Tourism

Thailand targets tourism boost with longer stays for visitors, students, ‘digital nomads’

Thailand's government said on Tuesday it had approved longer visa stay periods for tourists, postgraduate students and remote workers, and better visa conditions for retirees, in a move to boost…

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Tourism a boon for Spain’s economy but a bane for some locals

Fresh from a tour of Real Madrid's glittering Santiago Bernabeu stadium in the Spanish capital, Guadalupe Rebollo says a holiday in Spain with her 15-year-old daughter is a better deal…

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Alcohol ban in Ibiza and Majorca

Tourists in parts of Majorca and Ibiza will face hefty fines for drinking alcohol on the streets as part of a crackdown in areas of "excessive tourism". The government of…

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How historic Valletta aims to hit net zero by cutting pollution from cruise ships and cars

By Ben Payton Few European cities can match Valletta for architectural splendour. The capital of Malta was built in the 16th century by the Knights of St John, the Catholic…

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Venice begins charging day-trippers for access

Venice became the first city in the world on Thursday to introduce a payment system for tourists in an effort to thin the crowds that throng the canals during the…

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Italy to host 66 million tourists over the summer

Italy is set to host 65.8 million tourists this summer and they will enjoy a total of 266 million overnight stays, according to the Demoskopika institute's Summer 2024 Tourism Forecast,…

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Venice starts trial of 5-euro entry ticket

Venice on Thursday began a trial of a 5-euro entry ticket as part of efforts to limit the tourist flows that risk suffocating the Lagoon city.The trial will be done…

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Egypt announces $35 billion UAE investment on Mediterranean coast

By Patrick Werr and Karin Strohecker ADQ-led consortium to invest in prized coastal area Signatories say deal could eventually deliver $150 bln Egypt struggling with chronic foreign currency shortage CAIRO…

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Thai PM plans visa-free travel, concerts to boost tourism

BANGKOK, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Thailand's Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said on Thursday his government plans to roll out more measures to boost tourism, including incentives to lure global artists…

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Italy tops new European ranking for tourism reputation

Italy is top of a new ranking for overall reputation as a European tourist destination but it needs to improve on its institutional use of social media, the market research…

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Foreign tourism to Spain beats pre-COVID record in 2023, seen rising

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain received a record number of foreign tourists in 2023, 17% more than a year earlier and a 1% increase from the 84 million who came in…

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United Nations sees international tourism fully recovering in 2024

MADRID (Reuters) - Global tourism is set to fully recover from the pandemic in 2024 as international tourist arrivals will likely be 2% more numerous than in 2019, the United…

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Travelers ready to set sail on cruises at record levels next year

By Doyinsola Oladipo and Granth Vanaik NEW YORK/BENGALURU, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Next year is looking like a banner year for cruise vacations, as travelers across all income and budget…

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An entry fee may not be enough to save Venice from 20 million tourists

Venice’s history, art and architecture attract an estimated 20 million visitors every year. The city, a Unesco World Heritage site, is often crammed with tourists in search of special memories.…

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Italy welcomes tourism boost from hosting Ryder Cup for first time

By Angelo Amante ROME, (Reuters) - The Ryder Cup is giving tourism in Rome a big boost, Italian government officials said, with the region around the host capital ranking first…

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Photo Story: Bali to implement 10 USD tourist tax in 2024

Foreign tourists sit at Kuta beach in Bali, Indonesia, 23 September 2023. Starting February 2024, the Provincial Government of Bali will implement a 10 USD tourist tax for every foreign…

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Japan says swarms of tourists defiling sacred Mt Fuji

By Mariko Katsumura FUJIYOSHIDA, Japan (Reuters) - On a grey, rainy Saturday a steady stream of tour buses arrive at a base station of Japan's Mount Fuji depositing dozens of…

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Venice to start charging visitors €5 entry fee next year

VENICE, Italy, (Reuters) - Venice plans to experiment with an admission fee of 5 euros($5.35) for day trippers next year to try to manage the flow of tourists drawn to…

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P&O Cruise passengers injured after ‘weather-related’ incident in Mallorca

A small number of people were injured on Sunday during a "weather-related incident" involving P&O Cruises Britannia ship moored in the Spanish island of Mallorca, a spokesperson for the company said.…

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Italian tourists flock to Albania in key boost for economy

By Fatos Bytyci and Florion Goga SARANDA, Albania (Reuters) - A waiter in an Albanian restaurant in the coastal resort town of Saranda apologised to newly arriving customers that little…

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Tourist boom fuels inflation – FT

The holiday boom across the EU’s hotspots this summer — with hotel room rates surging nearly 20 per cent and air flights up more than 30 per cent — is…

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Sunak dampens hopes of reversal over axed UK tourist tax break

LONDON, Aug 2 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said nearly all of the benefit of a now-abolished tax break for tourists went to a small area of central…

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Greece offers free holiday to tourists who fled Rhodes fires

ATHENS, Aug 2 (Reuters) - Greece said on Wednesday it will offer a week-long free stay on Rhodes in 2024 to tourists whose vacation was cut short by wildfires that…

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Call to restrict public access to Trevi Fountain

Access to the Trevi Fountain should be limited and controlled, Rome's tourism pointman said in the wake of a social media video showing a man climbing onto the iconic monument…

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Tourists flock to the Mediterranean as if the climate crisis isn’t happening. This year’s heat and fire will force change

Thousands of people on the beach. Children reportedly falling off evacuation boats. Panic. People fleeing with the clothes on their backs. It felt like “the end of the world”, according…

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Instagram is making you a worse tourist – here’s how to travel respectfully

by Lauren A. Siegel Lecturer, University of Greenwich (The Conversation) Travel is back in full swing this summer, and so is bad behaviour by tourists.Popular destinations have seen an uptick…

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Amsterdam bans cruise ships to limit tourists and curb pollution

Amsterdam's council has banned cruise ships from the city centre as the Dutch capital tries to limit visitor numbers and curb pollution. Politicians said the vessels were not in line…

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Italy’s antitrust investigates inflated prices for Colosseum tickets

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's antitrust authorities are going into combat over Rome's Colosseum, opening an investigation into ticketing operations that have seen tourists paying inflated prices to visit the ancient…

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Ancient Roman Pantheon to start charging entry from Monday

ROME, (Reuters) - Visitors to Rome's Pantheon, one of the ancient world's best preserved monuments, will have to pay a 5 euro ($5.45) entrance fee from Monday, Italy's tourism ministry…

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Madrid joins race for high-spending tourists with bet on five-star hotels

MADRID (Reuters) - As pandemic travel restrictions began to ease in the spring of 2021 foreign tourists returning to Madrid discovered the city's downtown had undergone a makeover. An area…

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Dubrovnik Bans Wheeled Suitcases in a Bid to Tackle Tourism Noise

The mayor of the city of Dubrovnik, Mato Franković, has decided to ban wheeled suitcases due to the noise they make in the streets of this old city. This means…

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Italian police blame couple from England for Colosseum graffiti

ROME, (Reuters) - Italian police have identified a couple from England as the likely culprits after graffiti was scribbled on a wall at the Colosseum in Rome last week, prompting…

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Police in Italy searching for tourist who defaced Colosseum wall

ROME, (Reuters) - Italian authorities are looking for a tourist who scribbled graffiti on a wall of the Colosseum, with Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano calling for exemplary punishment for the…

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Croatia eying record tourist season after joining Schengen area

By Antonio Bronic ZADAR, Croatia (Reuters) - Croatian tourism officials are anticipating a record year for the sector after the country joined Europe's free-movement Schengen zone in January, which has…

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Tunisia tourist revival a rare bright spot for crisis-hit economy

Government official forecasts strong summer Arrivals seen at 90% of pre-pandemic levels Small boost for economy in crisis By Tarek Amara TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia is set for a strong…

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US, European hotel rates may keep rising, industry executives say

By Doyinsola Oladipo NEW YORK, (Reuters) - Hotel room rates in the U.S. and Europe are rising and may get even more expensive as supply has failed to keep up…

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Spain expects more summer tourists than before pandemic

MADRID, (Reuters) - Spain expects to receive more tourists in the summer of 2023 than before the COVID-19 pandemic, after international tourist arrivals for April were 1.2% higher than in…

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Around 15 million Italians expected to travel over June 2 holiday weekend

Around 15 million Italian people will be taking trips over the upcoming long weekend created by the Republic Day national holiday on Friday, hoteliers' association Federalberghi said on Monday. It…

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Spain’s mass tourism in candidates’ crosshairs in election year

By Joan Faus Spain was second most-visited country in 2019 Tourism accounts for 12% of economy Local and regional elections scheduled on Sunday 30 million people visited Barcelona in 2019…

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Pent-up demand promises record tourist season for southern Europe

Strong early arrivals in Italy, Iberia, Greece Airlines, tour operators see robust summer bookings Tourism boom to provide economic boost to southern Europe By Giselda Vagnoni ROME (Reuters) - After…

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How much water does tourism in the Balearic Islands use?

One of the most frequent comments among the population residing in the Spanish Balearic Archipelago – a renowned tourist destination for Europeans – used to be: “Tourists consume a lot…

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Albania’s burgeoning tourism industry could prevent youth exile and boost economy

It has been more than 30 years since Albania opened its doors to tourists, but telling a friend that you’re off to Tirana or Dhërmi for a long weekend might…

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European airlines see bumper summer bookings

By Sarah Young and Federica Mileo May 5 (Reuters) - British Airways-owner IAG and Air France-KLM on Friday reported bumper summer bookings as travellers pressed ahead with holiday plans despite…

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Europe’s hopes for busy post-COVID summer dim as Chinese tourists stay away

ZURICH/BERLIN/LONDON (Reuters) - Urs Kessler, who runs Jungfrau Railways, a train that takes tourists up the highest mountain in Switzerland, was excited for the return of Chinese tourists after COVID-19…

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Morocco to spend $580 mln to attract more tourists

RABAT, March 17 (Reuters) - Morocco plans to spend 6.1 billion dirhams ($580 mln) up to 2026 to develop its tourism sector in order to attract more visitors and bring…

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German travel industry sees 2023 rebound to pre-pandemic highs

BERLIN, March 6 (Reuters) - The war in Ukraine and a cost-of-living crisis are not spoiling German consumers' appetite for a holiday, travel industry body DRV said on Monday, forecasting…

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Wedding tourism booms in Italy

dding tourism is booming in Italy with over 11,000 overseas couples tying the knot in Italy last year, according to the Destination Weddings in Italy Observatory, complied by the Centro…

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EU tourist stays neared pre-pandemic levels in 2022 – Eurostat

Jan 18 (Reuters) - The number of nights spent in tourist accommodation in the European Union in 2022 approached pre-pandemic levels, the bloc's statistics office Eurostat said on Wednesday, confirming…

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Greece’s 2022 tourism revenues seen at 18 bln euros, PM says

ATHENS, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Greece's Prime Minister said on Tuesday that revenues from its all-important tourism industry are seen reaching at least18 billion euros ($19.13 billion) this year, beating the government's…

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Spain tourism soars in October, approaches pre-pandemic levels

MADRID, Dec 2 (Reuters) - The number of foreign tourists visiting Spain in October soared 39% from the same month last year to 7.18 million, but remained a tad below…

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Germans’ winter tourism bookings rise, but still below pre-COVID levels

BERLIN, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Germans' tourism bookings for the 2022/23 winter were down 33% as of the end of August compared with the pre-COVID winter of 2018/19, but sales…

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Thailand may receive more than 10 mln foreign tourists this year – minister

BANGKOK, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Thailand may record slightly more than 10 million foreign tourist arrivals this year, the tourism minister said on Friday, as a vital industry has recovered…

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Thailand expects $64.5 billion in 2023 tourism revenue

BANGKOK, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Thailand expects to earn 2.38 trillion baht ($64.50 billion) in tourism revenue in 2023, a government official said on Monday. The government wants tourism next…

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China eases some border entry rules for foreign tourists

BEIJING, Sept 19 (Reuters) - China's government on Monday issued draft rules aimed at making it easier for some foreigners to enter China for visits to tourism sites along the…

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Nine million foreigners visited Spain in July, near pre-pandemic levels

MADRID, Sept 1 (Reuters) - More than twice as many tourists visited Spain in July than in the same month last year, a number only slightly below pre-pandemic levels, National…

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Foreign business travel missing ingredient for Irish hotel recovery – Dalata

DUBLIN, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Executives at Ireland's large hub of multinational companies are still only going on a small fraction of the foreign business trips they made before the…

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Lithuania warns Baltic states, Poland and Finland could ban Russian tourists

European Union members Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Finland, which all share a border with Russia, may stop Russian tourists from entering their countries if the EU does not enact…

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