Baku, capital city of Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijan State Tourism Agency has opened tourism representative offices in six cities:

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Beijing in China (Brand story Inc Pte Ltd)
Frankfurt in Germany (Lieb Management & Beteiligungs GmbH)
Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (Gulf Reps Ltd)
Moscow in Russia (Tourism Marketing & Intelligence Ltd)
Mumbai in India (Blue Square Consultants, a division of Ezeego One Travel & Tours Limited)
Riyad in Saudi Arabia (Gulf Reps Ltd)

Azerbaijan is among the fastest-growing destinations for tourists.

In January-October 2018, 2,420,400 visitors from 194 countries arrived in Azerbaijan, a 6.1 percent growth compared to the same period of 2017. Russian nationals made up the majority of the tourists who visited Azerbaijan. As many as 31.1 percent of the tourists came from the Russian Federation.

According to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, 2,691,998 foreign tourists visited Azerbaijan in 2017, which is 20 percent more than in 2016.

Most tourists came to Azerbaijan in July – 313 515 people.

News source: azernews.az

Kazakhstan’s capital Nursultan, formerly Astana. Photo credit:airastana.com

In Kazakhstan, the name of the capital city Astana has been officially changed, following a vote in the National Assembly today.

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Nursultan Nazarbayev

Parliament voted that Astana is now called “Nursultan”, named after the country’s 78-year-old former President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who resigned yesterday, having been Head of State since 1990.

Nursultan, located in the middle of the country, has one million inhabitants, and is the country’s second city and became the capital of 1998, after Almaty (formerly Alma-Ata), in the southeast, which had been the capital in the entire Soviet period, and from independence in 1991.

Founded in 1830 as a settlement of Akmoly or Akmolinsky prikaz, it served as a defensive fortification for the Siberian Cossackc. In 1832 the settlement was granted a town status and renamed Akmolinsk. In 1961 the city was renamed Tselinograd, to mark the city’s evolution as a cultural and administrative center of the Virgin Lands Campaign.
In 1992 it was renamed Akmola, the modified original name meaning “white grave”. In 1997 Akmola replaced Almaty as the capital of Kazakhstan.
In 1998 it was renamed Astana, which means “capital city” in Kazakh.

The Love Bridge, with it’s thousands of padlocks and messages from couples from all over the world, in Helsinki, capital of Finland. Photo credit: hovedsteder.blogg.no

The Finns live in the happiest country in the world, according to the UN World Happiness Report 2019.
In second place is Denmark, with Norway in third place.

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The report ranks 156 countries by factors such as economy, health, freedom and social security.

The ranking is based on surveys carried out by Gallup from 2016 to 2018. On the next places on the list are Iceland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, New Zealand, Canada and Austria.

‘Rakkauden silta – Kärlekens bro – Bridge of Love’ is the inscription on the brass plate of the railing on the “Love Bridge” in Helsinki. Photo credit: hovedsteder.blogg.no

Woodstock, 1969. Photo credit: wikipedia.org

Hip-hop artist Jay-Z is among the artists performing when the legendary Woodstock festival “resurrects” after 50 years.

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The summer concert will be called Bethel Woods and will be held 16-18 August in Watkins Glen, New York.

Woodstock Music & Art Fair, generally known as Woodstock, was a rock festival held in the United States on 15-18 August, 1969. It was intended to be held in Woodstock, in the state of New York, but was moved to a dairy farm in the city of Bethel, New York. However, the name Woodstock was retained.

HRK Crown Prince Haakon of Norway. Photo credit: Julia Marie Naglestad/The Royal Court – www.kongehuset.no / Kongehuset

His Royal Highness Crown Prince Haakon of Norway will pay an official visit to the Pacific nations the Kingdom of Tonga, the Republc of Fiji, and to Samoa, from 5 to 11 April.

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The Crown Prince will be accompanied by Norway’s Minister for International Development Cooperation, Mr.Dag-Inge Ulstein.

Climate change, peace and security are among the topics for the visits.

Foto: birkebeiner.no – Birken

Næringslivet på Rena vil ha Birken tilbake til sentrum. Det skriver avisa Østlendingen. 

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Hele Birken-arrangementet med boder og henting av startnummer ble i år flyttet fra Torget på Rena til starten på birkebeinerrennet på Tingstadjordet, ifølge nrk.no

Det 54 kilometer lange Birkebeinerrennet – Birken, er Norges mest tradisjonsrike turrenn på ski og går hvert år fra Rena til Lillehammer.

Foto: birkebeiner.no – Birken

Moods of Norways velkjente tidligere symbol: den rosa traktoren. Foto: Wikipedia.org

Moods of Norway gjenoppstår som Moods og åpner butikk i Oslo, melder NRK.
Selskapet gikk konkurs i 2017, men konkursboet ble kjøpt opp av flere av de ansatte, og det nye merket satser kun på herreklær.

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En tidligere Moods of Norway-butikk. Foto: Wikipedia.org

Publikum på Slottsfjell 2010. Foto: Wikipedia.org

Slottsfjell-festivalen i Tønsberg unngår konkurs, men kommer som ventet ikke til å arrangere festival i år, skriver NRK.no Dermed må festivalgjengerne vente til 2020 for å delta på en av Norges mest populære musikkfestivaler.

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Som regel blir festivalen arrangert i midten av juli, på Slottsfjellet.

Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon). Photo credit: Wikipedia.org

The Ministry of Transportation and Communications of Taiwan (Republic of China) opened a regional office of the Taiwan Tourism Bureau in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam on March 15, the TaiwanNews.com website reported.

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In accordance with the New Southbound Policy, the new office will manage tourism promotion in Vietnam, as well as Laos, and Cambodia.

The office’s first director, Chou Hsinyi, will aim to strengthen communications and relations with local travel agencies, airlines and media to organize activities that promoting tourism to Taiwan from Vietnam.

Vietnam is expected to see an increase in international travelers over the coming years, and the Tourism Bureau aims to make Taiwan an attractive destination for prospective travelers in Vietnam and neighboring countries.

Over the past four years, Taiwan has seen a significant increase in visitors from Vietnam. In 2015, there were reportedly over 146,000 Vietnamese tourists, while in 2018 that number had increased to over 490,000.

Coinciding with the opening of the Ho Chi Minh tourism office, Taiwan is also once again accepting Vietnamese citizens for a revised version of the “Kuan Hung Pilot Project” an e-visa program designed for short term visits to Taiwan for residents of Southeast Asia.

Vietnam was temporarily removed from the program after a large group of Vietnamese people disappeared in Taiwan last December and had to be tracked down and deported by the National Immigration Agency.

The current Kuan Hung visa program is set to run until the end of 2020.

News source: www.taiwannews.com

His Highness Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, United Arab Emirates Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, has opened the premises of the new UAE Embassy in Bogota, capital city of Colombia, on the sidelines of his official visit to Colombia, the Emirates News Agency website reported.

“The opening of the embassy translates the UAE’s keenness to boost prospects of cooperation with Colombia across different fields,” said H.H. Sheikh Abdullah after cutting the ribbon and raising the curtain, inaugurating the new premises of the embassy in the presence of Luz Stella Jara Portilla, Vice Minister of Foreign Relations of Colombia.

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Portilla stressed that the opening of the embassy is a step forward on the path to bolstering the steadily growing relations between the two friendly nations.

Attending the opening was Salem Rashid Al Oueiss, the UAE Ambassador to Colombia.

News source: wam.ae