Author: Tourism News live

With cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar as the star guest, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will flag off Champions Boat League (CBL) on Saturday alongside the famed Nehru Trophy Boat Race at the Punnamada lake in this coastal city. Hosted by Kerala Tourism, CBL is the country’s first-ever boat-race formatted on the lines of IPL cricket. The league, with prize monies totalling Rs 5.9 crore, will see nine teams rowing for top honours. The three-month championship was originally slated to begin on August 10, but got rescheduled owing to heavy rains that wreaked havoc across the state. As per the new schedule, ... Read more

Snap Inc. has introduced two new Landmarker Lens experiences in India enabling Snapchat users to use augmented reality to bring to life two iconic monuments – Gateway of India in Mumbai and Taj Mahal in Agra. To enable the feature, users have to simply point the Snapchat camera to the monument on location. Through the Landmarker Lens, users can play with a beautiful floral embellishment on the monuments. In addition, these locations will be available as Landmarker Templates alongside a further twelve locations spread around the across the globe as part of an update to Lens Studio – Snap’s free ... Read more

Photo Courtesy: La Paz Group As part of the upcoming Onam celebrations, Kerala Tourism will organise Athapookkalam competition, which allows the participants to create captivating designs through a mix of colours and flowers, on September 10. It will also organise Thiruvathirakali competition, a unique dance performed by women, on the auspicious day of Thiruvathira, on September 14. The winners of both the competitions will receive an amount of Rs 20,000, Rs 15,000 and Rs 10,000 as first, second and third prizes, respectively. An amount of Rs 2,000 will be given as consolation prizes for the commendable performances amongst the participant ... Read more

Kerala Travel Mart (KTM) Society revamped its managing committee for 2019-21, retaining top functionaries including Baby Mathew Somatheeram as the president, Swaminathan S as vice-president and Jose Pradeep as honorary secretary of the organisation that works for the promotion of the state’s tourism with the help of public-private partnership. The 2000-founded institution, which conducts the biennial KTM that hosts the country’s largest buyer-seller meet in the tourism segment, will have Hari Kumar C as the honorary joint secretary and Scaria Jose as the honorary treasurer. The appointments were made based on an election held last weekend in Ernakulam. The other ... Read more

Sharjah’s unique appeal lies in its celebration of heritage and traditional Emirati culture. Today, the emirate has made clever use of its landscapes and history to offer a wide variety of activities and attractions that meld together the historical and the contemporary. Below are our top 8 picks, which you should not miss when in Sharjah: Rain Room: After being launched in London then visiting New York, Los Angeles and Shanghai, the Rain Room, an immersive art installation created by Random International is now permanently housed at the Sharjah Art Foundation. When visitors enter the Rain Room, they are directed to ... Read more

The Algarve could be transformed into a ‘Mecca’ for health and wellness travel – benefiting from major investment linked to the booming €600 billion global industry – according to organisers of the 2019 Algarve Tourism Conference. Tourist development consultant Andrew Coutts said worldwide ‘wellness tourism’ spend is rising rapidly and expected to surpass €900 billion by 2022, representing 18pc of the global tourism market. Meanwhile the GWI (Global Wellness Institute) predicts wellness tourism trips to grow by 8pc annually reaching 1.2 billion by 2022. The news comes ahead of the 2019 Algarve Tourism Conference running from 9am-5pm at the Hilton ... Read more

Here’s everything you need to do before you plan a Golf Holiday in Thailand, where you can enjoy the ultimate experience of teeing off at the most stunning and Exclusive Golf Courses In Thailand plus all the amazing shopping, beaches, sight-seeing, and food that the country offers. Black Mountain, Hua Hin: Black Mountain Golf Club is an exclusive golf community ten kilometres west of the quaint city of Hua Hin, Thailand. It was the first course in Thailand to be included in US Golf Digest’s list of the Best 100 Courses Outside the United States. Today, Black Mountain Golf Club ... Read more

We all know content is the king. Creating good content/story for the brand will help you attract more people towards your brand/business. But, how do you develop good content? Impact-driven traveller and social entrepreneur, Jen Morilla will discuss about ‘Creating good story about your brand’ at the International Conference on Tourism Technology, organized by Association of Tourism Trade Organizations, India. Jen will be speaking at ICTT 2019 on September 27, on the World tourism Day, at Le Meridian, Kochi. Jen aims to speak to the Millennial Market through storytelling and cause marketing. Whether through branding, marketing strategies, or social media, ... Read more

Maya Beach, Thailand If you are planning a trip to Thailand before April 2020, you can save approximately Rs 4659 on Visa on Arrival fees as the country has decided to waive off visa fees for Indian travellers till that time frame. The Royal Thai Government has approved the extension of the visa-on-arrival fee waiver for citizens of 20 countries including India for another six months, until April 2020. The scheme was to expire on October 31. The waivers are part of a $10-billion stimulus package to boost growth, including a debt moratorium for farmers, loans for smaller businesses, and ... Read more

Travel Tours, the leisure travel brand of FCM Travel Solutions – Indian subsidiary of Flight Centre Travel Group Australia, further expanded its presence by inaugurating its 10th store in Maharashtra and the 3rd store in Mumbai. The store was inaugurated by Rakshit Desai, Managing Director, FCM Travel Solutions – Indian subsidiary of Flight Centre Travel Group. The opening of the store marks Travel Tours’ reach to 39 stores across India, out of which 10 are now located in Maharashtra. Considering the ever-growing demand from travel enthusiasts and trends witnessed across the travel sector for leisure travel, the services offered include ... Read more

The role a photograph plays in destination marketing and holiday planning has changed massively. We all go to places and click photographs, with the best devices that we have, but not all of us are good photographers. Shane Dallas will be speaking at the ICTT 2019 and give you tips to become a good digital photographer. Shane Dallas is a Social Media specialist, trainer and travel photographer who has visited more than 100 countries and inspires people to take the road less travelled. Shane is a founder of #TRLT – the Road Less Travelled Twitter chat, which is one of ... Read more

Israel Ministry of Tourism (IMOT) conducted a roadshow in the capital city of New Delhi on 22nd August to enhance commercial ties with the Indian travel trade fraternity. In an effort to retain the growth momentum of Indian arrivals to Israel, the team interacted with over 300 key travel and tour operators, MICE providers, up-market leisure operators and media personnel. The event commenced with a presentation leading to an interactive session with the IMOT team. The roadshow included interactive B2B sessions, education programmes and workshops to aid trade members in planning itineraries and responding to customer queries. The Israeli delegation ... Read more

Vietnam’s low-cost airline VietJet Air, popularly known as as ‘Bikini airline’ for having cabin crew dressed in ‘Bikini’ in some of its flight, is going to start two direct flights to India by the year end. The flights will be launched from Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City and capital Hanoi to New Delhi. The airline has also announced special promotional fares for both the routes. As per the offer, a ticket on the Vietjet flight on these routes will cost Rs 9 (excluding VAT, airport fees and other surcharges). The airline has said only 8000 such tickets will be given ... Read more

In 2018, the Philadelphia region saw record-breaking visitation and economic impact: The area welcomed 45 million visitors from the U.S., 88 per cent of which visited for a leisure purpose. And 2018 marks the ninth consecutive year of record visitation to Philadelphia, which means more and more travelers are making Philly their destination of choice every year — visiting attractions, staying in hotels, dining at restaurants, shopping in boutiques and so much more. In 2018, 45 million people visited Philadelphia from the U.S. — the ninth consecutive year of record visitation. All of this visitation delivers major economic impact to ... Read more

Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board is deepening its foothold in the Indian market with the appointment of Seema Kadam as it’s first-ever Regional Director, India. In 2018, Los Angeles welcomed 130,000 visitors from India, an increase of 5.1% making India the third-highest year-over-year international growth market for Los Angeles. In her role, Kadam will develop and support air service for Los Angeles International Airport, spearhead strategic travel trade engagement including the implementation of a robust training program, using the L.A. Insider Program; and attend key industry trade shows in the region. “We established a travel trade presence in India ... Read more