Category: Round Up

Ministry of Railways’ PSU IRCTC has launched its trial run of environment friendly bagasse based food packaging on 8 select Shatabdis and Rajdhanis originating from New Delhi. Passengers in these trains will be served meals on eco-friendly disposable plates (compostable containers) instead of the polymer ones as part of the Railways’ drive to go green. IRCTC with this new initiative reaffirms its commitment to a cleaner and greener India and has taken a small step in this direction to achieve the same. Bagasse, the fibrous remains left behind after extracting sugarcane juice, is being used to make disposable cutlery and ... Read more

The Uttarakhand government has called for bloggers from allover the country to have a trip on ‘bloggers bus’ to four Cham Dham destinations. The bus which was flagged off from Rishikesh with eight passengers on Thursday, intends to promote the journey through blogs. The bloggers will also have the chance to cover the three-day Tehri Lake festival which commences on Friday. The first hop bus was flagged off from Rishikesh on May 16th. Seven bloggers who attended the journey travelled to Ganogtri and Yamunotri shrines on a trip which lasted four days. “There are several scenic locations in Uttarakhand. We need ... Read more

Tourism industries thrive on people’s love for travel. Countries like China are earning quite huge revenue from tourism. Reportedly, Bulgaria has found more love for travelling as the statistics substantiate this. Around 1 million Bulgarians travelled for tourism in the first quarter of the year, recording an 8.2 per cent increase in the number of travellers. 84.2 per cent of the people travelled inside Bulgaria. When 13.2 per cent people flew abroad, 2.6 per cent Bulgarians had trips inside and outside the country. Among this, the people of age group 25-44 were the ones who travelled the most. The people ... Read more

Registering record revenue in 2017, the tourism industry in Virginia is booming. The tourism industry, being state’s fifth-largest employer gained $25 as revenue in 2017. According to reports, this records a 4.4 per cent rise when compared to 2016. The industry totally contributed $1.73 billion to state and local revenue, recording a rise of 2.8 per cent. As per state’s reports, the domestic visitors spend $68 million a day in Virginia last year. The tourism sector of Virginia was the key force for $5.9 billion in payroll income last year, registering an increase of 4.8 per cent from 2016. According ... Read more

As per the tourism industry’s reports, Tunisia has achieved considerable growth in tourism sector registering a great recovery after the industry was hit badly by jihadi attacks in 2015. The tourist arrivals in the country recorded more than 2.3 million till May 20th, recording a rise of 21.8 per cent in visitor numbers when compared to same period last year and 5.7 per cent more when compared to same period in 2010. Reports suggest that the recovery of tourism industry is partially accelerated by the conventional market including France and Germany, up by 45 per cent and 42 per cent ... Read more

Twelve countries, including United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore and Malaysia, have issued travel advisories for their citizens in Indonesia following recent terrorist attacks in Surabaya and Sidoarjo in East Java. Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said that issuing travel advisories was a country’s responsibility to alert its citizens. “Travel advisories meant a country was still safe to visit, explaining that there were three levels of alerts, namely travel advisory, travel warning and travel ban,” he said. He also explained that several countries issued travel warnings last year amid Mount Agung’s eruption in Karangasem, Bali, with island seeing a loss of ... Read more

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is offering an 8-day trip on Maharaja Express. The trip, named ‘The Indian Splendour’, is offered at a starting price of USD 5,980. Passengers availing this trip will be visiting nine Indian cities. Indian and foreigners tourists can avail this package. The trip, which will start from October 2018 to April 2019, will take you to  Delhi, Agra, Ranthambore, Jaipur, Bikaner, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Balasinor, and Mumbai. With an aim to attract more passengers, the Railways have decided to slash the tariff of its luxury trains. Haulage charges for royal trains such as ... Read more

Airbnb is planning new ways to get back Puerto Rico on tourist map after hurricanes shattered the island and its tourism. The plan was revealed by Airbnb’s CEO Brian Chesky in an event on Wednesday. Airbnb will be introducing 50 new ‘experiences’ and activities hosted by people of Puerto Rico where the travellers can book these through app and participate. Brian Chesky said that Airbnb has used its platform previously in relief efforts, like providing housing for those in need during 100 disasters around the world. For the next three months, Airbnb will be also donating the entire booking fees ... Read more

Israel is becoming a favourite tourist spot for tourists and the initial statistics affirm this. As per reports, Israel had 1.36 million visitors from January-April this year. In this, 4,08,000 tourists alone visited Israel in April 2018 when compared to 3,50,000 last April, recording a 17%hike. The Ministry of Tourism claims that the revenue from tourists in April had exceeded NIS 2.1 billion. Out of all tourists visited Israel in April, 2,38,000 were from Europe. France, UK, Germany, Poland and Italy were the main contributors. The rise in European tourists is attributed to the Giro d’Italia bicycle race. Tourists from ... Read more

China has the largest number of outbound travellers. The major share of these travellers were visiting Europe, Asia and America, and now Chinese travellers have found out a new destination. Africa has turned out to be the favourite destination for Chinese travellers and the numbers are substantiating this new found love. South Africa, Madagascar and Morocco are the main favourites of Chinese travellers. It’s supposed that the shift in strategy by African nations played a major role in the greater interest of Chinese tourists along with support from Chinese policymakers. China’s roaring economy, better jobs, and an open strategy toward ... 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

Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation (TTDC) is planning to add 120 new boats, including kayaks, pedal boats, motorboats, outboard boats and water scooters. Tenders have already been floated to acquire kayaks, pedal boats and water scooters. TTDC has floated tenders for acquiring 120 boats, including five single-seater kayaks, five double-seater kayaks, 27 two-seater pedal boats, 35 four-seater pedal boats, six four-seater row boats, six eight-seater motor boats, two 15-seater motor boats, eight 15 HP outboard motorboats, four high-speed water scooters and two four-seater speed boats. The new boats would either be added to the fleet or would replace the existing boats being ... Read more

Bird Academy has won IATA 2018 Regional top performer award at the recently concluded Global Training Partners Conference in Istanbul. “We are thrilled & thankful to have received this prestigious award from IATA. It is an acknowledgement of the dedication and hard work that has been put in by everyone at Bird Academy since its inception. With our growing portfolio of training programs and our partnership with IATA, we aim to bridge the employability gap within the aviation and aerospace sector,” said Radha Bhatia, Chairperson, Bird Group. The IATA Regional top performer award recognizes training centers for their contribution to ... 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