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Which 3 Italian cities rank as top unique experiences?

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Italy is the homeland of the cities most appreciated by travelers according to reviews of users of an online platform. Coming in among the top 5 are Rome, Florence, and Milan. Amsterdam and Barcelona round out the top 5.


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The Italian peninsula thus rose to the podium, winning 3 of the 5 positions in the ranking, according to the research conducted by Musement which analyzed 133 destinations distributed all over the world, based on beautiful landscapes, excellent culinary offers, and outstanding cultural attractions.

Analyzing the results of the research, the growth of interest in the national territory comes at the expense of medium- and long-range destinations emerges among the key factors, with long-haul destinations attracting less interest.

A surprising aspect is that once again Italy and the many experiences that the multiplatform provides users to get closer to the cultural traditions and landscape variety of Italy is emphasized.

Rome continues to be the most popular destination with a typically Mediterranean climate, cultural attractions, and unique tourist beauties such as the Colosseum, the Vatican Museums, and the Sistine Chapel. The city of Milan remains on the fourth step of the podium with international events such as My Photos Fair and the visit to the Cenacle in the rankings.

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The second place is also Italian – Florence between the Boboli Gardens, the Uffizi, and gastronomic tours.

Among the top 5 destinations, some European cities also prevail, above all Barcelona, which wins third place with Park Guell and the Barcelona Aquarium.

The fifth position is Dutch. In fact, Amsterdam closes the standings thanks to the Van Gogh Museum, the cruise on the canals, and the Heineken Experience.

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UNWTO Convenes Cities in Lisbon to Cooperate on a Sustainable and Inclusive Urban Tourism Agenda

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The first UNWTO Mayors Forum for Sustainable Urban Tourism, co-organized by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the Ministry of Economy of Portugal and the Lisbon Municipality concluded Friday in Lisbon, Portugal. The event gathered Mayors and high-level city representatives from around the world, UN agencies and the private sector, to design a shared leadership aimed at ensuring that tourism helps creating cities for all.

Under the theme ‘Cities for all: building cities for citizens and visitors’, the forum explored issues and solutions for developing and managing tourism in cities in a way that promotes economic growth, social inclusion and environmental sustainability.

In a time of intense debate over the growing number of tourists and the livability and sustainability of cities, the forum exchanged ideas and good practices on urban tourism and destination management, discussed innovative tools and public policies on urban tourism at the national and local levels and way of promoting the integration of tourism into wider national and local urban development agenda.

“The income generated from tourism contributes significantly to the socio-economic and cultural development of many cities and its surroundings. Yet, the growth of urban tourism also creates important challenges in terms of the use of natural resources, socio-cultural impact, pressure on infrastructure, mobility, congestion management and relationship with host communities. Tourism policies should thus be designed as integrated urban policies that promote a well-balanced city economically, socially and environmentally” said UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili opening the event.

The Portuguese Minister of Economy, Pedro Siza Vieira, acknowledged that “tourism is a major driver for the Portuguese economy. Portugal welcomes this first Mayors Forum as an international stage for discussing the challenges that urban tourism faces and how local communities can benefit the most from tourism. The Lisbon Declaration is a firm commitment from all participants so that tourism contributes materially to the Sustainable Development Goals”.

The Portuguese Secretary of State for Tourism, Ana Mendes Godinho, added that “social sustainability in tourism is one of the main priorities in our 2027 Tourism Strategy. We launched a Sustainability Program for the development of projects by the civil society that involve local populations and tourists so that tourism leaves value in the territories”.

The Mayor of Lisbon, Fernando Medina, said “The growth of tourism has important and positive economic impacts. Yet for managing such growth, ensuring sustainability and safeguarding the quality of life of Lisbon’s citizens requires more investment in infrastructure. In Lisbon, we are implementing measures such as increasing transport capacity and investment in urban infrastructure catering for residents and tourists.”

Issues discussed include big data and innovative solutions, new business models, creative cities and events, infrastructure, resources and planning, local community engagement and empowerment and how to ensure the full inclusion of tourism in the wider urban agenda.

Participating in the Forum were Gustavo Santos of Argentina, Secretary of State for Tourism of Argentina, Ana Mendes Godinho, Secretary of State for Tourism of Portugal, Isabel Oliver, the Secretary of State for Tourism of Spain, Mayors and Vice Mayors of 16 cities around the world (Barcelona, Bruges, Brussels, Dubrovnik, Helsinki, Lisbon, Madrid, Moscow, Nur-Sultan, Paris, Porto, Prague, Punta del Este, Tbilisi, Sao Paulo and Seoul), UNES>CO, UN Habitat, the World Bank, the European Committee of the Regions as well as Amadeus, Airbnb, CLIA, Expedia, Mastercard and Unidigital.

The Forum adopted the Lisbon Declaration on Sustainable Urban Tourism, in which participants reinforced their commitment to align urban tourism policies with the United Nations New Urban Agenda and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, namely Goal 11 – ‘Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’.

The Lisbon Declaration on Sustainable Urban Tourism will be presented at the twenty-third session of the General Assembly of UNWTO, to be held this September in St. Petersburg, Russia.

During the event, UNWTO Secretary-General and the Mayor Bakhyt Sultanov of Nursultan (Kazakhstan) signed an agreement for the hosting of the 8th UNWTO Global Summit on Urban Tourism, to be held on 9 to 12 October 2019.

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Denmark airport welcomes opening of Norwegian Air base

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Billund Airport in Denmark confirmed that low-cost airline Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA, more commonly and simply known as Norwegian, opened a new base at the airport yesterday, April 1, 2019.

The new base stations a 186-seat 737-800. With this commitment to the airport, Norwegian will open-up 8 new destinations. Four of the routes that the carrier will launch, namely Malaga (launched April 1), Palma de Mallorca (launches May 6), Ponta Delgada (May 7) and Faro (May 11) will be flown as scheduled services, while the following 4 destinations of Chania (May 5), Zante (May 6), Rhodes (May 10) and Kos (May 16) will be flown on behalf of Bravo Tours located in Denmark.

Norwegian’s new operation will add 14 extra weekly departures and contribute over 5,200 weekly two-way seats to the Billund market this summer.

Scheduled flights to Malaga will operate twice-weekly on Mondays and Fridays, before growing to a four times weekly service from 6 May when Wednesday and Sunday rotations will be added. Palma de Mallorca services will operate on Mondays and Fridays, while Faro sees a Saturday departure and Ponta Delgada being flown on Tuesdays. Operating for Bravo Tours, Chania will see three weekly flights on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, giving customers options for 7, 10, 11 and 14-night breaks in Crete, while Zante (Mondays), Kos (Thursdays) and Rhodes (Fridays) will all see a weekly service.

Norwegian, which carried 36.97 million passengers in the 12-month period ending November 30, 2018, has been operating from Billund since 2010. Presently serving the airport from Oslo Gardermoen on a year-round basis, the carrier also operates summer-seasonal services to Alicante and Barcelona. It means that in 2019 Norwegian will fly to 7 scheduled destinations from Billund, as well as the 4 destinations on behalf of Bravo Tours.

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Thank you for flying TAP Air Portugal: Welcome to Tel Aviv

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Israel has about 9 million inhabitants and annually receives more than 4 million visitors. TAP Air Portugal landed its inaugural flight between Lisbon and Israel on time on Sunday night at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv.

With this new route, TAP will offer connecting service from the United States via its Lisbon hub. Like all TAP’s “beyond Portugal” destinations, Tel Aviv qualifies for the airline’s stopover program en route.

TAP’s daily flight leaves Lisbon at 2:20 pm and arrives in Tel Aviv at 9:30 pm. From Tel Aviv, flights depart at 5:05 am, arriving in Lisbon at 9:00 am.

One of Israel’s main tourist attractions is the city of Jerusalem, where one can visit holy sites of various religions. Within walking distance are the Holy Sepulcher (Christian), the Wailing Wall (Jewish) and the Mosque of Al-Aqsa (Muslim).

But Tel Aviv, Jaffa, Nazareth, Tiberias, Caesarea, Haifa, the Dead Sea region, and in the Palestinian part, Bethlehem and Jericho, among other points, also have many attractions.

The Portugal Stopover comprises a network of more than 150 partners who provide exclusive offers for Stopover customers for hotels discounts and complimentary experiences such as tuk-tuk tours, visits to museums, dolphin watching in the River Sado and food tastings – even a free bottle of Portuguese wine in participating restaurants.

Travelers can also enjoy a stopover in Lisbon or Porto even if their final destination is in Portugal, such as: Faro (Algarve); Ponta Delgada or Terceira (the Azores); and, Funchal or Porto Santo (Madeira).

Furthermore, Stopover passengers can also create a multi-destination journey, making it will be possible to travel to one destination and return from another. For example, people may choose to fly to Barcelona then return from Seville, but they will still qualify for a stopover in Lisbon or Porto on either their outbound or return travel. Stopover visits are now also available on just one-way travel to Europe or Africa.

TAP will receive 37 new aircraft by the end of this year — and 71 by 2025 — thus becoming the operator of one of the most modern fleets in the world. This renewal and growth of the fleet has allowed TAP to announce new routes and more frequencies. From the United States, new service from San Francisco, Washington DC, and Chicago start in June. TAP has also announced new routes including Naples, Tenerife, Dublin, Basel and Conakry for 2019.

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Any WOW Air reservation may not materialize: Airline has major problems

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“Bummer that WOW Air is potentially going under – had a very flawless experience with them. But does this mean fewer tourists in Iceland?”, a disappointed passenger posted to twitter.

Icelandic tourism professionals did not yet comment on the hopeless sounding situation of Wow Air.  The airline was founded by an Icelandic entrepreneur, Skúli Mogensen. It first flew to Paris on 31 May 2012 and later that year took over an existing airline, Iceland Express.

WOW Air based in Iceland is fighting for survival. On Sunday evening rival IcelandAir, the potential rescuer announced  that Icelandair Group has decided that its possible involvement in WOW air’s operations, as announced on 20 March 2019, will not materialize. Therefore, all discussions between the parties have been canceled.

Today Indigo Partners Will Not be Investing in WOW Air According to a recent statement made by the company, Indigo will not be negotiating further with WOW Air and instead will be opening talks with Icelandair Group.

The 9:30am flight from London Gatwick to Reykjavik in Iceland was canceled this morning at short notice, with more flights canceled later in the day according to its website.

Wow Air then issued its own statement saying: A majority of WOW air Bond Holders and other creditors of WOW air are in advance discussions with the aim of reaching an agreement on a voluntary restructuring including an agreement of converting current debt into equity and fund the company towards long term sustainability. Further information will be given tomorrow.

Within hours, Wow Air started canceling flights – including the early morning trip from Reykjavik to Gatwick, due to leave at 6.20am on Monday. The return leg to the Icelandic capital, due to leave Gatwick at 9.30am, was also grounded.

Wow Air has also canceled trips from Reykjavik to Chicago and Pittsburgh on Monday, with links to Brussels and Barcelona grounded on Tuesday.

 

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