Madeira has introduced a new fee for non-residents on some of its most popular hiking trails.

The move is part of a push towards sustainable tourism and proceeds will fund conservation efforts.

The surcharge currently applies to seven of the most trafficked routes but will be expanded to all recommended trails on the Portuguese archipelago from January 2025.

With steep peaks, verdant forests, and lush waterfalls, the archipelago’s hiking trails are some of its top visitor draws.

Madeira’s regional secretary of Agriculture, Fisheries and Environment, Rafaela Fernandes, said the charge is necessary to protect the area’s natural landscapes and manage the increasing influx of tourists.

Tourists will have to pay to hike Madeira’s trails from 2025

The €3 fee applies to all non-residents over the age of 12 and is currently in place on Madeira’s most popular trails.

These are Pico do Areeiro, Pico Ruivo, Levada do Risco, Levada do Caldeirão Verde, Balcões, Levada do Rei and Ponta de São Lourenço.

From 1 January 2025, non-residents will need to pay to hike over 30 routes managed by the Institute of Forests and Nature Conservation (ICNF) in Madeira.

Hikers who do not pay face fines of up to €50.

Visitors can pay using the regional government portal, Simplifica. Alternatively, there are on-site payment options available at ICNF stations located along many of the trails.

Madeira hiking fee will fund trail maintenance and nature conservation

All profits from the new tourist fee will be put towards trail maintenance, cleaning and preservation efforts, according to Fernandes.

Madeira is experiencing an increase in tourism, particularly in peak hiking seasons, so the trail charge aims to manage the flow of visitors on paths and help protect the natural landscape.

Madeira’s authorities have launched an awareness campaign to inform visitors about the charge and its purpose.

Fernandes says the move has been welcomed by tourists who appreciate the importance of supporting conservation efforts.

Visitors to Italy’s summer hotspot Lake Como are spoilt for choice when it comes to souvenirs, but a can of local air probably isn’t top of their shopping list.

The product has been released by a marketing agency and claims to contain 21 per cent oxygen, 0.93 per cent argon, 0.04 per cent carbon dioxide and a small percentage of nitrogen and neon trapped from the lakeside.

“We thought of encapsulating the lake air in a jar that can then be taken anywhere in the world,” Daniele Abagnale of the agency that curated the project told Italian daily La Repubblica.

“The jar, once opened, becomes a pen holder or a vase and is completely recyclable.”

At nearly €10 a pop, the canned air seems like a blatant marketing stunt – and it’s not an original one.

You can find cans of local air in dozens of places around the world from the Swiss mountains to the Isle of Mann.

So is it one big joke that tourists are buying into or do these air samples hold some value?

The craze of canned air began in the 20th century

Canned air is actually old news in Italy. After WWII, a man called Gennaro Ciaravolo invented ‘Aria di Napoli’.

Ciaravolo recycled empty cans of fooddistributed by US troops following the liberation, claiming to have filled them with the air of the city – and even managed to sell them back to the Americans.

But Ciaravolo’s invention was a pointed social statement and an allegory for the renowned Neapolitan ‘cazzimma’ – the art of being resourceful and making do with what you’ve got.

It was also likely a reference to Marcel Duchamp’s conceptual artwork ‘Air de Paris’ from a few decades earlier.

In 1970, Ciaravolo’s grandson continued the irreverent stunt with an exhibition at the Venice Biennale. He displayed fried air from Milan, fog from London’s Carnaby Street and sacred air from Rome.

Most canned air sold today is not nearly as witty or esoteric.

The €20 air from the Isle of Man, an island in the Irish Sea,  claims to cure homesickness and relieve stress while the air from Altay in China is described as ‘intoxicating’. Tourists can even write on the cans as though they were postcards.

In southern England, an absurd row broke out over a business selling bottles of Cornish air for over €80 that was actually captured in Devon, a different county.

A company called fattrol has been making a slightly more tongue-in-cheek version. They sell canned air souvenirs from various popular tourist destinations including Athens, Venice, Barcelona and Las Vegas.

Their Tokyo version, for example, claims to contain 10 per cent from locations including the Shibuya Crossing, the Tsukiji Fish Market and the Roppongi Hills.

The producers also say the packaging can withstand a magnitude 9.0 earthquake.

Jokes aside, the trend raises questions about the ethics of producing packaging for a non-existent product, adding to the immense volume of cheap, throw-away trinkets touted to tourists.

Companies claim you’re getting a cute tin you can display in your house, but the poor quality cans with uninspiring designs are mostly likely only bought as a silly gift for a friend with no intended sentimental value.

Canned air raises awareness about pollution

There are some less gimmicky examples of canned air too.

In 2016, UK company Aethaer launched a series of containers ‘filled’ with air from one of the five Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the country to raise awareness of air pollution.

The proceeds from the sale of the jars are reportedly invested in creating affordable breathing masks.

For several years now, entrepreneurs have been bottling compressed fresh air from places like Canada and Switzerland and selling it to residents in highly polluted areas in China and India.

Vitality, for example, contains air collected from the Canadian Rockies. Containers come with a specially designed spray cap and mask and hold around 160 breaths.

Chief executive of Vitality Moses Lam told the BBC he sees it as the new bottled water.

The verdict from scientists, however, is that bottled air provides few or no health benefits.

Taiwan is revising the launch details of its digital nomad visa, which was originally planned to permit six month stays.

The areas of Hualien, Taitung, Tainan, and Pingtung are all keen to welcome digital nomads, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu said.

He highlighted that the Taiwanese government will be offering its new digital nomad residents help with support innovation and creativity.

Taiwan is just one of many East Asian countries offering digital nomad visas in a bid to attract professional talent from overseas.

When will Taiwan’s digital nomad visa launch?

It’s still not confirmed when the new visa will be launched.

For now, EU visitors who wish to visit Taiwan can enter on a visa-free entry or on a tourist visa that allows stays of up to three months, however no one is permitted to work.

Part of the country’s new plans will be to make it easier for skilled and high-earning foreign workers to gain permanent residence in Taiwan.

Taiwan is hoping to attract 100,000 remote workers under the scheme, with a goal of allowing 10,000 workers the chance to obtain an ‘Employment Gold Card’ after the one-year visa expires.

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How can Taiwan’s visa combine with Japan and South Korea?

Taiwan is working closely with the Japanese cities of Osaka and Fukuoka and South Korea to ensure any plans complement existing digital nomad visas.

This means that remote workers could visit Taiwan after stays elsewhere in East Asia.

Japan launched its existing non-extendable six-month digital nomad visa in March 2024, which is available to 49 countries and territories, including EU member states.

Tokyo is just a three-and-a-half hour flight from Taiwan’s capital, Taipei.

In a bid to boost tourism, South Korea launched a digital nomad visa in January 2024, which is valid for one-year with the potential to extend for a further 12 months.

The flight from capital Seoul to Taipei is under three hours.

Thailand is already seeing huge demand in its five-year digital nomad visa which launched in July 2024, as remote workers seek out its buzzing capital and pristine beaches.

Bangkok is just fours hours from Taipei by plane.

What does Taiwan have to offer digital nomads?

From its subtropical climate and beautiful beaches to its lush national parks and vast culture, including thousands of temples, there are plenty of reasons to work from Taiwan.

This small country is about half the size of Scotland, making getting around a breeze.

This means you could clock hours in one of Taipei’s lively coworking spaces in the morning and fill up on tasty street food for lunch before heading to Yangmingshan National Park – just 30 minutes away – for a scenic hike.

Exploring further afield is easy, too, as Taiwan’s high-speed railway connects the capital to the southern harbour city of Kaohsiung.

Taiwan is one of the safest countries in the world for LGBTQ+ travellers, and scores highly on anti-discrimination legislation and transgender rights. It became the first country in the region to legalise same-sex marriage in 2019.