Author: Tourism News live

The safety of tourists is a top priority for Greece as it reopens its airports to foreign visitors, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said. He was on a visit to the popular holiday island of Santorini. International flights to and from the country’s main airports will resume on June 15, after a nearly three-month lockdown. Accounting for about 20% of Greece’s economic output, tourism is vital for the Mediterranean nation, which emerged from a decade-long debt crisis in 2018. “It is a great pleasure to be here in Santorini… to send a message: Greece is ready to welcome tourists this ... Read more

Cricket is a huge tourism attraction in India, with thousands of fans travelling to the country to get a glimpse of the stars. The Indian Premier League (IPL) is the biggest annual tournament in the country that draws enormous crowds both from within and overseas. But with the tournament unlikely to be held in India this year due to the Covid-19 situation, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is exploring options to hold it abroad. IPL 2020 was suspended until further notice after it missed its April-May window due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. However, the BCCI is ... Read more

The Kerala government has made it mandatory for those boarding chartered flights to produce a certificate stating they have tested negative for Covid-19. Over one lakh expatriates are expected to reach Kerala from West Asian countries on chartered flights in coming weeks. The state has so far given sanction for 750 chartered flights. The direction by principal secretary E Ellangovan stated that this condition applies to all flights for which consent letters have been issued earlier. For cases in which a Covid-19 patient requires urgent medical care, air ambulance provision may be availed, it stated. Norka Roots, the non-resident Keralite welfare ... Read more

The Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra government has decided to allot land, measuring 54.40 hectares in Sindhudurg to Indian Hotels Company Limited, which runs the Taj Hotels, to construct a  five-star tourism centre. The project has been stuck for over 25 years. The land has been given at a 90-year lease for the construction of cottages in Vengurla, part of Sindhudurg, for tourism development.  The proposal of the allotment of land for the construction of the hotel to the leading players in the hotel industry was taken after the state government announced Sindhudurg as a tourism district more than two decades ago. ... Read more

Is India a golfing country? Can golf tourism be developed here, as an additional revenue stream? Do we have enough golf facilities in the country? These questions were deliberated at length under the Dekho Apna Desh webinar series, organised by the Ministry of Tourism. The session was moderated by Rupinder Brar, ADG, Ministry of Tourism and presented by Rajan Seghal, Co-founder Passionals; Amish Desai, Director, Beleast Travels P Ltd and Arun Iyer, Managing Director, My Golf Tour. All three panellists have decades of experience and hold badges of specialisation in various areas of travel and tourism industry, besides being avid ... Read more

SeaWorld Entertainment, one of the world’s leading theme park and entertainment companies, has announced a phased reopening of SeaWorld San Antonio on Friday, June 19.The reopening of the park will include enhanced health and safety protocols for cleaning and sanitizing, physical distancing, face covering requirements, and temperature screening. A new online reservation system will also help manage capacity so that guests can enjoy a safe and fun experience while maintaining physical distancing. The phased reopening plan was approved by the State of Texas.”We thank Governor Abbott, Representative Cortez, and San Antonio Mayor Nirenberg for their support of tourism in Texas ... Read more

Studio One Hotel has launched a staycation deal which only costs Dhs10 per hour. The sole condition is that one needs to stay for at least 24 hours but check-in is allowed at any time of the day. The room price also includes a Dhs150 voucher to spend in any of the hotel’s restaurants, for each night you stay, according to a report in What’s On. The dining voucher is valid at Larte, The Maine Street Eatery, The Irish Village, Mr Miyagi’s and El Chapo’s Tacos. You’ll get three Dhs50 vouchers to spend, so you can split between multiple venues ... Read more

From June 15, people from low-risk areas in the Nordic countries will be permitted to enter Norway with no quarantine requirement. Citizens of Denmark, Finland and Iceland can enter Norway from that date without quarantine. Most citizens of Sweden remain excluded. Norwegian prime minister Erna Solberg warned that everyone should expect travel restrictions to last for some time: “Let me emphasize, this is not just about where to spend the summer vacation. We must plan for travel restrictions to last for some time. There can be new outbreaks of infection in different places before there is a vaccine.” The Norwegian government does ... Read more

Qatar Airways will soon announce special offers including arranging stay at hotels for quarantine purposes. “Qatar Airways will soon announce special offers that will include price of tickets and stay at 5, 4 or 3 star hotels for the purposes of quarantine,” Salam Al Shawa, Senior Vice President Marketing & Corporate Communications for Qatar Airways said in tweet. The returning passenger can fly Qatar Airways or any other airline, but will have to make the hotel booking directly with Discover Qatar for a stay at an approved quarantine hotel. They can’t book a hotel directly. The assistant foreign minister and ... Read more

The Queensland government could get the jump on NSW and Victoria by locking in flights from New Zealand, before the Australia-NZ travel bubble takes shape in September. As Prime Minister Scott Morrison continued to push states to open up their borders by July, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk all but confirmed her government will revert to its original July 10 date to reopen the borders, Financial Review has reported. Negotiations between Air New Zealand and the Queensland government this week has raised the prospect of the Sunshine State locking in a cross-border deal on flights to New Zealand ahead of their southern ... Read more

Sri Lanka has cleared a proposal to offer concessionary loans to the hospitality and travel sector to pay salaries during the Coronavirus epidemic. Hotels and travel agencies, registered with the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), would be allowed to get a 5-year loan at a 4% interest rate, to pay a Rs 20,000 salary to each worker for up to 6 months. The loan could be repaid in 5 years with a 2-year grace period, Economy Next has reported. Tourism related firms registered with the SLTDA including restaurants, spas, wellness centres would be given a credit facility to pay ... Read more

Air India on Friday stated that 10 additional flights will be operated to and from the USA under the third phase of the Vande Bharat Mission. These flights will be operated between June 20 and July 3 to bring back Indians stranded in America. Bookings for the same will open on June 13 from 6 pm onwards on the Air India website.  The 10 additional flights comprise four, to and from, New York and one each, to and from, San Francisco and Chicago.  Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Anurag Srivastava has said  that the Vande Bharat Mission has repatriated a ... Read more

Hycinth Hotels has taken a series of steps to ensure safety and security of its guests, in wake of the coronavirus transmission. Hygiene is the name of the game now, the hotel’s manager Santosh Kumar Sinha has said. “A super-hygiene culture needs to be set in place.” “We have got the ball rolling with apt measures for swiftly addressing hygiene related concerns owing to the pandemic that the world is currently fighting,” he said. “Safe, secure and quality service like never before is our primary aim now and for the days to come.” The hotel has outlined the followed guidelines: ... Read more

TUI UK has cancelled all beach holidays up to and including July 10 due to ongoing travel restrictions.  The company had previously planned to restart trips on July 1. Holidays with TUI Ireland are on hold till July 20. All customers whose bookings are affected by the change will receive a refund credit – they can also request a cash refund via the company’s online form. Customers who had booked a package holiday over this period will be given an incentive of up to 20% off if they rebook with TUI. Those due to travel with the company before the end of August can modify their booking ... Read more

On Friday afternoon, Kerala Tourism tweeted what seemed like an innocuous comment. The tweet read, “The loyal fans of the Malabar cuisine simply cannot keep their #handsoffporotta, lockdown or not. Share your favourite porotta recipes with us.” But soon, it became apparent that it had reference to a news report that frozen porotta attracts 18% Goods & Services Tax (GST) as opposed to the earlier 5%. To make matters worse, ready-to-eat rotis and chapathis did not see a rise in GST.  Malayalis erupted on Twitter, and #handsoffporotta became a viral hashtag. Kerala Tourism saw the rising wave and chipped in with ... Read more