Travel
COVID-19 tests need to be accessible, affordable and appropriate to risk level, says IATA
IATA has called on governments to take action to address the high cost of COVID-19 tests in many jurisdictions and urged flexibility in permitting the use of cost-effective antigen tests as an alternative to more expensive PCR tests. The airline industry association also recommended governments adopt recent World Health Organization… Read
Four spots from which to view beautiful Matsushima Bay
Matsushima Bay is a beautiful bay dotted with 260 islands of varying size on the coast of Miyagi prefecture, 15km north of Sendai, the prefectural capital. It owes its name to the pine trees that grow on the islands in the bay. In the early Edo period, a Confucianist named… Read
Taya Caves, an underground wonder of ancient Buddhist artistry near Kamakura
Taya Caves is a sacred gem of Buddhist carvings in the grounds of Josen-ji Temple near Kamakura. This maze of halls and galleries is decorated with hundreds of reliefs carved into the rock, picturing Buddhist deities, past masters of Buddhism, famous temples, real and fantastic animals, mandalas, zodiac signs, and… Read
Tosho-gu in Ueno Park is the real deal – a shrine dating back to 1627
Tokyo is one of the world's most phoenix-like cities. Whether shaken to the ground by earthquakes, reduced to ashes by fire or bombed to smithereens by Allied warplanes, it has risen again every time. As a result, there aren't many old buildings in the Japanese capital, which makes its surviving… Read
Europe's summer tourism outlook dimmed by variants, rules
Chaos and confusion over travel rules and measures to contain new virus outbreaks are contributing to another cruel summer for Europe’s battered tourism industry. Popular destination countries are grappling with surging COVID-19 variants, but the patchwork and last-minute nature of the efforts as the peak season gets underway threatens to… Read
Sunnier skies: U.S. airline recovery gets off the ground
U.S. airlines are seeing profits return and betting that the rise of the Delta variant of the coronavirus will not derail a domestic travel comeback even as it clouds the outlook for an international recovery. Over the last week, three of the four biggest U.S. carriers reported second-quarter profits, and… Read
Qatar reopens borders to fully vaccinated travelers
The State of Qatar has re-opened its borders to international travelers who have been fully vaccinated against COVID19, as long as the vaccines have been approved for use by the Ministry of Public Health in Qatar. A new streamlined set of measures designed to make traveling to Qatar as easy… Read
Minamisanriku: A Tohoku town triumphing over tragedy
At 2:46 p.m. on March 11, 2011, the Miyagi Prefecture coastal town of Minamisanriku was rocked by a M9.0 earthquake under the Pacific Ocean approximately 50 kilometers to the southeast. The shaking lasted for nearly five minutes; less than 30 minutes later, the waters of a massive tsunami flooded into… Read
How can you become a space tourist?
Thrill-seekers will soon be able to get their adrenaline kicks -- and envy-inducing Instagram snaps -- from the final frontier, as space tourism finally lifts off. All you'll need is a bit of patience. And a lot of money. Here's a rundown of where things stand. Who's offering spaceflights? Two… Read
U.S. airlines say COVID-19 variants aren't hurting bookings
Rising concern about the fast-spreading delta variant of COVID-19 is creating turbulence for the stocks of big travel companies, but airline executives say they don’t see any slowdown in ticket sales, maybe because a high percentage of their best customers are fully vaccinated. “We haven't seen any impact at all… Read
