COVID-19 – Page 2 – आवारा मुसाफिर

Holidays abroad this summer unlikely for most Britons, scientist warns

March 20, 2021731 Views

Holidays abroad are “extremely unlikely” for most Britons this summer due to the risk of importing new variants of COVID-19, a scientist who advises the government said on Saturday, leaving airlines and travel companies bracing for a second lost peak season. Britain has banned travel for most people during the current lockdown and has said overseas holidays will not be allowed until May 17 at the earliest. FILE PHOTO: Two tourists walk near Puerto Rico beach, amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Gran Canaria, Spain, March 16, 2021. REUTERS/Borja Suarez But Mike Tildesley, a scientist on a government advisory body, said the risk of importing vaccine-resistant variants back into the UK would likely scupper the nation’s annual getaway. “I think international ...

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Europe’s COVID-19 setbacks risk another summer travel washout

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March 20, 2021504 Views

Europe’s airlines and travel sector are bracing for a second lost summer, with rebound hopes increasingly challenged by a hobbled COVID-19 vaccine rollout, resurgent infections and new lockdowns. Airline and travel stocks fell on Friday after Paris and much of northern France shut down for a month, days after Italy introduced stiff business and movement curbs for most of the country including Rome and Milan. The setbacks hit recovery prospects for the crucial peak season, whose profits typically tide airlines through winter, when most carriers lose money even in good times. “If there’s no confidence there, demand just doesn’t come back,” said Dublin-based Alton Aviation consultant Leah Ryan, who expects the bad news on vaccines and lockdowns to hurt already weak bookings. FILE PHOTO...

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Tourism-starved Europe charts course for summer travel

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

March 18, 2021422 Views

The European Union is going to unveil the plans to reopen summer travel with a new coronavirus pass intended to help revive the bloc’s multi-billion tourism and leisure industries that have been pulverised by the pandemic. The proposed, EU-wide “green digital certificate” would collate information on vaccinations, tests and COVID recovery to let travellers cross borders freely again after a year of curbs that have left beaches and famous landmarks deserted. FILE PHOTO: Two empty beach chairs are photographed at San Agustin Beach amid the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Gran Canaria, Spain. REUTERS/Borja Suarez The 27-member EU’s executive will also put forward an option to allow in outsiders with proof of vaccination, including those inoculated with Russian, Chinese o...

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UK mulling vaccine passport options for at home and abroad

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

March 17, 20211086 Views

Britain is reviewing the idea of vaccine certificates to allow access to travel, hospitality and entertainment and discussing the best way to proceed in terms of fairness, said business minister Kwarsi Kwarteng. P&O Cruises said on Tuesday that it would only accept as passengers those who have had both doses of the vaccine for its trips around the UK this summer, sparking a fresh debate on the issue. FILE PHOTO: People on the beach as the P&O "Spirit of France" ferry is seen docked in the port of Dover, Britain. REUTERS/Paul Childs When asked about the fairness of companies requiring proof of vaccination to grant entry and what the government’s stance was on the matter, Kwarteng said it was under review. “We are discussing what the best way to proceed is,” Kwarteng tol...

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Wildlife protections, especially in Africa, cut sharply during pandemic

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March 12, 20211432 Views

The COVID-19 pandemic is undermining nature conservation efforts, cutting park and anti-poaching patrols in more than half of Africa’s protected sites, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said on Thursday. The collapse of international tourism due to efforts to slow spread of the coronavirus has led to heavy revenue losses for many wildlife parks, cutting budgets and threatening longer-term closures. IUCN, a Swiss-based environmental network, said research released in a series of articles in its journal PARKS represents the most comprehensive review to date of the links between the pandemic and nature conservation. FILE PHOTO: Elephants are seen within the Kimana Sanctuary, part of a crucial wildlife corridor that links the Amboseli National Park to the Chyu...

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Houseboats in high demand as Germans book holidays close to home

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February 17, 2021365 Views

As arctic temperature froze rivers and lakes in northern Germany, workers at houseboat charter companies were already gearing up for what they expect to be a busy summer season. Cross-border travel restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic last summer prompted a run on domestic tourism, including on floating accommodation. Many expect that 2021 will be no different. FILE PHOTO: Kormoran boats lie in icy water at the dock from the houseboat rental company Kuhnle Tours on lake Claassee near Rechlin, Germany, February 4, 2021. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse/ “I think that big trips abroad and flying will still not be the dominant type of vacation for people this summer,” Dagmar Kuhnle, spokeswoman at the Kuhnle Tour houseboat charter company in the northeastern Mecklenburg lake district,...

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COVID-19 and animal ban threaten French circuses

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February 15, 2021512 Views

William Kerwich hasn’t performed a circus show since March. Instead, his family’s travelling circus has been parked on a plot of land in southern France, his lions and tigers confined to their pens and his main tent packed up. Kerwich can only guess when the COVID-19 crisis will ease enough for the government to allow his circus to resume entertaining crowds. Even then he faces another threat to his livelihood: a likely ban on wild animals in circuses. “We might lose our animals, but also our profession, our tradition,” he told Reuters. William Kerwich, owner of the Royal Circus and President of the Circus and Shows Animals Union, feeds Molly the hippopotamus at the circus home base in Senas as circus shows remained shut as part of COVID-19 restrictions measures to fight the coro...

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Thailand’s tuk tuks, tour buses and boats marooned at Lunar New Year

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February 11, 2021687 Views

Parked in rows with many gathering dust and cobwebs, hundreds of “tuk tuk” motorised rickshaws, tour buses and boats lie silent across the Thai capital of Bangkok, after suffering a twin blow from the coronavirus pandemic and a lack of foreign tourists. Celebrations of the Lunar New Year, which begins on Friday, normally bring a spike in spending and travel among Thais and an influx of visitors from China and elsewhere in Asia. Tuk-tuks that are used to transport tourists around the city are seen idle due to travel bans and border closures from the global coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in a parking lot in downtown Bangkok, Thailand February 3, 2021. REUTERS/Jorge Silva But the pandemic has upended Thai transport businesses, leaving many drivers and owners struggling to ...

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Will a vaccine passport bring back the normalcy to travel!

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

February 5, 2021398 Views

Governments and developers around the world are exploring the potential use of “vaccine passports” as a way of reopening the economy by identifying those protected against the coronavirus. Those developing the technologies however, say such tools come with consequences such as potentially excluding whole groups from social participation, and are urging lawmakers to think seriously about how they are used. The travel and entertainment industries, which have struggled to operate at a profit while imposing social distancing regulations, are particularly interested in a way of swiftly checking who has protection. Man holding a passport with COVID-19 sign stamped onto a white paper, immunity passport or risk-free certificate concept, recovered Coronavirus COVID19 patients being issued...

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WTTC asks to focus on high-risk ‘travellers’ instead of ‘countries’

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February 5, 2021326 Views

The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has called for governments to abandon the concept of ‘high-risk countries’ and instead focus on how individual ‘high-risk travellers’ are treated at borders. WTTC, which represents the global Travel & Tourism private sector, is urging governments around the world to shift their focus from whole countries, towards individual travellers. Instead, WTTC says governments around the world should redefine their whole approach to risk assessment, to revive international business and leisure travel. Combined with a common international consensus on the metrics used to assess risk and a laser-like focus on a cost-effective, comprehensive, and rapid departure and arrival testing scheme for all travellers, could pave the way forward for t...