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1. Labor strikes in Greece affect travel
Thousands of people went on strike through the streets of Athens on Tuesday to protest a new labor law that would allow for eight-hour shifts to stretch to up to 13 hours. The strike disrupted ferry schedules to and from the Greek islands, public transport in Athens was on a reduced schedule and trains ceased operations, the Associated Press reports.
This was the second general strike against the proposed labor law this month. Unions are pushing not only for the legislation to be withdrawn, but also for working hours to be reduced from 40 hours to 35 hours per week.
2. New US tariffs on furniture, lumber roll out
U.S. President Donald Trump rolled out new tariffs ranging from 10% to 50% on foreign wood products and furniture as of Tuesday at midnight, the New York Times reports. Imported wood and timber have a 10% tariff, upholstered furniture has a 25% tariff, and kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities have a 25% tariff.
The goal of these tariffs is to increase domestic logging and furniture manufacturing, but the increased cost of imports will certainly have an effect on companies that depend on foreign products currently, the newspaper reports.
“Getting manufacturing started in the U.S. isn’t easy,” said Farooq Kathwari, the chief executive of Ethan Allen, a furniture retailer. “We have all these hurdles.”
3. Brand executives see momentum in hotel development
Hotel brand development executives believe the industry is in a better spot today in regard to development than it was a year ago, CoStar News' Stephanie Ricca reports from The Lodging Conference in Phoenix. Targets for development include markets with data-center and other infrastructure development.
“We all started this year with great optimism, and I think the way I would describe where we started to where we are today is ‘momentum,’” said Dan Hansen, head of development in the Americas for Hyatt and global head of the company’s Hyatt Studios brand.
4. US begins imposing fees on Chinese ships
In other tariff-related news, the U.S. began imposing fees on Chinese ships docking at American ports on Tuesday. The tariffs must be paid by ships owned by Chinese shipping companies, and non-Chinese shipping lines will have to pay fees when they send Chinese-built ships to American ports, the New York Times reports.
While shipping companies say they do not intend to raise rates, there are skeptics that believe it will make supply chains more inefficient and will eventually increase costs on imported goods that are already more expensive due to previously enacted tariffs.
“The inefficiencies, along with whatever fees are paid, will raise costs,” said Colin Grabow, an associate director at the Cato Institute. “It’s just a matter of when.”
5. NYC office market booms
Businesses leased 23.2 million square feet of additional Manhattan office space during the first nine months of 2025, the largest amount of new workspace rented in that time frame in 19 years, the Wall Street Journal reports.
There's been a correlation between declining sublet availability and increasing midweek hotel occupancy in major cities such as New York, CoStar News Hotels reported in August. As companies return to the office, the need for business travel increases.
New York is outpacing the rest of the U.S. in office leasing. According to CBRE, Manhattan has surpassed its 2018-2019 levels while the rest of the country is about 11% below its pre-pandemic average.