Category: Asia

The Tourism Authority of Thailand, Mumbai and New Delhi, recently organised the 6th edition of Indian wedding Symposium and B2B session 2018 exclusively for the Indian market. Top 8 wedding planners from South and West of India and 10 wedding planners with 1 media from North and East of India were hosted in Thailand from April 23-27, 2018. The itinerary included the scenic route of Phuket-Khao Lak-Krabi-Bangkok. During the trip, the group visited numerous beautiful hotels in these destinations to evaluate their potential as ideal venues for grand Indian weddings. The trip concluded in Bangkok with a Wedding Planners’ Symposium ... Read more

Travellers from Russia, China and Iran can now enter the Sultanate of Oman without a pre-entry tourist visa. The move is an extension of new visa policy introduced by Oman in March including the new online application process. By this Oman joined its neighbour UAE in relaxing the visa policies for travellers from Russia and China in the recent years. The Sultanate had already facilitated visa on arrival for travellers from 68 countries including USA, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom and the European Union’s Schengen area. Russia, China and Iran are the latest to join the list. Since UAE granted visa ... Read more

Philippine President Rodrigo Dutetre has named Agriculture Undersecretary Bernadette Puyat as the new secretary of the Department of Tourism (DOT) a day after he fired Wanda Teo over corruption allegations. Duterte made the appointment on Tuesday night. Duterte’s aide Christopher Go confirmed Puyat’s appointment late Tuesday. Puyat was undersecretary for administration, agribusiness and marketing, and regional engagement at the Department of Agriculture before her appointment as tourism secretary. Teo is the latest senior government official that Duterte fired over corruption charges.  The tourism department has been burdened by corruption issues and the impact of the six-month closure of Boracay island, ... Read more

Belarus As said by Belarusian parliament speaker Mikhail Myasnikovich, Belarus and China will be signing an agreement for a 30-day visa-free policy. The signing of this policy will be one of the major events of the Year of Tourism of Belarus in China, which will benefit in promoting the development of tourism. As part of the Year of Tourism, several events will be held in order to promote Belarus as a striking tourist destination. The events planned will include Belarusian art exhibitions and special activities with Chinese airlines. Belarus had more than 20,000 visitors from China in 2017. It is ... Read more

Myanmar Travellers from Myanmar to India have reportedly gone up by more than 10% last year when compared to 2016. The free visa to Myanmar citizens was declared by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his visit to Myanmar in last September and the free visa policy was initiated that month itself. Most travellers from Myanmar are reportedly visiting Bodh Gaya. Around 30,000 pilgrims used to visit annual Bodh Gaya festival every year and now more than 50,000 pilgrims from Myanmar came to attend the festival in 2017. According to ministry reports, Myanmar travellers are also coming for medical tours ... Read more

Awarded Luxury Beach Villa – Pinilla, Costa Rica TripAdvisor has announced the winners of the second annual Travelers’ Choice awards for Rentals. 30 best holiday homes across the globe are awarded across three categories i.e. Luxury ($300+ USD per night), Mid-Range ($100-150 USD per night) and Affordable ($99 USD per night and below). A Cozy Designer Minerva Apartment located in downtown Rome was declared the winner in Affordable category with the rates starting as low as $66 per night. An oceanfront condo in Kauai, Hawaii tops the list in Mid-Range category. A Luxury category was topped by a Costa Rican beach ... Read more

Asia is known as the powerhouse of aviation market. However, according to new research by flight data provider OAG, three of world’s busiest routes are North American airports. Two of those routes shuttle passengers between United States and Canada. One reason for this high demand maybe Canada is drawing record numbers of international travellers, including those from USA. Or it might be the resurgence of interest in international travel by Canadians after a setback by a weak economy and unfavourable currency exchange rates. The airline carried a record 48 million passengers last year after inclusion of 30 new routes last year ... Read more

In the wake of the continuous political unrests, sexual attacks and violence against foreigners across the nation, Sri Lanka beefs up its security and established new police posts and patrols at popular resorts. The Sri Lankan government has allocated Rs 30 million to establish the police posts. With an aim to protect the visiting tourists, the police department has set up 20 new stations at holiday hotspots. “I wish we had more men and resources for this job, but we are making adjustments to our deployments to ensure better productivity,” said Police chief Pujith Jayasundara. A Dutch tourist was sexually harassed and several other tourists ... Read more

Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has launched Tourism Information and Service Hub, an online platform that allows businesses to contribute and access content, including travel software services for use on digital channels. The new platform, which was announced last year, is the first of its kind and acts as a one-stop tourism resource for businesses. Businesses can upload their operating hours and events to gain exposure, while businesses here and abroad may download such information and have updates automatically reflected on their linked websites and mobile applications. ‘The platform addresses an industry need to have more up-to-date information about tourism offerings and to ... Read more

The international tourist arrivals recorded a growth of 14.1 per cent last year in Bhutan whereas the number of regional tourists visiting the country in terms of percentage saw a dip by more than 50 per cent in 2017 compared to the previous year. A total of 183, 287 regional visitors visited Bhutan in 2017, recording an increase of 24.9 per cent as compared to 2016, which saw a total of 146,797 visitors. The percentage increase of regional tourist decreased in 2017 by more than 50 per cent. Bhutan saw an increase of 50.43 per cent in 2016 compared to ... Read more

Beppu in western Japan, is famous for its natural hot springs, in which hoteliers are in competition with one another to draw tourist attention. Since the past five years, the city is showing good number of tourist arrivals with the continuous efforts from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ministry. The occupancy chart of the hotels and resort show the growth of tourism in the area. “Beppu is one of the world’s most famous hot springs resorts, but it didn’t have a luxury hotel of international fame. The wealthy Japanese market is very attractive, and inbound tourism is also booming.”, said ... Read more

Around one million visitors – both domestic and foreign tourists- visited the Walled City of Intramuros during the Holy Week. The Department of Tourism, Philippines and its attached agency the Intramuros Administration (IA), had arranged a series of events to promote the Walled City as a holistic faith destination in Metro Manila. “For a predominantly Catholic country like the Philippines, the Holy Week or Lenten season is a perfect time to reflect, repent and travel. We congratulate the Intramuros Administration and our Faith Tourism sector for the successful reopening of the Walled City for the Lenten season,” said Tourism Secretary ... Read more

Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) has launched “Enjoy my Japan” global campaign in New York.  As part of the launch, JNTO unveiled a special video series to kick-off the campaign. “By starting this new Global Campaign, JNTO will accelerate promotional activities and improve on a travel-friendly environment in Japan leading-up to the year 2020,” said JNTO president Ryoichi Matsuyama. With the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic games approaching, JNTO’s main mission is to introduce under-the-radar attractions and points-of-interest to Americans and international travelers. In this sense, culture is a good motivator for travelers visiting Japan and helps break barriers. 22-Time Grammy-Winning Jazz legend, ... Read more

The Indonesian government is planning to further enhance its tourism service sector by developing nomadic tourism, which would be coupled with digital tourism. The decision was taken in the recently held annual national workshop meeting of Indonesian tourism stakeholders in Bali. To address this Indonesia needs to provide simpler and quicker transport vehicles to ensure foreign travelers to reach the destinations quickly without hassle. “Foreign wanderers do not want complicated procedures to travel from one to another point in an archipelago country like Indonesia. They like simple access. There has to be more addition of simple vehicles like seaplanes, helicopters and ... Read more

For the twelfth consecutive month that the Korean tourism is facing a sharp decline, mainly due to a plunge in the number of Chinese tourists. Tourists numbers dropped 16.5 per cent despite the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. The total number of inbound visitors reached only 1.05 million in February, which was largely attributed to a sharp decline in the number of Chinese nationals who visited the country, which stood at 590,790, down 41.5 percent on-year. The number of Chinese tourists visiting has been on a constant decline following a diplomatic row between Seoul and Beijing over the deployment of a US anti-missile system. ... Read more