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Suborbital space tourism finally arrives | FCC prepares to run public C-band auction | The big four in the U.S. launch industry — United Launch Alliance, SpaceX, Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman — hope to be one of two providers that will receive five-year contracts later this year to launch national security payloads starting in 2022. | China’s launch rate stays high | The International Space Station is the largest ever crewed object in space.

 
Is it Realistic to Focus on Profitability...
Question for Our Revenue Management Expert Panel: Is it realistic to focus on profitability over revenue? How should revenue management teams manage stakeholder expectations? Where might challenges arise? (Question by Diego Fernandez Perez De Ponga)  Our Revenue Management Expert Panel Diego Fernández Pérez De Ponga – Director The post Is it Realistic to Focus on Profitability over Revenue? appeared first on Revfine.com.

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8 Tips to Improve OTA Conversion Rates
In the highly competitive world of online hospitality, mastering the art of OTA listings is not just an advantage—it’s a necessity. With most travelers making their accommodation decisions based on OTA rankings and reviews, understanding how to climb these ranks and convert interest into bookings is the key to success. Your OTA listing can distinguish The post 8 Tips to Improve OTA Conversion Rates appeared first on Revfine.com.

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Short-Term Rental Data: A New Technique to...
The hospitality sector has long underestimated the influence of short-term rental accommodation on their operations, viewing it as a specialized lodging type that wouldn’t impact conventional hotel reservations. However, the swift expansion of short-term rentals, spearheaded by organizations like Airbnb and VRBO, has made an undeniable mark on the hotel industry. The Importance of Short-Term The post Short-Term Rental Data: A New Technique to Forecast Demand at Your Hotel appeared first on Revfine.com.

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Guest Expectations in 2024: 8 Trends You...
As time passes and technology keeps evolving, we enter into a new era of guest expectations. It’s no longer enough to simply meet their needs, and the challenge now lies in exceeding them. In this dynamic landscape, where every guest is an insightful traveler armed with high expectations, how can you ensure your property fulfills The post Guest Expectations in 2024: 8 Trends You Should Be Aware of appeared first on Revfine.com.

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Swiss Maps Are Full of Hidden Secrets
Swiss humor. Now there’s two words you don’t often see together. In fact, Google Trends lists zero occurrences of the phrase between 2004 and now. Even “German humor” produces a graph (albeit a rather flat one). But not only is there some evidence that Swiss comedy does exist, it might just be that being well-hidden is kind of its thing. Find it and laugh. Or don’t, and the joke’s on you! That evidence, as it turns out, is cartographic....

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The Great Hall within the Royal Exchange...
From the outside, Manchester’s Royal Exchange looks similar to many of the other Victorian-era buildings around the city center, although the ground floor features multiple shops and restaurants as well as an arcade running through the center of the building. Steps on the east and west sides of the building lead to entrances with signs for the Royal Exchange Theatre mounted above on glass awnings. The average passerby might assume that these entrances lead to a lobby adjoining the...

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This 1,700 Year Old Egg Never Broke—And...
About 50 miles northwest of London sits a very old wishing well. Romans used to toss objects into the water here, offering items to the gods for good luck. Nearly 2,000 years later, archaeologists are still finding ancient artifacts from what is now a large, muddy pit, including coins, ceramic pots, shoes, and even bones from between 270 and 300 AD. The site is called Berryfields, which has an Iron Age Roman settlement along its southern edge and medieval...

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Geographical Center of the Entire United States...
In an open field about 20 miles north of the more accessible Center of the Nation Monument, there is a small marker that indicates the actual center of the United States, as designated by the U.S. National Geodetic Survey. Determining the center of an irregularly shaped land mass sitting on the curved surface of our planet is a difficult task. Coming up with an answer has posed a unique challenge for mathematicians and surveyors. It gets even more complicated when...

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World's Largest Kokopelli in Camp Verde, Arizona
All across the Four Corners region of the United States, visitors will often come across a half-kitsch, half-spiritual figure known as Kokopelli. The popularity of the Kokopelli figure crested across the Southwest during the early 21st century, but its origins lie before the dawn of the historical record. And with more than a thousand years of history behind it, the largest and most imposing likeness of this mythic flute-playing figure can be found in a roadside Starbucks parking lot...

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Hugin Longship in Cliffsend, England
The ship was a gift from the Danish government to commemorate the 1500th anniversary of the arrival of Hengist and Horsa, legendary brothers who led the first Anglo-Saxon tribes. It’s said that the brothers landed at nearby Ebbsfleet in 449 CE, shortly after the betrothal of Hengist’s daughter, Rowena, to King Vortigen of Kent in exchange for land. This Hugin itself is a replica of the Gokstad ship, a Viking vessel dating from the 9th century. Though the ship...

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7 Crazy True Stories About the Victorian...
We can’t seem to get enough of the Victorian Era, and the denizens of that mid- and late-19th century period that saw fascinating changes in science and society. Our obsession with everything from their fashion sense to their prudery has led to countless wondrous stories. Some are mere historical embellishment (you’ve heard about those “sexy” furniture legs?) but other wacky tales are all-too-true. Here’s a collection of our favorites from the Atlas Obscura archives. Clearing Up Some Myths About...

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Grand Mosque of Agadez in Agadez, Niger
Built in 1515 during the reign of the Songhai Empire, this mosque showcases the culmination of decades of the Tuareg people’s desire to perfect their building methods. According to legend, the mosque was built in one night, after Isha prayer, before the sun rose the following morning by Muslim scholar Imam Bahkili. The minaret that sits at the heart of the shrine stands approximately 27 meters (89 feet) tall, making it the tallest mud-brick structure in the world. You...

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How Alligators and Humans Became Friends—Kind Of
Inside New Orleans’s Great American Alligator Museum, visitors’ emotions can run the gamut—from spine-chilling apprehension to warm-and-fuzzy affection. “Many people come into the museum and marvel at Fideaux, our 14-foot taxidermy alligator who greets visitors with a wide toothy grin as they enter the main gallery, saying, ‘That’s a dinosaur!’” says Liz McDade, co-owner of the museum. “And then as they take a few more steps inside, we hear people talking about ‘Killer’—our baby alligator [part of Louisiana’s conservation...

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Where Did Humans Evolve? (Probably Not Where...
Drive west about two hours from the vibrant souks of Marrakech and you will reach the small village of Tlet Ighoud. The rural community stretches along the intersection of two narrow, minor highways. If you follow one of them north for a couple miles, you’ll find an old pit from an abandoned mining operation. In this arid region, the site’s tumble of red and orange rocks seems like nothing special, but it was here, more than 60 years ago,...

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Brister Freeman Homestead Site in Concord, Massachusetts
Not far from Walden Pond, where Henry David Thoreau lived for two years in a cabin he built along its shore, sits a solitary stone that tells a story about another man. It’s a story that many have never heard, even though Thoreau himself wrote about it, though briefly. The stone commemorates the life of Brister Freeman. Brister Freeman was born Brister Cuming in Concord around 1744 and spent roughly the first 25 to 30 years of his life as...

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