from Lopez thanks to augmented reality, which can then be shared with friends and family.

Take a look at the tongue in cheek video from Virgin Voyages about the new tool below:

You can create your own personalized invite by visiting the Virgin Voyages Jen AI website.

At Skift, we are looking to unearth the most creative and forward-thinking innovations in travel through our Skift Ideas Franchise, which includes the Skift IDEA Awards, Skift Editorial Hub and the Skift Ideas Podcast.

You can listen and subscribe to the Skift Ideas Podcast through your favorite podcast app here.

National Geographic, the 134 year-old media brand now majority owned by Disney, has appointed former Editor of Travel+Leisure Nathan Lump as its new Editor-In-Chief. Lump was most recently serving as global head of Editorial and Entertainment at Expedia Group. 

In his new role, Lump will manage the content strategy of the National Geographic editorial team —  leading a team of 130+ editors, writers, photographers and designers– as part of National Geographic Media, which operates in over 170 countries.

“Another key priority will be integrating the important work of the National Geographic Society into the brand’s editorial strategy and extending the reach of Nat Geo Media’s storytelling across The Walt Disney Company and its customers,” the company said in the announcement.