Tours to Turkey will get more expensive
According to forecasts by the Russian Union of Tourism Industry (RST), tours to Turkey will rise in price by 15-20% this summer. However, many analysts do not share this pessimistic forecast.
Tour operators understand that Turkey, despite everything, will remain the leader in outbound tourism, and forecast a 30% increase in sales volumes for this country. After all, no other destination can yet offer a product similar to Turkey's in terms of price-quality ratio. No other country has such a developed tourism infrastructure, pays so much attention to animation programs, moreover in Russian. And of course, Turkey's visa-free travel is of great importance for demand - if you really want, you can go there "as early as tomorrow."
US Congress demanded that Europe present passports
The United States Congress is unlikely to meet the European Union halfway and extend the introduction of biometric passports scheduled for October. The chairman of the migration legislation committee in the US parliament wrote about this in an official letter addressed to the European Commission, reports the Financial Times.
"The growing concern over the security of America's borders, which American society and most congressmen have shown, makes it unlikely that the introduction of new passports will be postponed," writes James Sensenbrenner. "I strongly advise the European Commission not to count on it."
Let us recall that there is an agreement between the United States and the European Union on visa-free border crossings. However, starting in October 2005, only tourists with biometric passports will be able to visit America without going through embassies; everyone else will have to obtain visas. The new identity documents have a microchip that stores information about the owners' fingerprints.
The United States has already extended the validity of current EU passports. And recently the European Union again asked the United States to postpone the introduction of new identity documents by one year. The letter to Congress notes that a number of European countries will not manage to issue new documents in time.
American airlines have again raised prices
American airlines carried out another fare increase at the end of last week. They raised the one-way ticket price by another $5, reports Travel.ru.
According to US media, Delta Air Lines was the first to raise prices, followed by United Airlines. Then fares increased at Northwest Airlines, Continental Airlines, American Airlines, and US Airways. This is already the third increase in the past month. As in previous cases, the current rise in fares is caused by record oil prices. As the airlines state, if current fuel prices hold, many of them will face survival problems.
Bulgaria and Romania will join the European Union
The European Parliament's committee on relations with foreign states approved the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the EU. Romania and Bulgaria will be able to become full members of the European Union as early as 2007, and in the meantime the countries are preparing for a vote on their accession, which will take place at the EU assembly meeting on April 13. If a majority of European parliamentarians vote in favor of these countries' accession, corresponding treaties will be signed with the Romanian and Bulgarian governments on April 25.
Accepting Romania and Bulgaria into the EU will be a rather bold step on the part of the European Union, since both countries are the poorest among all the European countries of the former socialist camp. But the EU prefers not to talk about poverty, pointing out other shortcomings to the candidates. For example, the main demand of European officials to the Bulgarian government was to settle the situation with the Roma, who are a national minority in the country. In Romania, in turn, the situation with freedom of speech and the flourishing in recent years prostitution was criticized.
However, despite these shortcomings, few people now doubt that Romania and Bulgaria will be admitted to the EU. At the same time, Bulgarians and Romanians will not be able to rejoice for a long time, even if the final documents are signed. The EU reserves the right to suspend integration processes with these countries at any moment.
According to existing agreements, during this year the newcomers must carry out serious reforms in their countries, otherwise they will definitely not join the EU within the promised time frame. Bulgaria and Romania are required to tighten anti-corruption laws, amend the criminal code, and create an independent judicial system. Such demands have not frightened either Bucharest or Sofia, who promise to make all the necessary changes as soon as the accession treaties are signed, and assure EU members that all problems will be resolved in the shortest possible time.
British authorities allowed air passengers to carry sharp objects
British authorities have again allowed sharp objects to be carried in the hand luggage of air passengers. As RIA Novosti reports, the UK Department for Transport has revised its rules on the carriage of sharp objects due to the strengthening of other security measures on board passenger aircraft.
"The safety of air travel is subject to constant monitoring and review," said a ministry representative. "Now there are security officers on board aircraft, cockpit doors are hermetically sealed, and passengers do not have access to them, so we can simplify the rules for carrying a number of items." From April 25, 2005, passengers will be able to carry metal knitting needles and manicure scissors with blade lengths of no more than three centimeters in their hand luggage. In addition, British Airways has already announced that when serving meals to passengers on aircraft, metal knives and forks will again be issued.
Tibet intends to become a major center of mountain tourism
The first 15-year tourism development program for Tibet has entered its final stage of development, RBC reports citing Xinhua. The program will cover 6 regions, including Lhasa and Shigatse, Shannan, Nagqu, and Chamdo, with a total area of more than 1.2 million square kilometers.
In accordance with the program, priority will be given to the development of inbound tourism to Tibet, as well as domestic tourism, in order to enhance the role of this autonomous region in the tourism business between China and South Asian countries. Another equally important goal is to turn Tibet into the most famous center of mountain tourism on the planet.
By 2010, tourism should bring 4 billion yuan as one of the pillar industries of Tibet's economy. This is about 10% of the autonomous region's GDP. Then Tibet will receive 280 thousand foreign and 2.2 million Chinese tourists. The program provides for an increase in tourism revenues to 22.8 billion yuan by 2020, when the number of foreign and Chinese tourists will increase to 1.12 million and 9.05 million people, respectively. Tourism development will also contribute to the process of urbanization and improvement of infrastructure in Tibet, protection of cultural heritage, natural resources and the ecological environment, and improvement of living standards in the autonomous region.
Located in southwestern China, Tibet is known as the "roof of the world" due to its unique highland landscape. In 2004, it was visited by 1.22 million tourists, including foreign guests. Tourism revenues amounted to 1.5 billion yuan (7% of GDP).
It is unprofitable to own a hotel in Cyprus
The hotel business in Cyprus is going through hard times. Recently, hoteliers experiencing serious financial problems due to declining revenues and debts to commercial banks asked the state for support that would help them overcome the crisis in the local tourism business.
According to Travel.ru, the main difficulties cited were growing competition from neighboring states, high operating costs and the cost of living on the island. All this keeps tourists from choosing Cyprus as a country for their vacation, representatives of the Cyprus Hotel Association (CHA) said in their appeal to the Advisory Council on Economic Affairs.
Hotel owners also seek to improve the terms of repayment of bank loans. They insist on increasing the loan term from three years, as is currently the case, to fifteen. During this time, hotel owners will pay only interest to the bank. This practice already exists throughout Europe. It will certainly allow Cypriot hotel owners to breathe more freely and begin improving their hotel complexes. Thus, they will be able to offer a better tourism product that can compete with other Mediterranean countries: Egypt, Tunisia and Turkey.
The Association demands a more "aggressive" advertising campaign for Cyprus abroad, and also proposes taking measures to combat the growing rate of inflation. The abolition of the three percent tax paid by hoteliers to the CTO, a reduction in VAT on hotel complexes and stimulation of their modernization would give a chance to revive the hotel sector on the island, Cypriot hoteliers believe.