Travel

07 Dec 2020; MEMO:  Algerian authorities yesterday resumed domestic flights after they were suspended months ago due to the outbreak of coronavirus.

Sources told local media that the government had not resumed international flights, adding that the domestic flights were resumed amid "strict implementation of health measures to prevent the spread of the virus."

26 Nov 2020; MEMO: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has suspended issuing travel and work visas for citizens of 13 mostly Muslim-majority countries, including Turkey, Pakistan, Iran, Syria and Somalia, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

18 Nov 2020; AA: Kuyucuk Lake in eastern Turkey, known as a major ecotourism spot and bird paradise, is hosting up to 110 bird species this year.

The lake, located in Arpacay district in Kars province, is protected by the Ramsar Convention but completely dried up last year. However, thanks to specialized drilling work in the area carried out by the provincial governorship, its condition has been restored.

14 Nov 2020; MEMO: Tunisia and Libya will start an air travel bubble November 15, an official statement said Friday, Anadolu Agency reports.

Flights will resume after being halted for eight months because of the novel coronavirus, Tunisia's Ministry of Transport and Logistics said in a statement.

They will be arranged within the framework of measures to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in accordance with a health protocol agreement reached Wednesday between the two countries.

15 Oct 2020; MEMO: Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics has announced that inbound tourism in Israel has retreated by 76.5 per cent since the start of the year, Quds Press reported on Wednesday.

Reporting Israeli media, Quds Press disclosed that only 837,000 tourists visited Israel between the start of 2020 and the end of September.

Foreigners are unable to enter Israel unless they have permission issued by the Housing Ministry, and any foreign visitor must spend 14 days in quarantine.

22 Sep 2020; AA: Archeologists in southeastern Turkey initiated an excavation to unearth mosaics belonging to a 1600-year-old church. 

Built in 396 A.D. in Mardin’s Goktas village, the church was discovered on Sept. 18, 2019 and the area was declared as an archeological site.

Abdulgani Tarkan, head of the excavation and the director of Mardin Museum, told Anadolu Agency that the church is structured on a basilica plan with a mosaic base.

Agra, Sep 21 (PTI) Agra's Taj Mahal was opened to tourists on Monday after 188 days of its COVID-19-led closure.

The Taj Mahal and Agra Fort were closed to tourists from March 17 amid the COVID-19 outbreak in the country.

With a Delhi resident entering the 17th-century ivory-white marble monument on the southern bank of the Yamuna from its western gate and a Chinese woman from its eastern gate, the duo became the first visitors to the monument after its reopening.

21 Sep 2020; MEMO: A railway will be built between Iraq’s Mosul and Turkey, according to the governor of Mosul on Sunday, Anadolu reports.

A team of engineers with the support of Turkish companies will start laying a new modern rail line between the two countries in the coming days, Najim al-Jubouri said in a statement to Al Sabaah, a semi-official Iraqi newspaper.

08 Sep 2020; MEMO: Emirates airline revealed on Monday that it has refunded more than $1.4 billion to customers after cancelling their flights during the coronavirus crisis.

The Dubai-based national carrier said that it had settled more than 1.4 million refund claims since March, accounting for 90 per cent of all such claims. “The refunds include all requests from customers around the world until the end of June, save for some cases that require further manual review,” it added.

06 Sep 2020; MEMO: Some 52.29 million air passengers -- including transit passengers -- traveled through airports in Turkey in January-August, according to the country’s airport authority.

The eight-month figure decreased 62.9% versus the same period last year, the General Directorate of State Airports Authority (DHMI) said on Saturday.

The drop stemmed from global coronavirus-related measures.