Flight search data from cheap flights comparison site Skyscanner has revealed that the US has topped this year’s list as the nation to have the highest year on year increase in summer searches to South Africa, hosts of this-year’s World Cup.

Lifestyle Holidays Vacation Club (LHVC), with corporate offices in Puerto Plata on the North Coast of the Dominican Republic, announces its third property launch as part of a strategic alliance with Spain-based Globalia Corporation, opening sales at Grand Oasis Punta Cana. The new joint product will be called Dream Suites by Lifestyle at Grand Oasis Resort Punta Cana, and will feature 46 studios and standard rooms.

Former tennis ace and entrepreneur David Lloyd, Chairman of David Lloyd Resorts – the worldwide property and vacation specialists – has launched a ground-breaking alternative investment fund and ingenious vehicle designed to facilitate ownership abroad.

Royal Caribbean International has announced the deployment of Royal Caribbean International’s Liberty of the Seas to Barcelona next year. Liberty of the Seas will be the world’s largest and most innovative cruise ship to be based in the Mediterranean Sea in 2011.

Novaterra Resorts today announced that Arcos Gardens Golf Club & Country Estate in Cadiz, Spain, has affiliated with The Registry Collection® exchange programme, the world’s largest luxury exchange network.

NORTH AMERICA February 24 through April 25, the Philadelphia Museum of Art continues its tradition of hosting major traveling exhibitions that lure art lovers from around the country with the blockbuster exhibition Picasso and the Avant-Garde in Paris. The works therein, pulled from the museum’s own collection and from loans by individuals, explore the decades between 1905 and 1945 – the period some consider to be the artist’s most productive and influential. Internationally recognized as one of the most innovative and influential artists of the twentieth century, Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973) was at his most ferociously inventive between 1905 and 1945.

Holiday France Direct, the independent holiday homes specialist, has launched a wide range of French self catering properties in its new 2010 brochure. They can also be viewed at www.holidayfrancedirect.co.uk.

Here’s just a sampling of some noteworthy – and sometimes offbeat – happenings across the globe over the next couple of months.

For many house hunters searching for a place in the sun, the thought of purchasing a home on a golf course may never have occurred to them if they are not an avid golf player.  However, with the benefits that these types of developments bring to home owners, it may well be time to think [...]

A Flagship for W Hotels Globally, W Barcelona is the Latest in the Brand’s Continued Expansion to Become a Global Powerhouse, Including Upcoming Openings in London, and Paris W Hotels Worldwide, the hotel category buster and industry innovator, today unveils a global brand flagship hotel, W Barcelona. An icon of stunning architecture rising high above [...]