Trumpeter Carlos Sanchez serenaded tourists in Old Havana for 30 years, earning handsome tips - until the coronavirus pandemic hit and Cuba closed its borders a year ago on April 1. Now the 57-year-old ekes out a living repairing fans. The global vaccination drive is sparking hopes worldwide of a tourism rebirth this summer, yet Cubans like Sanchez are not holding their breath as the Caribbean island goes through its worst outbreak yet and enforces tight travel and lockdown restrictions. Instead, they are practicing the Cuban philosophy of “resolver” - finding a way to get by despite all the obstacles - used mostly in relation to the burden imposed by U.S. sanctions and a state-run economy but also, now, the pandemic. Trumpet player Carlos Sanchez announces his fan reparations se...
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Spaniard Aniol Serrasolses tackles 25km descent before performing a world-first waterfall double kickflip Human adventure has no limits, and it keeps finding new challenges and crossing new limits. Many of these are feats, on which we ourselves as humans can’t feel any less amazed about. Many of them are ones, we didn’t know, even existed as a challenge to be overcome. But here they are… Adventurer Aniol Serrasolses recently travelled at nearly 100km/h down a high-speed snowy descent, scythed across the forest floor and ended with a world-first flip off a waterfall. The Spanish kayaker pulled off the feat over a 25-kilometre descent on Chile’s Villarrica volcano. Aniol Serrasolses is used to testing his supreme whitewater kayaking skills in stunning and dangerous locations. This ...
Read MoreJakub Ricica’s traditional Czech pub ‘Deminka’, located just behind the National Museum and a short stroll from dozens of hotels, is a magnet for the flocks of tourists who descend on Prague every year for the Easter break. But for a second year running, the wooden chairs sit atop the tables, the beer mugs are stacked on the bar and the Pilsner taps remain dry ahead of what would normally be one of the biggest money-making weekends of the year. “Easter is usually the first weekend in Prague where things start to get really busy, and then it just keeps going,” said Ricica, who estimates that tourists generate about 60 percent of the revenue for his pub, which was founded in 1882. A bartender drafts a plastic bottle of beer as the Deminka pub remains closed due to the coronavirus d...
Read MoreQasr Al Sarab Desert Resort by Anantara is launching an even greener foundation with a host of new sustainability initiatives that build upon a broad platform of existing energy and carbon-saving practices, staying strong to its sustainable luxury ethos. The resort will completely phase out plastic water bottles by the end of April 2021, replacing them with biodegradable bottles. The sustainable material is made from corn, where lactic acid is extracted and converted into 100% plant resin, which biodegrades in 80 days. Recycled in bio-degradable bins, it either goes to composting or is reused to make new plant resin bottles. The property went 100% plastic straw-free back in 2018. Renewable energy has also been implemented across the property, with solar panels harnessing the pow...
Read MoreSA Tourism to tell you most exciting stories about country through Netflix
In a partnership that can best be described as aiming for the stars, South African Tourism (SA Tourism) and Netflix, the world’s leading streaming service have agreed to explore joint opportunities that will benefit both organizations to showcase stories made in South Africa, and watched by the world. The agreement will allow for exploration and collaboration on projects both in South Africa and in key source markets that drive international arrivals to the country. Since Netflix’s launch in South Africa in 2016, the company has dedicated itself to investing in productions (original and licensed content) that are made in South Africa and bringing these unique and diverse stories to the world. Currently, the service is available to 204 million members in 190 countries around the ...
Read MoreIndian Travellers can now experience Switzerland through the eyes of Tennis Maestro After years of positively representing Switzerland through his sporting excellence and friendly, down-to-earth manner, Roger Federer has now become an official brand ambassador for the destination of Switzerland. He’s entering into a long-term cooperation with the Swiss national tourism board, Switzerland Tourism (ST). The common goal: attracting guests to visit Switzerland with its energizing nature. Roger Federer and Switzerland Tourism (ST) will together develop initiatives to promote Switzerland globally. The support is much needed at this time, emerging from the biggest tourism crisis since the Second World War. Nobody is more equipped to do so than this iconic personality wearing the Swiss Fla...
Read MoreThe 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...
Read MoreQuiet 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 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...
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