New York remains the most expensive business trip destination in the world in 2022, as a post-pandemic surge in business travel and tourism increased the cost by 8% from the previous year. The city cost business travellers $796 per day, says the consulting firm ECA International, which considered four-star hotels, meals, taxis, drinks and incidentals as part of its survey. The US dominated the overall ranking of the most expensive cities for business travel globally, with Washington DC and San Francisco both making the top five. Switzerland is home to the two most expensive business hubs o
Marking the beginning of the new tourist season in the Kashmir Valley, Asia’s largest tulip garden overlooking the world-famous Dal Lake has opened for tourists, with around 1.6 million tulips of 68 varieties set to enthrall visitors this year. The Indira Gandhi Tulip Garden is located between Dal Lake and the Zabarwan hills in Srinagar. It has over 15 lakh tulips of various colours and hues. Besides tulips, the garden has other spring flowers, such as hyacinths, daffodils, muscari and cyclamens, on display. The Floriculture Department of the garden plants the tulip bulbs in a phas
For the first time since the pandemic, people in Japan can have picnics under cherry blossom trees. Japan’s cherry blossom season draws huge crowds of residents and tourists. The peak season of the blossom is from late March to early April. In 2020, the Tokyo government asked people to refrain from eating and drinking alcohol in metropolitan parks due to concerns that this could add to COVID-19 infections. Now, city parks such as Ueno Park and Inokashira Park are open to welcome visitors to enjoy the full floral glory of the sakura (cherry blossom) after four years. Since Ma
Centuries-old cultural artifacts of Cambodia that had been unlawfully smuggled out from the country returned home on March 18. The artifacts were welcomed at a celebration led by Prime Minister of Cambodia Hun Sen, who appealed for further efforts to retrieve other stolen treasures. The returned items included important Hindu and Buddhist statues, apart from ancient jewelry from the empire of Angkor. Most of the returned items had been looted during periods of war and instability, including in the 1970s when Cambodia was under the rule of the communist Khmer Rouge. The artifacts, through c
India's Mayurbhanj and Ladakh are among the 50 locations featured in the TIME Magazine's list of World's Greatest Places in 2023. Mayurbhanj in Odisha and the union territory of Ladakh have been selected for their rare tigers and ancient temples, and adventures and food, respectively. “With its astonishing alpine landscapes and Tibetan Buddhist culture, Ladakh—in the farthest-flung part of North India—has enough wonders to warrant multiple visits,” the international magazine said. In 2023, India designated its first Dark Sky Reserve, in Hanle village, about 168 miles southeast
The East African Rift Valley is causing Africa to split into two continents. While the process will take millions of years, it will eventually split the African plate into two – the Somali and Nubian plates. This would lead part of East Africa to chip off, and a new ocean would form between the two land masses, a study stated. The East African Rift is a crack that stretches 56 kilometres and appeared in the desert of Ethiopia in 2005, triggering the formation of a new sea, according to a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Geophysical Research Letters. This geological process wi
The United States military organised the first-ever maritime exercise to bolster the skills of West African forces. The drill, held in Ghana’s Volta River on March 11, was carried out under the US’ long-running Flintlock programme. Around 350 troops participated in the sea-based training, including servicemen from the Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Nigeria on the Gulf of Guinea. Admiral Milton Sands, commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command for Africa (SOCAF), said the programme had expanded to help coastal nations in the region cope with maritime threats such as piracy and illegal fi
Singapore’s Changi Airport has recovered its title as the world’s best airport from Qatar, which held the crown for two years during the peak of pandemic travel restrictions, in the latest ranking by the Skytrax World Airport Awards 2023. Determined by a customer satisfaction survey, the airports awards ranked Doha’s Hamad International Airport at second place and Tokyo’s Haneda Airport at the third place. The US was not present in the top 10 airports. Paris Charles de Gaulle was Europe’s top performer, up one spot to fifth place, while Seattle-Tacoma International Airport was
Finding the origin of the deadly COVID-19 virus is a moral imperative and all hypotheses must be explored, insisted the World Health Organization Head, affirming that the United Nations’ body is committed to finding how the virus occurred. “Understanding #COVID19’s origins and exploring all hypotheses remains: a scientific imperative, to help us prevent future outbreaks (and) a moral imperative, for the sake of the millions of people who died and those who live with #LongCOVID,” tweeted WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on March 12, marking three years since the world
India has restored the e-visa services for the nationals of Saudi Arabia keen to visit the country with immediate effect. In 2019, India had introduced the Saudi nationals’ e-Visa service, which was later cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Embassy of India in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in a tweet said, “The Embassy is happy to announce that the facility of e-visa has been restored for the nationals of Saudi Arabia with immediate effect in all five sub-categories, i.e. e-tourist visa, e-business visa, e-medical visa, e-medical attendant visa & e-conference visa.” India offe