After delays from renovations, natural disasters and general construction, there are a number of big-name travel destinations set to open in 2024. From the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo to the Tiana’s Bayou Adventure attractions at Disneyland in Anaheim, California and Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, here are five travel spots to visit in the new year.
Notre Dame Cathedral in France
Notre Dame is slated for a December 2024 reopening, which means people have already started booking tickets. According to Friends of Notre Dame, the “safety phase” to secure the cathedral was completed in 2021 after a fire destroyed its roof and spire in April 2019.
Kobe Port Tower in Kobe, Japan
When the Kobe Port Tower closed in 2021 due to COVID-19 restrictions, property managers started work on renovations they hoped to complete by 2023. As of now, the city’s biggest tourist attraction is set to reopen in spring 2024.
Cairo’s Grand Egyptian Museum
Chronic delays have foiled the billion-dollar state-of-the-art Grand Egyptian Museum, better known as the GEM, much to the chagrin of travelers since 2019. According to their website, the GEM is now scheduled to open by early 2024. The GEM is set to house 100,000 artifacts, 20 percent of which will be on public display for the first time, over 12 exhibition halls that take up 44,965 square meters of floor space.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure in Disney World, Disneyland
This year, Disneyland’s Splash Mountain officially closed after more than 33 years at the California resort. The move came after a petition to change the beloved water ride’s theme went viral in 2020. Scheduled to open in its place in 2024, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, based on the 2009 Disney animated film “The Princess and the Frog,” will replace Splash Mountain at both Disneyland in California and at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom in Florida.
Underground at Adventureland in Des Moines, Iowa
Opened in 1974 in a small former airport in Des Moines, Iowa, Adventureland became a family vacation staple for travelers in the US Midwest throughout the 1970s and ’80s. Just a few years after its opening, a wooden roller coaster called Tornado, named after the tornado that delayed the park’s grand opening, was added. To mark the 50th anniversary of the park’s opening, a new feature called the Underground is set to open in 2024. (UPI)
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