Our team of editors gauge the biggest stories of the year according to the impact they have on the travel industry and beyond, but our readers also tell us what they think is important, as measured by how many people read our content at TravelWeekly.com.
Here, we've gathered the 10 articles published in 2019 that received the most page views.
In cases where top stories were very similar by theme -- Hurricane Dorian coverage, for example -- we've grouped them here under a joint header. What's also not on this list are older reports that tend to have staying power. For example, a report published at the beginning of 2018, "Packing pot: How risky is it?" was one of our most popular articles this year. Our map of the status of resort and attraction restorations in the wake of the 2017 hurricanes also received a steady stream of hits through 2019.
But among the news reports produced in 2019, the following were the most read.
1) Hurricane Dorian: One of our most read of the year was "Royal Caribbean to reopen CocoCay after brush with Hurricane Dorian:" The Category 5 hurricane wreaked havoc on Grand Bahama and the Abacos, and it also impacted cruise schedules and some private islands. Other popular Dorian articles: "Threatened by Dorian resorts close across the Bahamas," and a report about the devastation on the Abacos Islands.
2) Damage to Bahamas shipyard leaves cruise lines desperate, July 23: The largest drydock at the Grand Bahama Shipyard was put out of commission earlier this year after a crane collapsed during a refurb of the Oasis of the Seas, demonstrating how few drydock options exist on the East Coast. The crane collapse also cost Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. $52 million, mostly in lost revenue.
3) Viking River Cruises mum on most recent accident, June 12: Viking went silent about reports that one of its river ships hit a lock in Germany, shutting down part of the Main-Danube canal to all traffic.
4) The Beaches Turks & Caicos dispute: In the report "Sandals sheds more light on the Beaches Turks & Caicos dispute" on Jan. 30, Sandals said it would indefinitely close this resort in 2021 because the Turks & Caicos government had raised taxes on the property after saying it would not. Two other articles in this dispute appeared in the top spots: When Beaches scheduled the closures and when it said in May that the resort would remain open.
5) River lines struggling to sell season, April 15: As the industry kicked off the 2019 season, several lines were circulating special deals to fill prime-season inventory.
6) The Palms makes a play to become Vegas' new party spot, April 8: The newly renovated Palms revealed its 100,000-square-foot, day- and nightclub space called Kaos. The space closed later in the year.
7) Oasis of the Seas getting $165 million renovation, May 21: The grande dame of the Oasis class turned 10 and was tapped for a major refurb; it received a Spotlight Karaoke, the Music Hall, a barbecue restaurant and the Ultimate Abyss waterslide.
8) Returning to St. Maarten/Martin, 20 months after Hurricane Irma, June 4: Twenty months after Hurricane Irma slammed into the dual French-Dutch island of St. Martin, contributing Caribbean editor Gay Nagle Myers visited for a first-person report. As she flew in low over the beach, she wrote, "I knew I'd be seeing a lot of change on the island, but I was heartened that the landing pattern was still the same."
9) Marriott to no longer operate Frenchman's Reef Resort in St. Thomas, July 26: Property owner DiamondRock Hospitality Co. tapped Aimbridge Hospitality to manage the resort. However, it's remaining in the Marriott portfolio: It will be called the Frenchman's Reef Marriott Resort and Spa.
10) Is Hong Kong safe?, Sept. 30: In his weekly From the Window Seat column, editor in chief Arnie Weissmann wrote that after viewing the protests on the news this summer, "It seemed a descent into violence in a destination I have been visiting for 35 years, one I feel close to and where I have friends and colleagues. I decided to see for myself what was going on."