The animals that roam South Africa’s Balule Nature Reserve have a new ally in the battle to keep them safe from poachers - camera phones mounted in protective cases that stream images of their activities to thousands of “virtual rangers” worldwide. With reserves across Africa cutting back on anti-poaching patrols amid a coronavirus-induced tourism lull that has hit funding, Balule has teamed up with handset manufacturer Samsung and tech pioneer Africam to supplement staff numbers with eyes and ears online. Over 55,000 people have become virtual rangers since the project, Wildlife Watch, went live this month. “We need more eyes; we need more people helping us,” said Leitah Mkhabela, a member of the park’s all-female anti-poaching unit known as the Black Mambas. “They can be...
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Quiet and birdsong have replaced the sounds of thumping music and fun-loving tourists in the popular Mallorca resort of Magaluf, and the prospect of another potentially lost season is weighing heavily on locals. Along the deserted main drag, bars that usually throng with mainly British tourists to the Spanish island are shuttered. Some have put up hand-made paper signs saying “we love tourists” and “we will be back in 2021”. “It’s very strange, it’s like a ghost city,” said a 35-year-old Italian tourist from Florence, who gave only her first name, Virginia. She and her friend Helena were among the few tourists to make it to Magaluf for a spring holiday as much of Europe grapples to get coronavirus under control. FILE PHOTO: A closed hotel at Magaluf beach, in the Spanish island o...
Read MoreThailand has lost about 1.45 million tourism jobs during the coronavirus pandemic, including 400,000 in the first quarter, a private tourism group said on Monday, as the country gets ready to reopen to visitors to try to rescue the struggling sector. Tourism is a key driver of Thailand’s growth, typically accounting for 11-12% of gross domestic product. The group says there were 4.5 million tourism jobs before the pandemic, from a workforce of about 38 million people. FILE PHOTO: People enjoy Cha-am Beach in Phetchaburi province, Thailand, September 26, 2020. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha The country could see 3 million foreign tourist arrivals this year under plans to waive quarantine for visitors vaccinated against COVID-19 in some parts of the country later this year, Vichit Pra...
Read MoreEuropean Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said on Sunday that he hoped Europe will have a summer tourist season this year, supported by a ramp-up in its COVID-19 vaccination efforts. Breton, who heads the European Union’s executive’s vaccine task force, reiterated on RTL radio and TV channel LCI that the European Union should deliver 420 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines by mid-July, enough to allow the bloc to reach collective immunity. FILE PHOTO: A man dives at Agios Nikitas beach on the island of Lefkada, Greece. REUTERS/Dimitris Rapakousis “We have to shift to the next gear,” he said of the EU’s vaccination campaign. “This will be the price for having a tourist season that I hope will be comparable to last year’s, which in the end wasn’t so bad in the context ...
Read MoreA volcano in Iceland spewing lava into the sky since it erupted last Friday could continue its spectacular display for years, potentially becoming a new tourist attraction on the island known for its natural wonders. Thousands of Icelanders have flocked to the site of the eruption on the Reykjanes Peninsula, some 30 kilometres southwest of the capital, hoping to be awed by the rare lava fountains and even to cook a meal on the scorching crust of magma. A view of the volcanic site on the Reykjanes Peninsula following Friday's eruption in Iceland March 23, 2021. REUTERS/Cat Gundry-Beck Drone footage filmed over the crater shows the molten lava bubbling and spurting, and gushing down the sides of the volcano. “It’s a perfect tourist eruption,” volcanology professor at the Univers...
Read MoreThe World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) is calling for the international community to show solidarity with Small Island Developing States by ensuring they have access to COVID-19 vaccinations. With tourism a leading employer and economic pillar for many of the SIDS, the United Nations specialized agency has stressed that pledges to ensure ‘nobody is left behind’ in the recovery phase of the crisis must be backed up with firm actions. Given the relatively small size of the populations of the SIDS, the cost of mass vaccinations will be minimal compared to the potential benefits of restarting tourism. Moreover, given tourism’s wide value chain and proven ability to create opportunity for all, the impact of rolling out mass vaccinations and allowing tourism to restart, will go beyond econom...
Read MoreDue to an abundance of low-cost connectivity and an increased preference for travel closer to home, the intra-regional tourism will play a key role in revitalizing the ASEAN countries’ tourism economies, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company. GlobalData’s latest report, ‘Tourism Destination Market Insight- ASEAN (2021)’, reveals that in 2019, 44.3 million tourists traveled between the ASEAN countries. The intra-ASEAN travel is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5% from 2019 to 2024 and reach 56.6 million by 2024. Given the high level of growth, intra-regional travel could be key to the region’s recovery from the impact of COVID-19. The virus caused an 36.9% year-over-year decrease in intra-regional travel in 2020 to a low of 27.9 million arrival...
Read MoreThai authorities on Friday agreed to allow foreigners inoculated against the coronavirus to travel to its biggest holiday island without undergoing quarantine, and announced a new order for five million more doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine. With arrival numbers plummeting this past year, tourism-reliant Thailand is racing to secure vaccines for its population and reopen the country to foreigners in a pilot project for vaccine passports. FILE PHOTO: A person is seen in water near a beach which is usually full of tourists, amid fear of coronavirus in Phuket, Thailand March 10, 2020. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun “If we can inoculate 50% to 60% of the population we can open the country safely and move the economy and tourism forward,” senior health official Kiattiphum Wongraijit said. Its ...
Read MoreLatest edition of Glasstress premieres at Boca Raton in Florida with 34 new works Some of the world's leading contemporary artists are invited to breathe new life into centuries-old glassmaking in Venice ― maestros of glassblowing from the legendary Berengo Studio residency help artists manifest their visions “There is every reason this year to have a world view,” says Irvin Lippman, the Boca Raton Museum of Art’s Executive Director, as South Florida boldly ushers in the new year with the national premiere of Glasstress 2021 Boca Raton. “Three years in the making, with 2020 being such a challenging year to coordinate an international exhibition of this size and scope, the effort serves as an important reassurance that art is an essential and enduring part of humanity. Ai Weiwei a...
Read MoreKerala Tourism on Thursday launched a pioneering travel initiative led by ten influencers from around the country who will carry out a new-media campaign to attract domestic tourists in the post-Covid era. Rani George, IAS, Principal Secretary, Tourism, flagged off the Kerala Blog Express, titled ‘My First Trip 2021’, which is slated to conclude on March 29. The influencers will tread different itineraries for six nights and five days, facilitating production of exclusive contents for Kerala Tourism. The images, videos and literature generated by them will be shared on social-media platforms as #MyFirstTrip. They will announce to the world that destinations in God’s Own Country continue to be open for tourists. Kerala Tourism Director V.R. Krishna Teja, IAS, and Biju. B...
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