Champs-Elysees to Be Turned Into New Paris Garden
Paris’s famed Champs-Elysees avenue is to be given a green makeover to transform it into what the mayor says will be an “extraordinary garden.”
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tourism
Virus Success Helps Taiwan Buck Global Downturn With Enviable Growth
As the world’s economies reel from the coronavirus pandemic, Taiwan is on track to end the year clocking up enviable growth — a testament to the island’s success in halting the deadly disease.
Read moreGhost Pandemic
A walking ghost tour in Salem, Massachusetts, is suing Governor Charlie Baker over his limits on group gatherings that bans outdoor walking tours with more than 12 people.
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Private Protection: Croatian Codpiece Is Hit With Tourists
Once used to warm men’s private parts during harsh winters in rural Croatia, the woolen codpiece or ‘nakurnjak’ is making a comeback as a popular souvenir, thanks to a handful of women preserving traditional handicrafts from oblivion.
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Covid-19 Case Hits 1st Caribbean Cruise Since Pandemic
One of the first cruise ships to ply through Caribbean waters since the pandemic began ended its trip early after one passenger fell ill and is believed to have Covid-19, officials said Thursday.
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Police Crackdown Rocks Top Mexican Tourist Resort
Images of terrified protesters fleeing police and gunfire have shaken one of Mexico’s top beach resorts and dealt another blow to a tourism industry already reeling from the coronavirus pandemic.
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Call for Shell Donations as Thailand’s Hermit Crabs Face Housing Crisis
Hermit crab numbers in southern Thailand have boomed as foreign tourists have stayed away — so much so that the national park authority appealed on Friday for the public to donate extra shells for them to live in.
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Thousands Arrive in Hawaii on First Day Pretravel Testing
About 8,000 people landed in Hawaii on the first day of a pre-travel testing program that allowed travelers to come to the islands without quarantining for two weeks if they could produce a negative coronavirus test.
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Peru’s Machu Picchu Reopens… For One Japanese Tourist
Peru’s best-known tourist site Machu Picchu has opened after months of coronavirus closure, but for just a single visitor — a Japanese man stranded in the country by the pandemic.
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Covid Ravaged Arizona’s Tourism Industry. But There Are Signs of Life
The coronavirus pandemic has ravaged Arizona’s $26 billion tourism industry and kept 47 million annual visitors away. But things are starting to look up.
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US Surgeon General Cited for Being in Closed Hawaii Park
The U.S. surgeon general was cited for being in a closed Hawaii park in August while in the islands helping with surge testing amid a spike in coronavirus cases, according to a criminal complaint filed in court.
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Madagascar’s Lemurs Take a Breather as Tourism Struggles
Perched on a branch, the lemur blinks back intently at a group of gawking tourists disrupting a coronavirus-induced spell of tranquility outside Madagascar’s Andasibe national park.
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South Africa’s Rhino Poaching Drops During Virus Lockdown
South Africa’s anti-Covid-19 lockdown is credited with helping to achieve a dramatic drop in rhino killings, but as the country opens up experts warn of a possible resurgence of poaching of one of Earth’s most endangered mammals.
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Archaeologists Unearth 27 Coffins at Egypt’s Saqqara Pyramid
Egyptian archaeologists have unearthed more than two dozen ancient coffins in a vast necropolis south of Cairo, an official said Monday.
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Abu Dhabi, UAE’s Conservative Capital, Ends Alcohol Licenses
Abu Dhabi, the conservative capital of the United Arab Emirates, is eliminating its licensing system for alcohol purchases for drinkers after Dubai repeatedly loosened its own rules to boost sales and tourism amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
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Hawaii to Allow Travelers to Skip Quarantine With Virus Test
Hawaii Gov. David Ige said Wednesday that starting Oct. 15, travelers arriving from out of state may bypass a 14-day quarantine requirement if they test negative for Covid-19.
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Desperate Race Against Fires in World’s Biggest Tropical Wetlands
The smell of burnt vegetation and the red glow of flames welcome visitors these days to the Pantanal, the world’s biggest tropical wetlands — a biodiverse paradise that is now partly reduced to ashes by record wildfires.
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European Air Travel Nosedives as Virus Resurges
BRUSSELS (AFP) — The total number of passenger flights in Europe will plummet by more than expected this year as countries fail to coordinate policy on air travel during a pandemic, Eurocontrol said on Monday.
Europe’s air traffic watchdog said total trips in 2020 will reach six million, down by 55% from a year earlier and one million fewer than a forecast in April when air travel was at a standstill.
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Challenges of Maine Coronavirus Limits Face Appellate Defeat
A panel of First Circuit judges appeared extremely reluctant Wednesday to wade into two challenges of Maine executive orders limiting tourism and church services during the pandemic.
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Mutant Cats Still a Draw at Hemingway’s Virus-Hit Florida Home
Starved of international visitors, the house once inhabited by writer Ernest Hemingway in the Florida Keys has struggled to stay open. Almost all of its staff have been laid off during the coronavirus pandemic, yet the six-toed cats who live there still attract locals to the site.
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