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ILULISSAT, Greenland — Greenland has opened a new international airport, seeking to lure visitors from around the world as the Arctic island looks toward eventual independence from Denmark.

The inaugural international flight between Copenhagen, Denmark, and Ilulissat, Greenland Thursday was part of the island government’s efforts to grow its tourism industry to boost and diversify an economy still reliant on fishing.

Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen described the new airport as “one of the biggest investments” in the island’s history. Nielsen was one of 169 passengers on Thursday’s 4.5-hour flight on an Airbus A330neo. An Associated Press journalist also took the flight, operated by government-owned Air Greenland, as part of a trip organized by tourism agency Visit Greenland, for this story.

“If Greenland wants to be independent, we need to have a strong foundation, both economically and in terms of industry and business,” Nielsen told the AP before the plane departed.

The strategic island, home to roughly 56,000 people, has been a focus of President Trump since his first term, when he initially expressed his desire to acquire Greenland. His repeated threats to seize the territory from Denmark, a NATO ally, during his second term prompted months of tensions with other NATO allies. In September, Trump signed an agreement with the leaders of Denmark and Greenland to strengthen security in the Arctic and North Atlantic.

“There’s no doubt that it has been a shadow over the entire Kingdom of Denmark, but especially Greenland,” said Danish Finance Minister Peter Hummelgaard, who also took the inaugural flight. “The opening of this new international airport marks, I think, hope and optimism.”

New international airports seek to lure new visitors

Ilulissat, known as the “City of Icebergs,” sits along the island’s western coast and is home to some 5,000 people. Greenland’s third-largest city is also one of the island’s most-visited destinations. More than 342 miles north of the capital, Nuuk, its tourism offerings range from sled dog tours to icefjord cruises in picturesque Disko Bay, known for its towering icebergs.

Previously, travelers reaching Ilulissat had to arrive by cruise ship, take a small plane from Iceland or fly to one of Greenland’s international hubs and connect to smaller aircraft. There are no road connections from other big towns.

For decades, Greenland’s main international aviation gateways were former U.S. military air bases, distant echoes of World War II, in Kangerlussuaq and Narsarsuaq. Locals and international visitors had to land there before catching smaller aircraft to the island’s major towns, including Ilulissat and Nuuk. That changed in late 2024, when an international airport opened in Nuuk.

United Airlines last year began a new seasonal route between Nuuk and Newark, New Jersey. The inaugural flight was the first direct from the U.S. to Greenland by an American airline.

The Ilulissat airport, meanwhile, has a 53,820 square feet terminal and a new 1.37-mile runway, long enough to accommodate larger passenger aircraft. Air Greenland has committed to as many as six weekly flights between Copenhagen and Ilulissat during next year’s peak summer months, and Icelandair will also fly large jets from its Keflavik hub. Jens R. Lauridsen, CEO of Greenland Airports, said the company is also hoping to lure airlines in the U.S. and mainland Europe to serve Ilulissat.

“It’s quite wonderful that you can go directly right now,” said Kirsten Berthelsen, a 35-year-old Ilulissat resident and student who booked a ticket for Thursday’s flight without realizing it was the inaugural service. “Sometimes it’s quite difficult to travel from Nuuk and to other countries.”

Tourism boom remains elusive

While the number of international visitors to Greenland has grown by at least 65% since 2018, reaching almost 150,000 in 2024, the expected travel boom has yet to materialize. In 2024, tourism accounted for less than 5% of the territory’s GDP. Infrastructure, including hotel capacity, remains limited.

Aalborg University associate professor Carina Ren, who specializes in Arctic tourism, said some U.S. tourists were even deterred from visiting the island because of the recent Trump standoff, with a few canceling their flights.

“I’ve heard of people canceling their bookings, but also others canceling because they were afraid that perhaps they would not be welcomed,” she said, adding that many Americans still visit, particularly on cruise ships.

Even so, there are some local concerns about mass tourism and potential damage to Greenland’s fragile nature.

Palle Jerimiassen, a former regional mayor, said he fears the city’s environment, population and infrastructure may be overwhelmed by too many visitors.

“How many can we invite?” he said. “We are welcoming all the tourists, it’s a possibility to earn some new money.”

He added: “But we have to be careful.”

Brooks writes for the Associated Press.

The surge in soccer fans this summer was bad for some businesses in Los Angeles.

World Cup host cities had lofty economic expectations for the summer tournament. But the city’s hotels only got a 1% bump in occupancy, according to a report published this week by Hospitality Education and Research Organization, a project of the Hotel Assn. of Los Angeles.

Seventy-two percent of surveyed hotels said the tournament hurt their 2026 finances, and 48% called the impact “extremely negative.” Just 2% said it met projections.

Downtown occupancy reached 66% in June, down from 71% a year earlier, the report says. Room nights fell between 10% and 12%.

Hotel guests at the Metropole restaurant just opposite the main lobby at the Hotel Indigo in downtown Los Angeles in May.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Ahead of World Cup tournaments, FIFA holds large blocks of rooms. But FIFA canceled or released up to 70% of the hotel room blocks it had reserved in host cities, including Los Angeles.

“We understood that we were maybe going to be disappointed with attendance going into the World Cup simply by the volume of cancellations that came out of the room block agreement,” said Jackie Filla, president and CEO of the Hotel Assn. of Los Angeles.

The disappointing turnout led to staff reductions. Of the hotels surveyed 82% reduced seasonal staff and more than six in 10 reported reducing employee shifts, scheduled hours, or permanent staff.

Hotels did raise prices, with the average daily rate hitting $228, the highest of any comparable L.A. event in three years. But occupancy was 71%, well below the 83% recorded during Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.

A visitor walks in the lobby of the Hotel Indigo in downtown Los Angeles.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

The survey drew 58 responses from 210 hotels, and the analysis was done by travel-data firm Rove using CoStar and AirDNA data. International visitors were also scarce, with Los Angeles welcoming 700,000 international arrivals in June and July — roughly 80,000 visitors below 2024 levels for the same period, the report says.

“We particularly didn’t see a lot of foreign visitors and that’s something that was disappointing,” Filla said. “Foreign visitors do spend three times the amount of money as the average domestic traveler.”

Short-term rentals, meanwhile, gained. Their demand rose 23% and revenue 21% versus July 2024, while hotel revenue fell 3.3%. Airbnb, the tournament’s official fan accommodation, offered new hosts $750 incentives.

The city is currently weighing a temporary proposal to ease its short-term rental rules through the end of 2028 to accommodate tourists. “That will really, truly undercut the business of hotels,” Filla added. “We saw some of that with the World Cup.”

The worry is carrying over to the Olympic Games, set to be hosted in Los Angeles in 2028. Six in 10 surveyed hoteliers expect an Olympic rental surge to hurt their bookings and rates, the report says.

The World Cup “gave us false hope to recover from a negative year,” one Los Angeles hotelier said, according to the report. “I also feel [the] same thing will probably happen for [the] Super Bowl and Olympics.”