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The year 2013 is on its way out but are we really planning a blast to ring in the New Year? The good news is – Indians are still undeterred by the falling <keyword id="6355302" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Rupee">rupee</keyword> and looking forward to outbound travel in the coming holidays, just like they did this summer. But the way they travel is definitely changing, according to a senior executive of a Delhi-based <keyword id="6607315" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="OTA">OTA</keyword>. Overseas travel no longer means the ritual rush through <keyword id="6357117" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="bangkok">Bangkok</keyword> or <keyword id="6356662" type="COUNTRY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Singapore">Singapore</keyword> – the global destinations closest to home and perhaps the least expensive. Of course, these places are not yet marked off the list, but the experienced and the well-heeled seem to have caught the travel bug of a different kind. 
 <keyword id="1960912" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Offbeat-destinations">Offbeat destinations</keyword> are getting increasingly popular among Indians, says Saurabh Srivastava, vice-president (marketing &amp; product strategy) at ixigo.com, a travel planning site and search engine that aggregates and curates travel information to help consumers. 
 “Of the 2.5 million visitors coming to our site month on month, we see some very clear and emerging trends. While the <keyword id="1960914" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Regular-overseas-travellers">regular overseas travellers</keyword> are increasingly looking at offbeat destinations to try out something different, first-timers or those who haven’t ventured outside the country too much, are still looking at <keyword id="1960915" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Popular-destinations">popular destinations</keyword> like Bangkok, Singapore, <keyword id="8695" type="COUNTRY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Malaysia">Malaysia</keyword> and <keyword id="6355478" type="COUNTRY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Australia">Australia</keyword> – the main attractions being <keyword id="6396451" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="beaches">beaches</keyword>, <keyword id="60543" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Water-sports">water sports</keyword> and <keyword id="6368952" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="shopping">shopping</keyword>,” he observes. 
 We have talked to a number of <keyword id="722880" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="travel-agencies">travel agencies</keyword> and rounded up 12 out-of-the-ordinary (but up and coming) places that people are closely following (and booking) these holidays. Here is a quick look at each of them with a glimpse of the local flavour and the basic cost per person on a twin-sharing basis. However, costs are only indicative and are bound to change, depending on your <keyword id="472754" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Tour-schedule">tour schedule</keyword>, quality of <keyword id="6358762" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Package">package</keyword>, customisation and service provider. Also, prices may fluctuate as dates get closer. 
 Try planning a holiday if you love these destinations too. Just remember, sometimes, the best travel happens farthest from <keyword id="823132" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="80" keywordseo="home-and-away">home and away</keyword> from your everyday ambience. Catch the sun on a <keyword id="1553372" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="foreign-soil">foreign soil</keyword> this New Year and bon voyage!

Want To Vacation Abroad? These 12 Places Are Creating The
Buzz These Holidays

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The Vatican will return three Parthenon fragments to the Greek Orthodox Church as a "donation."</li><li>The Vatican Museum has kept the fragments since 1803, when Greece says they were stolen.</li></ul>After more than 200 years, the Vatican has agreed to return fragments of marble that were stolen from the Parthenon back to the Greek Orthodox Church.The return of the fragments, which the Vatican is calling a "donation," is a major win in an ongoing campaign by Greece to regain artifacts taken from the Parthenon and kept in The Vatican and British museums.While Pope Francis initially considered a long-term loan of the fragments to Greece, he "decided to donate the works outright," Giandomenico Spinola, the head of the Vatican Museums' archaeology department <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/19/world/europe/vatican-parthenon-marbles-greece.html#:~:text=Two%20most%20likely%20arrived%20in,in%20the%20early%2019th%20century." target="_blank" rel="noopener">told The New York Times</a>, adding that — as a donation — the return should be seen outside of any debate on the restitution of additional marbles housed at the British Museum.<div type="image" title="The British Museum, London. Parthenon sculptures of Ancient Greece. These fragments are known as the Elgin Marbles. (Photo by In Pictures Ltd./Corbis via Getty Images)" height="2464" width="4928" msid="96388761" hostid="261" sizebytes="358218"></div>"The Holy Father Francis, as a concrete sign of his sincere desire to continue the ecumenical journey of witness of Truth, has decided to give to His Beatitude Hieronymos II, archbishop of Athens and all Greece, the three fragments of the Parthenon which for centuries have been carefully preserved in the Pontifical Collections and the Vatican Museums, and exhibited to millions of visitors from all over the world," read the entirety of a brief <a href="https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2022/12/16/221216e.html">statement</a> on the subject released by the Vatican on Friday.The Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports in a <a href="https://www.culture.gov.gr/el/Information/SitePages/view.aspx?nID=4440">statement</a> called the pope's decision "generous" and expressed hope the return of the fragments would put pressure on the British Museum to do the same.The Vatican and Church of Greece did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.<div type="image" title="Visitors looks at the Cariatyds of Erechtheion in Athens on April 6, 2022. - The new director of the Acropolis Museum has called for an end to the long-running dispute for the return of the Parthenon marbles to Greece, noting that London's parliament could rule on the issue. (Photo by Louisa GOULIAMAKI / AFP) (Photo by LOUISA GOULIAMAKI/AFP via Getty Images)" height="4017" width="5356" msid="96388763" hostid="261" sizebytes="2544438"></div>Greece has long sought the return of artifacts taken from the Parthenon, a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena located on the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-greece/acropolis">Athenian Acropolis</a>, an ancient citadel, now one of the most famous ancient archaeological sites in the world. Marble fragments were taken from the historical site by Lord Elgin, then British ambassador to the central government of the Ottoman Empire. Elgin sold the relics to the Vatican Museum in 1803 and additional fragments to the British Museum in 1816. "Our position is very clear," <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/nov/13/greek-prime-minister-tries-to-broker-deal-for-return-of-parthenon-marbles">The Guardian reported</a> Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Greek Prime Minister, said. "The marbles were stolen in the 19th century; they belong in the Acropolis Museum and we need to discuss this issue in earnest." The British Museum holds in its collection 15 metopes, 17 pedimental figures, and 75 meters of the original 160-meter-long frieze, a long, decorative, horizontal panel taken from the same structure as the fragments from the Vatican. While there are fragments in Paris, Copenhagen, Munich, Vienna, Palermo, and Würzburg — in addition to the Vatican and the British Museum — <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/about-us/british-museum-story/contested-objects-collection/parthenon-sculptures#:~:text=Where%20else%20can%20they%20be,Museum%20and%20half%20in%20Athens.">about half</a> of the surviving original sculptures are housed in the British Museum.British Museum officials have maintained the fragments were "removed from rubble" of the Parthenon, not removed from the temple's surface and were thus legally acquired, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/may/23/greece-rebuts-british-museum-claim-parthenon-marbles-were-removed-from-rubble">The Guardian reported</a>."Over the years, Greek authorities and the international scientific community have demonstrated with unshakeable arguments the true events surrounding the removal of the Parthenon sculptures," Greece's culture minister, Lina Mendoni, said in a statement to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/may/23/greece-rebuts-british-museum-claim-parthenon-marbles-were-removed-from-rubble">The Guardian</a>. "Lord Elgin used illicit and inequitable means to seize and export the Parthenon sculptures, without real legal permission to do so, in a blatant act of serial theft." The British Museum did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

The Vatican is returning Parthenon sculptures to the Greek Orthodox Church as a 'donation' more than 200 years after they were stolen from the country. But other European museums with pieces of the ancient temple continue to insist the artifacts were legally obtained.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Greece will limit how many tourists can visit the Acropolis each day.</li><li>The move is an effort to curb overtourism that has gripped Europe in recent months.</li></ul>Beginning this week, Greece will limit the number of tourists who can visit one of its most popular attractions each day.The Athens Acropolis archeological site will now cap daily visitors at 20,000. People hoping to visit the historical ruins will have to use a <a target="_blank" href="https://hhticket.gr/tap_b2c_new/english/tap.exe?PM=P1N">booking website</a> to snag a time slot in advance.Greece announced the step last month in an effort to curb overcrowding amid a post-pandemic travel surge that has <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/domestic-airlines-facing-headwinds-as-people-flock-to-europe-2023-8">gripped Europe this summer.</a> Popular tourist destinations have been grappling with the weight of overtourism in recent months. Cultural heritage spots and museums alike are making increasing efforts to try and preserve the sanctity of their sites.Greece's culture minister, Lina Mendoni, told a Greek radio station in August that the country would start limiting tourist numbers at the Acropolis to prevent damage to the site. Mendoni said the site was seeing as many as 23,000 visitors each day, most of whom come in the morning and create bottlenecks and "unpleasant conditions" for other visitors and staff, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cnn.com/travel/greece-limiting-visitors-acropolis-athens/index.html">CNN reported</a>.The citadel stands above the Greek capital city and is made up of several historic ruins and artifacts, the most famous of which is the Parthenon Temple, built for the goddess Athena.The new system is currently in its trial stages and set to be put into effect at the Acropolis and other Greek cultural sites in April 2024, according to CNN.Concerns of irreparable damage to centuries-old monuments are not entirely unwarranted as a jam-packed tourist summer in Europe draws to its ostensible close. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/italy-colosseum-keeps-getting-defaced-media-attention-isnt-helping-2023-7">Multiple tourists in Italy have been seen defacing the Colosseum</a>, an ancient monument that is thousands of years old.Italy's tourism minister deemed <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/tourists-out-of-control-this-summer-photos-show-2023-7">such naughty tourists</a> "vandals" after a woman climbed into the Trevi Fountain to fill up her water bottle.Similar preventative measures have been put in place at such popular tourist destinations as the Louvre in France; Angkor Wat in Cambodia; and in Amsterdam's Red Light District, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/04/world/europe/greece-acropolis-tourism-europe.html">The New York Times reported.</a>

Greece to cap Acropolis tourists at 20,000 a day amid increasing European overtourism 

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A Palestinian farmer in <keyword id="13767114" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="gaza" source="Orion">Gaza</keyword> discovered a 4,500-year-old stone statue of a Canaanite goddess.</li><li>The statue depicts the goddess Anat — the Canaanite deity of love and war.</li></ul>A Palestinian farmer discovered the head of a 4,500-year-old statue of the Canaanite goddess of love and war, according to reports.Nidal Abu Eid was ploughing his land in Khan Yonis, in the Gaza Strip, when he stumbled upon the ancient stone statue, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/gaza-canaanite-goddess-statue-scli-intl-scn/index.html#:~:text=Staff%20at%20the%20ministry%20concluded,before%20the%20advent%20of%20monotheism">CNN reported. </a>"We found it by chance," he told <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-61228553">BBC News.</a> "It was muddy and we washed it with water."At first, the farmer had hoped to sell it to make some money, he told The New Arab, per CNN. "But an archaeologist told me that it was of great archaeological value," he said.The farmer handed it over to the Hamas-run Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, per <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/gaza-strip-farmer-sculpture-ancient-goddess-war-canaanite-rcna26259">NBC News,</a> who have put it on display at the Al-Basha Palace Museum in Gaza City.The limestone statue is dated to 2,500 BC, the ministry noted, per <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/gaza-strip-farmer-sculpture-ancient-goddess-war-canaanite-rcna26259">NBC News. </a>It shows the head of the Canaanite goddess Anat who, according to Canaanite mythology, was the deity of love and war. She was famous for her youthful looks and ferocity in battle.The statue shows Anat's head encircled by a snake crown. Historians believe Anat influenced the character of the Greek goddess Athena, who was also regularly portrayed with snakes surrounding her.<div type="image" title="The front and side of the 4,500-year-old statue of Canaanite goddess Anat." height="1000" width="1333" msid="91212790" hostid="261"></div>"This statue documents the history of the Palestinian people on this land and that its origins are Canaanite," Abu Eid said, per NBC News.The <keyword id="13767113" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="canaan" source="Orion">Canaan</keyword>ites were an ancient group of pagan people who lived in the land of Canaan, an area that may have included parts of modern-day Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. Canaan is mentioned frequently in the Old Testament.The Canaanites were polytheistic people who worshipped local deities, several of which were co-opted by subsequent civilizations. In 2020, <a href="https://www.livescience.com/canaanite-temple-in-buried-city-israel.html">archeologists unearthed an ancient Canaanite temple</a> in southern Israel and an idol of the Canaanite god Baal.

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Sanghamitra Mandal

The Vatican is returning Parthenon sculptures to the Greek Orthodox Church as a 'donation' more than 200 years after they were stolen from the country. But other European museums with pieces of the ancient temple continue to insist the artifacts were legally obtained.

Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert

Greece to cap Acropolis tourists at 20,000 a day amid increasing European overtourism

Erin Snodgrass

Palestinian farmer discovers 4,500-year-old stone statue of Canaanite goddess of love and war, reports say

Joshua Zitser

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