Frankfurt, Germany  - Three U. S. cruise companies have published details of their European schedules: NCL has released its programme for 2010/11 while Celebrity Cruises and Royal Caribbean International (RCI) have announced their summer 2010 schedules. All of the cruise companies will be travelling to ports in Europe.

RCI will send eight ships across the Atlantic including the Adventure of the Seas for the first time. The Adventure is the replaces the smaller Legend of the Seas which had 1,310 fewer berths for passengers on board.

Antwerp, Belgium  - The setting sun bathes Antwerp's diamond district in ruby-red light. Standing outside a diamond exchange are black-clad Hasidic Jews wearing high hats, some fur-trimmed, and sporting side locks curled like corkscrews. They are discussing business in Yiddish.

"Jerusalem on the Scheldt" is one of the many nicknames for the city, which shows visitors a different face in every district.

Only London, Paris and Naples were more populous than Antwerp in the 16th century, which then had more than 100,000 inhabitants. The Welsers and Fuggers, German merchant and banking dynasties, controlled their businesses from the Flemish metropolis.

Hamburg  - The Maldives has initiated a new tourism policy aimed at increasing contact between visitors and inhabitants of the island chain in the Indian Ocean, the country's tourism minister said.

Speaking recently to the German weekly newspaper, Die Zeit, the minister, Ahmed Ali Sawad, said there would no longer be a "parallel world" of resort islands kept separate from the islands inhabited by Maldivians.

Singapore  - Tourist arrivals in Singapore dropped 15.2 per cent in February from the same month a year ago to 689,000 visitors, the Singapore Tourism Board said Thursday.

Indonesia with 103,000 visitors, China with 80,000, Australia with 51,000, Britain with 47,000 and Malaysia with 46,000 accounted for Singapore's top five visitor-generating markets, accounting for 48 per cent of the February arrivals.

The board said Singapore's hotel room revenue dropped 28.7 per cent last month to 123 million Singapore dollars (81.5 million US dollars).

Paestum, Italy - Italy's Cilento region, south of Naples, is a beloved destination of tourists, but not overrun by them. Its attractions include long beaches, extensive vineyards, sleepy villages and mountains about 1,700 metres high.

In 1991, part of the region became Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park. UNESCO, the United Nations' cultural body, added the park - including the archaeological site of Paestum - to its World Heritage list seven years later.

Hamburg - When christening a new ship, it is traditional to crack open a bottle of Champagne on its prow. Some people may think it's a pity to waste the bubbly on naming a ship, but this year more Champagne bottles than ever before will be broken.

Ten new cruise ships are due to be christened in 2009 and one of them will set a passenger record as the Oasis of the Seas will have room for 5,400 guests.

Here's a look at what can be expected: