Travel & Tourism Insights

​Sydney, Jan 31 (IANS) Most of the over 100 natural World Heritage sites that are being severely damaged by expanding human infrastructure and land use are in Asia, a new study has warned.

India's Manas Wildlife Sanctuary and Nepal's Chitwan National Park are among the most impacted Natural World Heritage Sites (NWHS), the study, published in the journal Biological Conservation, identified.

"It is time for the global community to stand up and hold governments to account so that they take the conservation of natural World Heritage sites seriously," said lead author James Allan from University of Queensland in Australia.

"We urge the World Heritage Committee to immediately assess the highly threatened sites we have identified. Urgent intervention is clearly needed to save these places and their outstanding natural universal values," Allan added.

Natural World Heritage Sites (NWHS), via the formal process run by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation), are globally recognised as containing some of the Earth's most valuable natural assets.

The authors looked at human pressure over time using the updated global Human Footprint criteria, which includes roads, agriculture, urbanisation and industrial infrastructure, along with forest loss.

They found that the Human Footprint has increased in 63 per cent of Natural World Heritage Sites (NWHS) across all continents except Europe over the past two decades. 

The most impacted NWHS were found in Asia. Even celebrated places like Yellowstone National Park in the US were impacted, losing some six per cent of its forests. 

Meanwhile, Waterton Glacier International Peace Park that crosses the Canadian and USA border lost almost one quarter of its forested area (23 per cent or 540 km2).

"Any place that is listed as a World Heritage site is a globally important asset to all of humanity," said senior author James Watson of the University of Queensland and Wildlife Conservation Society.

"The world would never accept the Acropolis being knocked down, or a couple of pyramids being flattened for housing estates or roads, yet right now, across our planet, we are simply letting many of our natural World Heritage sites be severely altered," Watson noted

​Dubai, Jan 30 (IANS) Russian travelers will get visas on arrival in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) under a cabinet decree approved on Sunday, media reports said.

Under the decree approved by Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Russian citizens are granted an entry visa for 30 days for the first time, renewable one time only for another 30 days, Xinhua news agency reported.

The decree will "enhance strategic cooperation and the common ambitions" of the two countries, said the report.

The UAE is considered the 10th largest foreign investor in Russia, with projects valued at 66 billion dirham ($17.98 billion) up to 2014.

In 2015, non-oil trade between the two countries reached 9 billion dirham.

The UAE has also received more than 600,000 Russian tourists in the past two years.

​Beijing, Jan 29 (IANS) Beijing's 11 parks and the Museum of Chinese Garden and Landscape Architecture received a total of 180,000 tourists on the first day of the Lunar New Year or Spring Festival, the media reported on Sunday.

During the Spring Festival public holiday, a string of events and activities, such as winter sports and flower exhibitions, are being held across the parks, Xinhua news agency reported. 

Many have said that visiting parks is on their holiday "must do" list.

Taoranting Park reported 40,000 visitors on Saturday, while the Temple of Heaven Park and the Summer Palace saw 30,000 tourists each, according to the Beijing parks office.

​Beijing, Jan 28 (IANS) China witnessed a surge in tourist numbers on Friday, the first day of the week-long Lunar New Year holiday, official data showed on Saturday.

The number of tourists jumped 10.4 per cent year on year to 50.5 million, Xinhua news agency said. 

Tourist-generated income climbed to 59 billion yuan (around 8.67 billion US dollars), up 13.3 per cent from one year earlier, according to data from the China National Tourism Administration.

In Beijing alone, 294,000 tourists visited the city's 160 key scenic spots on Friday.

China's northwestern Gansu Province received 860,500 travellers, up 22.1 per cent year on year. The province reaped tourist revenues of 520 million yuan, up 25.9 per cent year on year.

In terms of outbound tourism, Phuket and Bangkok in Thailand, Nha Trang in Vietnam, Bali in Indonesia and Singapore were among the most popular destinations.

It is estimated that over six million Chinese people will travel abroad during the holiday. 

Jakarta, Jan 24 (IANS) Indonesia is eying potentialities that can be tapped from India and south Asian markets to further boost its tourism sector by taking part in Indian and regional landmark travel expos scheduled to take place in February.

The expos comprise of India's Outbound Travel Mart (OTM) -- slated for February 21 to 23 in the Bombay Exhibition Centre (Mumbai) -- and regional tourism event of 2017 South Asia Tourism and Travel Expo (SATTE) -- to be held from February 15 to 17 in Pragati Maidan, New Delhi.

The regional tourism expo of SATTE is a popular business event attended by buyers and sellers and attracts 350,000 people from 40 countries. Some 750 exhibitors were expected to sell their tour packages to buyers attending the event, Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday.

"Expand the selling, strengthen business to business and use multi sales platform by embracing the largest online trading agent in that country, connect it with our ITX," Indonesia's Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said in a statement.

The number of Indian visitors to Indonesia grew by 23 per cent in 2015 from 2014 to 293,415. The figure increased significantly to 336,575 in the first nine months of 2016 -- or 29.35 per cent higher compared to the same period a year earlier, according to data released by the ministry.

The figure makes India among the top 10 countries to contribute the most visitors to Indonesia.

"We would consistently engage our best efforts to tap more potentialities from the Indian market," said Vincensius Jemadu, Deputy Minister Assistant for Asia Pacific Market Development.

Dubai, Jan 23 (IANS) UAE's Emirates Airline will launch a new daily service from Dubai to the US, via Greece, from March 12, an official said here on Monday.

The new route to Newark Liberty International Airport complements Emirates' existing four daily flights between Dubai and New York's John F. Kennedy airport, by offering passengers with another access to the New York Metropolitan area, Xinhua news agency reported citing an airline statement.

The airline will operate a wide-body Boeing 777-300ER on the route.

"After careful review, Emirates concluded that extending one of our Dubai-Athens flights to Newark would be commercially and operationally feasible," said Tim Clark, Emirates Airline president.

​Canberra, Jan 22 (IANS) Australia on Sunday announced an overhaul of security at all its international airports, with technology set to replace passports as means of identifying passengers by 2020.

The Department of Immigration and Border Protection is seeking tenders for a self-processing system to be introduced later this year, Australia's ABC News reported.

The system will use fingerprints, iris or facial structure recognition at major air and sea ports.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said the aim was for more than 90 per cent of passengers to avoid paperwork or manual processing by staff.

"In many cases that will mean people, whilst they'll still have to carry their passport, may not have to present their passport at all in the long term," Dutton said on Sunday.

"But in the immediate term, this will make it easier, it will make it quicker, for people going in and out of our airports."

Under the new system, the existing SmartGates that scan passports electronically - introduced less than 10 years ago - would be retired.

Dutton said the $78 million upgrade would also boost security at the nation's borders by making it easier to detect threats, ABC News reported.

He said cutting down processing times for travellers was also likely to boost tourism.

Forty-million air and sea travellers were processed by the Australian Border Force in the 2015-16 year, the Guardian reported citing an official report.

​Beijing, Jan 19 (IANS) The number of outbound cruise passengers in China topped 2 million for the first time in 2016, according to a report by China Cruise & Yacht Industry Association (CCYIA) on Thursday.

A total of 2.12 million Chinese holiday-makers departed from China's 10 major port cities, including Tianjin, Dalian, Yantai, Shanghai, Guanghzou and Haikou, to travel overseas last year, up 91 per cent year-on-year, Xinhua news agency reported.

In the meantime, the number of overseas cruise tourists visiting the 10 Chinese ports rose 8 per cent to 138,715 in 2016.

Shanghai, Tianjin and Guanghzou were the top three ports to welcome passengers last year, taking up 65 per cent, 16.3 per cent and 7.2 per cent of total inbound and outbound travellers respectively, according to the report.

China has become the world's eighth biggest cruise market, with domestic tourists planning more diverse travel experiences in recent years.

"Amid the burgeoning cruise industry, issues such as poor service should also be highlighted," said Zheng Weihang, Executive Vice Chairman and Secretary General of CCYIA.

"China will make more efforts in enhancing the manufacturing of cruise liners and improving the capacity and efficiency of its ports."

​Agartala, Jan 18 (IANS) The railways will launch a train for religious tourists on February 17 that will originate in Guwahati and cover shrines in West Bengal and Odisha, it was announced on Wednesday.

The Aastha Circuit Tourist Train will be jointly operated by the Northeast Frontier Railway and the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corp.

It will "take travellers to a mix of popular pilgrimage destinations across the eastern part of the country at affordable rates", a railway official said.

The train will cover Gangasagar in West Bengal, Sri Swami Narayan temple, Kalighat and Birla temple in Kolkata, Jagannath temple and Konark temple in Puri district and Lingaraj temple in Bhubaneswar.

The train will run from Guwahati and will return in six nights and seven days. A round trip will cost Rs 6,161.

Sharjah, Jan 13 (IANS/WAM) The fifth edition of the highly-anticipated Sharjah Children Biennial (SCB) will begin on Sunday and will showcase 376 artworks created by 785 children from across the world.

Held under the banner "A World as Big as Your Imagination", the event will run til February 15th. The competition would be having three categories: Environment, Architecture Design and Fantasy and Reality.

The ceremony will also feature a number of artistic workshops and interactive activities for children under the supervision of expert artists from various genres of architectural, visual and fine arts.

The workshops will be held throughout SCB to enhance children's love of the arts, and provide them with the opportunity to challenge and develop their capabilities further.