North Korea sealed itself off at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020, and started to scale back restrictions in the middle of 2023.

It opened up to Russian visitors in 2024, but it was only last month that Western tourists were allowed into the remote, eastern city Rason.

However several tour companies now say that trips to the reclusive country have been cancelled until further notice. Pyongyang has not given a reason for the sudden halt.

“Just received news from our Korean partners that Rason is closed to everyone. We will keep you posted,” China-based KTG Tours, which specialises in North Korean tours, said Wednesday on Facebook.

Young Pioneer Tours and Koryo Tours were among the other agencies that have announced the suspension.

Those planning tours in April and May should refrain from booking flights “until we have more information”, Young Pioneer Tours said in a Facebook post.

On 20 February, the first Western tourists started arriving in Rason, a city earmarked by the North as a special economic zone, to trial new financial policies.

Tour operators told the BBC the visitors’ movements were even more restricted than on pre-pandemic trips – they had fewer opportunities to wander the streets and talk to locals.

Phone signals and internet access were also not available in the hermit state.

One tour leader said he suspects Rason was picked because the area is relatively contained and easy to control.

Earlier this week, Koryo Tours said it was accepting international applications for the Pyongyang Marathon for the first time in five years. The event is scheduled for 6 April but it is now unclear if these can still be processed.

North Korea saw some 350,000 foreign tourists in 2019, of whom 90% were Chinese, according to media reports.

“Everyone Must Go!” reads a slogan printed across posters of people in New Zealand’s majestic landscapes – part of a NZ$500,000 ($285,000; £227,000) campaign unveiled on Sunday.

But what was meant as a catchy call to action aimed at Australian tourists has been accused of being tone-deaf, as New Zealand deals with record emigration rates and unemployment.

The government has defended the campaign, with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon saying he “[appreciates] there’s lots of chat about whether everyone loves the slogan or not”.

“The fact that we’re talking about it is a good thing. It’s a great thing,” he added.

Cushla Tangaere-Manuel, tourism spokesperson for the opposition Labour Party, told local news outlet Radio New Zealand (RNZ) that the new slogan “makes New Zealand sound like we’re in a clearance bin at a sale”.

“The irony of that messaging is, that’s how Aotearoa New Zealanders are feeling right now,” she said, pointing to the “many cuts” that residents have experienced.

Job cuts to the public sector over the past year, as part of the government’s austerity push, have affected thousands of people.

Meanwhile, people are moving out of the country in record numbers. Official figures show that there were nearly 130,000 departures last year – though that was offset by the arrival of nearly 160,000 immigrants.

“New Zealanders are voting with their feet, leaving in record high numbers,” Labour MP Barbara Edmonds wrote on X on Monday. “Is their real tourism plan ‘Everyone Must Go’ – for Kiwis?”

Others associated the slogan with demand for lavatories.

“I think ‘Everyone Must Go’ might refer to the need for toilets in some of our high-tourist spots. I mean, the queues are ridiculous,” Green Party MP Celia Wade-Brown told RNZ.

“They don’t go kayaking, they don’t go diving, but, my goodness, they queue at the toilets.”

Tourism minister Louise Upston said in a statement on Sunday that “the campaign tagline of ‘Everyone must go’ lets Australia know that New Zealand is a ‘must visit’ destination, and that we’re ready and waiting to welcome them now”.

New Zealand’s tourism numbers have yet to bounce back to pre-pandemic levels, and authorities are channelling efforts into attracting visitors from neighbouring Australia, its largest source of tourists.

Last year, New Zealand welcomed more than 1.2 million visitors from Australia. But Upston said visitors numbers were only 88% of that in 2019.

Luxon said he hoped the latest campaign would boost Australian visitor numbers by 5%.

“It would be totally and utterly tragic if those Australians don’t get here before they do die,” he said.

The month-long tourism campaign is set to start on Thursday.

Blanca Ojanguren García, 22, was washing the elephant at the Koh Yao Elephant Care Centre last Friday when she was gored to death by the animal.

Experts told Spanish language newspaper Clarín that the elephant could have been stressed by having to interact with tourists outside its natural habitat.

García, who was a law and international relations student at Spain’s University of Navarra, was living in Taiwan as part of a student exchange programme.

She was visiting Thailand with her boyfriend, who witnessed the attack.

Spain’s foreign minister, Jose Manuel Albares, said the Spanish consulate in Bangkok was assisting García’s family.

BBC News has reached out to the elephant care centre for comment.

Bathing elephants is a popular activity among tourists in Thailand, which is home to more than 4,000 wild animals and has a similar number kept in captivity, according to the Department of National Parks.

The Koh Yao centre offers “elephant care” packages which let tourists make food for and feed the animals, as well as shower and walk with them. These packages cost between 1,900 baht ($55; £44) and 2,900 baht.

Animal activists have previously criticised elephant bathing activities, noting that they disrupt natural grooming behaviours and expose the animals to unnecessary stress and potential injury.

World Animal Protection, an international charity, has for years urged countries including Thailand to stop breeding elephants in captivity.

More than six in 10 elephants used for tourism in Asia are living in “severely inadequate” conditions, the charity said.

“These intelligent and socially intricate animals, with a capacity for complex thoughts and emotions, endure profound suffering in captivity, as their natural social structures cannot be replicated artificially,” the charity said.