This brand new week, we bring you our fresh new weekly Top Ten (10) digest for the most important things in Uganda’s Tourism, the world of Aviation and Travel that are trending especially in this Post COVID-19 Era. As always, we will be giving you highlights that make News rounds all through from start of the week. Below is our Weekly Newsletter for your readership.
01. Israel tourism board proposes mid-2021 reopening
The plan includes adaptation to the corona era in all areas covered by the ministry’s activities – marketing, infrastructure and the tourist experience.
The year 2020, which began with optimism for another record-breaking year for incoming tourist arrivals to Israel and a continuation of the momentum of record highs in recent years, ended with the skies closed and a ban on incoming tourists, for the first time in Israel.
02. Frequent flyers plan to fly six times in next year. Is the travel industry ready?
New research released by Collinson’s Priority Pass has revealed that pre-pandemic frequent flyers are ready to get back on a plane, claiming they expect to fly nearly six times in the next 12 months. Compared with pre-COVID averages of almost 10 flights per year, this represents a 61% recovery compared with 2019 travel.
The global survey analyses the opinions of over 46,000 members of the company’s Priority Pass programme, and reveals that leisure travel will make up more than half of trips (55%) taken in the next year. While business travel will recover more slowly, there is demand from frequent flyers for it to return, with the expectation that business travel will account for 45% of flights taken in the next year globally.
travel, business trip, people and technology concept – happy young african american woman with travel bag walking down city street and calling on smartphone
03. Covid – 19: India International flight suspension prolongs until June 30th
India has once again extended its ban on scheduled international flights, this time until the 30th of June 2021. Flights have been suspended since late March of last year and the government opted not to resume scheduled services. Instead, international operators can either form “travel bubbles” with India or only operate repatriation flights.
04. Brussels Airlines, Brussels Airport and TUI fly Belgium come together to relaunch Belgian air travel
Now that the vaccination campaigns are coming up to speed, and many people are looking forward to being able to go on holiday, Brussels Airport, Brussels Airlines and TUI fly Belgium are ready for the summer of restart and are looking forward to welcoming more passengers in the safest and most pleasant circumstances.
05. KLM grows intercontinental network this winter, adds six new destinations
After the previously announced expansions in Europe for summer 2021, KLM will also be adding new destinations to its intercontinental network on commencement of its winter schedule (31 October 2021 to 26 March 2022). This ties in with KLM’s strategy of first expanding its network where recovery will be quickest, offering customers the broadest possible choice of destinations. The new destinations include Mombasa, Orlando, Cancun, Bridgetown, Port of Spain and Phuket.
Mombasa Kenyan Beach Town
06. Esther Mbabazi’s courtesy visit to the Batwa people of Uganda
In late March this year, Esther Mbabazi left behind Kampala, the chaotic capital of Uganda, and headed for the hills, forests, swamps and grasslands of Bwindi Impenetrable national park an eight-hour drive to the west. She went to find the communities of the Batwa people, who live on the park’s green, rainy edges.
A dance performance at the Batwa settlement in Munyaga, Buhoma. The performances and traditional tours are meant to preserve and share the history of the Batwa. Paid tours are what is left for the Batwa to continue their traditional ways as they did in the forest. The Covid blow to tourism has greatly affected the incomes of many performers in the settlements.
07. Flights from Nairobi to London banned for another month
Although Kenya Airways had earlier sent out notice to her customers about the resumption of the Nairobi-London route from May 22, and henceforth opening bookings from the set date, the revelation hasn’t come to pass after flights between the two countries were further banned and extended by another month.
08. Gorilla trekking in Uganda during Covid-19: Important things to note
The Covid-19 pandemic has left the whole world classified into two batches. You either belong to the vaccinated batch or the non-vaccinated batch. The travel restrictions tend to differ from one group to another causing a number of travel and conduct related questions to arise in view of gorilla trekking during the Covid-19 era.
Though normal still seems far from our vocabulary today, there is a silver lining for a new dawn outside the “new normal”. But before we get there; here are a few insights regarding gorilla trekking in the covid-19 times.
09. Two Aircraft cross over each other in the Democratic Republic of Congo
The Congolese government revealed that a major air disaster was narrowly avoided above its country when two aircraft passed each other below the minimum separation zone.
Several technical problems with air traffic control occurred. Luckily, good communication between the crews prevented the worse.
10. Innovation and digital at centre of tourism recovery as UNWTO logs into Google
The new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) builds on past cooperation between the UN specialized agency for tourism and Google. With destinations in some parts of the world looking to restart tourism, the new partnership will focus on harnessing the power of innovation, education, data and market intelligence to drive sustainable and inclusive recovery.
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