TopNews Travel

Greek coastguard officials rescued 17 illegal immigrants after the boat in which they were travelling capsized off the coast of the eastern Aegean island of Samos Monday.

The immigrants, all males, told officials they had departed from the eastern shores of Turkey before their inflatable boat capsized, throwing them into the rough waters of the Aegean.

Overall, officials said more than 100 illegal immigrants, among them 25 children, were also caught sneaking into the country after arriving on the islands of Lesvos and Samos.

Melbourne, Sept 7 : The Northern Territory is set to follow in the footsteps of Tourism Queensland to tap Chinese market, and promote Top End as a holiday destination.

The Top End is less frequently visited, and less well-known place overseas.

Two Chinese women have been chosen to travel across the Top End, while their adventures will feature on China''s largest TV station with around 520 million viewers - as well as online.

The Chinese film crew will follow the adventures of Shu Yan and ski instructor Bei Liu over the next fortnight.

New York - New York set a new city record by bringing in more than 47,000 million tourists during 2008, as the economic crisis did not dampen people's desire to visit the "Big Apple."

The number of tourists in 2008 topped by more than one million the number who visited the finance and cultural powerhouse last year, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

The city attributed the increase to foreign visitors. The tourists spent a combined 30 billion dollars in New York in 2008, the city said. (dpa)

Taipei - Taiwan welcomed only 3.2 million foreign visitors in the first 10 months of this year, make it hard for Taipei to reach its goal of receiving 4 million foreign visitors in 2008, official figures showed Friday.

According to the Tourism Bureau's newsletter, Taiwan received 327,038 foreign visitors in October, up 4 per cent from September.

For the January-October period, the island received 3.16 million foreign visitors, up 4.98 per cent year-on-year. Two-thirds of the guests were tourists and one-third were business travellers.

Sydney - Sydney had the Olympics, Melbourne has the Australian Open tennis but come January the nation's sporting capital will be Adelaide with its Tour Down Under cycle race.

News that seven-times Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong will be on the starting line for his comeback race has generated enormous interest in the cycling fraternity.

The US rider hung up his helmet three years ago but has signed with the Astana team for another crack at road racing's blue-riband event.

Stuttgart, Germany - The German religious study-tour operator Biblische Reisen has broadened its selection of trips to Israel in the company's 2009 travel brochure.

Interest in travelling to Israel has increased noticeably according to the Stuttgart-based operator's director, Georg Roewekamp.

"We've had 90 inquiries instead of the usual 30 and three groups are taking part in a tour at the same time," says Roewekamp.

Roewekamp believes security concerns prevented many people from making the decision to visit the Holy Land in the past but the mood has changed.

Las Vegas - A bell rings and the reels with dollar signs start spinning. A man with a chequered shirt puffs nervously on his cigarette as he stares intently at the one-armed bandit in front of him.

Young girls wearing gowns with spaghetti straps are screaming with delight - one of them has just won at the roulette table. From loudspeakers on the ceiling the voice of Tom Jones singing "Sex Bomb" reverberates through the hall.

Scenes like these are commonplace in Las Vegas. In this metropolis in the US state of Nevada the bright lights, entertainment and gambling are ever-present.

Noumea, New Caledonia - The sun is shining through coconut palms and the air is warm and moist. Poinsettias, about three metres high, bloom at roadside among wild roses and hibiscus. A rental car is headed toward the beach, its driver looking forward to white sand and turquoise sea.

Thud.

The car has hit a pothole the size of a baby's bathtub. Nothing is perfect, not even the Isle of Pines, a small island that is part of New Caledonia, a French overseas territory in the South Pacific.

Frankfurt/Main - Spending a night in a castle may sound like a fairy tale to many people, but anybody can. If a wedding is coming up, or Dad is turning 60, you can party like nobility in a castle's banquet hall. Would-be lords and ladies should know a few things before planning such celebrations, though.

While famous castles and palaces are normally open for tours only, smaller, less renowned ones can often be rented for private functions.

Hong Kong - Hong Kong saw a year-on-year fall in tourist arrivals in October as the global economic downturn began to bite, according to a report Saturday.

The number of visitors to the city of 6.9 million in October dropped 1.6 per cent compared to the same month last year, the South China Morning Post reported.

Hong Kong has had 24.3 million visitors in the first 10 months of 2008, 6 per cent more than for the same period in 2007, but 2 percentage points short of its target.