Tourism

• Saturday, March 20th 2021 - 09:17 UTC

  Rio beaches closed for the weekend and no tourists allowed into the city

  

  Rio de Janeiro closed its famed beaches on Friday in a bid to contain a surge of COVID-19, a move criticized by anti-lockdown President Jair Bolsonaro, who said sun-deprived citizens risked a lack of vitamin D.

• Saturday, March 13th 2021 - 09:55 UTC

  Resumption of Sao Paulo and Santiago/Falklands air links taking off next July?

  

  Commercial air links between Chile and Brazil and the Falkland Islands are expected to resume next July according to Aviacionline, an air industry site that revealed it obtained the information through Cirium which specializes in aviation and travel data and analytics.

• Thursday, March 11th 2021 - 09:40 UTC

  IATA expects a return to personal and leisure travel from the second half of 2021

  

  Personal and leisure travel will return from the second half of this year as borders reopen to tourists hungry to be free again and to reunite with families and friends, Alexandre de Juniac, director of the International Air Transport Association (Iata) said in an interview with The Straits Times from Singapore.

• Wednesday, March 10th 2021 - 08:34 UTC

  Countries and airlines discuss “health passports” hoping to re launch travel

  

  From digital certificates to “health passports”, countries and airlines across the globe are hoping to re-launch travel by letting people prove their Covid-free status. But with patchy vaccine access around the world and mounting concerns over data privacy, questions are swirling about how the measures will work in practice.

• Tuesday, March 9th 2021 - 09:25 UTC

  A third of world travel destinations remain closed to international tourism, UNWTO report

  

  Around a third of 217 world travel destinations’ borders surveyed remain completely closed to international tourists, as concerns grow over the impact of new coronavirus variants, and some governments reverse efforts to ease restrictions, a new report released on Monday by the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) revealed.

• Friday, March 5th 2021 - 08:30 UTC

  American Airlines cancels routes from the US to Montevideo and Santiago

  

  American Airlines has extended the suspension and cancellation of numerous international flights including to regions that have not yet been severely impacted by the coronavirus, such as Latin America. The Fort-Worth-based airline says on 10 March that it is cutting summer international capacity by about 10% and April domestic capacity by 7.5% in response to decreasing demand.

• Tuesday, March 2nd 2021 - 09:31 UTC

  EU will formally propose a digital vaccination passport by end of March

  

  European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU executive would propose a digital vaccination passport later this month, she said on Monday. Members of the bloc will then decide whether to press ahead with the scheme to allow each other to recognize citizens' proof of vaccination.

• Monday, March 1st 2021 - 08:45 UTC

  Heathrow to levy an extra £8.90 to departing passengers in an effort to cover pandemic costs

  

  London's Heathrow airport will charge departing passengers an extra £8.90 in an effort to claw back costs as the coronavirus crisis depresses air travel. The tariff is permitted by the UK's aviation regulator under a protocol that allows the hub to cover costs for utilities, baggage and check-in services.

• Thursday, February 25th 2021 - 09:36 UTC

  EU divided over travel certificates of vaccination; southern countries want to recover the summer season

  

  European Union leaders will agree on Thursday to work on certificates of vaccination for EU citizens who have had an anti-COVID shot, with southern EU countries that depend heavily on tourism desperate to rescue this summer's holiday season.

• Thursday, February 25th 2021 - 09:05 UTC

  LBGT+ cruise to Antarctica from Ushuaia in December 2022 sold out in ten days

  

  Argentina announced that it will port the first-ever LGBT+ cruise to Antarctica in December of 2022. The ten-night cruise will be organized by the LGBT+ travel company Vacaya on the ship Ponant Le Boréal. Guests will enjoy a one-night stay in Buenos Aires, Argentina’s capital city, before setting sail in Ushuaia, Argentina’s southernmost city.