Category: Top Stories

  Union tourism Minister K J Alphonse has unveiled the new Tourism Policy of Uttarakhand on 8th October 2018. He was participating in the ‘Destination Uttarakhand Investors Summit 2018. Yes Bank was the ‘Knowledge Partner’ of the new Uttarakhand Tourism Policy 2018. With the new policy, Tourism gets ‘Industry’ status and thereby creating investment opportunity for investors through favorable incentives, subsidies and provisions. The policy also lays down a road map for the Govt. of Uttarakhand’s flagship project ‘13 districts, 13 destinations’ scheme for systematic development of these destinations. The policy will enable investors to capitalize on the huge Tourism ... Read more

As part of the incessant efforts of the state to lure tourists to the valley, the Kashmir tourism department has held road shows at Moscow and St Petersburg. Tasaduq Jeelani, Director Tourism, Kashmir, said that the responses from the tour operators were positive. “I personally talked to the heads of the travel trade from Moscow and St Petersburg, who assured that they would send groups to Jammu and Kashmir for holidays, especially for adventure and heritage tourism,” said Jeelani. Other than presentations, showcasing Jammu and Kashmir’s diverse culture, art and craft, breath-taking beauty of Kashir; few short films highlighting the ... Read more

Floating Market in Pengkalan Tok Kuning, is the new tourist attraction in the state of Perils, Malaysia, by offering experience like traveling abroad. The innovative concept was implemented by the Perlis Fishing and Recreation Club to offer a unique travel and shopping experience to the visitors. The floating market is located about 5 Km from Kangar Town. It will give visitors the opportunity to buy food stuff and other items sold from boats. “The market will operate consistently every two weeks on Sundays from 5 pm to 10 pm accompanied by about 50 fishing boats,” said Mohammed Noor Hashim, Chairman ... Read more

Scattered across the scenic Verzasca Valley, the Swiss village of Corippo is slowly becoming a ghost town. It was dwelling of 300 people during the 19th Century, but now population has dropped to just 12 inhabitants with a reported average age of 75. These dismal records have incited fears that the village is lumbering towards extinction, as concerns shared by rural communities across Europe. Young people have been leaving the village due to lack of opportunities and a preference for city life. However, an innovative solution to Corippo’s revival has been proposed; turn the village into a hotel. In fact ... Read more

Low-cost air carrier AirAsia has announced the launch of a new flight service connecting Visakhapatnam and Bangkok. The service, which begins from December 8, will operate on four weekdays from Vizag to Bangkok (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday) and the return flights from Bangkok to Vizag would be on Monday, Wednesday. Friday and Sunday. “Travel to Bangkok will be hassle-free and visa on arrival will be given to tourists at Bangkok. Further, the airlines has air-connection from Bangkok to 21 destinations within that country. It is also a major hub with international flights to different destinations in the country,” said Rajkumar ... Read more

The authorities have officially opened the Dudhsagar waterfalls, situated deep within the Bhagwan Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary. The new season commenced on Tuesday with 1,127 tourists recorded on day one. The all-terrain vehicles ferrying passengers to and fro needs prior permission from the forest department. This season, almost 431 such vehicles have been registered with the state wildlife board. The forest department has restricted the number of trips by the all-terrain vehicles to 170 per day during weekdays and 225 per day on weekends. Daily tourists footfalls are restricted to 1190 and 1575 on weekdays and weekends respectively. The forest department ... Read more

Chile has opened a massive new hiking trail that spans a third of the country and connects 17 national parks. The new hiking route through the region of Patagonia, starts from Puerto Montt all the way to Cape Horn. The route comprises three already existing hiking trails and links them into one contiguous route. The land was donated to the Chilean government by Tompkins Conservation, an organization founded by American billionaire and North Face and Esprit founder Douglas Tompkins and his wife. After the tragic death of Tompkins, his widow donated 408,000 hectares of land to the Chilean government with the purpose of creating five new ... Read more

Photo Courtesy: NPS Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, which houses one of the world’s most active volcanoes, and the world’s most massive shield volcano, has reopened after being closed for more than four months. Kilauea volcano, one of the world’s most active volcanoes, situated in the park, erupted in May 2018 and caused widespread damage to park infrastructure and dramatically changed its landscape. The park had been closed for 134 days as volcanic activity caused explosive eruptions, earthquakes and the collapse of the famed Halemaumau crater. More than 15,000 people visited the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park since it partially reopened on September 22, 2018. ... Read more

Zari with State Minister of Tourism Godfrey Kiwanda Suubi Ugandan Ministry of Tourism has appointed Zari Hassan as the ambassador for Tourism in the country. It was announced by State Minister of Tourism Godfrey Kiwanda Suubi after a meeting with Zari at his office. Zarinah Hassan, commonly known as Zari, is a Ugandan socialite, musician and businesswoman, who resides in South Africa, where she runs a chain of schools and student hostels and other businesses. Zari is the face of Danube furniture that recently opened a branch in Uganda with headquartered in UAE. She is also the Mercedes Benz brand ... Read more

Warangal is not just a historic or heritage location anymore. The Telangana State Tourism Development Corporation (TSTDC) has come up with a health spa in Warangal. The spa aims at providing healthcare through Ayurvedic procedures. TSTDC in association with the Haritha Hotels and Hitayu Ayurvedic and Physiotherapy Hospital has come up with the idea with an aim to promote medical and wellness tourism in the region. The spa is functioning at the healthcare facility in the Haritha hotel. The spa is also open for the locals. The healthcare centre offers authentic Ayurvedic medicines and Kerala Panchakarma procedures. Dr G Suresh Kumar ... Read more

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is all set to organise Ayurstart, a startup challenge programme to lure young entrepreneurs into Ayurveda medicinal and therapeutic industry. CII said it will work with the Kerala Startup Mission to identify and support the best ideas that are generated through Ayurstart 2018. The programme will be held on the second day of the Global Ayurveda Summit scheduled to be held at Le Méridien, Kochi from November 21 to 23. “There were 1,150-odd manufacturers in the Ayurveda domain a decade ago, but the numbers have declined to around 650 now. We have to promote innovative startups ... Read more

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said the state was in the process of developing 13 new hill stations to give a boost to tourism as older destinations such as Nainital and Mussoorie had reached saturation. The minister was speaking at an investors summit in Dehradun in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “From the point of view of tourism, the 170-year-old Nainital and the around 200-year-old Mussoorie have reached saturation point. We have started working on 13 new destinations in 13 districts. We have also identified the locations and to develop the infrastructure a detailed project planning is being ... Read more

Dubai is all ready to host a massive yoga festival at the Dubai Internet City Amphitheatre from November 15-17, 2018. The event comes with a jam-packed schedule of free-to-attend yoga sessions, meditation circles and yoga-related activities for fans of all ages. The festival begins on Thursday evening in the meditation tent, and continues with two full days of sessions led by some of Dubai’s best-known yoga and meditation practitioners along with visiting guest teachers. Healthy food and exciting retail spaces round out this holistic weekend festival. “Yogafest is about connecting you to nature, to yourself and to like minded people in ... Read more

Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF), the largest shopping and entertainment extravaganza, is starting on 26th Dec 2018 and will last for one month long. Last day of the festival is 26th Jan 2019 There will be retail sales, deals and discounts from top global brands, and there will be mega prizes up for grabs, from luxury cars, gold and cash. Aside from opportunities to save money and win prizes, DSF organizers have also lined up activities to up the stake in entertainment during the month-long festival, further reiterating the event as a global attraction. Details of the exclusive offers will be ... Read more

Kerala Tourism department is inviting application for tour guide training programmes at state and regional levels. There are 50 seats available for the state level course and 200 seats for the regional level. Training centers will be in Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, Thrissur and Thalassery. Last date to submit the application is 22nd October 2018. Duration for the state level course is 9 weeks and 4 weeks for the regional level. Course fees is Rs 25,000 for the state level and 9,000 for the regional level; 50 per cent of the fess will be borne by the tourism department. Selection will be ... Read more