London's latest tourist attraction aimed for the heights. It has fallen a bit flat. The Marble Arch Mound, an artificial hill beside one of the city's busiest intersections, opened this week and is already offering refunds to disappointed visitors and admitting "teething problems."
Designed by Dutch architecture firm MVRDV, the mound is a 25-meter (80-foot) hill made from turf-covered scaffolding that claims to offer panoramic views of Hyde Park, Oxford Street and the surrounding area.
The hill's website describes it as "a new and meaningful experience that captures the imagination of residents, businesses and visitors," and local officials hope it will help draw people back to the commercial heart of London after more than a year of pandemic-related restrictions.
Jul 06, 2021
Ministry of Tourism Signs MoU with Travel & Tourism Portal Yatra.com
The Ministry of Tourism has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with travel portal Yatra to strengthen the country's hospitality and tourism industry.
The primary objective of the MoU, signed is to provide extensive visibility to accommodation units, which have self-certified themselves on SAATHI (System for Assessment, Awareness and Training for the Hospitality Industry) on the OTA platform.
The Ministry of Tourism and Yatra will endeavour to take necessary steps to encourage and promote strategic and technical co-operation in the Indian hospitality and tourism sector for overall benefit in the identified areas through the MoU.
Jul 01, 2021
UN Report on International Tourism
According to the report by UNCTAD and UN's World Tourism Organisation (WTO), International tourism arrivals are set to stagnate in 2021, except in some Western markets.
As per report, stagnation would result into losses of $2.4 trillion.
It highlights, tourism sector is not expected to rebound fully until 2023.
International arrivals plunged by 73% in 2020 from pre-pandemic levels in 2019. It resulted into estimated losses of $2.4 trillion in tourism and allied sectors.
Report expects for certain recovery in second half of 2021 at least for North America and Europe.
UNWTO is a United Nations specialised agency to promote responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism. It is headquartered in Madrid, Spain. UNWTO is the leading international organisation in the area of tourism, promoting tourism as the driver of economic growth, inclusive development and environmental sustainability. It offers tourism sector leadership and support in order to enhance knowledge and tourism policies across the world. It encourages implementation of Global Code of Ethics for Tourism in a bid to maximize contribution of tourism to socio-economic development. Official languages of UNWTO include Chinese, Arabic, English, French, Russian and Spanish.