Travel news latest: Winter sun holiday hope as Israel and UAE ease travel rules

The island of Langkawi will this month become the first Malaysian holiday hotspot to reopen to domestic travellers, kicking off efforts to revive its tourism industry.

The usually lucrative sector has been hit hard by months-long restrictions on local travel and international border closures as the country battles its worst Covid-19 wave.

Officials did not say when foreign tourists, who are still barred from entering Malaysia, might be allowed back in. But travel curbs are slowly being eased, and Langkawi has been chosen for a domestic tourism pilot project as the industry seeks to get back on its feet.

From September 16, hotels and businesses such as theme parks will reopen, and beach activities will be allowed again, the tourism ministry said. Requirements for those visiting Langkawi, just miles from Thailand’s southern border, are still being drawn up.

Malaysia’s vaccination roll-out has picked up speed, with nearly 66 per cent of the adult population fully inoculated, but infection rates remain high; officials reported more than 19,000 cases and 330 deaths on Friday.

Valencia’s Fallas festival wrapped up with fireworks and the burning of colourful sculptures on Sunday after returning to the eastern Spanish city following a pandemic-induced hiatus.

The five-day festival is traditionally held in March but was cancelled last year as the Covid pandemic swept Spain. This year, officials postponed the start of the UNESCO-recognised event until September 1.

The pandemic has forced the cancellation of many of Spain’s most famous fiestas, including Pamplona’s bull-running festival and Seville’s Holy Week processions.

Fireworks lit up the night sky as this year’s bonfire, which features about 750 sculptures, was held without the thousands of spectators that the event usually draws.

The bonfire was brought forward by two hours to allow festivities to end before a nightly virus curfew came into effect at 1:00am.

After much debate a customary flower offering to the Virgin Mary was allowed to proceed – but without people lining the route, as is tradition.

Valencia’s Fallas festival wrapped up with fireworks and the burning of colourful sculptures on Sunday after returning to the eastern Spanish city following a pandemic-induced hiatus.

The five-day festival is traditionally held in March but was cancelled last year as the Covid pandemic swept Spain. This year, officials postponed the start of the UNESCO-recognised event until September 1.

The pandemic has forced the cancellation of many of Spain’s most famous fiestas, including Pamplona’s bull-running festival and Seville’s Holy Week processions.

Fireworks lit up the night sky as this year’s bonfire, which features about 750 sculptures, was held without the thousands of spectators that the event usually draws.

The bonfire was brought forward by two hours to allow festivities to end before a nightly virus curfew came into effect at 1:00am.

After much debate a customary flower offering to the Virgin Mary was allowed to proceed – but without people lining the route, as is tradition.

France’s worst coronavirus outbreak is unfolding 12 time zones away from Paris, devastating Tahiti and other idyllic islands of French Polynesia.

The South Pacific archipelagos lack enough oxygen, ICU beds and morgue space – and their vaccination rate is barely half the national average. Simultaneous outbreaks on remote islands and atolls are straining the ability of local authorities to evacuate patients to the territory’s few hospitals.

“The problem is, there are a lot of deaths before we get there,” lamented Vincent Simon, the head of the regional emergency service.

French Polynesia is France’s latest challenge in juggling resources to battle the pandemic in former colonies that stretch around the world. With more than 2,800 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, it holds France’s record for the highest infection rate.

And that’s only an estimate: according to Associated Press, the territory has stopped counting new infections as local health authorities have redeployed medical staff to focus on patient care and vaccinations instead of testing.

Of the 463 virus-related deaths reported in French Polynesia throughout the pandemic, most took place over the past month. Vaccine skepticism, high obesity and diabetes rates, and the decision to reopen to some tourists this summer have been among the explanations for the current health crisis.

Coronavirus will come back to haunt the west unless vaccination rates in Africa are improved, former prime minister Gordon Brown has said.

Mr Brown said hundreds of millions of doses are lying in warehouses in Europe and North America when they could be used in African countries, and called on world leaders to focus on vaccine equity.

Discussing the issue on Sky’s Trevor Phillips on Sunday, he said: “70% of the west has been vaccinated, only 2% in Africa and the other low-income countries of the world. So, 98% are unprotected.

“It’s bad for them, it’s bad for us, because the disease will come back to haunt us from Africa and hurt even the fully vaccinated here with new variants.”

He said western countries had enough supplies to vaccinate over-12s and carry out booster shot programmes as well as supply countries with low vaccination rates, and called for an urgent G7 meeting to address global vaccination.

• Several thousand people protested across France for an eighth consecutive weekend on Saturday against the country’s Covid health pass.
• In Australia, Sydney’s Covid cases are now topping 2,000 a day as the country ramps up its vaccination programme.
• Most of New Zealand will move out of lockdown on Tuesday except for the largest city of Auckland, which will remain in lockdown until at least next week, the government has announced.
• Vietnam‘s Ho Chi Minh City and capital Hanoi must vaccinate all of their adult residents with at least one shot by Sept. 15, the ministry of health said on Sunday.
• Taiwan could get up to 9 million doses of BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine this year, the founder of Taiwanese tech giant Foxconn said on Monday.

Vietnam’s capital has extended its Covid restrictions for a further two weeks, as authorities launched a plan to test up to 1.5 million people for the virus in higher-risk areas of the capital to contain a climb in infections.

The Southeast Asian country dealt successfully with the virus for much of the pandemic, but the virulent Delta variant has proved more challenging in recent months.

Hanoi, which has ordered people to stay at home and has halted all non-essential activities since July, has now divided the city into “red”, “orange” and “green” zones based on infection risk.

“Accordingly, people in red areas must shelter in place and one person of every household there will be tested three times per week,” a statement from city authorities said, adding that in other zones people would be tested every five to seven days.

Barricades on Monday separated red zones from other areas, photographs posted on social media and media outlets showed.

After a difficult two years which started with devastating acqua alta floods in late 2019, tourism is returning to Venice with a vengeance, with hotels reporting healthy occupancy rates, the narrow streets pulsing with visitors and the city celebrating the 1,600th anniversary of its founding in AD 421.

Also making a return is the vexed question of how to control the invasion of tourists and prevent them from smothering the very thing that they have come to see.

Venice’s leaders believe that they have come up with a solution – to build airport-style turnstiles that will enable them, for the first time ever, to close the city to visitors when the numbers become overwhelming.

Only tourists with a special app and a QR code will be able to pass through the turnstiles, similar to those seen in railway stations or ski resorts.

Nick Squires has the full story.

Spain is amending its travel entry rules to require vaccination certificates from US tourists, adjusting to recent European Union advice on stricter rules due to growing anxiety over coronavirus contagion in the US.

The European Council’s decision last week to remove the US from a safe list of countries for nonessential travel also came amid unanswered calls from European officials for “reciprocity” in travel rules. Despite the EU’s move to open its borders to U.S. citizens in June, the US didn’t allow EU tourists in.

Spain, a major tourism destination, is among a handful of EU countries that has announced steps to adjust its entry rules to the Council’s recommendation.

The country published Friday the new guidelines on its official gazette, also removing Israel, Kosovo, Lebanon, Montenegro and North Macedonia from the safe list.

Under the rules, US tourists will no longer be admitted from today, unless they can show proof of being fully vaccinated at least 14 days before their trip. Unvaccinated children under 12 travelling with vaccinated adults are also allowed in the country.

Before we begin, a quick catch-up on this weekend’s travel news:

• Heathrow chaos as passengers face five-hour queues
• Turkish hotels to close early after UK ‘red list’ dashes hopes
• BA  pilots to be paid less than budget rivals at easyJet
• Airlines stand by to resume UK- Australia flights from December
• Almost a quarter of amber list travellers broke quarantine rules

Now, on with today’s top stories.