World famous cruise port of Geiranger in the Geirangerfjord, Stranda municipality, western Norway. (Stock photo)
Over the past seven years, the number of cruise passengers arriving at Norwegian ports has increased by almost 1.5 million, which corresponds to about 56 per cent.
In 2012, there were 2.5 million cruise passengers. This year, almost 4 million are expected, according to the NTB news agency.
Last year, a total of 10,300 foreign citizens received Norwegian citizenship. This is less than half as many as the year before, when 21,600 citizenship was granted, Norwegian news agency NTB and the VG.no newspaper reported.
17 per cent of the new citizens in 2018 come from European countries, while 72 per cent come from Asian and African countries, according to figures from Statistics Norway.
Over the past ten years, 136,600 people have become Norwegian citizens, and the figure from last year is below the average, the figures show.
Norway has a population of 5,3 million.
The EU is increasing its staff for passports control and customs along it’s external borders, when the UK leaves the European Union.
Six of the 28 EU countries are planning a total of 20 border control posts, according to German broadcaster ARD, Norway’s public broadcaster NRK reported.
Germany and The Netherlands will employ a total of 900 new personell at customs and border control.
Turistbuss i Oslo. Illustrasjonsfoto: Wikipedia.org
Bymiljøetaten i Oslo kommune vil at turistbussene skal holde seg utenfor Oslo sentrum, melder NRK.
Oslo-guide Tove Gjersrud fortviler og sier til Finansavisen at det virker som om Oslo ikke vil ønske turister velkommen.
Longyearbyen, Svalbard. Foto: John Slinning
Mars blir den 100. måneden med temperatur over normalen på Svalbard, ifølge Meteorologisk institutt. Det melder NRK.
Selv om mars måned i år har vært forholdsvis kald, vil måneden trolig føye seg inn i rekken av høye månedstemperaturer.
Kilde: www.nrk.no
Aman Kyoto åpner i november 2019. Foto: Aman Resorts
Luksushotellgruppen Aman lanserer sitt tredje resort i Japan, denne gang i Kyoto. Resorten skal ligge i en skjult hage, og byr gjestene på 24 rom, og to villaer, skriver Se og Hør.
Aman Kyoto fokuserer på det tradisjonelle og konseptet “hot springs”.
De to andre Aman-resortene i Japan ligger i Tokyo og i Shima.
Aman Resorts International har totalt 24 destinasjoner i 21 land. Ordet “aman” betyr “fred”, “sikkerhet”, “ly”, og “beskyttelse” på flere asiatiske språk, som hindi, sanskrit, punjabi, arabisk, urdu, persisk, og malay.
Kjeden ble startet av indoneseren Adrian Willem Lauw Zecha (f.1933) i 1988, og har hovedkontor i Singapore.
Red-light district. Photo credit: Wikipedia.org
Amsterdam, capital city of The Netherlands, prohibits guided tours of the “Red-light district”, the major tourist attraction where prostitutes are on display in windows.
‘Looking at sex workers as a tourist attraction is a thing of the past,’ says city financial councillor Udo Kock in a statement.
Rembrandt, self portrait.
In The Netherlands, the Year of Rembrandt is marked this year, as it is 350 years since the painter, artist and graphic artist Rembrandt van Rijn died.
Rembrandt, one of the Baroque’s great masters, is celebrated throughout 2019.
The Rembrandt House Museum at Joodenbreestraat 4 in Amsterdam, where the artist lived and worked for a number of years, not far from the present-day city hall.
He purchased the house in 1639 and lived there until he went bankrupt in 1656, when all his belongings were auctioned off. The auction list enabled the reconstructions of all his belongings which are also on display in the house.
The museum opened in 1911, and includes 260 of the 290 most famous Rembrandt sketches.
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was born on 15 July, 1606 in Leiden in the then Dutch Republic (now The Netherlands), and died 4 October, 1669 in Amsterdam, aged 63.
Learn more at www.holland.com
The Rembrandt museum in Amsterdam (Museum het Rembrandthuis) – www.rembrandthuis.nl
Nicosia
Cyprus Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides and his Sri Lankan counterpart Tilak Janaka Marapana said while inaugurating Sri Lanka’s consulate general in Nicosia, capital city of Cyprus, that the two countries were opening a new chapter in their bilateral cooperation, the Cyprus-Mail website reported.
“After the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1963, our relations are growing steadily,” Christodoulides said in his address at the ceremony.
The two foreign ministers discussed ways of enhancing cooperation in the trade, tourism, investment and education sectors.
Mr Christodoulides said, “we share many similar ideas and principles which guide our close cooperation in many international organisations and associations, such as the UN and the Commonwealth.”
He went on to say that the presence of the Sri Lankan community on the island had also contributed to the strengthening of the ties between the two countries.
At the beginning of the ceremony, Sri Lanka’s flag was raised outside the consular premises and the national anthems of the two countries were played.
The foreign ministers also unveiled the Consulate’s plaque and lit a traditional candelabra. A Sri Lankan couple in traditional attire presented folk dances before guests.
The ceremony was also attended by Daya Srikantha John Pelpola, the ambassador of Sri Lanka to Cyprus, resident in Rome.
News source: www.cyprus-mail.com
Illustrasjonsfoto: www.tui.no
Nordmenn blir stadig mer opptatt av å velge bærekratige reisealternativer. På reiseoperatøren TUI sine nettsider har selskapet samlet alle Travelife-sertifiserte hoteller under fanen “Bærekraftsertifiserte hoteller”, skriver Se og Hør.
Rundt halvparten av TUIs nordiske gjester benytter slike hoteller i dag.
