Travelore Breaking News: Canada To Let Vaccinated US Citizens Enter Country On Aug. 9

TORONTO (AP) — Canada announced Monday it will begin letting fully vaccinated U.S. citizens into Canada on Aug. 9, and those from the rest of the world on Sept. 7. Officials said the 14-day quarantine requirement will be waived as of Aug. 9 for eligible travelers who are currently residing in the United States and have received a full course of a COVID-19 vaccine approved for use in Canada.

Public Safety Minister Bill Blair, who said he spoke with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Friday, said the U.S. has not yet indicated any plan to change current restrictions at the land border. Canadians are able to fly into the United States with a negative COVID-19 test.

Asked in Washington if the U.S. would reciprocate, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, “We are continuing to review our travel restrictions. Any decisions about resuming travel will be guided by our public health and medical experts. ... I wouldn’t look at it through a reciprocal intention.”

U.S. Democratic Congressman Brian Higgins, whose district includes Buffalo and Niagara Falls, said the U.S. has “neglected to give reopening the northern border the serious attention it deserves, and there is no excuse.”

Canadian officials also announced that children who aren’t vaccinated but are travelling with vaccinated parents won’t have to quarantine, but will have to avoid group activities including schools and daycare centers.

Transport Minister Omar Alghabra also said a ban on direct flights from India will be extended to Aug. 21 because of the delta variant. “The situation in India is still very serious,” he said.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last week that Canada could start allowing fully vaccinated Americans into the country as of mid-August for nonessential travel and should be in a position to welcome fully vaccinated travelers from all countries by early September.

Canada leads G20 countries in vaccination rates, with approximately 80% of eligible Canadians vaccinated with their first dose and over 50% of those eligible fully vaccinated.

“This weekend, we even passed the U,S. in terms of fully vaccinated people,” Trudeau said. “Thanks to the rising vaccination rates and declining COVID-19 cases, we are able to move forward with adjusted border measures.”

Reopening to the U.S first is a “recognition of our unique bond, especially between border communities,” Trudeau said.

In the early days of the pandemic, the U.S. and Canadian governments closed the more than 5,500-mile (8,800-kilometer) border to nonessential traffic. With increasing vaccination rates and dropping infection rates, some were annoyed the two governments hadn’t laid out plans to fully reopen the border.

Canada began easing its restrictions earlier this month, allowing fully vaccinated Canadians or permanent legal residents to return Canada without quarantining. But among the requirements are a negative test for the virus before returning, and another once they get back.

Pressure has been mounting on Canada to continue to ease the restrictions at the border, which have been in effect since March 2020. Providing exemptions for travel into Canada amid the pandemic is politically sensitive and Trudeau is expected to call a federal election next month.

Canadian officials have said they would like 75% of eligible Canadian residents to be fully vaccinated before loosening border restrictions for tourists and business travelers. The Canadian government expects to have enough vaccine delivered for 80% of eligible Canadians to be fully vaccinated by the end of July. The U.S. only allowed for exports of vaccines into Canada in early May.

Commercial traffic has gone back and forth normally between the two countries since the start of the pandemic.

The U.S. Travel Association estimates that each month the border is closed costs $1.5 billion. Canadian officials say Canada had about 22 million foreign visitors in 2019 — about 15 million of them from the United States.

Eiffel Tower reopens; COVID Passes Required As Of July 21st.

PARIS (AP) — With “Welcome” messages in multiple languages, the Eiffel Tower greeted tourists Friday for the first time in nearly nine months, reopening to the public even as France introduces new virus rules aimed at taming the fast-spreading delta variant.

Smiles were broad and emotions palpable as the first masked visitors mounted the elevators heading to the top of the Paris monument.

“It’s such a lovely place and wonderful people...and now the wonderful Tour Eiffel,” German tourist Ila Mires said, using the French name for the tower. She came with her 19-year-old daughter before the young woman leaves for studies in Amsterdam. Seeing the tower on their last day together in Paris “is such a gift to mother and daughter,” Mires said.

The “Iron Lady” of Paris was ordered shut in October as France battled its second virus surge of the pandemic, and remained shut for renovations even after other French tourist draws reopened last month.

The tower’s reopening came four days after President Emmanuel Macron announced new measures aimed at warding off a fourth surge, including mandatory vaccinations for health workers and mandatory COVID-19 passes to enter restaurants and tourist and other venues.

Starting Wednesday, all visitors to the Eiffel Tower over age 18 will need to show a pass proving they’ve been fully vaccinated, had a negative virus test or recently recovered from COVID-19.

Masks are required, and the number of daily visitors to the tower will be limited to about half the pre-pandemic norm of 25,000.

The rules didn’t seem to scare crowds away on Friday, July 16th.

“Bienvenue - Welcome - Wilkommen - Bienvenido” flashed on a screen as families, couples and groups lined up or posed for photos beneath the tower.

“We worked, we worked, we worked (for this day). And when I saw my first visitor, I was very, very happy. Emotion and happiness,” Eiffel Tower director Patrick Branco Ruivo told reporters.

“Before COVID, it was 80% foreigners, 20% French. Last year, it was 80% French, 20% foreigners. And this year, it’s amazing because it’s fifty-fifty. And for us, it’s the time that foreigners are coming back to the Eiffel Tower,” he said.

France has opened to international tourists this summer, but the rules vary depending on which country they are coming from. While visitors are trickling back to Paris, their numbers have been far from normal levels, given continued border restrictions and virus risks.

Looking over the elegant French capital, Philippe Duval of Bordeaux and his family admired the view.

“It’s an event we didn’t want to miss,” said Duval, who was among the first to make it to the tower’s top-floor viewing deck. “To be on top of the world’s most beautiful city, what else can you ask for.”

Travelore News: Portugal Flights Disrupted In Second Day Of Airports Strike

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — A strike by airport baggage handlers and ground crews in Portugal was expected to cause a second day of disruption Sunday, with most flights into and out of Lisbon canceled.

The 48-hour walkout forced the cancellation of around 300 flights on Saturday, mostly in Lisbon. Long lines formed as stranded passengers sought to rearrange their travel plans.

A similar number of flights could be affected Sunday.

The strike is part of an ongoing financial dispute between Portuguese handling company Groundforce and national flag carrier TAP Air Portugal, which is bearing the brunt of the cancellations.

Groundforce claims TAP owes it 12 million euros ($14 million) for services rendered and blames the debt for unpaid wages among its staff.

TAP denies it owes Groundforce any money.

Ireland Opening For Travel From The U.S. July 19th.

Tourism Ireland is pleased to confirm that from July 19th Ireland will be welcoming visitors from the US and for those who are fully vaccinated no travel-related testing or quarantine will be necessary.

The protocols for those who do not have valid proof of vaccination will mean those visitors need to:

Present evidence of a negative RT-PCR test result within 72 hours prior to arrival into Ireland.

Self-quarantine.

Undergo post-arrival testing - this will be provided through the Health Service Executive in Ireland.

Ireland will be applying an ‘emergency brake’ mechanism that will be coordinated at EU level to react swiftly to the emergence of a variant of concern or variant of interest. In the event that this ‘emergency brake’ mechanism is applied to US visitors the requirements will change and more detail can be found on the Irish Government website.

Before arriving into Ireland, US visitors will need to complete a Passenger Locator Form The form will be checked prior to departure to Ireland by the relevant air carrier and visitors may be asked to provide the vaccination certificate indicated on their form. On arrival in Ireland, spot checks will be carried out on proof of vaccinations and negative RT-PCR tests as appropriate. Unfortunately, the introduction of these additional checks may cause some disruption to journeys and visitors may experience delays so visitors should give themselves extra time either side of departure and arrival.

From July 19th, children between the ages of 12 and 17, must have a negative RT-PCR test to travel into Ireland, even with fully vaccinated or recovered adults. Children under 12 do not need to take a RT-PCR test prior to travelling to Ireland. For any further changes please check the Irish Government website for the latest information.

It is important to note that only those fully vaccinated or with proof of recovery from COVID-19 in the past 6 months will be able to avail of indoor hospitality during their stay in Ireland. It is anticipated that this will apply from July 26th. Those staying in hotels can avail of the indoor hospitality options within the hotel.

Northern Ireland is operating a system of green, red and amber countries and the measures in place will depend on the countries the visitor is travelling from or passing through. The US and Canada are both currently on the amber list of countries which means that if visitors are travelling to Northern Ireland, either directly or via another country including Ireland, they must:

Provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test result taken up to three days before departure.

Book post-arrival testing.

Complete a UK passenger locator form either on arrival, or in the 48 hours before arrival. Self-isolate for 10 days. You can find further details on the Northern Ireland Government website.

Tourism Ireland CEO, Niall Gibbons said, ”The tourism industry right across the island of Ireland is very much looking forward to welcoming back visitors from the US and we will ensure they enjoy their visit. The health and safety of all our visitors continues to be the priority, and we will ensure they are protected alongside a very warm Irish welcome and a great vacation experience.

Europe’s Floods Kill 120; Climate Links Noted

BRUSSELS — Just as the European Union was preparing drastic plans costing billions of euros to contain climate change, massive clouds were gathering over Germany and other EU nations to unleash an unprecedented storm that left death and destruction in its wake.

Despite ample warnings, politicians and weather forecasters were shocked at the ferocity of the precipitation that caused flash flooding that killed at least 120 people in the lush wooded hills of Western Europe.

Many climate scientists said the link to global warming was unmistakable and the urgency to do something about it undeniable. To say that climate change caused the flooding may be a step too far, but scientists insist that it acerbates the extreme weather that has been on show from the western U.S. and Canada to Siberia to Europe’s Rhine region.

“There is a clear link between extreme precipitation occurring and climate change,” Prof. Wim Thiery of Brussels University said Friday.

For the heat records, added Prof. Stefan Rahmstorf of the University of Potsdam, “some are so extreme that they would be virtually impossible without global warming, as recently in western North America.”

Taking them all together, said Sir David King, Chair of the Climate Crisis Advisory Group, “these are casualties of the climate crisis: we will only see these extreme weather events become more frequent.”

NYC Chinatown Museum Reopens With Anti-Asian Racism Exhibit

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City museum dedicated to telling Chinese American history marked its reopening to the public on Wednesday, with an exhibit on Asian Americans and racism that it curated partially through submissions gathered during the pandemic and a surge of anti-Asian bias incidents around the country.

The opening was a long time coming for the Museum of Chinese in America, not only because of the pandemic shutdown of over a year but because of a fire that ravaged though the space where its collection was housed in January 2020. Luckily, most of the collection was salvaged.

Looking back, there was a question of “how were we going to survive, but we kept pivoting,” said Nancy Yao Maasbach, the museum’s president.

That included a lot of virtual programming, including the call for submissions that became part of “Responses: Asian American Voices Resisting the Tides of Racism,” opening to the public on Thursday.

In the exhibition, the outer walls are a running history of sorts, a timeline showcasing the racism and bigotry that’s been turned toward Asian and Asian Americans throughout their generations in the U.S.

They touch on the treatment of the earliest Asian immigrant communities, how stereotypes connecting them and disease have a long history, to more recent issues like the treatment of Middle Eastern and South Asian communities in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The anti-Asian bias of the pandemic is on display, with a timeline including top government officials using anti-Asian slurs as names for the coronavirus and blaming China for its existence.

There’s also a listing of various attacks that had Asian victims, like the shootings at spa businesses in Georgia in March, where six women of Asian descent were among the eight people killed.

In the center of the show are items collected by the museum showing how Asian Americans have tried to push back against bias in the past year, like photographer Mike Keo’s series of images of Asian Americans sharing their identities with the hashtag, #IAMNOTAVIRUS.

Another piece is a collection of yellow whistles, which visitors are encouraged to take. Dr. Agnes Hsu-Tang and Oscar Tang founded the Yellow Whistle Project this year, offering the items as a security measure in case help is needed and making them yellow in a reference to how the color has been weaponized as a xenophobic slur against Asian Americans.

It was important to include both the history and the pandemic-related material, said Herb Tam, curator and director of exhibits at the museum.

“We felt like even though the submissions since April 2020 were really wonderful ... it wouldn’t have been enough,” he said, and they wanted the exhibition to “make people aware of how this is not new, the way that Asians have been made to feel foreign, or the way we have been scapegoated for a disease.”

The opening didn’t come without controversy. Two artists who had been slated to have their images of Chinatown in Oakland, California, in the show pulled their photos in recent days, following a similar action from other artists in a show the museum was supposed to have put on last year.

The artists, Colin Chin and Nicholas Liem, withdrew their work over a controversy about a contested city plan to site a new jail facility in Chinatown. In talking about the overall project, the city said MOCA would be getting $35 million toward its capital needs, which critics of the jail plan have used to condemn the museum.

The museum has been adamant that it does not support the jail, and Yao Massbach said it had been asking the city for capital funds for several years before the controversy.

Liem, speaking to The Associated Press from Seoul, South Korea, wasn’t convinced. “You can’t say you’re against something while financially benefitting from it,” he said.

At the press event for the new exhibit on Wednesday, protesters could plainly be heard from the street outside, at times right up next to the clear windows at the front of the building.

Tam called the artists’ withdrawal “disheartening” and the controversy was being fueled by “mischaracterizations.”

By DEEPTI HAJELA

Government Of Canada To Invest $50M From Tourism Relief Fund In Indigenous Tourism Projects

COAST SALISH TERRITORY (Vancouver, BC) – The federal Government of Canada has announced the investment of a minimum of $50M from the Tourism Relief Fund (TRF) in Indigenous tourism projects. The Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada (ITAC) is very pleased with this renewed commitment from the government to support the recovery of the Indigenous tourism industry across the country.

"The Government of Canada demonstrated their commitment to the importance of investing in Indigenous tourism in Canada,” said Keith Henry, president and CEO of the ITAC. “This is a very significant direct commitment for Indigenous tourism businesses, Indigenous Tourism Provincial/Territorial Partners and the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada. We are working out the two-year implementation details and will be moving quickly to support our Indigenous tourism industry recover and rebuild."

The aforementioned investment is part of a total commitment of $500M in the TRF to support the tourism industry overall, of which $485 million will be delivered by Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) directly to tourism businesses and organizations to help aid in the creation of new tourism experiences, or enhance existing ones. Of this $500 million, a minimum of 10% will be invested in Indigenous tourism projects ($50M). Additionally, $15M has been allocated in part to support national ITAC projects.

Individual businesses and Provincial/Territorial Indigenous Tourism Organizations will need to apply for repayable or non-repayable funding directly through their respective RDAs. Contributions to Indigenous entities (not generating profits) will normally be non-repayable. Indigenous applicants are invited to apply through the process described below.:

For communities in Atlantic Canada: Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA)

For communities in Quebec: Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions (CED)

For communities in Canada's three territories: Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency (CanNor)

For communities in southern Ontario: Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario)

For communities in northern Ontario: FedNor

For communities in Western Canada: Western Economic Diversification Canada (WD)

Though Canadian domestic travel restrictions have begun easing, this funding has come at a crucial time as international borders remain closed and operators have nearly lost their second full summer season of business. While many businesses received initial non-repayable grants through ITAC in fall 2020, without a further influx of funding to offset these compounded losses, and the fact that ITAC was only allocated $2.4M of the requested $68.3M in the 2021 federal budget – meaning they could not provide further financial support to their members – their viability to survive the third wave was uncertain. After months of advocacy efforts by ITAC to secure the future of their operators, experiences and community members, this financial commitment by the Government specifically for Indigenous tourism businesses is welcomed by ITAC and showcases their recognition of Indigenous tourism as a vital part of the economy and the culture of the country.

About the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada

The Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada (ITAC) is a national non-profit Indigenous tourism industry organization established in 2015. ITAC is the lead organization tasked with growing and promoting the Indigenous tourism industry across the country. Inspired by a vision for a thriving Indigenous tourism economy sharing authentic, memorable and enriching experiences, ITAC develops relationships with groups and regions with similar mandates to enable collective support, product development, promotion and marketing of authentic Indigenous tourism businesses in a respectful protocol.