China to Promote Rural Areas

The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) wants governments to abandon the ‘high-risk countries’ concept and to focus on how individual ‘high-risk travellers’ are treated at borders.

This would help revive international business and leisure travel. In addition, the implementation of a common international consensus on the metrics used to assess risk and a laser-like focus on comprehensive, rapid departure and arrival testing could allow for travel to come back more quickly. It would also ensure infected passengers are forced to isolate, while travellers who test negative can continue to travels all the while observing hygiene protocols and mask wearing.

As part of the 5-Year Plan (2021-2025), China’s Communist Party will make agriculture, rural areas and farmers a top priority, with a list of targets and tasks for 2021 to 2025.

By 2025, China will see substantial progress in the modernising of agriculture and the rural areas with achievements based on a more solid agricultural foundation, as well as a narrower income gap between rural and urban residents.

Plan includes to ensure the supply of grain and major agricultural products, as well as stabilising the sown area of grain and improving yield per area. It will also accelerate building modern breeding systems, promoting green and healthy aquaculture, and optimising the trade of agricultural products.

China will also implement an action plan for rural construction, setting targets for better rural public infrastructure and basic public services, stronger rural consumption, and faster integrated urban-rural development.

BELIZE FOCUS ON YACHT TOURISM

With crystal clear water and a tropical climate, Belize offers the ideal location for a yachting holiday.

The Port of Belize Authority has highlighted the huge potential yachting has for the country and the ports of Belize, San Pedro, Belize City and Placencia are now designated ports of entry.

The pandemic has led to families reconsidering their travel options and therefore a ‘bubble’ on a yacht is ideal in this new tourism era.

www.bmlinternational.co.uk

NASA’s Perseverance rover safely landed on the surface of Planet Mars recently marking a new era in space exploration. After a 7 month journey from Earth to Mars, the successful landing means that over the coming years, it rover will survey the surface, collect samples of soil and rock which will eventually be sent back to earth by future spacecraft. The earliest any of its samples could be returned to Earth is 2031.

For the first time ever we have also been able to see photos from the surface as well as the sound of the atmosphere on Mars surface.

The last rover to land on Mars was NASA’s Curiosity, in 2012. It has been exploring an ancient lake bed in Gale Crater. Here evidence of a once-habitable environment was found, but no previous life on Mars. In 2018, NASA InSight probe, has a seismometer that listens for ‘marsquakes’ shaking the ground.

A Mars day is approx. 40minutes longer than an Earth day and NASA teams are working around the clock to maximise operations. The rover is expected to travel 15kms in one Mars year, which is nearly 2 years on Earth. It is the 3rd mission to reach the red planet, with both the UAE and China spacecraft both now in orbit. The Chinese mission, Tianwen1, expects to attempt landing on the surface as early as May.

Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

PAPUA NEW GUINEA VISITOR ARRIVAL FOR 2021 SIMILAR TO 19TH CENTURY

The effect of the global pandemic has led to visitor arrivals for 2021 to reflect those seen in the 19th century in Papua New Guinea.

Combined with a drop of 19% in economic activity presents a loss of GDP of UK£1.43 billion. Recovery is not expected to be at pre-Covid levels for another 3 years.

Visitor arrivals in 2020 dropped by 84% to around 147,000 visitors, similar to arrival level during the period of 1990s.

Cyprus has decided that all tourists to the islands will not be required to have a mandatory Covid-19 vaccination to enter the country. This is expected to help support a growth in tourist figures during 2021.

The main tourist markets for Cyprus are British, Israeli and Russian tourists, who represented 65% of the total tourist flow in 2019.

Foreign visitors will be required to present a negative PCR test for Covid-19.

Limassol, Cyprus

CONNECTICUT TO PROPOSE MAKING PIZZA OFFICIAL STATE FOOD

Two lawmakers from Connecticut, USA are proposing to make pizza the official state food of the state. Most people would connect New York with pizza, but Connecticut believes they too have very good pizza which needs to be highlighted. Most Connecticut pizza comes from family-owned and founded businesses, giving them their own identity, their own following and they’re small businesses that really have a big footprint in their communities.

CHINA A REFERENCE FOR TOURISM RECOVERY IN COSTA RICA

Costa Rican tourism has been hard hit due to the Covid-19 epidemic and as a result, one of its top tourist markets, China has seen none or very few tourists over the past year. However, Costa Rica is now ready to welcome Chinese and other tourists back.

2021 will see great impetus from Cost Rica which will put in place a series of actions to set the recovery of tourism in the country.

The tourism bodies of Costa Rica have laid out ways to get Chinese tourists back and these include greater flexibility when meeting the needs of any Chinese tourists wanting to visit Costa Rica and how to get the most out of your travel needs for the two Chinese cities in Beijing and Shanghai and how to visit Costa Rica as a tourist.

China and Costa Rica have had stabile diplomatic relations since 2007.