Category: Top Stories

Oman has said that no fines are being levied for expired tourist visas until July 15, as the country is battling to stem the new coronavirus and prop up the economy. “Currently, there are no fines on holders of tourist visas in the Sultanate,” said Major Mohammed Al Hashami of the Royal Oman Police (ROP). “They can extend the visa electronically through the [ROP] website without the need to show up at the service centres,” he added, according to the Omani newspaper Al Shabiba. The exact number of such visa holders in Oman is not clear. In April, the ROP ... Read more

The UK on Friday allowed quarantine-free international travel to nearly 60 “lower risk countries”, excluding India and the US, as it released a list of exempt nations posing “a reduced risk” from the deadly coronavirus. The UK Foreign Office Travel Advisory related to India remains unchanged as part of its wider advice for British nationals to avoid “all non-essential international travel”. The list includes European destinations of Germany, France, Spain and Italy as well as Australia and New Zealand, PTI has reported. Some of the Asian countries considered low risk include Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, with popular holiday destinations ... Read more

Bali’s provincial government has announced plans to open the island to tourism for domestic Indonesian tourists from July 31. The plan will be executed as long as Bali’s reopening scheme for local residents, starting July 9, runs effectively. Tourist attractions will be selectively opened to avoid new sources of virus transmission, says Indonesia Expat in a report. The Indonesian island of Bali where 70% of the population depend on tourism, has seen extensive jobs losses since closing its borders in April. The economic impact so far has been greater than that of the Bali bombings of 2002, with losses of around 9.7 trillion ... Read more

Federal Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham is hoping that Australians would be able to travel to New Zealand again by September if the coronavirus flare-up in Victoria is brought under control, says a report in the Sydney Morning Herald. As Australia’s $60 billion-a-year tourism industry reels from the global pandemic, the governments from both countries have discussed plans for a travel bubble that would allow travel across the Tasman without mandatory quarantine. Simon Birmingham said on Friday that despite the flare-up of COVID-19 cases in Victoria, it was viable for quarantine-free travel between the two countries to reopen in September. “That’s a realistic ... Read more

Gulf Air, the national carrier of Bahrain, has announced that it will resume its direct Abu Dhabi and Dubai flights with scheduled operations starting from July 5.  Gulf Air has been operating direct flights between Bahrain and the UAE since 1954 and both Abu Dhabi and Dubai have always been key successful routes within the Gulf Air’s network. The airline currently flies to and from London, Paris, Frankfurt, Manila, Athens, Cairo and Pakistan. With the addition of Abu Dhabi and Dubai services, Gulf Air will operate 25% of its original network. Being one of the few airlines that continued operations ... Read more

Marriott International has opened a second hotel under the JW Marriott badge in the Orlando area. The JW Marriott Orlando Bonnet Creek Resort & Spa is a 516-room property close to Walt Disney World and about 30 minutes from Orlando Airport. It includes the debut of the brand’s new family suite concept, which offers views of the nightly theme park fireworks displays, shuttle service to Disney Parks, loft beds, larger living areas and spa-like bathrooms, says a report by Travel Weekly. A Kids Conservatory is designed for games and crafts, and an Activities Garden features a rock-climbing wall, a minigolf ... Read more

Hyatt Hotels Corporation has announced the opening of the Hyatt Centric Downtown Minneapolis. Once known as the Minneapolis Athletic Club, the 154-room upscale lifestyle hotel with 22 suites is centrally located in the heart of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Located in the city centre of Minneapolis with direct access to an 11-mile, temperature-controlled skyway system and just thirteen miles from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, Hyatt Centric Downtown Minneapolis connects travellers to popular attractions like the US Bank Stadium, First Avenue, Target Centre and Target Field, Rus Tourism News has reported. The hotel features contemporary design, upscale guest room and hotel amenities such ... Read more

Neighbours Spain and Portugal reopened their border on Wednesday to all travellers after a three-month closure to prevent the spread of coronavirus, bringing relief to local business owners who have struggled to make ends meet without tourism. “It has been miserable since we reopened in May. There are no customers,” Jose Valentim, a restaurant owner in the Portuguese border town of Elvas, told Reuters. “We hope that from today onwards some Spaniards will be able to come.” For Luis Pinheiro, a 53-year old construction supervisor who commutes across the border every day from the Spanish city of Badajoz to his ... Read more

Snowy hills without skiers, closed hotels, empty shops. At the foot of the Andes mountain range, the city of Bariloche in Argentina is covered in snow but there will be no avalanche of tourists this winter amid the Covid-19 pandemic. “Today we are closed, with zero activity,” Belén García Bertone told news agency AFP. The 36-year-old is a third generation of hoteliers and president of the Chamber of Tourism of Bariloche. Located within the Nahuel Huapi National Park, set among mountains and lakes, 1,800 km southwest of Buenos Aires, San Carlos de Bariloche is Argentina’s fourth-most visited tourist destination by foreigners. ... Read more

Greek tourism is off to a great start. More than 230 flights landed in Greece on Wednesday, as the country reopened to tourists after four months of lockdown. According to the Hellenic Civil Aviation Administration (HCAA), Athens and Crete’s Heraklion airports had the most arrivals with 69 and 54 respectively, followed by Thessaloniki (23), Corfu (21), Chania (16), Rhodes (14), Mykonos (10), Kos (eight), Santorini (four), Skiathos, Aktio, Kefalonia, Samos (two each), and lastly, Kalamata Paros, and Karpathos (one each). Heraklion airport welcomed its first full flight from Hannover with live traditional Cretan music, Greek Travel Pages (GTP) reported. The island is expecting some ... Read more

Singapore’s Changi Airport is trialling and implementing a range of new anti-virus measures as it prepares for a gradual resumption of flights in the post Covid-19 outbreak world. Proximity touch check-in kiosks coated with anti-microbial disinfectants, new acrylic screens for counter staff, autonomous cleaning robots with misting attachments, and contactless toilets are just some of the measures, Bloomberg reports. One of the world’s busiest airports for international passenger traffic, Changi like most of its global peers has been brought to an almost complete standstill by the virus outbreak, which has decimated the tourism industry. In the first tentative steps toward ... Read more

The European Union on Tuesday extended a ban on travellers from the United States, India and most other countries, citing epidemiological factors for the decision. The countries were chosen based on certain criteria, including that the number of new cases over a 14-day period had to be “close to order below the EU average.” The countries also needed to have a “stable or decreasing trend of new cases over this period.” The UK will be treated as part of the EU, according to the Council, until the end of the year. The UK currently has a mandatory quarantine period of 14 ... Read more

Egypt has announced it will reopen its seaside resorts from today. The areas opening up are southern Sinai, where the resorts of Sharm el-Sheikh and Dahab are located, Red Sea province, home to the Hurghada and Marsa Alam resorts, and Marsa Matrouh on the Mediterranean. The cabinet has said that international flights will be allowed to enter the country from July 1, while foreign tourists will be permitted at the resorts least affected by Covid-19. Tourists coming to Egypt will now be required to submit a valid health insurance policy to Egyptian airport authorities as part of measures to limit the coronavirus spread. ... Read more

Malta is reopening its tourism from today, allowing visitors from 20 plus nations to enter the country without an isolation period. Restrictions on all other flight destinations will be lifted on July 15. The Prime Minister of Malta, Robert Abela, announced that Malta’s International Airport too will resume commercial passenger flights from today.   Malta is an archipelago in the central Mediterranean between Sicily and the North African coast. It’s a nation known for historic sites related to a succession of rulers including the Romans, Moors, Knights of Saint John, French and British. It is also famous for its numerous fortresses, megalithic temples and ... Read more

Greece will not be accepting direct flights from the UK and Sweden until July 15, it was announced on Monday. The announcement followed a meeting chaired by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, ahead of Greece reopening airports to international flights on Wednesday, July 1. Regarding which non-European Union travellers will be allowed entry as of July 1, Greece intends to follow the list expected to be released soon by European officials, a statement by the PM’s press office said. The list will include the countries whose travellers will be allowed in when the EU’s external borders are reopened on July 1, Greek ... Read more