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Saudi Tourism Authority Participates in Arabian Travel Market Exhibition in Dubai

Saudi Tourism Authority Participates in Arabian Travel Market Exhibition in Dubai
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Saudi Tourism Authority Participates in Arabian Travel Market Exhibition in Dubai

Saudi Tourism Authority Participates in Arabian Travel Market Exhibition in Dubai

Saudi Arabia, represented by the Tourism Authority, is participating in the 30th edition of the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai, which will run until May 4, aiming to boost the Kingdom's position on the global tourism map and feature its destinations, experiences, products, and investment opportunities.

The Kingdom's pavilion hosts the largest Saudi delegation ever, with 67 partners of the Saudi tourism sector, in addition to more than 500 prime tourism packages and itineraries that are ready for immediate reservations, according to SPA.

The Kingdom's participation in the global tourism forum integrates with its efforts to become an easier and more entertaining travel destination, with increasing demand for bookings along the Red Sea coast and the southern highlands.

Saudi Arabia offers visitors various types of visas, such as the Umrah visa, transit visa, and family visit visa, in addition to making an electronic visa available to residents of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries without requiring specific professions. The on-arrival visa was also made available to citizens of the United States, the United Kingdom, and European Union countries, as well as holders of US, UK and Schengen visas.

Nusuk, the unified national platform for visitors to Makkah and Madinah destinations, is participating in the Saudi pavilion at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai with more than 20 partners representing the major Umrah companies, organizing trips, and providing services to the Umrah performers.

At the Arabian Travel Market, CEO and board member of the Saudi Tourism Authority Fahd Hamidaddin stated that Saudi Arabia today is the top investor globally in tourism and an ideal destination for major international tourism investors. He added that the number of visitors to the Kingdom who came for tourism, Umrah, and business purposes in the first quarter of this year exceeded what was achieved in the same period last year.

Saudi tourism has recorded an accelerated growth that reached 121% compared to the growth rates of international tourism in the pre-pandemic period, as the Kingdom achieved 93.5 million visits in 2022.

Today, the Kingdom is the largest investor in tourism in the world, by allocating more than $550 billion to major projects and new destinations to be inaugurated by 2030.

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Varieties

France, Germany Send Firefighters to Help Battle Dutch Blazes

A French firefighter douses burning vegetation during a bushfire in Budel, Netherlands May 1, 2026. (Reuters)
A French firefighter douses burning vegetation during a bushfire in Budel, Netherlands May 1, 2026. (Reuters)
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France, Germany Send Firefighters to Help Battle Dutch Blazes

A French firefighter douses burning vegetation during a bushfire in Budel, Netherlands May 1, 2026. (Reuters)
A French firefighter douses burning vegetation during a bushfire in Budel, Netherlands May 1, 2026. (Reuters)

France and Germany sent firefighting units to the Netherlands on Friday to help battle woodland blazes flaring in several areas.

Many of the fires, which sparked on Wednesday and Thursday, were raging in land used for military training, including an artillery range, in the south.

Stretched Dutch authorities requested help facing the emergency through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, with France and Germany responding.

French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said on X that Paris had dispatched 41 civil security personnel and 10 vehicles.

A total of 67 firefighters, 21 vehicles and three trailers were sent by the Bonn fire service in Germany.

A Dutch military spokesman, Major Mike Hofman, on Friday confirmed to AFP that army "training grounds were in use at the time the fires broke out".

He said an investigation was under way "examining whether there is a connection between the military operations and the origin of the fires".

The head of the Dutch armed forces said on Thursday that extra precautions were being taken on terrain used for drills because of a drought currently parching the country.

He added, however, that the military exercises being conducted would not be suspended.

Varieties

Oscar Statuette for 'Mr. Nobody Against Putin' Goes Missing on Flight

FILE PHOTO: File Photo: Pavel Talankin arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscars party after the 98th Academy Awards, in Beverly Hills, California, US, March 16, 2026. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok/File Photo/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: File Photo: Pavel Talankin arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscars party after the 98th Academy Awards, in Beverly Hills, California, US, March 16, 2026. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok/File Photo/File Photo
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Oscar Statuette for 'Mr. Nobody Against Putin' Goes Missing on Flight

FILE PHOTO: File Photo: Pavel Talankin arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscars party after the 98th Academy Awards, in Beverly Hills, California, US, March 16, 2026. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok/File Photo/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: File Photo: Pavel Talankin arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscars party after the 98th Academy Awards, in Beverly Hills, California, US, March 16, 2026. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok/File Photo/File Photo

The Oscar statuette belonging to Pavel Talankin, the Russian director who won best documentary this year for "Mr. Nobody Against Putin," has gone missing after he was forced to check the award into hold luggage on a flight from New York to Germany, his co-director said.

Talankin was due to fly from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Frankfurt on German carrier Lufthansa. But Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents told him that the 8.5 lb (3.8 kg) statuette posed a potential security threat, his co-director David Borenstein said on Thursday.

"At the airport, a ⁠TSA agent stopped ⁠him and said the Oscar could be used as a weapon," Borenstein said on Instagram.

"Pavel didn’t have a bag to check it in, so the TSA put the Oscar in a box and sent it to the bottom of the plane," he said, posting a series of pictures, ⁠including of the box.

"It never arrived in Frankfurt."

Responding to Borenstein's Instagram post, Lufthansa said it was taking the matter seriously.

"We deeply regret this situation," a company spokesperson later said in response to a Reuters request for comment.

"Our team is handling this matter with the utmost care and urgency and we are conducting a comprehensive internal search to ensure that the Oscar is found and returned as soon as possible.”

Speaking to the online magazine Deadline.com after arriving in Germany on Thursday, ⁠Talankin ⁠said it was "completely baffling how they consider an Oscar a weapon."

On previous flights on various airlines, he had flown with it "in the cabin, and there never was any kind of problem," he told the outlet.

Talankin and Borenstein's documentary used two years of footage that Talankin recorded at a school where he worked in Russia's Chelyabinsk region, to show how students were exposed to pro-war messaging.

The 35-year-old Talankin, who fled Russia in 2024, has defended the film as a record for posterity to show how "an entire generation became angry and aggressive."

Varieties

Russia Successfully Test Launches New Soyuz-5 Rocket from Kazakhstan, Space Agency Says

The ⁠new rocket is ‌capable of ‌carrying payloads of up to ‌17 metric tons. (AP file)
The ⁠new rocket is ‌capable of ‌carrying payloads of up to ‌17 metric tons. (AP file)
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Russia Successfully Test Launches New Soyuz-5 Rocket from Kazakhstan, Space Agency Says

The ⁠new rocket is ‌capable of ‌carrying payloads of up to ‌17 metric tons. (AP file)
The ⁠new rocket is ‌capable of ‌carrying payloads of up to ‌17 metric tons. (AP file)

Russia has test launched its new Soyuz-5 rocket for the first time, the country's space agency said late on Thursday, saying it had lifted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan without any issues.

The Soyuz-5, which Roscosmos, ‌Russia's space ‌agency, describes as a ‌launch ⁠vehicle equipped with ⁠the world's most powerful liquid-fueled engine, lifted off successfully at 2100 Moscow time (1800 GMT) on April 30, it said in a statement.

The ⁠new rocket is ‌capable of ‌carrying payloads of up to ‌17 metric tons, will significantly ‌reduce launch costs, and is more effective than its predecessors at placing objects like satellites in near ‌earth orbit, the agency said.

Dmitry Bakanov, the head ⁠of ⁠Roskosmos, said the rocket - which he hailed as a "new step in space exploration" - would create new jobs in Russia and Kazakhstan.

Bakanov has previously told President Vladimir Putin that the Soyuz-5 is the first new launch vehicle that Russia has developed since 2014.