Travel restrictions eased at 40% of global tourist destinations: UNWTO

 

 

 

 Forty percent of tourist destinations worldwide have eased the travel restrictions implemented in response to COVID-19, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).

Of the 87 destinations reported to have eased restrictions in the July UNWTO Travel Restrictions Report, four have completely lifted all restrictions and the other 83 have still kept some protocols in place, like partial border closures.

The other 115 destinations have still kept their borders completely closed for tourism.

“The restart of tourism can be undertaken responsibly and in a way that safeguards public health while also supporting businesses and livelihoods,” said UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili in a statement released on July 30. “As destinations continue to ease restrictions to travel, international cooperation is of paramount importance. This way, global tourism can gain people’s trust and confidence, essential foundations as we work together to adapt to the new reality we now face.”

Destinations with a higher dependency on tourism are more likely to ease travel restrictions, according to the report, with 20 out of the 87 destinations in the report being Small Island Developing States (SIDS), many of which depend on tourism for employment and economic growth and development.

Around half of the destinations (41) are in Europe, another popular tourist destination.

The majority of the destinations in the report, specifically 88 of them, are still completely closed for tourism and have been for more than 12 weeks now. The shutdown has already seen a reported loss of US$320 million by the end of May in tourism, which is three times the loss incurred during the 2009 global financial crisis.

Three percent of destinations had reopened in mid-May, rising to 22 percent mid-June.

Source - TheJakartaPost

#Dubai announces record tourism arrivals in 2019

Dubai welcomed a record 16.73 million tourists in 2019, an improvement over the previous two years driven by soaring Chinese, Russian and Omani visitor numbers.

The number of international visitors grew by 5.1 percent last year but is still short of its 2020 target of 20 million tourists.

"While the global economy remains in a state of flux, we can clearly see an exciting opportunity to further grow Dubai's dominance in the tourism industry in 2020," said Dubai Tourism chief Saeed al-Marri, according to the Dubai Media Office. 

By country, Indian tourists topped arrivals with nearly two million visiting Dubai, a slight drop from 2018.

They were followed by 1.6 million Saudi visitors to the city-state, one of seven sheikhdoms that make up the United Arab Emirates.

Like last year, Britons came in third with 1.2 million tourists. Visitors from Oman increased 24 percent to over one million, putting the neighboring country in fourth place.

Chinese tourists rose by 15.5 percent to 989,000 and Russian visitors increased by 7.4 percent to 728,000.

Earlier this month, the UAE introduced a multiple-entry visa scheme valid for five years for all nationalities.

Dubai has the most diversified economy in the region and forecasts record spending this year, with its 2020 budget increasing 17 percent to $18.1 million as it seeks to boost its sagging economy.

The emirate has high hopes that the six-month global trade fair Expo 2020 starting in October will revive its fortunes.

But it still foresees a deficit for the fourth year in a row of $700 million.

The government is hoping Expo will attract 25 million visits, most of them from abroad, and is projecting a 25 percent increase in revenues to $17.4 billion.

Dubai is the only government in the Gulf not dependent on hydrocarbon revenues, and projects around 94 percent of income to come from non-oil sources.

The desert city has large numbers of opulent shopping malls, luxury resorts and even an indoor ski slope.

Source - TheJakartaPost

#Vietnam - International Tourism Fair 2019 kicks off in Can Tho

CAN THO An international tourism fair - The VITM Can Tho 2019 - kicked off in the southern city of Can Tho’s Ninh Kieu District on Friday.

The event is being held by the Vietnam Tourism Association (VNTA) in coordination with Can Tho City’s People's Committee and Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan and others attended the opening ceremony.

VITM Can Tho 2019 is the largest tourism event to be held in the Mekong Delta.

The aim is to support local tourism businesses to build, promote and sell their products to make tourism a key economic sector in the region.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, vice president of the VNTA Cao Thi Ngoc Lan said this was the first time the VNTA in co-ordianation with Can Tho City's People's Committee had organized the fair.

"The fair is expected to create opportunities for local people, authorities and businesses to present their tourism products and local cuisine to domestic and foreign tourists to make tourism a spearhead for economy," Lan said.

About 320 booths run by international and Vietnamese enterprises, service facilities and destinations in 25 provinces and cities are taking part in the event.

There are also booths from South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, India and Cuba.

The highlight of the fair will be the Mekong Delta Tourism Development Forum which will offer solutions for rapid tourism development.

More than 10,000 indoor and outdoors tours, 5,000 hotel rooms, air tickets and over 5,000 promotional vouchers with 20-50 per cent discounts are on offer to visitors from travel agencies and prestigious tourism service businesses such as Vietravel, Sagota, Saigontourist and Fiditour.

The fair also includes a food festival with culinary contests and a presentation of local specialties.

Chefs from all over the country will be making special local dishes at the festival.

The fair will be running until December 12 at the Center for Trade and Investment Promotion and Exhibition Fair at 108 Le Loi Street. VNS

Source - Viet Nam News

#Vietnam - Visit to Son Doong Cave among top adventurous experiences

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 For British travellers, an expedition to Son Doong in Vietnam, the world’s largest cave, is among the greatest adventures they would like to undertake.

British TV channel Dave, a panel of travel experts and editors of U.K. tabloid Daily Mail polled 2,000 people aged 40 or under earlier this week for a survey of ‘greatest adventures around the world and across the U.K.’

Of them, 24 percent said they want to explore Son Doong Cave in the central province of Quang Binh, dubbed Vietnam’s ‘Kingdom of Caves,’ putting it fifth in the top 20 adventure list.

Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa, topped the list (37 percent), followed by trekking along the Inca trail in Peru (35 percent), rafting in the Grand Canyon in the U.S. (31 percent) and descending into Thrihnukagigur volcano in the U.K. (29 percent).

The rest of the top 10 also included dog sledding to witness the aurora borealis in Norway, kayaking in Arctic fjords in Denmark, climbing to the Everest Base Camp in Nepal, cruising the Antarctic, and cage diving with sharks in South Africa.

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 Howard Limbert, a former head of the British Caving Association, and his wife Deb spent nearly 13 years surveying caves in Vietnam since the early 1990s. In 2009 they concluded their initial exploration and declared Son Doong the world's largest cave.

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Son Doong opened to tourists in 2013 and the five kilometer-long system, which is 150 meters high and 200 meters wide, contains at least 150 individual caves, a dense subterranean jungle and several underground rivers.

Due to limited space, registration for Son Doong tours must be made well in advance. According to Oxalis, now the only company licensed to take tourists to the cave, only 300 slots are available this year.

A four-day expedition costs $3,000, and there are buses running from Hanoi to Dong Hoi, the capital town of Quang Binh, and then to the park.

The Quang Binh government recently increased the number of tourists allowed to visit the cave in a year from 640 to 900.

The tour is growing in popularity, and with Son Doong getting prominent coverage from the National Geographic, CNN and Good Morning America, Phong Nha-Ke Bang has become the go-to destination in Vietnam for adventurous travelers

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Source - VN Express

#Cambodia - Tens of thousands of foreigners living illegally

The Ministry of Interior has reported that more than 81,864 out of 182,673 foreign nationals surveyed in the Kingdom are holding invalid Cambodian documents, noting that the majority of them are from Vietnam.

“We have revoked 35,001 irregular Cambodia administration documents held by foreigners,” an Interior Ministry report said yesterday.

It added that last year, the ministry issued visas to 2,782,297 foreigners and collected $87,750 in fines from those who overstayed.

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The report also said in order to reduce the number of illegal foreigners, the government has cracked down on those who have overstayed or who are involved in crimes.

It also said that last year 1,348 foreigners from 52 countries who were involved in crimes were arrested and deported.

Since 2014, Cambodia has deported more than 15,000 foreign nationals from 91 different countries for using invalid immigration documents to live in the Kingdom.

On Thursday General Por Pheak, director-general of the ministry’s general secretariat, said during the ministry’s 2018 Stocktaking and 2019 Directive Settings Conference, that there is a need to strengthen immigration management.

“We need to strengthen immigration management in our country so it can efficiently prevent and curb illegal immigration,” Gen Pheak said . “We need to record the number of foreigners and strictly monitor their activities in order to prevent and crack down on crimes.”

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He said the ministry will cooperate closely with the Labour Ministry and other ministries in order to monitor the foreigners’ activities.

“[We need] to increase investigations into foreigners who migrate to live in the Kingdom illegally, using expired visas – and also any foreigners involved in crimes so they can be arrested and deported,” he said.

Gen Pheak also called for more cooperation between Cambodia and other countries in the region to prevent transnational crimes.

Interior Minister Sar Kheng on Thursday ordered his officials to confiscate invalid immigration documents from foreigners who are working and living in the Kingdom.

“You must increase crackdowns to take back any irregular documents from immigrants who refuse to surrender them to the authority,” he said. “And you must strengthen the monitoring of foreigners and immigrants and take action, based on Cambodian laws, against those who commit crimes.''

Mr Kheng also ordered the General Immigration Department to check on foreign workers, and to remind companies that they are required to report the number of foreigners they have in their workforce.

“The General Immigration Department, National Police, municipal and all provincial governors must cooperate to strictly strengthen border checks and close all illegal corridors in order to prevent the illegal crossings of both people and goods,” he said.

Last month the General Immigration Department reported that since August 2017 police have seized 7,066 counterfeit documents used by foreigners.

Source - Khmer Times

#Thailand - Taxis biggest problem for tourist police

Taxi problems were the biggest issue for tourist police last year among thousands of arrests, the Tourist Police Bureau said on Wednesday. 

Tourist and Sports Minister Weerasak Kowsurat said that from January to October last year, tourist police cracked down on thousands of crimes ranging from overcharging taxis, to illegal entertainment venues.

Last year tourist police beefed up crackdowns on unruly taxis and unlawful tour guides. He said in 2018, police arrested 12,679 taxi drivers - including over 5,668 drivers who refused to pick up passengers, 3,408 drivers who refuse to use meters, and 1,659 drivers who overcharged - up from 1,681, 255, and 120 driver arrests during the same period a year earlier.

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 Police also arrested 1,581 unauthorised tour guides, and 390 so-called “sitting guides”, who use their licenses to accompany an unauthorised guide who can speak foreign languages. The number was up from 132 and nine guides arrested in 2017.

Tourist police also arrested 6,333 low-quality tour operators, 26 vendors who offered overpriced products to tourists, and raided 35 illegal entertainment venues. They also found 1,406 cases of illicit drugs at tourist venues and there were also 161 cases of “influential people” carrying firearms in tourist areas and 9,533 cases where tourists were affected.

Source TheNation

#Indonesia to import 75,000 tons of salt from #Australia

The government has issued an import permit for state-owned salt producer PT Garam to import 75,000 tons of raw salt material from Australia. The salt will enter Indonesia through three ports on Aug. 10.

"In 2016, we allocated 226,000 tons of salt imports, so we still have room. When the harvest returns to normal, we will stop importing," the Trade Ministry's foreign trade director general, Oke Nurwan, said in Jakarta on Friday.

He further said that the government would decide the price of table salt in the retailer market next week.

The ministry hopes that after the import is realized in August, the domestic supply of salt will gradually return to normal.

The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry’s director general for territorial sea management, Brahmantya Satyamurti, said the amount of domestic salt production was currently far from the normal production of 166,000 tons a month.

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“From May to July, salt farmers only managed to produce 6,200 tons, which is far from normal,” he said.

The Trade Ministry has ensured that salt distribution in the market will be tightly monitored by a food stability task force, which includes personnel from the police, the Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) and the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry.

Salt imports are regulated under the Law No. 7/2016 on the protection and empowerment of fishermen, fishers and salt farmers. It stipulates that import permits issued to PT Garam by the Trade Ministry requires a recommendation letter from the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry.

 

Source - TheJakartaPost