Oman Air will not be debuting Najaf flights in September

Oman Air will not be flying to Najaf in Iraq in mid-September, as earlier announced. The carrier no longer lists the city as a destination for flights booked on its website, but does have a statement on its Facebook page.

The statement reads: ".. to ensure safe flight operations, our planned service between Muscat and Najaf, Iraq will no longer be launched on 15th September."

All flights from the 15th of September to October 1 have been cancelled, the airline said, and another announcement would be made regarding a decision on flights after that.

Refunds are being offered at the point of purchase. On the website, those interested in Najaf  are redirected to call +968 2453 1111 or email webbooking at omanair.com.

Royal Jordanian, which announced flights to Najaf in 2015, does not list Najaf as a destination at the time of writing, though it allow online bookings to Mosul, Iraq.

Interested?

Browse the full list of Oman Air global contacts for Najaf

Read the Suroor Asia blog post about Royal Jordanian's Najaf flights and the WorkSmart Asia blog post about Oman Air's Najaf flights

Oman Air flies to Najaf, Iraq from mid-September 2016

Oman Air has announced further expansion to its global network with a new destination in Iraq. The flights will operate from Oman Air’s hub in Muscat to Najaf, in Iraq with four weekly flights from 15 September 2016. This is Oman Air’s first destination in Iraq.

Boeing 737-800 aircraft will depart Muscat International Airport at 2.30pm and arrive at Najaf International Airport at 4.35pm. Return flights will depart Najaf International Airport at 7.50pm and arrive in Muscat at 11.40pm (all times quoted are local).

The launch of the new route is in response to airline's significant customer demand and also demonstrates Oman Air’s commitment to continuing an ambitious network expansion programme, first unveiled in 2014. Following the launch of the new route, Oman Air’s network will include 51 destinations in 28 countries. It is anticipated that the network will include 75 destinations by 2020.

Oman Air’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Executive Vice President Commercial, Abdulrahman Al Busaidy said: “Oman Air is undertaking an ambitious growth programme to develop our network and ensure international connectivity. We are committed to ensuring that our customers have greater choice and the opportunity to discover new destinations with Oman Air. We are therefore delighted to be launching this exciting new services to Najaf. As our first destination in Iraq, Najaf offers excellent potential for travellers visiting friends and family, and for pilgrims.”

Interested?

Tickets for the new services are bookable online. Prices start from RO186 for a return economy seat to Najaf.

World Heritage Committee inscribes new world heritage sites

The Singapore Botanic Gardens entrance from Botanic Gardens MRT station.

The World Heritage Committee has inscribed the Singapore Botanic Gardens (SBG) as a UNESCO World Heritage Site at the 39th session of the World Heritage Committee (WHC) in Bonn, Germany. The committee noted that the site "demonstrates the evolution of a British tropical colonial botanic garden that has become a modern world-class scientific institution used for both conservation and education", and that it has been an important centre for science, research and plant conservation, notably in connection with the cultivation of rubber plantations, in Southeast Asia since 1875.

According to the SBG, the gardens is the first and only tropical botanic garden on the UNESCO’s World Heritage List. It is the first in Asia and the third botanic gardens inscribed in the world following Orto botanico di Padova in Italy and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the UK.

The inscription bid process started in 2010 following a feasibility study commissioned by the then-Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts, in consultation with experts, academics and other stakeholders. Singapore formally submitted the official Nomination Dossier for the bid in January 2014.

The World Heritage Committee also approved the inscription of the Diyarbakir Fortress and Hevsel Gardens Cultural Landscape in Turkey; China's Tusi Sites; Susa and the Cultural Landscape of Maymand, both in Iran; the Baekje Historic Areas in Korea; the Great Burkhan Khaldun Mountain and its surrounding sacred  landscape, in Mongolia; Bethany Beyond the Jordan; and the rock art in Hail in KSA.

Source: UNESCO World Heritage Committee nomination file. Diyarbakır Fortress and Hevsel Gardens Cultural Landscape, Hevsel Gardens and Kırklar Hill, copyright: © Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality - Site Management Unit, author: Zeynep Sıla Akıncı.

Turkey
The Diyarbakir Fortress and Hevsel Gardens Cultural Landscape are on an escarpment of the Upper Tigres River Basin. The fortified Turkish city of Diyarbakir and the landscape around has been an important centre since the Hellenistic period, through the Roman, Sassanid, Byzantine, Islamic and Ottoman times to the present. The site encompasses the Amida Mound, known as İçkale (inner castle), the 5.8km-long city walls of Diyarbakir with their numerous towers, gates, buttresses, and 63 inscriptions from different periods, as well as Hevsel Gardens, a green link between the city and the Tigris that supplied the city with food and water.

Source: The Zunyi Huichuan District Party Committee Publicity Department. Snow-Covered Feifeng Pass. 

China
Located in the mountainous areas of southwest China, Tusi (土司) sites encompass remains of several tribal domains whose chiefs were appointed by the central government as ‘Tusi’, hereditary rulers from the 13th to the early 20th century. The Tusi system made the autonomous rule by minorities a reality, and facilitated the development of ethnic diversity, strengthened national unity, ensured borderland security, and promoted the peaceful coexistence of the central government and local minority regimes.

The sites of Laosicheng (老司城) in Yongshun County, Hunan; Tangya (唐崖) in Xianfeng County, Hubei; and Hailongtun Fortress (海龙屯城堡) in Zunyi, Guizhou that make up the site bear testimony to this form of governance, which derived from the civilisation of the Yuan and Ming periods.

Hailongtun fortress was built in 1257 CE. The Tusi arrangement was a collaboration between the central government of the Song dynasty and the Yang family, which built and owned the fortress. The family governed the area for more than 700 years, spanning Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties, from Yang Rui from the Liao ethnic group in 876 during the Tang dynasty, to Yang Yinglong, the last Tusi of Bozhou (present day Zunyi) and the 29th governor of the Yang family, died in 1600.

Being listed on the World Heritage List will promote studies on the Tusi culture and the history of Bozhou, according to the Office of the Application to World Heritage for Hailongtun, Huichuan District, Zunyi in China. The organisation noted that with Guizhou province's first cultural heritage site, it plans to strengthen the preservation and excavation of historical relics within the territory, and apply for more world cultural heritage listings.

Iran
Susa in southwest Iran, in the lower Zagros Mountains, consists of a group of archaeological mounds on the eastern side of the Shavur River, as well as Ardeshir’s palace, on the opposite bank of the river. Susa contains several layers of superimposed urban settlements in a continuous succession from the late 5^th millennium BCE until the 13^th century CE*. The site bears exceptional testimony to the Elamite, Persian and Parthian cultural traditions, which have largely disappeared.

Maymand is a self-contained, semi-arid area at the end of a valley at the southern extremity of Iran’s central mountains. The villagers are semi-nomadic agro-pastoralists. They raise their animals on mountain pastures, living in temporary settlements in spring and autumn. During the winter months they live lower down the valley in cave dwellings carved out of the soft rock (kamar), an unusual form of housing in a dry, desert environment.  This cultural landscape is an example of a system that appears to have been more widespread in the past and involves the movement of people rather than animals.

Korea
The Baekje (백제) Historic Areas, in the mountainous midwestern region of the Republic of Korea, comprise eight archaeological sites dating from 475 to 660 AD, including the Gongsanseong fortress and royal tombs at Songsan-ri related to the capital, Ungjin (present day Gongju), the Busosanseong Fortress and Gwanbuk-ri administrative buildings, and the Naseong city wall related to the capital, Sabi (now Buyeo), the royal palace at Wanggung-ri and the Mireuksa Temple in Iksan related to the secondary Sabi capital.

Together, these sites represent the later period of the Baekje Kingdom – one of the three earliest kingdoms on the Korean peninsula (18 BCE to 660 CE) –during which time they were at the crossroads of considerable technological, religious (Buddhist), cultural and artistic exchanges between the ancient East Asian kingdoms in Korea, China and Japan.

Mongolia
The Great Burkhan Khaldun (Бурхан Халдун) Mountain and its surrounding sacred landscape is in northeast Mongolia in the central part of the Khentii mountain chain. Burkhan Khaldun is associated with mountain worship. The site is also believed to be the place of Genghis Khan’s birth and burial.

Jordan
The baptism site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan” (Al-Maghtas, المغطس) is on the east bank of the River Jordan, and consists of two distinct areas: Tell Al-Kharrar (تَل الخرّار), also known as Jabal Mar-Elias (Elijah’s Hill, جبل مار إلياس) and the area of the churches of Saint John the Baptist near the river. The site is believed to be the location where Jesus of Nazareth was baptised by John the Baptist. It features Roman and Byzantine remains.

KSA
Rock art in the Hail (حائل) region of Saudi Arabia includes both Jabel Umm Sinman at Jubbah (جبة) and the Jabal al-Manjor and Raat at Shuwaymis (ال شوويمس). The ancestors of today’s Arab populations have left traces of their passages in petroglyphs and inscriptions on the rock face, covering 10,000 years of history.

Vietnam
The Committee has additionally extended Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park (Kẻ Bàng) in Vietnam, a natural site inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2003. The extension ensures a more coherent ecosystem while providing additional protection to the catchment areas that are of vital importance for the integrity of limestone landscapes.

The site originally covered 85,754 hectares and now covers a total surface area of 126,236 hectares (a 46% increase). The Park’s landscape is formed by limestone plateaux and tropical forests. It features great geological diversity and offers spectacular phenomena, including a large number of caves and underground rivers.

Other developments during the World Heritage Committee discussions include inscribing a number of World Heritage sites  on the List of World Heritage in Danger due to damage inflicted to the property by armed groups. These include Hatra in Iraq and the Yemeni cities of Sana’a and Shibam.

Iraq
Hatra was a fortified city which grew under the influence of the Parthian Empire and was the capital of the first Arab kingdom. It withstood Roman invasions in 116 and 198 AD thanks to its walls, which are reinforced by towers.

World Heritage Committee members have declared their willingness to help Iraq as soon as the situation on the ground will allow them to do so. The Committee stressed that the danger listing of Hatra was a way to rally the support of the international community for the country’s heritage.

Two other Iraqi sites are also on the World Heritage List in Danger: Ashur (inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2003) and Samara Archaeological City (inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2007).

Yemen
The World Heritage Committee has voiced concerns about the damage to the old city of Sana’a (سناء) due to armed conflict in Yemen. Situated in a mountain valley at an altitude of 2,200 m, Sana’a has been inhabited for more than 2,500 years. Its religious and political heritage can be seen in 103 mosques, 14 hammams and over 6,000 houses, all built before the 11^th century. The neighbourhood of al Qasimi and the 12^th century al-Mahdi Mosque have been affected.


The Committee also noted that the Old Walled City of Shibam (شِبَام) in Yemen is under potential threat from the armed conflict, which compounds safeguarding and management problems already observed at the site. The Committee decided that adding it to the List of World Heritage in Danger could help reinforce international mobilisation for the safeguarding of the site.


Surrounded by a fortified wall, the 16th-century city of Shibam is one of the oldest and best examples of urban planning based on the principle of vertical construction. 

The 39^th session of the World Heritage Committee started on 28 June and will continue till 8 July under the chair of Maria Böhmer, Minister of State at the German Federal Foreign Office and member of the Bundestag. The inscription of sites will continue through 5 July.

*BCE stands for 'before common era', corresponding to BC, and CE for common era, corresponding to AD.

Cristal Group develops proprietary multilingual commission-free reservations tool

The Cristal Group will become the first hotel management company worldwide to develop its own zero commission based reservations tool that promises cheaper hotels.

A new multilingual website based on a proprietary booking engine will launch this month. According to Cristal's Chief Operating Officer Kamal Fakhoury, the new website will make it easier for customers to book Cristal Hotels, with extended language options that will include Arabic, and Chinese among other languages. 

“With hotels in Abu Dhabi, Iraq, Lebanon and more to come in Saudi Arabia, we are building an international client base and it is vital that we can communicate with potential customers in their language,” he said.

“Looking ahead, China and Russia have been identified as major growth markets for the future, with 140 million Chinese alone visiting overseas destinations in 2015 – while Germany remains a strong source market for destinations such as UAE.”

Further benefits of the new website will be competitive pricing, as the proprietary booking engine ensuring that hotels do not pay direct web booking commission and can pass this saving on to owners and customers. The new website will also feature a dedicated media, marketing and HR portal, he added.

“We will ensure we have international reach through partnering with global distribution experts, Travel click, but have determined the scope of the new brand website through intensive research that ultimately benefits both the client and the hotels.”

The Cristal Group was established in the UAE in 2007 followed by the British Virgin Islands in 2012 to deliver hospitality consultancy, technical services, asset management and brand management. Its vision is to be the premier business and leisure hotel operator in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. 

Parts of Middle East, Asia named as World Heritage Sites

The World Heritage Committee has approved a number of new World Heritage Sites with implications for tourism and conservation. On June 20, Palestine: Land of Olives and Vines - Cultural Landscape of Southern Jerusalem, Battir, an emergency nomination by Palestine, was inscribed on the World Heritage List and also on the List of World Heritage in Danger after finding that the landscape had become vulnerable to irreversible damage.

The area is located a few kilometres south-west of Jerusalem, in the Central Highlands between Nablus and Hebron. According to UNESCO, the Battir hill landscape comprises a series of farmed valleys, known as widian, with characteristic stone terraces, some of which are irrigated for market garden production, while others are dry and planted with grape vines and olive trees. The development of terrace farming in such a mountainous region is supported by a network of irrigation channels fed by underground sources. A traditional system of distribution is then used to share the water collected through this network between families from the nearby village of Battir. 

A separation wall is currently being built that may isolate farmers from fields they have cultivated for centuries.

Erbil Citadel in Iraq is now a World Heritage Site. The citadel, in the  Kurdistan region, Erbil Governorate, is a fortified settlement on the top of a tell (a hill created by many generations of people living and rebuilding on the same spot). The citadel features a peculiar fan-like pattern, dating back to Erbil’s late Ottoman phase. Erbil corresponds to ancient Arbela, an important Assyrian political and religious centre. 

Tomioka Silk Mill and Related Sites in Japan is an historic sericulture and silk mill complex  established in 1872  in the Gunma Prefecture  north west of Tokyo. Built by the Japanese Government with machinery imported from France, it consists of four sites that feature different stages in the production of raw silk:  production of cocoons in an experimental farm; a cold storage facility for silkworm eggs;  reeling of cocoons and spinning of raw silk in a mill; and a school for the dissemination of sericulture knowledge. It was a decisive element in the renewal of sericulture and the Japanese silk industry in the last quarter of the 19th century, helping the country become the world’s leading exporter of raw silk.

Historic Jeddah, the Gate to Makkah in Saudi Arabia was inscribed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO on June 21 in a meeting in Doha, Qatar. The city is on the eastern shore of the Red Sea. From the 7th century A.D. it was established as a major port for Indian Ocean trade routes, channeling goods to Mecca. It was also the gateway for Muslim pilgrims to Mecca who arrived by sea. 

These roles saw the city develop into a multicultural centre characterised by a distinctive architectural tradition, including tower houses built in the late 19th century by the city’s mercantile elites, and combining Red Sea coastal coral building traditions with influences and crafts from along the trade routes.

According to a FAQ on Unesco's website, the prestige received from the accolade often helps raise awareness among citizens and governments for heritage preservation, leading in turn to better protection and conservation. A country may also receive financial assistance and expert advice from the World Heritage Committee to support activities for the preservation of its sites. Sites can also be delisted.

The 38th session of the World Heritage Committee began on 15 June and will continue through to 25 June.