A tourist from China has been fined US$300 for hiding a crab in his room safe at a resort in the Maldives’ Ari Atoll.

Avas newspaper reported that the room attendant Ali heard something moving inside the safe during a routine inspection.

“Ali reported his suspicion to the manager who then questioned the tourist. After the tourist opened the safe in the presence of both Ali and the manager, the crab crawled out.. and scurried under the bed. Housekeeping reportedly spent hours trying to get the crab out of the room,” the report said.

The tourist admitted to catching the crab at the beach and planing to cook it in a rice cooker he brought with him.

He had first tried to store the crab in the bathtub, but later moved it to the safe after repeated escape attempts by the crustacean.

While millennials previously held court as the leading force in the travel industry, global luxury travel network Virtuoso says Gen Z is the new influencer in tourism, driving travel decisions in their family with an interest in unconventional locales and thrills.

Consisting of young people born late in the 1990s to 2010s, this generation holds considerable sway over their families’ travel decisions, according to 88 per cent of Virtuoso advisors polled. By 2020, this generation will account for 40 per cent of all consumers with disposable income to travel.

Source: Virtuoso

Gen Zs are well-travelled from an early age and globally minded, and thus interested in offbeat destinations with exhilarating adventures like diving the Great Barrier Reef and kayaking among icebergs in Greenland, says Virtuoso.

Listing the top 10 unconventional family destinations this summer, Virtuoso reveals that trips of two weeks or longer are seeing increasing demand, with families travelling more to far-flung Asian countries such as India, Vietnam and Japan.

The polar regions of Iceland, Antarctica and the Arctic lead the pack due to the threat of climate change, while Africa and the Galapagos Islands snag top spots as experiences involving wildlife conservation remain top-of-mind.

The strong American dollar, combined with the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, has also triggered a renewed interest in visiting the country.

Cultural immersion remains one of the leading travel trends, driving families to Cuba before the country loses its historic charm.

Meanwhile, the desire for personalised travel experiences, deeper cultural immersion, and Instagram-worthy design continues to drive the popularity of boutique hotels. Gen Z has been hyper-connected to the Internet since birth and places great emphasis on visual storytelling. Sharing one-of-a kind travel moments with friends on social media is today’s postcard.

The hottest destinations this year for Gen Z travellers and their families, Virtuoso reveals, are Italy, Mexico, Hawaii, Orlando (Florida), England, Costa Rica, South Africa, Turks and Caicos, the Dominican Republic and Australia.

Norwegian Cruise Line has partnered Scuderia Ferrari Watches on the first racetrack at sea, which will debut on the cruise line’s newest ship designed for China, Norwegian Joy, in summer 2017.

The two-level Ferrari-branded racetrack will be located on the ship’s top deck. Up to 10 drivers at a time will be able to race each other on the course in electric go-carts.

Guests of Norwegian Joy’s The Haven and Concierge class will enjoy a number of complimentary rides as part suite and stateroom benefits.

The 3,850-guest Norwegian Joy will homeport in Shanghai and Tianjin, following an inaugural port tour leading up to a christening ceremony led by her Godfather and Chinese pop star Wang Leehom on June 27.

Already reeling under pressure post-demonetisation and the recent service tax hike, Indian travel agents are worried that the implementation of the Goods & Sales Tax (GST) from July 1 to replace all other taxes will cause further setbacks to the tourism and hospitality sectors.

The outbound tour and corporate hotel segments have already taken a beating from the recent service tax hike, lamented Rajat Bagaria, managing director, Shrishti Tours & Travels.

With effect since January 22, tour operators need to pay a service tax on 60 per cent of the total invoice value of a packaged tour, versus the earlier service tax levied on 30 per cent of the invoice value. This has doubled service tax on tour packages to nine per cent from 4.5 per cent.

Bagaria added: “A service tax of nine per cent is a very high charge on the client who has the option to book the hotel directly on the website. The government is indirectly putting pressure on the travellers to pay in cash directly at the hotel internationally, so we are facing the brunt of this increased tax.”

Concerned that tourism goods will be taxed the higher of the GST slabs (five, 12, 18 and 28 per cent) and result in costlier packages, tour operators argue that GST should be applied accordingly on invoice value.

With speculations that GST could be 18 per cent on the tourism industry, consultants are afraid that a higher GST will push travellers to bypass Indian outbound tour operators and book with OTAs or overseas agents and hotels.

“We have to compete with other countries. With a higher GST slab (it will be difficult to) see India among the top destinations in the global market,” said Ashwani Sharma, CEO, Sheraton Travels.

Sunbeam Tours & Travels’ director Bharat Shah commented: “One country, one market and one tax is the idea behind the GST. If the government is serious about promoting tourism, it needs to place the sector in the lowest tax bracket.”

As well, agents are adamant that outbound tours be exempt from GST as the services are utilised overseas.

Madhav Oza, director, Blue Star Air Travel Services, said: “We expect the GST to be five per cent for domestic and inbound tour operators. Outbound tour operators should be exempted from the service tax.”

Concurred Ashok Lalchandani, managing director, Ashok Travel World: “GST on tour operations should be imposed only on the Indian components.”

However, some consultants believe GST is a step in the right direction to simplify India’s taxation system. The tourism sector currently sees three taxes: VAT, luxury tax by the state governments and service tax by the central government.

“The value of VAT tax varies from 12 to 14.5 per cent depending on the state. The luxury tax varies from zero to 12 per cent depending on room type and state whereas the service varies according to the type of service provided,” said Hitank Shah, chapter chairman, Gujarat, Travel Agents Federation of India.

“When all these three taxes are combined, the taxes go up to 20-27 per cent. With the implementation of GST, the cascading taxes will combine and a single tax regime would reduce it to just 17-19 per cent. This will encourage travellers to visit India the low tax rate,” he opined.

Starting June 1, Taiwan’s (ROC) Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) will further relax visa rules for nationals from South and South-east Asia, under its New Southbound Policy, to attract more visitors for tourism and business.

Changes include the extension of a visa exemption trial programme for nationals of Thailand and Brunei to July 31, 2018. Since it was introduced on August 1, 2016, the numbers of visitors from Thailand and Brunei have increased 57.3 and 52 per cent respectively. And in the first two months of this year alone, the number of Thai visitors surged 91.8 per cent.

Jiufen, New Taipei

A visa exemption trial for Philippine nationals will also be introduced for a year.

In addition, the eligibility criteria for online visa applications will be eased for nationals from Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.

Those who have been issued with an ROC visa (labour visas excluded) over the last 10 years and who have no record of violating ROC law may apply for a multiple-entry visa using the Online Application for ROC (Taiwan) Travel Authorization Certificate run by the National Immigration Agency.

Citizens of Sri Lanka and Bhutan will also become eligible for tourist visas.

As well, businesspeople from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka can apply for an eVisa to Taiwan at the recommendation of local offices of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council.

The Macao Government Tourist Office (MGTO) last week rolled out a major consumer campaign at Pavilion Kuala Lumpur to bolster interest in the destination, as Malaysia has posted a continuous year-on-year decline in arrivals since 2011.

Malaysia is among the top 10 source markets for Macau. However, arrivals from Malaysia declined 2.7 per cent from 2015 to 222,809 last year, a big drop from the 338,058 visitors in 2010. Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, director of MGTO, said the decline was “partly related to economic reasons and we need to find new attractions and (tourism) products to attract repeat visitors.”

Campaign at Pavilion Kuala Lumpur

Tunku Iskandar Tunku Abdullah, MGTO representative in Malaysia, said Macau is now placing greater emphasis on Muslim-friendly tours as there are now seven halal-certified restaurants in the city.

To entice more potential visitors, the consumer exhibition broke away from traditional advertising and leveraged interactive technology like virtual reality and interactive light installations to allow visitors to “experience” Macau’s key festivals such as the Macao International Marathon and 64^th Macau Grand Prix.

Emily Tan, manager at Prestige Vacation Network, received good response at the consumer fair and sold more than 300 packages, including mono Macau tours as well as five-day combination group tours to Zhuhai. Zhongshan and Shunde.

Another outbound agent, Esther Leong, ticketing and operations personnel at MJT World Vacations, said the agency’s Parents Day package combining Macau and Zhuhai was also fully booked.