The cost of travel is rising, but travelers are unbothered. Although countries across the world are facing a cost-of-living crisis amid rampant inflation, people are still prioritizing going on vacation, Bloomberg reports. The pandemic devastated airlines, hotels, and tour companies, but as restrictions have lifted, demand — along with prices — have increased. A PwC survey found that travel is the second-highest priority spending area for UK consumers, second only to family, and ahead of home and personal health expenses. Soaring travel costs amid the broader inflationary climate are deterring fewer Americans from traveling, with Americans more eager to travel now than they have been in three years, according to Destination Analysts, a company that monitors US travelers. In Europe, travelers are looking at destinations that are a day-trip away, given how warm temperatures got last summer. Coupled with the airport chaos that unfolded last summer, staycations are looking more attractive.

Making it work: More people are taking shorter trips and looking for more affordable hotels, showing more interest in cost-effective options than they were before the pandemic in 2019, according to Trivago. Some Europe-based customers are skipping expensive trips to long-distance locations in favor of more budget-friendly locations in the Mediterranean, including Egypt, according to TUI AG, the largest packaged tours operator worldwide.

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FT’s Global MBA Ranking introduces a new top school and a revised methodology: The Financial Times’ Global MBA Ranking, which has historically been dominated by US schools — in large part due to the evaluation being outcome-focused, allocating a lot of weight to salary levels, and increases three years following MBA graduation — has introduced new changes to its methodology. The weight given to salaries has been slashed from two-fifths to less than one-third, and diversity and sustainability will be given more weight. The revisited metrics have allowed Columbia University to top the ranking for the first time since it began publishing in 1999.

Geographic distribution: Thirteen of the top 18 business schools from the 2023 list are located in the US, including Harvard, Stanford, and Berkeley. France is home to two top tier universities: Insead, which came in second, and HEC Paris. Spain had just one school in the top 18, Iese which came in third place. As did Italy with SDA Bocconi, and the UK with the London Business School. You can check out the full list here.

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B’naire Jahm Najafi prepares to make a mega USD 3.75 bn bid for Tottenham: The Iranian-American bn’aire, who is the chair of MSP Sports Capital, is in the process of structuring an offer for Tottenham Hotspur with a group of investors, and is set to formally address the club’s owner Joe Lewis and chair Daniel Levy in coming weeks, The Financial Times reports, citing two sources with firsthand knowledge of the plans. The bid would value the Tottenham Hotspur’s equity at USD 3 bn before factoring in the club's current debt of USD 750 mn. The offer is structured so that MSP and its partners will pay 70% of the acquisition price, with the remaining 30% coming from Gulf investors, primarily from Abu Dhabi.

Further north, Qatari investors are expected to make a bid for Man Utd by the end of the week, Bloomberg reported, citing sources familiar with the situation. Qatar Investment Authority officials and local family offices are assisting the Qatari consortium with bid preparations. Raine Group, a New York bank, is advising Manchester United's current owners, the Glazer family.