Bangkok is boss city
B ANGKOK has pipped London as the world’s top destination city based on foreign visitors, and marks the first time an Asian city has reached the top rankings of the annual Mastercard Global Destination Cities Index.
London was followed by Paris, Singapore, New York, Istanbul and Dubai. The latter two cities showed strong growth but Paris arrivals declined, the only city in the top 20 to do so.
The survey is based on “arrivals” — travellers who arrive by air and spend at least one night in the city.
The results of the survey showed the dominance of the Asia/Pacific region, which accounted for 42 cities of 132 ranked in the survey.
US ISSUES EGYPT TRAVEL WARNING
THE US State Department has warned Americans to stay away from Egypt after a US citizen was killed during a violent antigovernment protest in Alexandria. Andrew Pochter, 21, a student from Maryland, died after being stabbed, The Telegraph reports. US officials responded by urging citizens to defer “non-essential travel” to the country.
Meanwhile, The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office has warned Britons to stay away from any gatherings and protests but has not warned its citizens to stay away from any Egyptian cities.
ETIHAD INCREASES SAO PAULO FLIGHTS
GULF carrier Etihad Airways, national airline of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is to increase its Abu Dhabi-Sao Paulo schedule to daily from August 1. The service — which will use a long-range Airbus A340 — will boost the number of available seats on the route to 3 360 per week.
RUDEST TAXI DRIVERS
TAXI drivers in Paris and Rome have been rated the world’s rudest in a survey of British holidaymakers, The Telegraph reports. The survey, based on responses from 2 162 Britons who had gone overseas in the past year, also showed that Europe’s friendliest taxi drivers were to be found in Pefkos, on the Greek island of Rhodes, and in the Turkish resort of Marmaris.
BIDVEST SAYS NO TO MULTI-CURRENCY CARDS
BIDVEST BANK has decided not to include a multi-currency card in its range of currency travel cards. The bank said there were no technical barriers to introducing such a card but it felt that costs were clear and easily controllable on a singlecurrency card, adding that there was potential for conversion costs to add up on multi-currency cards without the user realising it. The bank currently offers cards in 14 currencies.
QUARRY HOTEL FOR CHINA
CONSTRUCTION has begun on a five-star hotel — to be built into the rock face of an abandoned quarry in China's Songjiang District, the Telegraph reports.
Known as the Songjiang Shimao Hotel, it will have its own 100mhigh waterfall and trees and grass on the roof. Two of the £345million hotel’s 19 storeys will enjoy a submerged view of the sunken lake at the foot of the old quarry.
The hotel, near Shanghai, is expected to open in late 2014.