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Snowfall, hailstorm in UAE leaves citizens surprised

With almost the entire world battling the surprising effects of global warming and climate change, the desert countries including the UAE are seeing ice storms! According to the reports, hail and snow was seen on the Jebel Jais, the highest peak in the UAE. The skies pelted hail for a few minutes even in Dubai's Jumeirah. In Sharjah, the hailstorm hit the Al Taawun area. The National Centre of Meteorology (NCM) had earlier predicted "freezing rain or snow" over UAE’s mountain peaks on Sunday. It has even forecasted a significant dip in temperature on Monday with chances of snowfall in the mountains. In 2017, the mercury dipped to minus 2.2 degree Celsius due to snowfall on UAE’s highest peak, Jebel Jais.

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Nepal sees slight decline in tourists, India remains its top source.

India continued to be Nepal's top source of tourists in 2019 even though there was a slight decline in the total number of tourists visiting the Himalayan nation. A total of 1.17 million tourists visited Nepal in 2019 via air and land route while in 2018 a total of 1.52 million tourists had visited Nepal, according to the data compiled by the Department of Immigration (DoI), Like in every year, in 2019 too, Nepal received the highest number of tourists from India. The US secured the third position with 93,196 visitors arriving from that country while 61,139 tourists arrived from the UK and 55,869 tourists from Sri Lanka. Among the top five countries to visit Nepal, the number of tourists from the UK and Sri Lanka declined in 2019. As per DoI, 63,086 travelers from the UK and 70,610 tourists from Sri Lanka visited Nepal last year. The number of Thai tourists also declined from 53,250 in 2018 to 41,653 in 2019. Similarly, the number of tourists visiting Nepal from France, South Korea, and Spain also declined to 30,644, 29,679 and 19,057, respectively in 2019 compared to 31,653, 37,142 and 20,210 visitors respectively in 2018. According to Nepal Tourism Board, flight obstruction due to the rehabilitation works at Tribhuvan International Airport and the halt in flight operations by a few international airline companies hit the tourist arrival figure last year.

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With Demand Rising, Airlines Add Flights to India

Singapore Airlines added nine weekly flights to India last year, bringing its total to 104. Air France-KLM is increasing its seat capacity on Indian flights by 25 percent this winter. United Airlines has just begun offering nonstop seasonal daily flights from San Francisco to Delhi. And Delta Air Lines began nonstop service between Kennedy International Airport in New York and Mumbai in December. In the last few years, more than 20 of the 80 international airlines that fly to India have added service, in some cases through arrangements with other airlines, called code sharing. At this pace, India is expected to become the third-largest aviation market by 2024, behind China and the United States, according to the Center for Aviation, a company that provides market intelligence to the aviation and travel industry. The contribution of travel and tourism to India’s gross domestic product — the broadest measure of goods and services produced in India — is expected to increase to $492.2 billion in 2028, from $234 billion in 2017. While there are signs of an economic slowdown in India, business travel to India remains strong. And driving that travel is bilateral trade, said Gunjan Bagla, managing director of Amritt Ventures, a company in Malibu, Calif., that helps Western companies market their products and services to India.

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Iran hopes to revive tourism after the recent setbacks.

Iran’s tourism minister has said that the country’s tourism industry has suffered a major setback but it will certainly come back to normal again. Ali-Asghar Mounesan said this referring to the Ukrainian plane crash on January 8 near Tehran killing all 176 people on board. “These events are a major blow to tourism, but we will leave it behind by the means of new plans and we will definitely return to normal,” Mounesan said. Mounesan said that inbound tours witnessed a 70 percent fall after the plane crash incident. He said that the Iranian ministry is dwelling on new travel markets for a recovery. International safety warnings have been issued for tourists and other travelers bound towards prime destinations in the Middle East in the wake of the assassination of the top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani by U.S. forces on January 3. The U.S. State Department and British Foreign Commonwealth Office were among the many government bodies to issue “do not travel” advisories for Iran. Iran welcomed around 7.8 million foreign nationals last year, witnessing a 52.5 percent increase year-on-year. The World Travel & Tourism Council said that Iraq was the main source of tourism for Iran in 2018, constituting 24% of all inbound visitors. Azerbaijan with (17%), Turkey (8%), Pakistan (4%) and Bahrain (2%) were other major sources. The remaining 46% came from the rest of the world. Iran boasts of hundreds of historical sites like bazaars, museums, mosques, bridges, bathhouses, madrasas, mausoleums, churches, towers, and mansions, of which 22 are inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Under the 2025 Tourism Vision Plan, Iran aims to increase the number of tourist arrivals from 4.8 million in 2014 to 20 million in 2025.

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Delhi Zoo to be upgraded soon with virtual-reality technology

The National Zoological Park in Delhi is planning to introduce virtual reality technology to enable visitors to get closer to animals and a GPS-based mobile application to make zoo visits more engaging and interactive. Aiming to be among the top 10 zoos of the world, Delhi zoo is up for a technical makeover, if everything goes as planned. Virtual headsets will let visitors see animals up-close, which means people will find themselves hugging a deer, standing next to a tiger, or caressing an elephant, as per Delhi Zoo Director Suneesh Buxy. He also added that this enhanced feature will enable them to see a lion playing and hunting in front of them. Currently, boards present outside every enclosure carry only limited information, and that too in the form of text and pictures, whereas the mobile application will engage visitors with text, video content, and pictures, about the inhabitants of the zoo. Top zoos around the globe have nowadays embraced the virtual reality technology to make visitors' experience better. Therefore, the Delhi Government is now planning to introduce the high-end technology to enter into the elite list.

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Despite Brexit, tourism to the UAE to remain steady.

In spite of the uncertainty surrounding Brexit, tourism experts and officials are of the opinion that there would be a limited and short-term impact on tourism to the UAE, since it is a popular destination among travelers from the UK. Lewis Allsopp, the CEO of Allsopp & Allsopp, said that the UAE is a tourist haven, and that UK citizens would love to discover what the country has to offer. According to Dubai Tourism, despite the depreciation of the pound against the dollar, and continued Brexit uncertainty, the UK remained Dubai’s third largest source market with 1,086,000 visitors dropping in from January to November 2019 period. Arrivals from the UK to the GCC are expected to increase 22 per cent over the 2018 to 2024 period, driven by new and direct flight routes, competitive air fares and a growing number of leisure travelers.

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