A new blanket travel advisory against all but essential travel has been put on Saudi Arabia by the UK’s Foreign Office

Hotel owner Alex Polizzi also points to VAT rates and tourist taxes as also hurting the hospitality industry

Hotel owner Alex Polizzi also points to VAT rates and tourist taxes as also hurting the hospitality industry

The government has also announced a further £220 million in funding for councils in England to tackle potholes

The government has also announced a further £220 million in funding for councils in England to tackle potholes

The government has also announced a further £220 million in funding for councils in England to tackle potholes

Make your next ski trip unforgettable for all the right reasons and use this guide to find the perfect ski or snowboard instructor for your ability, budget and individual needs

Make your next ski trip unforgettable for all the right reasons and use this guide to find the perfect ski or snowboard instructor for your ability, budget and individual needs

While many travellers heading south in the States flock to Atlanta, Nashville and other better-known spots, it might just be time to take a closer look at Birmingham.

While many travellers heading south in the States flock to Atlanta, Nashville and other better-known spots, it might just be time to take a closer look at Birmingham.

Attack on Dammam airport

Attack on Dammam airport

Silversea has started welcoming guests to its exclusive hotel for Antartica fly cruise passengers

Silversea has started welcoming guests to its exclusive hotel for Antartica fly cruise passengers

• Japan's aging population and rural exodus are fueling a small-business succession crisis.
• With no heirs, many aging business owners are listing their companies on succession platforms, often at low prices.
• Meet the young entrepreneurs betting on themselves to keep these businesses alive.

Six days a week, Kengo Ohama is up before the sun. He takes 5 minutes to get ready, and is soon out the door for an hourlong motorbike ride to the neighboring town of Mihara in Hiroshima, Japan.

By 6 a.m., he pulls up outside a log-cabin-style building, home to Country Road, the café and roastery that he's been managing with his wife since April.

He cleans the space, makes pastries, roasts coffee beans, and serves guests throughout the day. After the last table has cleared, Ohama stays behind to prepare for tomorrow. By the time he gets home, it is already 11 p.m.

Ohama had always dreamed of opening a café. When he found an established one listed on Relay, a Japanese business-succession platform, it felt like fate.

The café's owners, an older couple looking to retire, no longer had the physical stamina to run the business."Their biggest wish was simply for someone to take good care of the shop and keep it a lively place," Ohama, 31, told Business Insider.

The terms of the takeover were simple: He had to keep the business operating, but was free to redesign the interiors as he saw fit. "That flexibility made the opportunity very attractive," Ohama said.

Ohama now covers 50,000 Japanese yen in monthly rent for the building. The business itself — including the brand, furniture, kitchen equipment, recipes, and supplier information — was transferred to him for zero Japanese yen.

A new generation steps in

Ohama is part of a younger generation taking over Japan's small businesses as their longtime owners age out with no successor in sight.

The country's low birth rate and rapidly aging population have left many business owners without adult children to inherit their companies. Even when they do have kids, those heirs may live elsewhere, have established careers, or simply not want to take on the demands of running a local business.

In 2023, the Japan Finance Corporation found that 57.4% of small and midsize businesses it surveyed expected to close when their current owners stepped away, up from 52.6% in 2019.

That gap has created an opening for platforms such as Relay and BATONZ, which connect owners looking to hand over their businesses with prospective successors.

Relay has listed about 900 businesses to date, including roughly 350 active listings, a representative told Business Insider. Owners looking to pass on their businesses are often in their 60s and 70s, while successors are often in their 30s and 40s.

BATONZ, which also handles more conventional acquisitions by companies looking to expand, has listed more than 42,000 businesses and matched 3,421 buyer-seller pairs as of March 2026, a spokesperson told Business Insider.

Keeping a beloved place open

For some business owners, these platforms can offer a lifeline when an unexpected crisis forces them to confront succession planning sooner than they expected.

Akitaka Mitsui spent years working as an outdoor tour guide before opening Mori to Mizu Backpackers in Nagano, a city in central Japan known for its alpine landscapes, in 2011.

When the pandemic brought travel to a standstill, he temporarily closed the guesthouse. Even after it was safe to reopen, he had to scale back the operation and cut staff.

By 2022, visitor numbers were picking up again, and Mitsui was considering expanding once more. Then he suffered a stroke.

"It was not severe, but I had to be hospitalized," Mitsui, 67, told Business Insider. "The cause of the stroke was never identified, which meant it could happen again. I began to think it would be better to stop running the business."

He turned to BATONZ to find a successor outside his family.

"I never intended to make my children take over the business," he said. "I wanted them to do what they wanted to do with their own lives."

Enter Kota Fujisawa, a Nagano native who moved to Tokyo for university and later worked in consulting.

Fujisawa, 29, had been looking for a way to help revitalize his home region. Along with two childhood friends, he took over the guesthouse in May 2024, though one of them has since left the business. They renamed it Local Knot Backpackers.

He said they paid less than 10 million Japanese yen for the business, which came with its website, booking systems, and staff. The building was not part of the transfer, and he declined to disclose the monthly rent.

It is a drastic change from his stable office job, where he worked on just one part of larger projects. Now, as a small-business owner, Fujisawa has more freedom to shape the entire operation and decide where to take it next.

"My previous work was mainly desk-based, but I now spend much more time on-site and have more opportunities to communicate directly with a wide range of tourists," Fujisawa told Business Insider.

Still, there is a balancing act: Taking over an established business means deciding what to preserve and what to rework.

"If we changed everything, it would become a completely different place," he said.

Getting a foothold in a new industry

Beyond handing over entire businesses, succession platforms can also help aspiring entrepreneurs gain access to the infrastructure they need to get started.

For Takayuki Otawara, a 29-year-old former civil servant in Miyazaki, it opened a path into farming despite his lack of agricultural experience. His interest in cacao farming began during a stressful stretch at work, when he discovered craft chocolate and fell in love with it.

"I had never farmed before," Otawara told Business Insider. "The only thing I had ever grown was a small tomato plant for a primary-school project."

His parents initially opposed his decision to leave a stable government job for farming. His friends, though, were more encouraging. "They mostly thought it sounded interesting," he said.

To get started, Otawara needed a greenhouse and farmland, neither of which his family owned. After struggling to find one through local farmers, he turned to Relay and found a listing from a strawberry-farming family looking to scale back their operations as they got older.

Under a business succession agreement, Otawara bought a greenhouse and irrigation equipment from the original owners for 3 million Japanese yen.

He used the facilities to start his own farm, where he now grows cacao alongside strawberries, bananas, rice, and other crops.

He is at the farm every day, where his work begins at 6 a.m. and often ends around 7 p.m. He is usually in bed by 10 p.m.

The work is more demanding than his former office job, which came with weekends and public holidays off. However, farming has given him a kind of satisfaction he never found as a civil servant.

"The work I put in comes back to me directly as results," Otawara said. "In the government, you have a clearer idea of what your salary and career will look like until retirement. Now, how much I do and how much I earn can change. I find that exciting and rewarding."

Americans traveling in and through the Middle East have a new wrinkle to sort out.

The U.S. State Department has pushed back against circulating reports that it directed nonessential government personnel and their dependents to leave the entire Gulf region, clarifying that the departure order applies only to Saudi Arabia.

State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott dismissed the broader regional claims, calling them "inaccurate" after the department released a formal statement confirming the targeted drawdown within the kingdom. 

"The U.S. Department of State issued an ordered departure for non-emergency U.S. government employees and their family members in Saudi Arabia," the department said. 

AMERICANS WARNED AGAINST TRAVEL PLANS AS TERRORISM THREATENS POPULAR DESTINATION

The clarification arrived amid an uptick in militant strikes aimed at key regional transit hubs. 

In the statement shared with Fox News Digital, the spokesperson noted that "Iranian-supported Houthis have increasingly engaged in hostilities against Saudi Arabia, including attacks on civilian airports and other critical infrastructure resulting in civilian casualties and severe travel disruptions."

Officials warned the security environment remains highly volatile, adding the conflict "has the potential to escalate rapidly, including beyond that immediate area."

The department emphasized that the safety and security of its staff and its households remain its highest priority. 

US STATE DEPARTMENT WARNS AMERICANS OF GROWING SECURITY RISKS IN HISTORIC REGION

The United States "will continue to take all necessary steps to protect and support them as they return to the U.S.," the spokesperson said.

In late September, the State Department renewed its warning to Americans traveling in and through the Middle East amid escalating regional tensions.

The warning came as Iran-backed Houthi rebels launched a ballistic missile toward Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which Saudi Arabia said its air defenses intercepted.

Residents reported hearing an explosion and later seeing a plume of smoke near King Khalid International Airport, according to The Associated Press.

No casualties or damage from the attack were reported at the time.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER

In an X post in September, the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs warned that the security environment in the Middle East "remains complex with the potential for unforeseen escalation."

The agency added, "Americans currently in the Middle East should exercise heightened vigilance and be aware of potential flight cancellations, airspace closures and travel disruptions."

Officials specifically cited hostilities between Saudi Arabia and the Iran-backed Houthis in their warning.

"Iranian-supported Houthis have engaged in hostilities against Saudi Arabia, including civilian airports," the post said.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE LIFESTYLE NEWS

"This military conflict has the potential to escalate rapidly. Americans outside the Middle East should seriously reconsider travel to and through the region."

The agency also advised those traveling to or from the region to monitor airport and airline operations, warning that U.S. diplomatic facilities have been targeted, including outside the Middle East.

In June, U.S. officials similarly urged Americans across the Middle East to remain vigilant as tensions mounted across the region.

TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ

At the time, officials warned that airspace closures, demonstrations and threats to locations associated with the United States could disrupt travel with little notice.

The State Department also maintained its "Level 3: Reconsider Travel" advisory for Oman in an Aug. 30 update, warning of risks from armed conflict and terrorism, including the threat of drone and missile attacks from Iran.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Andrea Margolis of Fox News Digital and The Associated Press contributed reporting.

A 70-year-old man disappeared for more than 24 hours, prompting an extensive search that stretched into the evening.

The Oahu man was last seen in the Big Island's Volcano area before he was reported missing around 12:16 p.m. Oct. 19, according to the Hawaii Police Department.

The man was identified as David Arai, whose son told Hawaii-based news station KHON2 his father was familiar with the area's hiking trails and that he frequently hiked alone.

MISSING 72-YEAR-OLD HIKER FOUND ALIVE DAYS AFTER FRIGHTENING 100-FOOT FALL LEFT HER BADLY INJURED

Police believed the man was at risk due to his age and other information gathered during the investigation.

Officers later located Arai's empty rental car inside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, according to the department.

Hawaii Island police and National Park personnel searched the area on the ground, while a Hawaii Fire Department helicopter assisted from above.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Hawaii Police Department and David Arai for comment.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER

K-9 Trina, a 3-year-old Labrador retriever specially trained to track people by scent, joined the search with her handler, Officer Christopher Ross, police said.

At about 7:30 p.m., Trina located the man on a trail roughly 2 miles from where his rental car had been found, according to the department.

Ross told KHON2 that Arai was lying on his back in bushes just off the trail when they found him.

Trina approached the man and licked his hand, according to the officer.

"The man was safely carried back to the trailhead and was subsequently transported to Hilo Benioff Medical Center for medical treatment due to dehydration and exposure," the department said in the press release.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE LIFESTYLE STORIES

The discovery marked the second time in two months that Trina located a missing person, according to police.

Originally from Sweden, Trina is trained to help locate missing children and endangered adults throughout Hawaii.

Just last month, she helped authorities locate an endangered teenager in Waikoloa, police said.

Fox News Digital previously reported on another search for an older hiker who disappeared during a trip in Northern California.

Mary Beth Granbery, 72, was reported missing after leaving for a multiday camping trip on Sept. 28 and failing to return as expected.

TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ

Family members later found her camper van at the Cabin Creek Trailhead, prompting authorities in Siskiyou and Shasta counties to launch a coordinated search.

Ground crews found Granbery alive near Cabin Creek on Oct. 4 after she fell down a steep embankment and suffered serious injuries and exposure to the elements.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

A California Highway Patrol helicopter helped lift Granbery from the rugged terrain before she was taken to a hospital, where authorities said she was in stable condition with non-life-threatening injuries.

The national park is also home to Kilauea, which recently erupted for the 55th time since late 2024 after a rare two-month pause, according to Fox Weather.

• Last summer, Erin Levi left Connecticut and moved to Montreal on her own.
• She barely knew anyone in the city, and relocating at 42 gave her a panic attack.
• Moving to a new city while working for herself was hard, but it made her feel brave.

Last summer, I left my life in Connecticut behind and moved to Montreal on a whim, without a plan.

People told me I was brave.

Really? I'm a travel journalist. I've followed a snow leopard expert across Nepal; I've lived with a family in Uzbekistan who didn't speak English; and I've had a private encounter with the King of Bhutan.

Montreal is only a 6-hour drive from my hometown in Connecticut. It didn't seem brave to me. It seemed, frankly, safe.

Yet moving here at 42 gave me a panic attack. I hadn't been to Canada in more than 12 years and barely knew anyone.

After my parents dropped me off, we spent a few days exploring my new city together, where it's easy to get by without a car — it felt like the start of another semester abroad. Except this time, I was older and had no plans to leave.

The last time I'd been in Montréal with my parents was in the summer of 2003, before I left for a semester abroad in Hanoi. I had my first pho in Montréal's Chinatown.

So why Montreal?

A Facebook post on a full moon in May changed my life.

My lease in Ridgefield, Connecticut, was up. So was my relationship. My landlord wanted an extra $500 a month for the lofty, 1,100-square-foot, one-bedroom apartment in the woods that I had been sharing with my now-ex. That would bring the rent to $3,250 a month, not including utilities, which often reached $700 during the winter because of the high ceilings.

I saw all of this as signs to leave.

But I was about to write a check for $5,985 upfront for a $1,995-a-month, 900-square-foot, one-bedroom duplex nearby and buy a car.

Then a Canadian friend shared that her 638-square-foot, one-bedroom apartment near Montréal's Little Italy was available for 6 months at a writer-friendly rent: 1,100 Canadian dollars, or about $775 a month, including utilities, WiFi, furniture, and a beautiful patio. My friend is a professor and works abroad for half the year.

Ever since my first job at Tourisme Québec's New York office — the role that ultimately launched my travel-writing career — I'd wanted to live in Montreal. I also speak French. It seemed like a no-brainer, so I said "oui."

I found out that Americans can spend up to 6 months in Canada per visit. However, anyone who spends more than 183 days in the country in a calendar year may have to pay taxes. Foreign media workers like me also don't require a work permit. I consulted an immigration lawyer about staying in Canada.

My new life in Canada

Since moving, I've learned to row. I take weekly lessons at the Olympic Basin, where beginner courses cost CA$200 each. Gliding hundreds of meters solo in a scull has been one of the best antidotes to my anxiety. Socially, though, I should've joined the dragon boat team.

My neighborhood, La Petite-Patrie, is home to some of the city's top restaurants, including Vin Mon Lapin, Pasta Pooks, and Limbo. And Marché Jean-Talon — the largest open-air market north of Mexico — is my local grocer.

Some cultural highlights have included celebrating Jewish holidays at Leonard Cohen's shul, attending my first F1 race, cross-country skiing in Parc du Mont-Royal, and going to a hockey game solo.

Sure, there's been loneliness. There's been longing. It's not easy moving to a new city when you work for yourself. Nor is it easy being more than 10 minutes from my parents — and their delicious cooking. But I've also made new friends, hosted old friends, and opened my heart.

Brave, eh? Perhaps I really am.

easyJet holidays reported a 10 per cent increase in infants travelling this year compared to 2025

easyJet holidays reported a 10 per cent increase in infants travelling this year compared to 2025