Category: Top Stories

Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi has announced that a travel corridor arrangement has been set up with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to facilitate essential business trips, which included official and diplomatic visits. The minister said Indonesia proposed the agreement after consulting with related government bodies, as well as their counterparts in the UAE, Jakarta Post reports. “Indonesia and the UAE signed an agreement on an essential business travel corridor. The agreement is effective immediately,” Retno said. The travel corridor agreement, she added, was strictly for essential business travel such as businesspeople and diplomats, but not for tourists. The agreement ... Read more

Air India has announced 12 additional flights from August 18-30 to Canada and Vancouver from Delhi under the 5th phase of the Vande Bharat Mission. Bookings for the flights are now open on the airline’s official website or booking offices. As India is set to begin the fifth phase, more bilateral air bubbles are expected to be announced with more countries. The fourth phase of the Vande Bharat Mission brought back as much as 2.5 lakh Indians from 53 countries around the world. Under phase 4, a total of 1,197 flights have been scheduled so far, including 945 international flights ... Read more

The responsible restart of tourism is underway around the world as growing numbers of destinations ease COVID-19 related travel restrictions and adapt to the new reality. According to the latest analysis from the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), 40% of all destinations worldwide have now eased the restrictions they placed on international tourism in response to COVID-19. The United Nations specialized agency for tourism has been monitoring global responses to the pandemic from the start of the crisis. This latest outlook, recorded on 19 July, is up from 22% of destinations that had eased restrictions on travel by 15 June and the 3% ... Read more

Flight bookings from India to Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah will resume from today, Air India has announced. The airline has opened bookings for India-UAE flights on the departure leg of the repatriation flights under the Vande Bharat Mission. The bookings will be open till August 15. Bookings are however open for residence visa holders with ICA or GDRFA approval and a valid Covid-19 PCR test report in the printed form, from a government-approved laboratory. The airline has notified passengers not to travel with expired ICA or GDRFA approvals. Only resident permit passengers with stamped passport copy can book tickets ... Read more

Flagging off the first helicopter service by Pawan Hans in Uttarakhand under the UDAN-RCS scheme, Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said the launch of the heli-service will support tourism in the region. Commencement of the new heli services will enhance the aerial connectivity between hilly regions in Uttarakhand and bring down the average travel time to 20-25 minutes. This will also assist the Char Dham Yatra pilgrims. Char Dham is a set of four pilgrimage sites in India comprising Badrinath, Dwaraka, Puri and Rameswaram. Pawan Hans Ltd will operate thrice-weekly helicopter services on this route. Viability Gap Funding (VGF) is ... Read more

Italy’s latest stimulus package, aimed at helping the economy overcome the coronavirus pandemic, will offer help to the tourism and auto sectors, Reuters reports. Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday that such a move was much needed and urgent. The government has said it will present the measures in an emergency decree in early August. A source told Reuters this month that slightly less than 1 billion euros ($1.17 billion) would be put forward to strengthen current incentives to encourage sales of state-of-the-art combustion engine cars as well as electric and hybrid vehicles. Gualtieri did not ... Read more

The Mizoram government is working on a new tourism policy, which will aim at enhancing livelihood of people, North East Now has reported. The new policy will make way for more funding support from the Centre and other stakeholders, the report said quoting an official. A draft of the new policy will be circulated among the various government departments for assessment, and it is expected to be tabled during the next Assembly session after approval from the State Cabinet. “Though the government has an existing tourism policy, we are drafting a new one known as Mizoram Responsible Tourism Policy, 2020, ... Read more

Governments have a duty to put the wellbeing of their citizens first. At the same time, they also have a responsibility to protect livelihoods and businesses, says World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) secretary Zurab Pololikashvili. This goes hand-in-hand with a responsibility to preserve the spirit of international solidarity that has characterized our response to this shared crisis, a response that has included international institutions, the civil society at large and individual citizens. Again and again, the pandemic puts us to the test and proves that we are stronger if we act together and not in isolation. Unilateral actions can cause confusion and produce ... Read more

Dubai-based carrier Emirates has rolled out a new online gateway to serve its travel trade partners around the world. Tailored for each market, and personalised for each partner to cater to their unique business environment and needs, the Emirates Partners Portal is designed as a one-stop shop for travel industry partners to quickly and securely access the full range of information on Emirates’ latest products, services and policies, and obtain technical support. The portal also offers a range of functions including self-service tools and support, and in-built automation of business processes, all aimed at delivering efficiency for travel partners, as ... Read more

The Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) has said that Indian and foreign airlines be allowed to operate, to revive the travel industry. The industry body said the government should allow foreigners to travel to India on a reciprocal basis. While there has been a substantial easing of lockdown conditions in line with phase one and two, phase three remains a crucial decision for the country, it said, according to a report by news agency ANI. FICCI said clear-cut dates should be announced by the states to open tourism, monuments, tourist attractions, hotels, restaurants and bars. All restaurants ... Read more

A cruise ship carrying 1,200 passengers set sail from Keelung Port on Sunday, on the first commercial sea tour since Taiwan imposed travel restrictions due to the COVID-19, the Maritime and Port Bureau said. The “Explorer Dream,” however, will visit only domestic ports, namely the islands of Penghu and Matsu, according to the operator, says a report by Focus Taiwan. With 1,200 tourists on board, the cruise liner will stop at Penghu and Matsu, before returning to Keelung in northern Taiwan on July 29, the operating company Dream Cruises said. Dream Cruises said it will offer 30 similar trips over ... Read more

Spain is safe for tourists and Spaniards, the government insisted on Sunday after Britain abruptly imposed a two-week coronavirus quarantine on travellers returning from there, says a Reuters report. Last year, Britons made up over a fifth of foreign visitors to Spain, which relies heavily on tourism revenues, meaning the UK move could deal a hard blow to efforts to restart the Mediterranean country’s economy after months of lockdown. “Spain is safe, it is safe for Spaniards, it is safe for tourists,” Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya told reporters. The Spanish government will focus its efforts on trying to persuade ... Read more

Airlines are taking extreme measures to survive the pandemic, with Asiana Airlines Inc. flying the world’s biggest commercial plane more than 20 times, going nowhere and carrying no passengers, just to keep trainee pilots certified, Bloomberg has said. Keeping crew flight-ready is one of the challenges carriers face as they grapple with the unprecedented crisis that keeps more than a third of the world’s fleet grounded. The empty Airbus SE A380 flew over South Korea for a few hours a day for three days in May to enable pilots of the 495-seat superjumbo to practice taking off and landing. The ... Read more

The Norwegian government will make an exception for Tom Cruise and his crew to shoot parts of his latest “Mission: Impossible” movie in Norway this autumn without imposing quarantine requirements, says a Reuters report. Production of the seventh and eighth instalments of Paramount Pictures’ lucrative action movie franchise was halted in February due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The seventh movie is currently scheduled for release in November 2021 and the eighth in November 2022. Cruise will reprise his role as secret agent Ethan Hunt in both movies with Christopher McQuarrie returning as director. “It (the filming) will be carried out ... Read more

Bulgaria’s new Tourism Minister, Mariana Nikolova, has said the country’s resorts, tourist attractions, rich history and natural beauty need advertising as safe and secure destinations for vacationing. Today, people working in tourism need the support of the state as is done in all European countries, she said, according to a report by Novinite. “I take on the Ministry of Tourism with the clear awareness that the most affected industry in the world from the pandemic is tourism. There is no forecast to give us a horizon when people’s travel will return to the pace and volume to which we were accustomed to earlier,” she said. ... Read more