International

World tourism surges in July, but falls short of pre-Covid levels

AFP

World tourism surged in July, thanks to vaccination rollouts and fewer travel restrictions, but traveller numbers still fell far short of pre-pandemic levels, the UN’s tourism body said Monday.

Some 54 million tourists crossed international borders in July, the highest figure since April 2020, in the early months of the coronavirus crisis, the World Tourism Organization said in a statement.

That represented an increase of 58 percent compared with the level recorded in July 2020, but was still a drop of 67 percent from the 164 million recorded in July 2019.

“This improvement was underpinned by the reopening of many destinations to international travel, mostly in Europe and the Americas… coupled with progress made in the roll-out of Covid-19 vaccines” which contributed to “gradually restoring safe mobility in Europe and other parts of the world,” it said.

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“Nevertheless, 2021 continues to be a challenging year for global tourism, with international arrivals down 80 percent in January-July compared to 2019,” said the Madrid-based organisation.

In the first seven months of the year, Asia and the Pacific continued to see the steepest declines, with a drop of 95 percent in international arrivals, followed by the Middle East where numbers were down 82 percent, Europe and Africa, which registered a fall of 77 percent, and the Americas which sustained a drop 68 percent.

Only a few small islands in the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and the Pacific, alongside several small European destinations recovered and counted arrivals close to, or even higher, than pre-pandemic levels.

Spain, which before the pandemic was the world’s second most popular tourist destination, on Monday said it welcomed 15 million tourists in the first eight months of the year, a decline of 4.2 percent from the same period last year, the National Statistics Institute said.

The data cast doubt on the objective set by the Spanish government of attracting some 45 million foreign visitors this year, around half the number of 2019.

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“The true restart of tourism and the benefits it brings, remains on hold as inconsistent rules and regulations and uneven vaccination rates continue to affect confidence in travel,” UNWTO head Zurab Pololikashvili in the statement.

The UN body said it was expecting to see a “rebound” in 2022 although global tourism is not expected to reach pre-pandemic levels until 2023 or 2024.

International

Football Fan Killed in Clashes After Colombian League Match

Fans of Cúcuta Deportivo and their traditional rivals Atlético Bucaramanga clashed outside the stadium following their local league match on Tuesday, leaving one supporter dead and several others injured.

The deceased fan was stabbed, according to a senior police official in Cúcuta who confirmed the cause of death in a video statement. Local media reported that the victim was a supporter of the visiting team, Atlético Bucaramanga.

The match ended in a 2-2 draw. Authorities had banned the entry of Atlético Bucaramanga’s organized supporters into the stadium in an effort to prevent disturbances.

Despite the restrictions, violence broke out in the surrounding areas after the game. Among the injured were three police officers, an institutional source told AFP.

The incident adds to a series of recent violent episodes linked to Colombian football. The most recent occurred in December, when supporters of Atlético Nacional and Independiente Medellín clashed in the stands and on the pitch, leaving 59 people injured.

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International

Missing Spanish Sailor Rescued After 11 Days Adrift in Mediterranean

The man had departed from the port of Gandía, on Spain’s eastern coast, with the intention of reaching the southern Spanish town of Guardamar del Segura, a journey of about 150 kilometers, a spokesperson for Spain’s maritime rescue service told AFP.

Search boats and aircraft were deployed on January 17, but the operation was called off on January 22 after efforts proved unsuccessful. Alerts were then issued to vessels navigating the area in case they spotted any signs of the missing sailor.

As hopes were fading, a surveillance aircraft from the European Union’s border agency Frontex spotted the sailboat on Tuesday, along with a person signaling for help, approximately 53 nautical miles northeast of Bejaia, Algeria.

A nearby vessel, the Singapore-flagged bulk carrier Thor Confidence, carried out the rescue and is expected to bring the man to an end to his ordeal when it arrives on Thursday in the southern Spanish port city of Algeciras.

Maritime rescue services shared images on social media showing a small white sailboat drifting at sea and secured alongside the much larger ship.

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It remains unclear how the sailboat ended up hundreds of kilometers off its intended route or how the man managed to survive for so long alone in open waters.

International

Rubio Says U.S. Could Participate in Follow-Up Russia-Ukraine Talks

The United States could join a new round of talks this week aimed at ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday.

Teams from Kyiv and Moscow met last Friday and Saturday in Abu Dhabi in their first publicly acknowledged direct negotiations to discuss the peace initiative promoted by former U.S. President Donald Trump.

“They are going to hold follow-up talks again this week,” Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “There could be U.S. participation.”

However, Rubio suggested that Washington’s role may be more limited than during last week’s discussions, which included Steve Witkoff, the president’s special envoy, and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.

The secretary of state indicated that progress may have already been made on security guarantees for Ukraine, one of Kyiv’s key demands in any agreement with Moscow after nearly four years of Russian invasion.

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“There is one remaining issue that everyone is familiar with, and that is the territorial claim over Donetsk,” Rubio said, referring to the eastern Ukrainian region that Russia wants Ukraine to cede.

“I know that active efforts are underway to see whether the positions of both sides on this issue can be reconciled. It remains a bridge we have not yet crossed,” he added during the hearing.

Rubio acknowledged that the territorial question would be particularly difficult for Ukraine to resolve.