Daily Travelling News

In any moment Russia is ready to enter a visa-free regime with the countries of the European Union, but only on the mutual basis. Such information was declared by Vladimir Putin.
Russian president has told that Russia is ready to enter a visa-free regime at any moment. According to Putin’s words the only problem is that their partners in the Europe are not ready for this yet. The President has emphasized that the Europe should be the continent without borders, and it is necessary to aspire to this. And no matter whether it would be the visa regime facilitations or visa-free regime, all this should be done on the mutual basis.
If Russia will continue to cooperate with the EU, it will finally lead to a visa-free regime. The visa-free regime is good for everything but not only for the development of tourism.
It is worth of mentioning that last week Russian government and Euro Parliament have ratified the agreements on the facilitated order of visas reception to students, scientists, journalists, sportsmen, officials and of some other categories of citizens.

The institute of public safety of Rio de Janeiro state warns the citizens and tourists of the raised danger of robberies in city streets during a carnival. According to institute, in February 2006, 130 people every day became the victims of robbers. Since 2003 the index of criminality has grown more, than on 150 %. The city authorities have taken emergency measures. More than 30 thousand policemen, that on 18 % it is more, than during the last carnival, were appointed to guarantee security in the streets. The roads leading in Rio de Janeiro are being patrolled by one thousand traffic police agents, sent from the capital, and the special militarized divisions on struggle against criminality.
In general the fun, reigning in city, some strike of uncertainty and a pressure nevertheless can be felt. It was felt, in particular, on the carnival opening day on Friday in the center of Rio de Janeiro, when participants of masquerade processions recollected the recent tragedy, which has shocked all country - murder of 6-year-old boy. During the car robbery (the car belonged to his mother) the boy had no time to unfasten a seat belt, and robbers have dragged him, hanging outside of the car, in the streets of the city for the seven kilometers.
In memory of the kid the participants of the carnival have distributed white roses to counter passers-by under the sounds of a “Flag of truce” march - the slowest melody of carnival repertoire.
Today the basic part of a carnival has started in Rio de Janeiro. Ten schools of a samba are take part in competition for the right to get into the “Special group” for the next year.
The competition is expected to be very serious if to consider that eight competitors among these applicants in different years have already entered into the highest carnival league.

The traditional spring carnival has started on Friday evening in Nice - one of the most popular resort cities of France.
The honorable right to open national holiday, being celebrated already for the 123-rd time, has been given to the president of the country, and is more true - to his 13-meter double made of a dense paper tense on a metal skeleton and covered from above by a thin film as protection against the rain.
“King of a carnival”, dressed up in a blue-white vest of French Rugby football team, holding an oblong ball in one hand, and  beer in other hand, and topped with gold crown, has solemnly proceeded on a chariot on the well-known Nice quay. Dancers of folklore were cheerfully dancing and the dressed up pupils of local schools brought up the rear.
On Saturday evening the double of Chirac will again head carnival procession.

Since autumn 2007 a new procedure entry visas registration for Malta is to be implemented. Such changes are caused by Malta’s membership in EU and preparation of all Maltese external correspondence in accordance with the Schengen standards. Now visa regime for Malta will be more complicated: copies of passports of tourists will be forwarded to Malta and then the visa receipt confirmation will be sent back to the embassy of the interested country, finally, the visa will be pasted into the passport after an arrival on Island.
Tour operators of the Maltese direction confirm that they have known about new visa regime implementation for a long time before the officially informed data and give different comments and forecasts concerning the consequences of such changes.
While full data on requirements are not present, it looks like the information on salary, incomes, real-estate and other papers will be required. All experts do not see the bases that Maltese council has raised cost of the visa (now, Maltese visa costs 30 euros).
In the nearest future the United Arab Emirates visa regime also will be changed: the price of visa will be a little bit higher and the validity of the visa will also be prolonged. The visa regime and visa’s validity prolongation will be facilitated.

Recently, a system of new hotels’ “stars’ estimation” has been introduced. Nowadays, such questions as how much the hotel cares of the smallest visitors; whether it possesses all necessary services for their high-grade rest are becoming more and more important.  However, the category of hotels’ stars is defined not by the presence “necessary” services, but of luxury surplus.
The best hotels offer special rooms for kids and teenagers, special SPA for children, tiny umbrellas on a beach. In San-Francisco Personality Hotel recommends to lodge the child in a room with the intercommunication door with parental room. However, children’s room, would significantly differ from the parents’ room by its special design, or any interior peculiarities, such as, for example, presence of the huge flat screen for viewing animated cartoons at children’s room, a microphone for a karaoke, a case with a set of the surprising things suiting changing clothes in children’s favorite cartoon or fairytales’ heroes: from a boa in solar glasses up to a parrot in ostrich’s feathers. The music, loaded into the iPod, will also be chosen according to the children’s tastes.
Precisely the same services are offered in family rooms of Ritz Carlton Hotel in Boston. And a group of Swissotel has developed a special concept of “children’s room” under the motto “Children are happy - rest is successful!”. The stuff management tries to offer more “children’s rooms” in the hotels, though such pleasure this rather expensive.
Usually hotels try to find the conciliatory proposal: to satisfy their “small” visitors and their parents at the minimal expenses. In Florida Bentley Beach Hotel has managed by small umbrellas on a beach, and Reid’s Palace (Madeira)  Hotel has added special children’s peignoirs, dressing gowns, shower gels and towels in the bathrooms, and adapted children’s menu in the hotel’s restaurants. On Maldives the One Only&Kanuhura Hotel suggests girls “to be as mum” and to visit SPA, where it is possible to take a flower bath, to seize art of nails coloring and to braid freakish pigtails.

Many tour operators suggest “sweet” couples to celebrate St. Valentine’s Day in a special way and offer them romantic tours to Rome, Milan or Paris at a discount. The cost of romantic trips is 30-40 % cheaper from the usual tourist tour. Besides, February is a time of student’s vacations, so, budgetary tours to the Europe became more popular. But if you wish to celebrate February, 14th in a very especial way, be ready to pay more money for romance and luxury.
London: have intimae on the bridge
British people keep all their traditions, including St. Valentine’s Day. Every year they prepare refined entertainments for the sweet couples.
For example, on this St. Valentine’s Day the enamored will be able to have a walk on the Tower Bridge (constructed in 1894, it is considered as one of the most beautiful monuments of the world), but it will not be a usual walk of pedestrians. The couples will admire the sunset from a height of 45 meters! And a specially invited pianist, who will play piano compositions on the Bridge, will adjust them on romance. Everyone will be offered a glass of champagne. The ticket costs 12 pounds for couple.
Those who are not afraid of height can arrange romantic appointment at height of the bird’s flight - the London Eye. It is only necessary to reserve special tickets for Valentines Flight in advance. At the same time you will receive a red rose and chocolate -a gift from The London Eye. Another program- Valentines Champagne flight- will give you an opportunity to pass on a big wheel and to drink champagne at height of 135 meters.
Italy: 3 euros for a kiss
On sacred Valentine’s native land (besides traditional Rome, fashionable Milan and romantic Venice) you can go to small town Kurmagiore. There you will be able to participate in the celebratory procession with national dances, devoted to the St. Valentine’s Day.
Giuseppe Foggetti (one of the most successful Italian businessmen) has decided to represent a special place for dating. The special park for enamored is situated in a seaport of Bari. The exclusive “headquarters” for kissing and other purposes are waiting for their visitors on February, 14th. In fact own habitation is inaccessible to the majority of young Italians.
Paris: a bed from roses
On the St. Valentine’s Day practically all hotels of Paris, Lyons, Marseilles and other French cities offer small gifts to their visitors. These gifts may be a bottle of a champagne, chocolate or flowers. The most magnificent hotels suit the whole solemn suppers and special surprises to couples.
Nevertheless, a night in one of these luxury hotels would cost you no less than 500-900 euros.
Thailand: the gift will smell for half a year
The tourists, who would come to Thailand on, February 14th, would be able to get an exclusive souvenir - a stamp with a rose smell. These fragrant marks are let out especially to the Valentine’s Day and will be on sale in all large department stores. The stamp will cost $0, 35, and it will smell sweet for half a year.
Austria: a weekend in a beer cask
Flowers, chocolate, and champagne - it is pleasant, but it is too banal. What about having a really unforgettable romantic evening … in beer cask?
In a basement of one Austrian village wooden flanks are established, each one is made for two persons. Beer, malt and two spoons of hop plant are poured into a keg and all these is, then, filled up with warm water. Your romantic bath is ready!!! It very much reminds a Jacuzzi.
Such romantic holidays of beer-spa resort would cost you only 400 euros per couple. The baths, two nights in hotel, a breakfast and dinners are also included.

The interesting idea of reception of the additional income has occurred to heads of the Prague underground.
The majority of modern mega cities inhabitants use periodically the underground. However one more life is hidden from the eyes of passengers behind facades of underground stations and the walls of tunnels. Secrets of inaccessible (for passengers) underground world can be very interesting, if it would be represented to them in appropriate way.
The special excursion program which would be interesting to local residents and tourists is now being properly prepared in Prague. Some of the underground vaults with special tourist routes of various distances are to be opened by the end of the summer.
It is likely that there will be four or five “Tourist tracks”. The employees of the Prague underground are absolutely sure that the walk on an underside of the underground will be in demand.

In China the present boom of transplantation is eager to be started. More and more foreigners come to China to receive donor bodies without the turn. However the western legal experts in the new report approve, that many Chinese become donors not at the will. According to these data, bodies the killed prisoners of local prisons, in particular, act as the “suppliers” of organs.
It has been almost 74 passed years after Soviet surgeon Jury Voronoj has lead the first successful change of a kidney. For this time the transplantology has developed so, that now operation on change of various bodies is not represented an insoluble problem. The most important is to find the donor. Relatives of the patients, requiring operation, are running in searches of the one who could rescue their close person.
In many countries including in Russia, official realization of bodies is forbidden. According to the Russian legislation, the purchase or sale of bodies and fabrics of the person entails the criminal liability.
However, unlike the European Union and the United States, in the Russian Federation the presumption of the consent to withdrawal of bodies operates. Easier speaking, in case of sudden premature death the law assumes, that the victim (died) has agreed to transplantation of the bodies.
The stable demand forces some physicians to support a canceling of an interdiction on trade in bodies. In the end of 2006 with such offer the initiative group American and British transplantations has acted. As they said, for today in Northern America and the Europe from 15 up to 30 percent of patients die, and not having waited the change.
The greatest alarm in legal experts is caused by the China which has turned recently in the present center «transplantation tourism». In March 2006 under pressure of the West in the Peoples Republic of China have legislatively forbidden trade in human bodies, but now a new charge, while which is has no comments by the Chinese authorities, is addressed to this country.
David Kilgur, the former Canadian state secretary on Asian-Pacific region, is assured that Canada and other countries should interfere with trips of the citizens to China where they can receive human bodies without turn. He suspects, what exactly is behind each operation.
Legal experts call the developed countries to forbid departure of citizens whose purpose is treatment in China. However, as experts mark, such approach, in turn, breaks democratic freedom of inhabitants of Canada, the USA and the Western Europe.

So-called low-cost companies offering unusually low tariffs for the flights, for more then ten years occupy a significant niche in the market of passenger transportations. The Accor hotel chain, announcing, budgetary rest in the hotels, has decided to follow the lead of airlines.  

In particular, in the French hotels of a network under name Formule1 clients are offered to lead night at the price of only 32 euros.  And in hotels of Ibis and Etap network in all cities a day of residing will manage in 70 euros, that is also considerably below the average level the prices in the hotel market. 

The Accor marketing experts approve, that the reduction of the price is not reflected in the quality of service, and now it became possible due to reduction of the operating device, optimization of charges of the company on advertising and other clauses of expenses. In spite of the fact that low-cost hotels are located mainly on suburbs of the cities, decrease in tariffs has allowed to fill an available number fund as quickly as possible.  

Positive results of Accor’s experiment are likely to become an example for imitation, and the concept of low-cost hotels will become same habitual, as well as low-cost airlines are.   The principles of Accor’s low-cost concept differ from traditions of the budgetary hotels known to the European tourists. 

The season, which has come in Asia with rains and cool weather, has provoked prompt distribution of the bird’s flu in extensive territories from Egypt up to Japan. Now Indonesia is on the first place among the Asian countries by quantity of victims from disease by the bird’s flu. In the meantime the rains, going in a southeast of Asia, have caused new attack of the bird’s flu in Thailand and Vietnam. China, South Korea and Japan inform on occurrence of a killing virus. 

The United Kingdom “very seriously” prepares to the bird’s flu epidemics. The Minister Health of has declared about the threat of the epidemics in the UK in view of finding this disease in an English county Suffolk. The Ministry has told, that last week large-scale doctrines on reflection of threat of a virus dangerous to people have been lead, and has named risk of global flash bird’s “insignificant”. 

According to the minister’s words, the British National System of Public Health Care has a sufficient stock of masks, but nevertheless it considers an opportunity to fill it up. In the Ministry of Health the stock of special preparations against the bird’s flu, sufficient approximately for a quarter of the population of British Isles, in turn, is made. Meanwhile the Minister of Agriculture and the foodstuffs has informed that Northern Ireland is ready for reflection of bird’s flu threats. The Minister ascertained that the risk of distribution of infection from the next Great Britain to Ireland is minimal. 

According to the Minister’s words, the Irish authorities carefully trace development of a situation with the bird’s flu in the Great Britain.  According to the World Organization of Public Health Care, since 2003, all over the world 265 persons have been infected. The dangerous virus became the reason of death of 159 victims.