Vietnam plans to reopen the beach-fringed island of Phu Quoc to foreign tourists from next month, authorities said, as the country looks at ways to revive an economy suffering from extended lockdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic. The island, 10 km (6 miles) off the coast of Cambodia here, is expected to open for a trial period of six months, the government said in a statement issued late on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: A sunset is seen in a resort after the Vietnamese government eased the lockdown following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Phu Quoc island, Vietnam May 8, 2020. REUTERS/James Pearson Vietnam, which is currently shut to all visitors apart from returning citizens and investors, had managed to contain the virus for much of the pandemic but in the past three...
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Thailand plans to reopen Bangkok and other key destinations to foreign tourists next month, officials said on Thursday, aiming to revive its battered travel industry after indications the number of new coronavirus infections may have peaked. Bangkok, Hua Hin, Pattaya and Chiang Mai will be added to a programme in which fully vaccinated visitors who commit to a series of tests can enter, under certain criteria, said government spokesman Thanakorn Wangboonkongchan. FILE PHOTO: The first foreign tourists arrive at the airport as Phuket reopens to overseas tourists, allowing foreigners fully vaccinated against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) to visit the resort island without quarantine, in Phuket, Thailand July 1, 2021. REUTERS/Jorge Silva The scheme is underway on the islands of...
Read MoreWhen Britain announced Turkey would stay on its “red list” of travel destinations last week, Onur Arican decided to close his boutique hotel on the Aegean coast early this year rather than wait out a summer season derailed by COVID-19 and wildfires. In 2019, Britain was Turkey’s third-biggest source of tourists with 2.5 million visitors that year, most of whom flocked to the Turquoise Coast near Bodrum and Marmaris, where Arican runs his 19-room Mavi Yengec hotel. FILE PHOTO: A staff member stands next to empty tables as cafes and restaurants reopen after closing down for months amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Istanbul, Turkey. REUTERS/Dilara Senkaya This year the number of British guests was down by two thirds compared to 2019, Arican said, and he was forced...
Read MoreThe World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has called upon the UK government to finally bring an end to the widely discredited travel traffic light system. The call comes after the latest update which saw just seven countries added to the green list, with Thailand, a popular winter sun destination for holiday starved Brits, and Montenegro, added to the red list. Turkey, widely expected to be able to welcome British visitors stayed in no-go red, seriously damaging its travel sector. FILE PHOTO: A traveller wearing a face mask walks at the Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in London, Britain. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls WTTC, which represents the global Travel & Tourism private sector, says both consumers and Travel ...
Read MoreWhen U.S. celebrity chef David Burke opened his second restaurant in Riyadh earlier in August, hudreds of Saudi men and women packed the venue to enjoy his dishes and fruity "mocktails" to a DJ's mix of Arabic and Western pop. While Saudis usually escape the desert country over the summer when temperatures can reach over 50 degrees Celsius, the coronavirus pandemic has seen them flock to restaurants and cafes in the open-air mall The Zone, bolstering Saudi Arabia's consumer sector. Saudi women sit at David Burke's restaurant, in The Zone restaurant complex, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia August 25, 2021. REUTERS/Ahmed Yosri Noura, 21, a Saudi hostess at one such upscale restaurant said she has been booking up tables weeks in advance. "Before, that would have been impossible in August...
Read MoreThe World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has called upon the U.S. government to urgently speed up approval of the UK’s AstraZeneca vaccine to help restore vital transatlantic travel. The Centre for Disease Control (CDC), the main health authority in the U.S., this week approved the Pfizer vaccine, however it still does not currently recognise AstraZeneca as an approved COVID-19 vaccine. Even if the Biden Administration allows borders to reopen, the CDC’s non-recognition of AstraZeneca will be a significant barrier to transatlantic travel between the UK and the U.S. FILE PHOTO: Vials with AstraZeneca's coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine are seen at the vaccination centre in the Newcastle Eagles Community Arena, in Newcastle upon Tyne, Britain, January 30, 2021. REUTERS/Le...
Read MoreTurkey's tourist sector is pinning its hopes on Britain removing it from a COVID-19 travel red list later this week to help it recover from the pandemic, a spate of wildfires, and Germany's designation of Turkey as high risk. While Turkish tourism has seen a strong rebound from last year, with foreign visitor arrivals for July jumping fourfold to 4.36 million, it remains well below pre-pandemic levels. FILE PHOTO: A staff member stands next to empty tables as cafes and restaurants reopen after closing down for months amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Istanbul, Turkey. REUTERS/Dilara Senkaya Many hotels in the southern Aegean region, which rely heavily on British tourists, may close by the end of August if Britain does not remove Turkey from its red list, touris...
Read MoreOf the many sectors in the global economy, leisure, sport and tourism are three ‘patients’ that have struggled longest to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Tourism’s suffering earns almost daily bedside bulletins, the latest being France moving to the UK’s amber list – enabling fully vaccinated people to avoid quarantine - only for this breakthrough to be marred by President Macron’s new ‘COVID Passport’ scheme, causing a new chaos in the French tourist industry. It highlights an all too familiar pattern during the COVID crisis: just as businesses glimpse a chance to bounce back, they then face new obstacles - tourism is still stricken by many curfews and travel restrictions to stop the spread of the virus across the globe. The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) touri...
Read MoreGermany was the largest outbound source market globally in 2020 due to the impact of COVID-19. Several tourism related organizations will now be looking to attract more German travelers in the ‘new normal’ to accelerate recovery. Marketing luxury offerings According to a GlobalData consumer survey, Germany had over a quarter of its respondents earning over €50,000, in terms of their approximate annual household pre-tax income. This is higher than the likes of Belgium, France, and Italy, which are important global source markets. FILE PHOTO: People queue to reach the summit cross on top of the highest German mountain, the Zugspitze, in Grainau near Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany August last. REUTERS/Michael Dalder Ralph Hollister, Travel & Tourism Analyst at GlobalData, ...
Read MoreKerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday inaugurated the week-long virtual Onam celebrations organized by the state Tourism Department, noting that the government has initiated effective measures to resume the pandemic-hit tourism activities in a safe and risk-free manner. Stating that the tourism sector of Kerala has showed tremendous resilience by outliving back-to-back crises since 2016, the Chief Minister said “as long as the Covid-19 pandemic prevails we have to live with that situation and develop tourism along with it.” “We have put in place arrangements for revival of tourism in a safe and risk-free manner, where vaccinated people will receive vaccinated tourists. We have also made serious efforts to keep tourism destinations pollution-free, which have yielded go...
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