Travel News

RUSSELS, June 26 (Reuters) - The European Commission said on Wednesday that none of the six European Union countries that do not yet use the euro currency meet the criteria to become member of the euro zone, although Bulgaria was the closest.

Out of the 27 countries that form the EU, Sweden, Poland, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary still use their own currencies rather than the euro, but they are legally obliged to adopt the single currency eventually.

Denmark also still uses its own currency, but it has a legal exemption from adopting the euro.
"None of these Member States currently meets all of the criteria for joining the euro area. Bulgaria is the only country that fulfils all but one criterion and where national legislation can be considered to be compatible with the rules of the Economic and Monetary Union," the Commission said.

To start using the euro, each of the six countries has to meet criteria of low inflation and borrowing costs, public debt and deficit in line with EU laws and a stable exchange rate.

They also have to have their central bank law compatible with EU law on the European Central Bank to protect central bank independence, prohibit monetary financing and the integrate the national central bank in the European System of Central Banks.

• France has run high deficits for much of past 25 years
• EU seen taking tougher stance with far-right government
• France seen moderating spending plans in EU talks

FRANKFURT/PARIS, June 26 (Reuters) - "Because it's France" was how Jean-Claude Juncker, European Commission president at the time, explained Brussels' decision in 2016 to give leeway to the large, founder member of the European Union on the bloc's budget rules.
That patience continued even as the EU endured a sovereign debt crisis that almost sunk the euro and forced smaller, more indebted nations such as Greece and Portugal to adopt swingeing austerity measures.

But any indulgence for French exceptionalism may come to an end if France's snap election produces a eurosceptic, far-right government in Paris that could strain ties with other European capitals and test the very foundations of the euro project.
Marine Le Pen's National Rally (RN) insists it would not blow up the French budget. But questions persist about how it would fund costly spending plans within the eurozone's newly minted budget rules and whether the European Central Bank could step in to help if financial markets turn on France.

Observers point to cautionary tales ranging from Greece, where a leftwing government was brought to its knees by financial and political pressure, to Britain, where Prime Minister Liz Truss was forced to resign after unveiling a budget that unnerved investors.

Most analysts emphasise the ECB has the tools to stem contagion from a French crisis by buying bonds of other countries that do respect the EU's fiscal framework, meaning Paris might find itself isolated at times of need.
"There is, of course, a possibility that Frankfurt would intervene if the problems with France were to have some kind of external negative effects on other countries, like Italy," former ECB policymaker Ewald Nowotny said.
An EU official cited Rome as a model for Paris after Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni toned down her anti-EU rhetoric once elected in 2022.

This, along with her support for the EU's stance on conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, has helped Italy keep the Commission and financial markets on-side despite repeatedly raising its deficit forecasts.
Jeromin Zettelmeyer, director of the Bruegel economics think tank in Brussels, said RN's rhetoric thus far did not suggest it was seeking a major confrontation with the Commission that could trigger a financial crisis.

However he said that if its officials ended up running key ministries, they could hamper EU moves to reform energy markets, advance the green transition and boost the bloc's competitiveness by reforming its capital markets.
"If the far-right gets elected that is bad news for EU integration because they would control the government positions involved in most dimensions of EU policy-making,' he said.
"The question is whether that is reversible or existential."

By Jennifer Elias, CNBC

Waymo robotaxis are now open to all users in San Francisco, expanding the self-driving ride-hailing service, which has been available in the city to a limited number of riders.

In a blog post on Tuesday, Waymo said nearly 300,000 people have signed up for the service, called Waymo One, since the Alphabet-owned company opened its waitlist. The company began commercial passenger operations in August after a period of testing.

“We’re committed to growing our service gradually and responsibly,” Waymo said in the post. “We work closely with city and state officials, first responders, and advocates for road safety to ensure our service helps local communities gain access to reliable, safe, environmentally friendly transportation and has a positive impact on mobility.”

It is the second citywide rollout for Waymo, following Phoenix in 2020. Waymo One also operates in limited capacity in Los Angeles and Austin, Texas. As of February, the company had approximately 700 vehicles in the Waymo One fleet, including about 300 cars as part of its San Francisco service.

Driverless vehicles have faced some public backlash in recent months following collisions and other accidents. In October, General Motors’ Cruise autonomous vehicle unit paused all driverless operations after collisions led to investigations and a suspension of its licenses in California.

However, Waymo has experienced less controversy. The company has a large public affairs operation and communicates closely with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and local first responders.

In total, the 15-year-old project, which became Waymo in 2016, has driven about 20 million fully autonomous miles and nearly two million paid ride-hail trips, Waymo said. The company said it has logged 3.8 million rider-only miles in San Francisco as of the end of March. 

BY  Yian Lee, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) -- Taiwan has hiked its travel warning for China to the second-highest level, as tensions between the two sides ramp up under the island’s new president.

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, which oversees the island’s relations with Beijing, said residents of the self-ruled democracy should avoid all non-essential trips to China, Hong Kong, and Macau, in a statement published on its website Thursday. 

The alert was raised to red during the pandemic, and downgraded to yellow after Covid controls in the world’s No. 2 economy were lifted. Authorities cited risks posed by China’s anti-espionage legislation, as well as the security law Beijing imposed on Hong Kong in 2020, as reasons for not lowering it further.  

The latest decision comes days after China published a legal document fleshing out laws aimed at punishing supporters of independence for Taiwan, who can face the death penalty. Beijing considers Taiwan a breakaway province that President Xi Jinping has vowed to unify with someday, by force if necessary.

China has blasted the island’s new president, Lai Ching-te, as a “Taiwan independence worker,” saying his inaugural address last month — during which he said the two sides are not subordinate to each other — sent a “dangerous signal.” 

BY  Julie Johnsson, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) -- Boeing Co. has been cleared to resume delivering wide-body jets to carriers in China after the nation’s air safety regulator completed its technical review of a key cockpit component, according to people briefed on the matter.

The US planemaker is poised to begin handovers of its 787 Dreamliner passenger jets and 777 cargo aircraft, the people said, asking not to be identified because the discussions are confidential. Boeing isn’t yet approved to send its 737 Max jets to China, although that clearance is expected within a matter of weeks, the people said, confirming an earlier report by Reuters.

A Boeing spokeswoman declined to comment. The Civil Aviation Administration of China didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The CAAC halted deliveries of Boeing’s commercial jets in May as Chinese officials studied the architecture of recently mandated 25-hour cockpit voice recorders. They’re powered by lithium-ion batteries and there was some thought that may pose a safety risk. China’s air regulator counterparts in the US and the European Union had already reviewed the design and deemed it safe.

The delivery pause contributed to Boeing’s financial difficulties at a time when the planemaker had already slowed production to retrain workers and combat snarls in its global supplier network amid intense regulatory scrutiny. 

Boeing’s Chief Financial Officer Brian West, when he cautioned late last month that second-quarter cash outflows would exceed the $3.9 billion burned through during the first quarter, cited the May delivery halt as one reason.

On Wednesday at Boeing’s behemoth plant north of Seattle, preparations were underway for an Air China Ltd. 777 freighter to take off on a customer check flight that would be customary prior to delivery. 

Another person familiar with the matter said that Juneyao Airlines Co. is among the Chinese airlines poised to take 787 Dreamliner deliveries in coming months.

--With assistance from Danny Lee and Tian Ying.

Ethiopia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have stripped Nigerian passport holders of previous privileges they enjoyed, including visa-on-arrival, e-visa and outright passport issues.

Turkey no longer allows Nigerian passport holders to obtain its e-visa, which used to be a seamless process enjoyed by citizens in the past.

In 2022, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) banned nationals of Nigeria and a few other African countries from entering its capital city, Dubai. Despite several interventions of the Nigerian government, the visa ban is yet to be lifted.

Though Festus Keyamo, aviation minister, said the UAE will lift its ban on Nigerians in October, nobody knows whether this will come to fruition.

Similarly, Ethiopia stopped issuing visa-on-arrival to Nigerians two years ago and has refused to reverse it till date.

Airlines have, since 2022, issued circulars to passengers advising that they obtain their visas at the Ethiopian embassy in Abuja before travelling.

Bolanle Olukanni, daughter of Ambassador Ayoola Olukanni, former Nigerian Commissioner to Australia between 2011 and 2015, recently lamented that her parents were denied visas because of the fear they would not return.

Read also: Nigerians in Germany frustrated over passport renewal delays

Olukanni, who shared her frustration with having a Nigerian passport via her X handle on Monday, said her father, who was a retired ambassador and lived in Austria for three years, was denied a visa alongside his mum over fear of absconding.

She wrote, “I just want you guys to know that the Nigeria passport has really been bastardized. My father is a retired Ambassador who lived and served in Austria for three years.

“He applied for a Schengen visa alongside my mum, and the Austrian embassy denied their visas.”

She also lamented that 30 years of her father’s service to the country as a foreign service officer was disrespected.

“Do you realise the lack of diplomacy and courtesy and disregard for a country you have to deny a former foreign service officer a visa? A Foreign Service officer who served for 30 years and has been to over 30 countries.”

Applications for visas to South Africa have since reduced as Nigerians continue to experience delays and denials to Africa’s strongest economy.

Read also: Explainer: All you need to know about Nigeria’s visa-on-arrival process

The number of study visas issued to Nigerians last year dropped for the first time in three years, data compiled by BusinessDay from the US Department of State shows.

According to South Africa’s visa office, the department issued a total of 7,466 nonimmigrant (F-1) visas, down from 7,547 in 2022.

Oritseweyinmi Oritsejafor, a client advisor at Henley & Partners, one of the global leaders in residence and citizenship planning, in a recent interview with BusinessDay, said despite being one of Africa’s economic powerhouses and the continent’s third-wealthiest country as revealed by the Africa Wealth Report 2024, Nigeria provides a clear example of the hindered mobility spectrum of African citizens.

Oritsejafor stated that with the country’s passport granting access to just 45 destinations visa-free, Nigerian passport holders can only travel visa-free to a fraction of global GDP — just 1.5 percent.

She stated that what this means is that among the 8,200 millionaires who reside in the country, those who only have Nigerian passports are forced to navigate cumbersome foreign policy hurdles to tap into the remaining 98.5 percent of the world’s economic prowess, highlighting the necessity for bolstered passport power.

“The Henley Opportunity Index evaluates 15 investment migration countries across six parameters, including quality of education, earning potential, career advancement, employment prospects, economic mobility, and high livability, providing a benchmark for investors to compare and identify locations that offer the best ecosystems for future generations to maximize their career prospects and prosperity.

“Using the same methodology and data sources in the Africa Wealth Report 2024, we quantified opportunity in Africa’s wealthiest countries by assessing and scoring them to illustrate how families from these nations can improve their life chances and future-proof the next generation through investment migration,” she said.

She further explained that Nigeria has one of the lowest opportunity scores of the African countries her firm assessed — just 14 percent — compared to, for example, Malta which scores 55 percent, Spain with 63 percent, the USA with 81 percent, or Switzerland with 88 percent.

Read also: FG says UAE visa has been resolved, announcement is soon

Nigeria took bottom spot as country with one of 20 worst passports to hold in 2023 with visa-free access to only 46 countries.

This is contained in recently released third quarter Henley Passport Index, which is an authoritative ranking of all the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa.

The index is based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) – the largest, most accurate travel information database – and enhanced by Henley & Partners’ research team.

After Nigeria, other countries with worse passports include: South Sudan, with 46 visa free access to countries; Congo, 45 countries; Eritrea, 44 countries; Iran, 44 countries; Sudan, 44 countries; Lebanon, 43 countries; Kosovo, 42 countries; Libya, 41 countries, Sri Lanka ,41 countries, among others.

Singapore now has the world’s most powerful passport. The Lion City beat Japan whose passport had been the most powerful for over five years

Bankole Bernard, group managing director (GMD) of Finchglow Holdings, a Nigeria-based global travel management company, told BusinessDay that he used to think the foreign nations did not like Nigeria, which was why they refused citizens visas, but this was not true.

“Developed countries are very particular about documentations. Some agencies that help applicants with the documentations are not knowledgeable enough to do the documentations right,” Bernard said.

Susan Akporaiye, former president National Association of Nigerian Travel Agencies (NANTA), told BusinessDay that despite the weakness of Nigerian passports, there are still individuals thriving and doing exploits in other countries.

“The foreign affairs need to do more engagements to reduce denials. To relocate to another country, a lot of Nigerians do not like to follow the right processes. The problem in Nigeria is that everybody just wants to leave and many do not have genuine reasons,” the former NANTA president said.

Proliferation of airport projects is at odds with concentration of air passenger traffic

BY  Eromo Egbejule in Abidjan

BY Sarah Rappaport, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) -- London has long boasted scores of world-class hotels, but some recent openings have taken its luxury scene to the next level. The city has seen about £4 billion ($5.1 billion) in investment toward the construction and renovation of high-end hotels in recent years, much of it bearing fruit now. And these projects spare little expense: They’ve lured the world’s top chefs and become hubs for wellness innovation.

But the expense is passed on to guests, with £1,000 nightly rates suddenly feeling like a deal at many top-tier properties.No two openings exemplify that more than the Emory in Knightsbridge—a sibling to Claridge’s and the Connaught as part of the Maybourne hotel group—and the Mandarin Mayfair. Both have highly exclusive locations, celebrity chefs making their London debuts, scene-y bars, lavish spa spaces and boundary-pushing nightly rates: They start at £1,000 at the Mandarin and £1,600 at the Emory.

How do the two buzziest new hotels in London compare? We stayed in both to find out. 

Design

The Emory:   This intimate, 61-suite hotel feels like your own private retreat across from Hyde Park. The glass-box entrance on a small side street is so discreet, personal attendants wait outside to greet guests by name at check-in. They’ll whisk you up the elevators and down a plush hallway to your suite—there’s no main lobby. You’ll see the work of various A-list designers on every floor: Andre Fu did floors seven and eight, and Pierre-Yves Rochon took floors one and two. My fifth-floor balcony suite was done up in a curvilinear style  by Alexandra Champalimaud, who’s also done work for the Raffles Singapore and Badrutt’s Palace, in St. Moritz, Switzerland. At a massive 1,130 square feet, the suite dwarfed my two-bedroom London apartment, with a walk-in closet and floor-to-ceiling windows. I took a Zoom meeting from the six-seater dining table, with the breeze flowing in through the open balcony doors and Hyde Park as my background—it made me feel like a member of the Roy family on Succession. 

Mandarin Mayfair:  The red-brick exterior of the Mandarin seems like it could have always been a part of historic Hanover Square—a fashionable address since Georgian times. But inside, the new building is decidedly modern. A show-stopping green Ming marble spiral staircase leads down from the lobby to the airy restaurant and breakfast area. The rooms feature hand-painted silk wallpaper with flowering magnolias, each blue petal painted outward in accordance with the feng shui tradition. In mine, gilded masklike light fixtures adorned the walls next to the small sofa, with bountiful pops of brass, blues and golds all around. It’s a delightful break from a world where most hotel rooms come in varying shades of beige. 

Staying the Night

The Emory:   The hotel makes travel feel effortless, from the complimentary BMW airport transfer; to the timely WhatsApp messages from my Emory assistant (butler), who can secure hard-to-get dinner reservations; to the wireless device chargers on the nightstand. Another welcome amenity—a chocolate hazelnut cake with a British flag on it—came with a note congratulating me on my new British citizenship  (I had posted about it on my public Instagram account), one of many delightful personalized details. Chilled bottles of rosé, unfiltered lagers, chips, chocolates and even easy-to-forget items like iPhone chargers fill a gratis minibar that feels like a kitchen pantry. I loved the heated floors and Toto toilets in the bathrooms, and was excited to find three kits of Dyson hair-styling tools—including the Airwrap, which is like a fancy curling iron that retails for £500. But all of that pales in comparison to the super-king-size bed. It was so comfortable, it felt almost criminal to get up before 7 a.m. for a workout class in the hotel, though it was a joy, when I pressed the button by the headboard to open the blinds, to bask in the golden glow of morning over the park.

Mandarin Mayfair: A sleek escape from one of London’s busiest neighborhoods, the hotel has just 50 rooms. I loved the silk kimonos in the bathroom, and flipping through hardback copies of Bronte novels at the in-room desk (they still exist!) while winding down from sake cocktails after dinner. The minibar, also free here, thoughtfully filled with locally produced small-batch sodas, beers, ciders and kombuchas, is restocked at least twice a day. The astute staff greeted me by name at the elevator banks and the restaurant. Entry-level rooms aren’t huge, at 355 square feet, but they’re smartly designed with little sofas, circular tables and striking bathrooms with marble double vanities. My only gripe: The windows in my fourth-floor room looked right into an open-plan office building, giving me close-up views of desktop work stations. Sometimes that’s the cost of being in the middle of everything. 

Food + Drink

The Emory:  Jean-Georges Vongerichten runs two restaurants at the Connaught, so it’s no surprise to see him open his first London outpost of New York’s ABC Kitchens here. The plant-forward menu imports some of the top chef’s most beloved dishes, including black-truffle pizza and arroz con pollo with crackling skin—plus ABC’s famous green-pea guacamole, which smartly dressed couples and groups of friends are apt to share while enjoying fresh ginger margaritas. Only guests, however, can enjoy the cocktail bar on the tenth floor, which overlooks all of London’s main landmarks. It has the vibe of a private members club, with midcentury leather seats, soft carpeting and servers pouring Laurent Perrier. Don’t ask for a menu—there isn’t one. Instead, the creative bartenders will invent custom concoctions according to your personal preferences. Whatever you do, order a plate of the donuts topped with Exmoor caviar. There’s also a cigar lounge, separated from the main space and well ventilated so no smoke creeps in. 

Mandarin Mayfair: There’s another first here: the UK debut of celebrated Korean chef Akira Back, of the Michelin-starred Dosa in Seoul. At the restaurant named for the chef, his signature bite-size wagyu tacos were a treat going down, as was the kimchi fried rice and the umami-packed miso black cod. The restaurant is striking, with abstract artwork by the chef’s mother meant to represent the elements. The cocktail bar across the hall, ABar Lounge, has bartenders dressed in silk jackets with dragon prints and waitresses in full-length dresses, lending a sense of glamour that’s become a rarity in London these days.  The cocktail I ordered, a Hatsushi Sunrise (tequila, blood orange soda and kumquat liqueur) was just tart enough to cut through the warmth of an early summer night. On the weekends, the dimly lit bar is open until at least 2:30 a.m., making it an intimate option for couples enjoying post-dinner drinks in central London. A rooftop bar is set to open by the end of the year, with more details set to come. 

Spas

The Emory:   Being a hotel guest grants access to Surrenne, the £10,000-a-year wellness club housed in the building’s lower levels. Spanning four floors, it features a pool with calming music piped underwater (though the water is slightly chilly), a snow shower and an herbal-infused steam room. Surrenne is also home to London’s first Tracy Anderson studio, which of course I had to try. For my workout class, I grabbed dumbbells and ankle weights and followed LA-based trainer Kristin Elliott—svelte and smiley—through dance-heavy choreography that had my arms and legs shaking within 10 minutes. I was sore for days, but jumping on the springy floors to Taylor Swift’s Fortnight was tons of fun. The patterned pink and orange robes at the spa—available to take home for £350—are some of the most flattering and stylish I’ve seen anywhere, designed by British fashion maven Alice Temperley. In a smart tech touch, my room key doubled as a lock for my spa locker. After an Oxygeneo facial, which was mildly painful and involved a radio frequency device scraping dead skin off my forehead and cheeks, my skin looked so glowy that the friend I met for dinner asked me if I’d had something done. 

Mandarin Mayfair:  Mandarin Oriental takes its spas seriously, and the Mayfair is no exception. The 25-meter-long pool—one of the longest hotel pools in town—is decorated with starry light fixtures on black walls, making you feel like you’re floating in an intergalactic star cruiser. The reception is decorated with more of that jade-green Ming marble, and the treatment rooms, with their soft colors, are suitably serene. The whole experience is like being on a faraway planet rather than in central London; with the small room count, it’s not uncommon to get the whole space to yourself. Signature treatments such as the Digital Wellness Escape are geared toward stressed-out urbanites, like a massage that focuses on the head, neck, shoulders and hands, to ease the strain of being constantly glued to your phone. Nonguests are allowed to book treatments over 90 minutes, making it an ideal spot for a birthday or anniversary treat.

The Bottom Line

The Emory:   This is the fourth London hotel for the beloved Maybourne Group, and it’s as if the hoteliers took their 200-plus years of running the best luxury properties in the world and decided to see how aggressively they could one-up themselves. From the guest-only stunner of a rooftop bar to the members-club wellness space down below, every aspect of a stay here feels exclusive and calming—a utopian ideal of the urban oasis. The crowd at ABC Kitchens was lively and full of locals, and it will surely rank among London’s top restaurant openings this year. While the entry-level rooms are the most expensive in London, the rates include round-trip private airport transfers (easily $300 per-way at other top hotels), as well as that generous minibar and a lavish in-room English breakfast. Which is to say: There’s a real commitment here to offering value for all that money. With layouts starting at 592 square feet, the suites are large enough for families that might book two rooms elsewhere—or anyone looking to live like a billionaire for a weekend.  

Mandarin Mayfair:  A representative for the hotel described it as the “cooler, younger” version of the Mandarin Oriental’s grande dame in Knightsbridge, and that feels right on the mark. Akira Back’s inventive restaurant, with its swanky cocktail lounge, is now one of the most impressive places to go on a date in Mayfair. The hotel also makes an ideal base for first-time visitors to London, as it’s within walking distance of all the boutiques of Bond Street, the British Museum and many of the main touristy sites in the West End. It’s a welcome addition to the beloved neighborhood’s already world-class hospitality scene, and I’d happily go back for another dreamy swim under the glow of the spa pool’s twinkly lights. 

YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — 

Nigeria and Cameroon said Thursday they would no longer seek a court ruling to settle their disputed border.

Rather, the two nations said, joint delegations will validate a demarcation plan on site and put an end to long-standing territorial disputes.

The nations share about 2,100 kilometers (1,300 miles) of border, from Lake Chad in the north of the Gulf of Guinea to the Atlantic Ocean coast.

Leonardo Santos Simao, chairperson of the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission set up by the United Nations to solve the countries’ territorial disputes, said he is delighted the two countries decided to resolve their disputes without long and expensive processes at the International Court of Justice.

The agreement to peacefully resolve border disputes before the end of 2025 was made at a meeting of the Mixed Commission on Wednesday and Thursday in Yaounde. Simao called it a milestone.

The two countries agreed to visit disputed territories in Rumsiki and Tourou in northern Cameroon and Koche in eastern Nigeria before the end of 2024.

Nigerian Justice Minister Lateef Olasunkanmi Fagbemi, who is the leader of the West African state's delegation to the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission, confirmed that the countries have agreed to complete the project within 12 months.

"It's a consensus between Cameroon and Nigeria. By the end of 2025, this project should be concluded,” he said. “We have so admirably and maturely handled the situation in such a way that there is hardly any dissent. We are satisfied with the outcome of the two-day meeting, and we are hopeful that there is light at the end of the tunnel."

Cameroon and Nigeria say the border demarcation was slowed by Boko Haram terrorism in both countries. They say that the Boko Haram group’s firepower is drastically reduced now and that the demarcation can continue.

The two states say they will move past existing differences over the precise location of the border in about 30 villages.

The Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission was established in 2002 at the request of President Paul Biya of Cameroon and the then-Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo to facilitate the implementation of an October 10, 2002, International Court of Justice ruling that ceded Bakassi, an oil-rich border peninsula, to Cameroon.

Nigeria initially rejected the verdict, with its senate arguing that the ruling, based on a colonial era agreement, was unfair and should be appealed. But Nigerian officials said the verdict should be respected.

Many countries are consciously positioning themselves to capture the attention of aspiring international students across the globe to maximise the inherent foreign exchange benefits.

In a recent research finding, Singapore tops the list of countries with the happiest international student population with an impressive 53.3 percent, a recent Cryptorush 2024 study reveals.

According to findings analysed by Cryptorush, 50 countries including Singapore, Canada, Netherlands, France, China, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Hungary, Australia, and Denmark lead the pack when it comes to attractiveness to international students.

Factors considered include the percentage of international students, monthly living costs, safety, and human development indices.

Singapore with 53.3 percent of international students, a $2, 740 monthly living cost, 0.949 human development index value, and 76.5 safety index is placed above others.

The country ensures a secure and welcoming setting for overseas students, and it is known for its top-notch education system and the highest safety index of 76.

Singapore offers a smooth transition for these students with various on-campus accommodations, simplifying the challenges of living abroad.

Canada comes second with 36.7 percent of students coming from abroad. With 388 universities, a monthly living cost of $450-$2000, a 0.935 human development index value, and a 54.8 safety index, Canada is a preferred destination for international scholars.

Most universities and colleges have housing facilities available right on the campus grounds, offering a practical solution that significantly cuts transportation costs.

The Netherlands is placed third with 36.0 percent of its students being international and stands out in Europe. The monthly living cost is at $1800 – $3300.

Known for its open and tolerant society, it combines a safety index of 73.7 and the second-highest HDI of 0.946. With 128 universities, the country is a hub for students seeking high-quality education in a safe and progressive environment.

France comes in fourth with 27.0 percent international students. It hosts 636 universities and offers the lowest tuition fee costs for international students in Europe at about $3000, being highly appealing to students from across the globe.

China, hosting 25.0 percent international students is the fifth, and features the largest number of universities at 2,585. With the second-highest HDI of 0.956 and the second-highest safety index of 75.1, China is becoming an increasingly popular destination for international students.

Switzerland holds the sixth place with 24.4 percent of its students coming from overseas. It scores the highest HDI of 0.967 among the ranked countries.

Many Swiss universities have housing offices that provide discounted rooms to international students in university dormitories, allowing students to make savings in the estimated $1400-$1800 living costs.

The United Kingdom, with 23.8 percent of its student population internationally holds the seventh place. The UK remains a significant draw for students due to its extensive academic programmes, and wide range of on-campus student accommodation options.

Hungary takes the eighth spot, with 20.5 percent of its students from overseas. With more than an average safety index of 66.3, and the lowest living expenses ranging from $450 to $650 per month,

The country is a great destination for students looking for an affordable European educational experience.

Following Hungary, Australia is in ninth place, featuring 19.0 percent of its students from abroad, supported by 185 universities. It provides a high-quality life and education, reflected in its HDI of 0.946 which ties it with the Netherlands.

However, when it comes to affordability for students, Australia stands out. With living expenses ranging from $920 to $1650, it is notably more budget-friendly compared to the higher costs in the Netherlands.

Denmark rounds up the list with 17.9 percent of its student population coming from abroad. It scores high on the safety index at 73.7 and an HDI of 0.952, making it appealing for its safe and high-quality educational offerings.