Category: Round Up

The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has called upon all travellers to don protective face masks to show they ‘wear to care’. As countries transition from lockdowns to reopening their borders, the wearing of face masks helps signal the return of safer travels, while also providing personal protection for users as well as those around them. WTTC’s call favouring mandatory mask wearing comes from evidence that countries which are recovering faster from COVID-19 are those where the use of face masks have been widely enforced and encouraged. Following medical guidance from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, WTTC advised ... Read more

India’s national carrier Air India has started ticket bookings for five new flights from Dubai and Sharjah, scheduled to operate between July 11-14. The first of these flights, under the Vande Bharat Mission, will leave for Delhi from Dubai at 4 pm on Saturday. The rest of the flights will be from Sharjah. On Sunday, there will be two flights. Flight AI0904 will depart for Indore at 10.25am and AI1976 to Srinagar will depart at 11.40am. On July 13, there will be a flight to Chandigarh at 10.25am, followed by one to Ahmedabad on July 14. Announcing the schedule on ... Read more

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has urged the International Energy Agency (IEA) to prioritise investments in sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to help power aviation’s contribution to the post-COVID-19 recovery. The call comes on the eve of the IEA Clean Energy Transitions Summit, which will meet virtually to debate moves towards a low-carbon future. In a statement on Thursday, IATA also emphasised the aviation industry’s commitment to its emissions reduction goals. “The world must ‘build back better’ from the COVID-19 crisis with attention focused on investment in carbon reduction technologies and in SAF, which will create jobs at this critical ... Read more

Air India and Air India Express have confirmed that it will operate repatriation flights to the UAE to fetch stranded citizens from the country. The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) said that the repatriation flights will commence from July 12 and will go on till July 26. An agreement for the same has been signed between the civil aviation authorities of the two countries, putting an end to the long traumatic wait for hundreds of Indians, Khaleej Times has reported. Many are currently stranded in India since March when both the UAE and India closed their airspaces to curb the ... Read more

After lifting all travel restrictions, Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board (MPTB) has introduced a new campaign Intezaar Aapka to attract tourists who would like to visit the state. The campaign is running currently on all social handles of the state tourism board. The campaign includes a series of communications about the destinations that are awaiting tourists.  Being under lockdown for more than 100 days now, travellers are eager and willing to come out of their houses with families, not far but for a short weekend getaway. Keeping such points in mind, the MPTB is promoting places of tourist interest such as Ujjain, Panchmari, Amarkantak, Bandhavgarh, ... Read more

The UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced steep cuts to value added tax (VAT) worth over £4 billion in an attempt to revive the struggling British tourism and hospitality sector. In his statement to the House of Commons on Wednesday, the Chancellor said VAT will be slashed from 20% to 5% for a period of six months until January, giving every chance for the sector to bounce back. Sunak said he wanted to see pubs, restaurants, cafes and B&Bs “bustling again”, adding that the measures were “a plan to turn our national recovery into millions of stories of personal renewal.” ... Read more

The Tata group is the only bidder in the fray for national carrier Air India with just a month left for the final bidding date. The Tata group, which already has a footprint in the airlines business, has shown interest in acquiring Air India, which at one point of time was under the Tata umbrella, news agency IANS has reported. The other bidders will be known in due course as globally airlines are under severe stress due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the resultant disruptions on air travel and tourism. The Tata group is likely to go ahead with the ... Read more

In an effort to help the ravaged tourism sector, India has decided to develop existing lighthouses across the country and turn them into travel destinations. The Ministry of Shipping has identified 194 lighthouses for the purpose. The ministry will also step up efforts to identify lighthouses which are more than 100 years old, news agency PTI has reported. A high-level meeting was called by Union Minister of Shipping, Mansukh Mandaviya, to take stock of the preparations to develop these lighthouses. The move to develop the selected lighthouses will not only boost tourism in these areas but also provide people an ... Read more

The Travel Agents and Tour Operators Association of Gujarat (TAG) has submitted a memorandum to the state tourism minister, Jawahar Chawda, seeking relief measures through a tourism aid package. Rannotsav and the Statue of Unity attract tourists to Gujarat and travel agents who help bring in bookings should be incentivised, they said in their submission. Tourist-friendly infrastructure including stopovers with proper amenities should be developed along the key state highways and also highways leading to tourist destinations,” mentions the representation. In their letter, travel agents sought industry status for the travel and tourism sector and suggested several measures for reviving tourism in the ... Read more

The Karnataka government on Tuesday banned all tourism activities in the Kodagu district with immediate effect till further orders, in view of rising COVID-19 cases. An order issued by the Deputy Commissioner, Anis Kanmani Joy said that all resorts and homestays are to be closed for public and tourists till further orders. The order has asked owners of homestays or resorts not to take any new bookings and ordered to cancel the future bookings and refund the money back. However, it read that if someone is already staying in those resorts they can stay till their booking period is over, ... Read more

India’s Ministry of Tourism, under the Dekho Apna Desh series, organised its 40th webinar titled “Women of India – Shifting Gears” outlining the thrills of women biking. The webinar session was held by two women bike enthusiasts of India – Jai Bharathi who is an avid motorcyclist, travel enthusiast and co-founder of MoWo (Moving Women), a social initiative encouraging women to travel on motorcycles; and Candida Louis, a biker, blogger, storyteller and motorcycle tour guide. Moderated by Rupinder Brar, additional director general, ADG, Ministry of Tourism, the hour-long session touched upon various aspects surrounding safety of women bikers of India, the ... Read more

The United States has stated that international students will not be allowed to stay in the country if the college in which they have registered is holding only online courses. Those failing to comply with the rules will risk deportation, the government warned. Students on F-1 and M-1 visas who face such a situation “must depart the country or take other measures, such as transferring to a school with in-person instruction to remain in lawful status,” the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said in a news release on Monday. Those who violate the rules “may face immigration consequences including, but not ... Read more

A month ago, Karnataka’s tourism department was trying to encourage travellers to visit various destinations in the state in order to revive the sector. But with coronavirus cases rising each day in large numbers, the department has decided to go slow. In fact, Tourism Minister C T Ravi has asked travellers coming in from Bengaluru not to flock to districts like Chikkamagaluru and adjoining hilly districts. Tourists have had to encounter locals who were quite agitated by the tourist movement in the district. There have been clashes too. The tourism industry had gained momentum with package tours and eco-tourism activities, ... Read more

tourHQ, the global marketplace connecting travellers with tour guides, has partnered with Makemytrip and Goibibo to bring online travel experiences to the Indian market. These experiences have been specially curated for the Indian clientele and will allow them to get the “Travel Wali Feeling” from the comfort of their home. The online experiences are varied and seek to recreate the buzz that people get from their travels – detailed tours of city attractions, introduction to local culture, breath-taking views and interaction with locals. What’s unique is that these tours are live streamed via video call, where the hosts do the ... Read more

Himachal Pradesh has made it mandatory for tourists to show COVID-19 negative test reports from an ICMR recognised lab. Those coming in without the test reports will be denied entry. The state has decided to open the state for tourists and the tourism department will issue standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the functioning of the industry today. Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said that on the basis of the guidelines from the Ministry of Home Affairs, there will not be any restrictions on movements of people. “Registrations would be mandatory and we would keep a record if someone is tested ... Read more