News

Is It Safe to Travel to Singapore Amid Coronavirus Outbreak?

Jakarta. If you're considering a visit to Singapore, but feel uncertain because of the coronavirus outbreak, the Singapore Tourism Board wants you to know that they're doing all they can to keep tourists safe from the virus. A total of 19.1 million tourists visited Singapore – a city-state of 5.8 million people – last year, contributing as much as S$27.1 billion ($19 billion) to its GDP. But its tourism board now expects a much lower number this year due to the continuing coronavirus outbreak. Since the coronavirus outbreak began in January, Singapore has been receiving 20,000 fewer tourists daily. Normally, 20 percent of visitors to Singapore are from China. The government estimates the decline in tourist numbers might reach 30 percent by the end of this year. Indonesians are the second-biggest group of tourists to Singapore after the Chinese, with 2.2 million visitors in 2019. "The Singapore government continuously takes concrete precautionary measures to prevent the coronavirus from entering Singapore. We're ready for business-as-usual. All businesses and tourism sites are open and operating normally. However, we are very cautious about people who are sick and showing symptoms of the virus," Mohamed Firhan Abdul Salam, STB's area director for Indonesia, said. Singapore is now the second most-affected country after China in the coronavirus outbreak. As of now, 70 people in Singapore have tested positive for the virus and 26 have recovered. To limit the spread of the outbreak, the government of Singapore has provided free medical masks to every household, performed comprehensive medical checks on visitors showing symptoms of the pneumonia-like infection and disinfected the city's public facilities. Singapore's Changi International Airport is one of the busiest airports in the world and a major transit hub for international flights. The Singapore authorities say they are aware that the virus may be transferred between passengers during their layover. The STB has also improved Singapore's most popular attractions, including the Magical Shores at Siloso, Basit Thani Laguna, Bugis Street, Marina Bay Sands, Resorts World Sentosa and Orchard Road to keep tourists interested. None of the major events planned for the city this year has been canceled, including the F1 Night Racing, Harry Potter and Aladdin plays, Now You See Me magic show and concerts by nu-metal band SlipKnot, pop singer Khalid, pop-punk band Green Day and classic rock band Scorpions.

Read more

Russia welcomed 5.1 million tourists in 2019, relaxes visa rules for EU citizens

From 2021, Russia, the world’s biggest country will relax its draconian visa rules but it will not be for the visitors from the UK. It was announced by the Association of Tour Operators of Russia that in 2019 it received 5.1 million overseas tourists which was one-fifth more than the previous year. This was during the World Cup in Russia. In 2020 the visitors numbers will plummet and Kremlin will be imposing a ban on Chinese citizens due to the coronavirus outbreak. From January 1, 2021 a new online visa will be available and will remain valid for travel anywhere in the country for up to 16 days. Russia expects that the shortfall will be compensated by tourists from 53 countries. Short stay in both St. Petersburg and Moscow would be covered along with a leisure trip along the Trans-Siberian Railway to the Pacific. For the current e-visas for specific regions of Russia the UK visitors are excluded. For specific regional visas to three location in Russia, like St.Petersburg, the exclave of Kaliningrad ( between Poland and Lithuania) and the country’s Far East at present some foreign visitors qualify. The European Union citizens can avail this but not the British. The current e-visa scheme has permissible points of entry which is a limitation and the nationwide e-visa schemed will add more flexibility. The UK has tightened its entrance requirements and the progressive relaxation of visa regimes elsewhere in Europe is welcomed.

Read more

Qatar Airways and Bulgaria Air Sign Codeshare Agreement

Qatar Airways is pleased to announce it has signed a codeshare agreement with Bulgaria Air.The agreement will provide Bulgaria Air passengers with a seamless connection to destinations in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Qatar Airways’ passengers will benefit from access to two new destinations in Bulgaria: Varna and Burgas. Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, said: “This agreement with Bulgaria Air follows other recent partnership announcements we have made with airlines across the world, demonstrating our commitment to working with our peers to provide passengers seamless connectivity and unrivalled service.” Qatar Airways first launched services to Sofia, Bulgaria on 22 September 2011 beginning with a four-times weekly service. In the years since, due to the strong demand by travellers, the service has grown to 14 weekly flights. A multiple award-winning airline, Qatar Airways was named ‘World’s Best Airline’ by the 2019 World Airline Awards, managed by the international air transport rating organisation Skytrax. It was also named ‘Best Airline in the Middle East’, ‘World’s Best Business Class’, and ‘Best Business Class Seat’, in recognition of its ground-breaking Business Class experience, Qsuite. It is the only airline to have been awarded the coveted “Skytrax Airline of the Year” title, which is recognised as the pinnacle of excellence in the airline industry, five times. Qatar Airways currently operates a modern fleet of more than 250 aircraft via its hub, Hamad International Airport (HIA), to more than 170 destinations worldwide. The world’s fastest-growing airline will add Osaka, Japan; Santorini, Greece; Dubrovnik, Croatia; Almaty and Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan; Accra, Ghana; Cebu, Philippines; Lyon, France; Trabzon, Turkey; Siem Reap, Cambodia and Luanda, Angola to its extensive network in 2020. Bulgaria Air is the largest Bulgarian airline and national carrier of the Republic of Bulgaria. It performs direct flights to 25 cities in Europe, including domestic flights to Varna and Bourgas. In 2019, the airline won the “Most Preferred Airline in the Bulgarian Market” at the prestigious annual Sky Awards. The national carrier was also honored in two other categories – “Most Preferred Airline for Short and Medium flights to/from Bulgaria” and “Most Preferred Airline by the Professionals”.

Read more

Goa Government withdraws Section 144 ahead of famous Goa Carnival

The North Goa administration has withdrawn Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) after facing backlash from the stakeholders of the tourism industry and the opposition. The state government announced the withdrawal on Monday, nearly a week after the tourism industry suffered a huge setback, also following criticism from various sections of the society. The said notification dated February 10, 2020, created fear and panic among the locals and tourists, with some also cancelling their travel plans to Goa. Also, the world-famous Goa carnival will begin on February 22, which is also looked upon as one of the reasons to withdraw the order. The opposition parties had questioned the move of imposing Section 144 of CrPC for 60 days, and were of the view that this would adversely affect the tourism industry. However, the recent circular states that the order issued under Section 144 of the CrPC stands withdrawn with immediate effect. The stakeholders of the tourism industry and the opposition had also slammed the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant-led government for the indiscriminate use of Section 144, particularly during the peak tourist season. Tourism stakeholders also stated that invoking Section 144 of the CrPC inflicted a huge blow to the already limping industry, and the need of the hour is the government reassuring tourists that holidaying in Goa was safe. Referring to this, the North Goa collector added that that order was just a precautionary measure to heighten alertness, especially to impose tenant verification on all the owners of residential accommodations, paying guest accommodations, private guesthouses, so that proper verification is carried out before letting out the premise on lease, hire, or rent basis.

Read more

Google to end free Wi-Fi in 400 Indian railway stations

Google Wi-Fi, which was free at 400 railway stations, in India will no longer be available. As per reports, the company is shutting down the Wi-Fi services that it currently offers across India. But this is not specific to India, as Google is actually doing this globally, across countries such as Brazil, South Africa, Nigeria, Thailand, Mexico, Indonesia, Vietnam, India, and the Philippines. According to a statement by the company, the internet has become a lot cheaper now, and India specifically has one of the lowest mobile data per GB price in the world. As per the statement, mobile data prices have reduced by 95 per cent in the last five years. Moreover, the company is facing difficulty to make it a sustainable business. In India, Google was working with RailTel, Indian Railways, and other domestic organisations to provide free Wi-Fi in the railway stations in India. It was also mentioned in the statement that on average, Indians use 10 GB of internet every month. The programme was first launched by Google in India back in 2015, to let travellers enjoy free internet in India’s busiest railway stations. 400 such railway stations enjoyed the free service for the last five years, which was installed and maintained by Google. The project has been running in a few locations including Pune and Bengaluru in collaboration with BSNL. The services in Mexico, South Africa, and Brazil came after India, and all of those places are also set to lose this facility. But we can safely say that nowadays most of us have the internet on our phones. However, there is a large number of marginalised people, who could’ve used free Wi-Fi at railway stations as well as in their daily lives.

Read more

Looking for the safest country to travel?

According to the methodology developed by Insurly for its "2020 Ranking of the World's Safest Countries", Switzerland is the world's safest travel destination with an overall score of 93.4 out of 100. In particular, travelers will be reassured by the country's excellent score for transport risks (98 out of 100), one of the four criteria evaluated by the study, which takes into account the annual number of tourists killed or injured on roads as well as the prevalence of airlines on the European Commission's blacklist. Placed second, Singapore scored 92.7 out of 100, making it the safest Asian country. The risk of natural disasters on the island city state was estimated at 93 out of 100. For this criterion, the study drew on data from the the United Nations University risk report, which also takes into account measures established to cope with such events.

Read more