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1. NYC developers turn migrant hotels into apartments
As New York City continues to shut down its largest migrant hotels, developers in the city are finding another use for the empty buildings — converting them into apartments, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Developers are poised to create more than 1,100 apartments from former hotels, including a former Hilton near the JFK airport and a former 600-key hotel in Midtown Manhattan. No more than 40% of the 160 hotels used as migrant shelters will reopen to the commercial market because of poor conditions.
Most will be converted back to hotels or other commercial uses, but residential conversions are increasingly becoming a likely alternative.
This past weekend, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced the last major hotel housing migrants, the Row NYC in Times Square, will stop operating as a shelter in the coming months, the New York Times reports.
2. US tariffs lead to India boycotting American goods
Indian business executives and supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi are calling for a boycott of American companies such as McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Amazon and Apple in response to 50% tariffs imposed by the U.S., Reuters reports.
Manish Chowdhary, co-founder of India's Wow Skin Science, said in a LinkedIn video that startups need to make "Made in India" a "global obsession."
"We have lined up for products from thousands of miles away. We have proudly spent on brands that we don't own, while our own makers fight for attention in their own country," he said.
3. Hoteliers embrace uncertainty moving forward
On the second day of the Hotel Data Conference Friday, hoteliers expressed hope for demand to recover further, but they are also being realistic about expectations in light of forecast downgrades and continued uncertainty, the CoStar News Hotels team reports.
For coverage of STR's latest forecast revision, an economic update and more from CoStar News Hotels' Natalie Harms, click here.
4. Nepal to waive climbing fees for 97 mountains
Nepal will waive climbing fees for 97 peaks in the northwestern Himalayas for the next two years in an effort to bring more mountaineers to the less-developed region bordering China, Reuters reports.
The country has opened 491 of its peaks but climbers are usually zeroed in on about 25 in particular, including Mount Everest.
"The idea is to encourage climbers to go to unexplored yet scenic areas and mountain peaks," Himal Gautam, an official from Nepal's Tourism Department, said to Reuters.
5. Alaska Airlines, Delta battle for superiority in Seattle
Alaska Airlines and Delta Air Lines keep upping the competition to strengthen their offerings in Seattle, a gateway location to popular destinations in Europe and Asia, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Alaska Air announced a nonstop flight to Rome out of Seattle, the first European route from the airline and the first nonstop flight to the city from Seattle. Three weeks later, Delta announced it would offer the same flight along with a new nonstop flight to Barcelona.
While Alaska Air offers more than double the flights than Delta out of Seattle, Delta has the edge in international travel, with flights to Tokyo, Seoul, Paris and Amsterdam.