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☆ Why this rusting industrial city could be Greece’s next tourism hotspot
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Elinda Labropoulou | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

For 2023, it’s been given the title as a Cultural Capital of Europe – a title it shares with Timisoara in Romania and Veszprem in Hungary. Sergio Tsitakis / Design Farm ProductionsFor the occasion, the city’s magnificent archaeological site has been overhauled, improving its accessibility. Being a Cultural Capital has helped dozens of cities that have previously held the title to foster urban regeneration and find a spot on the travel radar. Among upcoming highlights this summer is a play, “Ma,” by Italian director and playwright Romeo Castellucci, a performance specially created to be staged in Eleusis’ archaeological site. And with the majority of international flights landing in Athens, Eleusis is perfectly located as an easy-to-reach destination.

☆ Scientists reveal hidden corridor in Great Pyramid of Giza
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Aidan Lewis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

2 story has been corrected to delete height comparison in paragraph 4)A hidden corridor nine metres (30 feet) long has been discovered close to the main entrance of the 4,500-year-old Great Pyramid of Giza, and this could lead to further findings, Egyptian antiquities officials said on Thursday. The Great Pyramid was constructed as a monumental tomb around 2560 BC during the reign of the Pharaoh Khufu, or Cheops, to a height of 146 metres (479 feet). [1/4] A hidden corridor inside the Great Pyramid of Giza that was discovered by researches from the the Scan Pyramids project by the Egyptian Tourism Ministry of Antiquities is seen in Giza, Egypt March 2, 2023. Scientists detected the corridor through cosmic-ray muon radiography, before retrieving images of it by feeding a 6mm-thick endoscope from Japan through a tiny joint in the pyramid's stones. In 2017, Scan Pyramids researchers announced the discovery of a void at least 30 metres long inside the Great Pyramid, the first major inner structure found since the 19th century.

☆ Egypt opens 4,000-year-old tomb on Luxor's West Bank, oldest open to public
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities/Handout via REUTERSCAIRO, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Egypt has restored, documented and opened to tourists the Middle Kingdom tomb of Meru, the oldest site accessible to the public on Luxor's West Bank, home to some of its most spectacular Pharaonic monuments including the Valley of the Kings. Meru's rock-hewn tomb was restored by the Polish Centre for Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of Warsaw and Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. "This is the only decorated room of the tomb, with an unusual decoration of painting on lime plaster," Yassin said. Meru's tomb had been known since at least the mid-19th century, according to the Polish Egyptian archaeological mission. Some of the Middle Kingdom's most prominent officials were buried at North Asasif, the statement said.

☆ Chinese savers stashed away $2.6 trillion last year but property crash will cool ‘revenge spending’
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Burberry (BBRYF) said last month that it’s seeing “very promising” signs in China, according to Reuters. Since real estate accounts for 70% of household wealth in China, “revenge spending” will be limited, analysts said. They expect household consumption growth to rebound to 9.5% in 2023 from about 3% in 2022, fueling annual GDP growth of more than 5%. Morgan Stanley analysts expect to see some “revenge spending” mostly from household with stable incomes. They’re expecting household consumption growth to rebound to 8.5% in 2023, contributing to full-year economic growth of 5.7%.

☆ Cracks begin to show in India's Himalayan building spree
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Krishn Kaushik | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +12 min

"Modern connectivity is also a guarantee of national security," Modi said at an election rally at a border village in October, where he said the new transport links would bring development to remote regions. India's ministries of highways and railway, which own the state-run companies building the road and rail projects, also did not respond. Hundreds of homes have sunk and cracked in an Indian tourist town close to the Himalayan border with China. Eight of the families neighbouring Butola have now left the village, their homes riven with cracks, villagers told Reuters. Officials halted road construction work near the town, fearful of a bigger collapse.

☆ China PMI: economic activity expands for the first time in months as Covid 'exit wave' ends
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Hong Kong CNN —Economic activity in China has expanded for the first time in four months as disruptions caused by the abrupt end of its zero-Covid policy appears to be fading. The official non-manufacturing PMI, which tracks activity in the services and construction sectors, surged to 54.4 in January from 41.6 in December, also marking its first expansion in four months. This is a sign that China’s Covid “exit wave” is coming to an end, said analysts from Nomura in a research report. The official PMI survey mainly covers larger businesses and state-owned companies. Zhu Wanchang/VCG/Getty ImagesChina scrapped most of its pandemic restrictions in early December, effectively ending its three-year-long zero-Covid policy.

☆ China domestic tourism picks up over Lunar New Year as COVID curbs end
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A total of 308 million tourism trips within China have been made during the current holiday period, up 23.1% from 2022's Lunar New Year break and marking a recovery to 88.6% of the number in 2019, data from the culture and tourism ministry showed on Friday. Revenue generated from domestic tourism during this year's holiday stands at 375.84 billion yuan ($55.41 billion), or 73.1% of that in 2019, according to the tourism ministry data. Authorities in early January ended a requirement that inbound travellers had to undergo hotel quarantine upon arrival, a policy that had crippled international travel. Despite the jump, international travel over the holiday period has yet to rebound to pre-COVID levels. During the Lunar New Year holiday in 2019, a total of 12.53 million cross-border trips were made, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

☆ Thailand beats 2022 tourism target with 11.15 mln foreign arrivals
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

REUTERS/Chalinee ThirasupaBANGKOK, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Thailand received 11.15 million foreign visitors in 2022, a surge from just about 428,000 the previous year when broad pandemic-related travel curbs were in place, tourism ministry data showed on Tuesday. The figures, which beat the government's target, reflect a solid turnaround as Thailand tries to revive its vital tourism industry, which bore the brunt of its strict entry and quarantine policies during the pandemic. In December, there were 2.24 million foreign tourists, compared with 230,497 in the same month a year earlier. Pre-pandemic 2019 saw a record of nearly 40 million foreign tourists for the full year. China's reopening is expected to further boost Thailand's vital tourism sector, which before the pandemic accounted for about 12% of gross domestic product in Southeast Asia's second-largest economy.

☆ Peru's tourism sector hurt by protests amid mass cancellations
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Marco Aquino | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LIMA, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Weeks of deadly protests in Peru after the ouster and detention of President Pedro Castillo have taken a toll on the country's economy, particularly its tourism sector, a minister and industry representatives said. Up to 60% of travel bookings for the first half of the year have been canceled since the protests began, Peru's minister of foreign trade and tourism said. "We had really expected tourism to take off this year," Minister Luis Fernando Helguero said in an interview on local television station Canal N late on Wednesday. "The worst part are the cancellations in the first half of the year, some 50% to 60%. Early on Thursday, protesters blocked a section of Peru's main coastal highway, forcing dozens of cargo trailers to park along the shoulder, local television showed.

☆ Foreign visitors in Japan surge after tourism reopening
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Elaine Lies | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

TOKYO, Nov 16 (Reuters) - The number of foreign visitors to Japan rose to nearly 500,000 in October, the first month it fully reopened to overseas visitors after more than two years of COVID restrictions, more than doubling the volume from September. The number of foreign visitors, for both tourism and business, rose to 498,600 in October, more than double September's 206,500 and surging a massive 2,155% from the year before, the Japan National Tourism Organization said, though it was still down 80% on 2019. This year, 1.52 million foreign visitors have arrived, a far cry from the record 31.8 million in 2019 and the government's 2020 goal - pegged to the Summer Olympics, that were ultimately postponed - of 40 million. "We are seeing the weak yen in a positive way," he said. Japan said on Tuesday it was reopening its ports to cruise ships from March 2023, with some 166 ships slated to visit next year, industry group Japan International Cruise Committee (JICC).

☆ Kenya drought: Hundreds of elephants, wildebeests and zebras reported dead
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-05 | by ( Idris Mukhtar | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Hundreds of elephants, wildebeests, and zebras have died across Kenya amid the nation’s longest drought in decades. “The Kenya Wildlife Service Rangers, Community Scouts, and Research Teams counted the deaths of 205 elephants, 512 wildebeests, 381 common zebras, 51 buffalos, 49 Grevy’s zebras, and 12 giraffes in the past nine months,” a report released Friday by the country’s Ministry of Tourism said. An elephant keeper rests next to a month-old calf at Reteti Elephant Sanctuary in Samburu, Kenya on October 12, 2022. Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images“The drought has caused mortality of wildlife, mostly herbivore species,” Malonza said. According to the ministry, Kenya had just 36,000 elephants left last year.

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