In April, they are harvested for the essential oil used to cleanse the outer walls of the sacred Kaaba, the cubic structure in the holy city of Mecca towards which Muslims around the world pray.

The trial of "Face Express," which is meant to speed up the boarding process and provide a touchless experience for passengers, only involved airport staff and not actual travelers, Narita International Airport said.

At the site near Luxor, home of the legendary Valley of the Kings, workers carefully carried ancient pots and showed human and animal remains dug up from the earth as members of the media toured around curved brick walls and rudimentary streets.

The Department for Transport said the ban on visitors from Kenya, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Pakistan would enter force at 0300 GMT on April 9.

Dubbed the Pharaohs' Golden Parade, the 18 kings and four queens will travel in order, oldest first, each aboard a separate float decorated in ancient Egyptian style.

In the ancient capital of Kyoto, cherry blossoms hit their peak on March 26 -- 10 days sooner than average and the earliest since the government started taking records in 1953.

The Cupnoodles Museum Hong Kong, opened Tuesday by a local subsidiary of Nissin Foods Holdings Co. in the busy Tsim Sha Tsui area of Kowloon, is designed to be a new tourist attraction with three factories to experience the production of Cup Noodles, Demae Iccho instant noodles and Granola.

Thailand has imposed massive restrictions visitor arrivals in order to stem coronavirus, but discouraging tourism has led to its economy recording the worst performance since the 1997 Asian financial crisis. 

After Olympics organisers announced a ban on spectators from abroad, those working in Japan's tourism industry are counting their losses.

Disneyland Park -- the world's second-most visited theme park -- and neighboring Disney California Adventure Park will allow visitors at "significantly limited" capacity.

China has been shut off to most foreigners since last March after the coronavirus exploded beyond its borders, triggering lockdowns and bringing international travel to a grinding halt.

Early in the pandemic Australia effectively closed its international border to slow the spread of the coronavirus, with non-citizens banned from visiting except in special circumstances.

As vaccines are globally being rolled out, a few countries including Bahrain have already introduced certificates identifying vaccinated people, and the European Union agreed to develop vaccine passports under pressure from tourism-dependent southern countries.

Governments initially started easing travel restrictions last year but reversed the trend after new virus strains emerged and because of "the persistent seriousness of the epidemiological situation", the Madrid-based World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) said in a report.

At 10:00 am (1500 GMT) on a recent Friday, barely ten people were on Liberty Island's roughly 200-metre (650-ft) promenade, staring up at the Statue of Liberty.

The island is being promoted as somewhere Chinese who are unable to travel overseas because of the coronavirus pandemic can head for binge shopping, making it a model for the expansion of domestic demand linked to the world economy that Xi hopes to achieve in the future.

Planes will be lighter as they will no longer carry printed versions, saving fuel and slashing carbon footprints by an estimated 10,690 tons per year.

Not for nothing are vineyards in Hemel en Aarde carving out a global reputation among wine lovers seeking a fresh, distinctive flavour.

Short-stay business travellers to Singapore will be able to avoid the official 14-day quarantine rule if they stay at Connect@Changi, a purpose-built facility near Changi Airport.

The scheme, dubbed a "vaccination passport" by industry observers, is intended to streamline travel once borders reopen by allowing passengers to store their health credentials in one place.

It is the third reopening for the popular theme park following previous closures in January, July and December last year lasting a total of about nine months due to the pandemic. It last closed on Dec. 2.

The country has been one of the worst affected in the global health crisis, with some 113,000 deaths, and is banking on a mass vaccination drive to cut infection rates.

The home, constructed in 1910 in Perryopolis, a suburb of Pittsburgh, stands three stories and offers 2,300 square feet of space.

The policy, which will begin from February 15, will require all UK citizens and permanent residents returning from countries on its so-called travel ban list to self-isolate in a government approved facility for 10 days. 

The kingdom suspended "all events and parties" including weddings in banquet halls or hotels for 30 days, the interior ministry said in a statement released by the official Saudi Press Agency.

Spain received 19 million international tourists last year, national statistics office INE said, down from 83.5 million in 2019 when it was the world's second-most visited country after France.

New arrivals will have to pay to quarantine in hotels for up to three days under strict supervision, he told a news conference.