Leisure

There are many ways to get to know a city, but few are as informative or interesting as a guided tour with experts and insiders.

The Turkish international tourism business has suffered badly due to regional political developments. The unrest and civil war in neighboring countries including Iraq and Syria have had a spillover effect on Turkey, which as a tourist destination is no longer perceived to be as safe as it once was.

Bella Hadid invited the readers of W Magazine into her crib and took a bubble bath on camera. The hot 20-year-old model is trying to put her split up with The Weeknd behind her and is showing that she can have a good time. The famous beauty called the cameras to her apartment in New York and let the crew film her in the bath tub frolicking around with her rubber ducks.

Nothing’s better than a warm shower to start your morning or end the day (your life, you do you) but many times we find ourselves sitting cold in the bathroom while waiting for the water to heat up. Moen’s new smart shower system wants to fix this by adding the ability to remotely start the shower from a smartphone so you can pre-heat the water temperature.

As many as 8 million tourists will have officially visited Bulgaria at the end of January, counting from February, outgoing Tourism Minister Nikolina Angelkova has said.

Angelkova has told the Bulgarian National Television every month of 2016 was "unprecented" in the number of arrivals to the country.

The latest official figures for tourism in Greece last year point to a decline in revenues and per capita spending, despite the increase in the number of visitors in 2016.

The Turkish Chess Federation (TSF) stated on Jan. 3 that it has launched legal proceedings against a Turkish televangelist who recently claimed that playing chess is more sinful than gambling.

According to data released by the Bank of Greece, the balance of earnings in tourism was negative over the 10-month period until October, recording a 4.2% drop compared to 2015.

China has declared 2018 as its "Turkey Tourism Year," in a move expected to boost ties between the two countries, Chinese Ambassador to Ankara Yu Hongyang said on Dec. 16. 

Europe's top Turkish tour operator Bentour brought together the owners and staff of 400 tourism agencies from Switzerland, Germany and Austria at a three-day event in the southern tourism hub Antalya.

Considering the serious decline this year in the number of tourists visiting Turkey, it was a particularly important meeting, during which projections for 2017 were discussed.