Category: Top Stories

Since Kerala’s busiest airport, the Kochi International Airport, remain closed due to the floods, additional services will be operated from Thiruvananthapuram Airport. As per the authorities, 36 international and 12 domestic services will be operated today. Additional flights are mostly to the Middle East region. Meanwhile, 70 seater small aircrafts have started operating from Kochi naval base since yesterday. Currently, AllianceAir is flying to Bengaluru and Coimbatore from Kochi. Indigo is also planning to begin operations from Kochi soon. Resuming of services from the Kochi International Airport is still uncertain. As per the previous circular, it will remain closed until ... Read more

New Zealand is becoming one of the favourite destinations for Indians. During the past four years, number of Indian tourists to New Zealand has doubled from 33,000 to 66,000. Considering this remarkable growth in the inbound tourists from India, New Zealand tourism has expanded its annual travel trade event, Kiwi Link India, this year. “It is a platform for Indian travel agents, product managers and planners to interact with New Zealand operators and understand the new developments and market perceptions in the tourism sector,” said Steven Dixon, Regional Manager, South and South-East Asia, Tourism New Zealand, on his recent trip ... Read more

Tourism has excelled the construction industry in Spain in terms of employment generation. As per a recent survey by the Spanish Institute of Tourism, 2.65 million people are engaged in different sectors of tourism, which represent around 13.7 percentage of the total population of the nation, meanwhile construction sector account for around 13.1 per cent. The demand for workers in the tourism sector has been steadily rising year by year. According to the survey, more than 2.2 million people were employed in tourism in the second during 2014, which has increased to 2.6 million now, depicting a hike of nearly ... Read more

Meghalaya, a place known for its scenic beauty, is home to some of the country’s majestic caves. Now, they have a “golden cave” as well. Krem Liat Prah, Krem Puri, Krem Mawsmai, Siju, Krem Mawjymbuin and Krem Kotsati are some of the renowned caves found in the enchanting Khasi, Jaintia and Garo Hills. In the village of Jalaphet, lies a newly discovered cave which awaits promotion to a tourist destination. Jalaphet, a village situated 15km away from the district headquarters, Khliehriat (East Jaintia Hills), comprises two villages, Jalaphet Bri-Sutnga and Jalaphet Bri-Sumer. In March, the villagers discovered the cave in ... Read more

Jet Airways has announced that it will operate additional flights from Thiruvananthapuram, since the water clogged airport of Kochi is still not suitable for operating normal flights. “We are committed in our support to the people impacted due to #KeralaFloods and sincerely hope the situation stabilises soon”, tweeted the airline. The additional domestic flights announced are as follows: From August 19th to 26th – Mumbai to Trivandrum at 10:40, Trivandrum to Mumbai at 13:25, Bengaluru to Trivandrum at 10:30, Trivandrum to Bengaluru at 12:35. From August 21st and 22nd – Mumbai to Trivandrum at 13:30 and Trivandrum to Mumbai at ... Read more

AirAsia X has launched flights between Kuala Lumpur and Amritsar. The evening flights, D7188 and D7189, will operate four times per week on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Passengers from 15 cities, including Bali, Melbourne, Sydney, Singapore and Bangkok, will be able to connect (via Kuala Lumpur) to Amritsar alongside existing routes to New Delhi and Jaipur using AirAsia’s Fly-Thru service. “We are excited to bring the AirAsia experience to Amritsar for the very first time. Amritsar is of significant interest to tourists thanks to the Harmandir Sahib (The Golden Temple) and the city’s numerous historic and cultural sites. Following ... Read more

The current mosque, located across the street only has a capacity for 600 worshippers. The new mosque will be able to accommodate 1,600 persons and under the second phase later, we plan to have an area for solemnization ceremony. The project contractor is currently working at the decoration works in order to complete the project before September 16. The design inspiration had been taken from mosques in Turkey which has unique dome and minaret features. “Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg has stated that the mosque will be another significant landmark along the Sarawak river and the old Kuching bazaar ... Read more

Bulgaria’s revenue from foreign tourist arrivals saw a rise by an annual 9.7 per cent to 1.3 billion euro ($1.5 billion) in the first six months of 2018, the tourism ministry said on Friday, quoting data from the central bank. In June alone, Bulgaria’s revenue from foreign tourist arrivals increased by 8.1 per cent year-on-year to 490 million euro, the tourism ministry said in a statement. Some 3.6 million foreign tourists visited Bulgaria in the first half of 2018, up 8.9 per cent compared to the same period of last year.

Following the steps of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan said it has decided to employ special police force to provide security for tourists who visit the nation. Zamirbek Soltongeldiev, an official in Kyrgyzstan’s Interior Ministry, informed that the “tourist police” will be formed by the end of 2018. “Positions in the new police unit will be available after structural changes within the police force. Preference will be given to candidates with knowledge of foreign languages,” Soltongeldiev said. The announcement comes days after authorities in Tajikistan created a tourist police force in response to an attack on July 29 that killed four foreign cyclists. Kyrgyzstan ... Read more

Naulakha Mandir, Deoghar The Jharkhand High Court referred about a more “proactive role” of the state government to promote tourism in the state. The HC has suggested that the government should open information kiosks at Birsa Munda Airport in Ranchi and railway stations to help visitors. A division bench of Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice Ratnaker Bhengra, while hearing a PIL filed by one Babloo Kumar, said the kiosks could come up at the airport and railway stations of primary districts to begin with. The bench noted that districts like Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Deoghar, and Dhanbad could have tourist information ... Read more

Photo for representative purpose only In order to provide relief aids to the flood ridden areas of the state, tourism fraternity of Kerala in association with Kerala Tourism Department & Kerala Travel Mart Society has setup a centralized relief collection centre at University Women’s Association Hall, Jawahar Nagar, Trivandrum, near the Lions Club building. Those who wish to participate in this noble cause can send their contributions in the form of food and other daily need items. The goods  can be delivered at the collection center in University Womens Association Hall  between 7am and 10pm.  Those who cannot reach the ... Read more

The Fort-based Horniman Circle garden, built by the British-era, will have a face-lift as informed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s heritage department. Tenders for the same will be floated within two months. The renovation works will include new lighting and iron-fencing The Horniman Circle garden was built in 1872 and is spread over 12,000 square yards. The area had been known as Bombay Green in the 18th century, while the area around it was called Elphinstone Circle. After Independence, the area was renamed in honour of Benjamin Horniman, editor of The Bombay Chronicle newspaper, to recognize his role in the ... Read more

Singapore Airlines (SIA) said it will be replacing its Boeing B777 with B787-10 on the Delhi-Singapore route by the end of October with an aim to increase seat capacity from India.  The SIA 787-10s are configured with 337 seats compared to the previous aircraft which had 266 seats. With these 71 seats extra, the capacity will increase by 10 [er cent. “To promote Boeing 787-10 services, we are also announcing special premium economy and business class fares to San Francisco and Los Angeles (Rs 88,000 & Rs 188,000, respectively),” said David Lim, Singapore Airlines, General Manager-India. SIA also plans to operate the ... Read more

In order to enhance inbound foreign tourism, the Odisha tourism department is joining hands with the major state-based hoteliers to tap the franchise business model with leading brands like Hilton Group, Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, Radisson Hotels, Taj Group and Starwood. The tourism ministry hopes, collaboration with renowned hotel brands would help propagate Odisha as a global tourism destination. Recently, the state tourism department had a word with the leading hospitality brands, seeking collaboration for enhancing the tourism industry of the state. Odisha is having a gloomy record in attracting international tourists and hopes the collaborations with the leading local ... Read more

Vistara became the first airline to launch new flights to Trivandrum to evacuate passengers stuck in Kerala due to floods caused by unprecedented rains. “We are operating special flights to TRV (Trivandrum) in view of COK (Kochi) airport closure for the next three days. Flights will operate from DEL and MAA (Chennai). We do not normally operate to TRV, and have made special arrangements,” Vistara’s chief strategy and commercial officer tweeted today. Vistara does not operate to Trivandrum currently and has launched this flight after the airport was shut today due to floods. The operations from Kochi airport, where the airline ... Read more