Travel in Cyprus

Cyprus Airways carries 70% more passengers during July 23 than last year. ompared to 2019 pre pandemic figures it improved its passenger figures with 41%

Two holidaymakers found love when their flight was delayed, the BBC News reports. A chance encounter at Bournemouth Airport has led to a wedding engagement.

Balloons in the national colours of Israel and Qatar festooned the departure gate for the first commercial flight between the countries on Sunday, permitted by Doha for fans of the World Cup despite the absence of formal bilateral relations.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Friday, February 3. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Cyprus has been diversifying its visitor base and marketing approach as it fills the huge void left by the loss of Russians and Ukrainian tourists. 

The U.S. travel sector needs to revamp its messaging around the sustainable action its destinations and businesses are taking in order to maintain competitiveness with European markets.

China’s Trip.com Group has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Saudi Tourism Authority to promote Saudi Arabia as a tourism destination. As part of the collaboration, Trip.com and Saudi Tourism Authority will launch joint marketing campaigns in several markets to drive awareness and attract tourists to Saudi Arabia through Trip.com, Ctrip, Travix, and other travel companies. These markets include Australia, China, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and UK. In addition, both parties will also embark on several capacity-building and knowledge-sharing initiatives in various aspects, including digital payment solutions, sustainability, ticketing, and training. “With Trip.com Group’s market capability and advanced technology, I believe the partnership will encourage and entice more visitors worldwide to Saudi Arabia and further enhance recovery in the global tourism sector,” said Fahd Hamidaddin, CEO of the Saudi Tourism Authority. In November last year, Trip.com Group signed an agreement to promote Qatar across the globe as a family-friendly tourism destination, and an agreement with Abu Dhabi was signed in May 2022. Speaking at the Skift Global Forum East, Trip.com’s Chief Operating Officer, Schubert Lou, said old marketing strategies would not work on the new Chinese traveler. Saudi Arabia had earlier said that it aims to attract 3.9 million visitors from China annually by 2030. In 2019, when Saudi Arabia opened to tourism, the maximum number of tourist visas issued were to Chinese tourists. More than 100,000 Chinese tourists visited Saudi Arabia in 2019.

The Department of Culture and Tourism — Abu Dhabi has announced its growth roadmap for 2023, aiming to promote and advance the culture and tourism sectors in Abu Dhabi. The emirate plans to attract over 24 million visitors in 2023, an increase from 18 million in the previous year.

A group of six teenagers were detained after their unruly behavior onboard a flight from Cyprus to Israel last Thursday, Israeli media outlet Ynet first reported.

The days of unrestricted privileges for leisure travel across much of Europe are numbered.

Carefree days lounging on the sand are a hallmark of an idyllic vacation for many travelers. But beaches themselves are a commodity, vulnerable to retreat that’s exacerbated by climate change. In fact, nearly half of the Earth’s sandy beaches could be extinct by 2100, according to a study published in Nature Climate Change.

If the European Parliament has its way, U.S. citizens will no longer be able to visit Europe with just a passport. The parliament has called for a requirement that U.S. citizens get visas to visit the European Union.

Three relatively new low-fare airlines have run into troubles ranging from minor to bad, with one shutting down completely and the other two cutting or delaying new air routes. Industry pundits have been saying for some time that it wouldn’t be easy for the slew of new low-fare airlines to make their business models work, given the competition from established low-fare lines and ongoing opposition from the legacy lines. And that now seems to be ringing true.

Want to take a vacation? Cyprus, Romania and the Seychelles will all welcome you—as long as you’re fully vaccinated against COVID-19. These countries are now waiving the quarantine and COVID-19 testing requirements for international travelers, provided that they have received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine at least two weeks prior (10 days for Romania).

Tim Chester, Web Editor: From the Turner Contemporary gallery to the proliferation of other indie art spaces, retro shops and cute cafés in the Old Town, Margate now offers much more than its beautifully dilapidated seafront. Dubbed “romantic, sexy and weird” by local girl Tracey Emin, this gem on the Isle of Thanet constitutes one of the highlights of the forthcoming Rough Guide to Kent, Sussex and Surrey for many good reasons.

The Autumn Equinox has come and gone here at Petworth House and Park, West Sussex. But it still feels like summer. Landscape Manager Martyn Burkinshaw is crouched down amongst the flowers, gathering up seed heads for next year. He looks at home, surrounded by plants, secateurs in hand, kneeling in the dirt.

Gourmets rank Turkish cuisine, along with French and Chinese, as one of the world’s three classic cuisines. Turkey’s rich and varied cooking derives from its multi-ethnic Ottoman heritage and food is often the highlight of a visit. To whet your appetite, here are some of the best traditional Turkish dishes.

The birthplace of Aphrodite and the crossroads between three continents, Cyprus has seduced and inspired generations of travellers for hundreds of years. And it continues to do so today. Here is our pick of the best things to do in Cyprus.

This article is inspired by our Rough Guides guidebooks — your essential guides for travelling the world.

For a relatively small continent, Europe has some extraordinary coastlines. Their variety is dizzying, from sheltered rocky coves fringed with olive trees to vast stretches of soft sandy beaches. Whittling down the list of possible beach holidays in Europe can be tough, so here are a few places that will get you in the mood for lazy days in the sun.

United States passport holders have long traveled throughout most of the world without having to worry about visa applications: American travelers currently have visa-free access to 184 destinations worldwide, according to this year’s Henley Passport Index, which ranked the U.S. passport as the eighth most powerful in the world. But that’s set to change next year, as the European Union prepares new travel document requirements for American tourists.