Category: Top Three Stories

The Mumbai international airport has broke its own world record of handling most flight movements in 24 hours. The airport, which is the busiest single runway airport in the world, handled 1,003 flights in a single days. The previous record held by the Mumbai airport handled landing and departure of 980 flights in February this year. London’s Gatwick airport is the distant second on the list with over 800 flight movements per day. The sudden upsurge in the number of flights operating from the Mumbai airport could be attributed to a storm on Monday. Many flights were spilled over to Tuesday ... Read more

Emiratis have started tasting Tripura’s ‘Queen’ variety of pineapples for the first time from this week onwards. The Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb has flagged off a tonne consignment to Dubai this Sunday on a SpiceJet aircraft via New Delhi. SpiceJet has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the state government-run Tripura Horticulture Corp and a Kolkata-based company to facilitate the exports. President Ramnath Kovind, who is expected to visit Tripura tomorrow would declare the ‘Queen’ variety of pineapple as the state fruit. The declaration of state fruit would be made at a civic reception organised by the state government in honour ... Read more

In a move to encourage collaboration between the tourism industry and stakeholders, a 3-day Telangana Tourism Conclave will be held from June 28th in Hyderabad. The conclave will be conducted jointly by the Ftapcci (Federation of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry) and Global Panorama Showcase Ltd (GPS), Nagpur. As per reports, the first day of conclave will witness a knowledge seminar and the next two days will be for B2B interactions through a trade show. “Time has come to showcase the meeting point of India and Telangana. There is immense scope for job creation in the tourism ... Read more

Andhra Pradesh’s Krishna district is soon to have passport printing and Gulf visa application centres soon. “Once we get the passport printing facility here we can get passports printed and delivered quickly. Also, we are going to get visa centres of the Gulf countries. People travelling to the Gulf will be spared the trouble of visiting other States to get visas,” Krishna Collector B Lakshmikantham explained the plans. The people of Krishna district are depending on he Regional Passport Office in Visakhapatnam to get passports at present. The Collector also informed that the proposal for international flights from Vijayawada to Dubai via ... Read more

Saudi Arabia has issued its first driver’s licenses to 10 women as the kingdom prepares to lift the world’s only ban on women driving in three weeks. The Saudi General Traffic Directorate began to issue domestic driving licences to women who have international ones. Though the Kingdom has started to grant licenses to women, a number of women who’d campaigned for the right to drive are under arrest and facing charges related to their activism. The 10 women who were issued licenses already held driving licenses from other countries, including US, UK, Lebanon and Canada. They took a brief driving test and ... Read more

The Andhra Pradesh government is planning for a Rs 115 crore tourism development in Amaravati. Amaravati Development Corporation Ltd (ADCL) is asked to identify private firms for development of two family entertainment centres (FECs) for Rs 30 crore each, one sports and recreation club for Rs 25 crore, and a resort for Rs 30 crore. One of the family entertainment centres will come up in Sakhamuru village in two acres, and the other will be built in another two acres at Inavolu village. Inavolu will also house the resort and sports and recreation club in three and four acres respectively. While the ADCL has ... Read more

Tibet’s recent tourism statistics show that it has seen dramatic growth in tourism revenue in the first five months this year. From January to May, Tibet welcomed 5.6 million tourists, up 38 per cent Compared to the previous year. Total revenue also rose 41.4 per cent to 7.1 billion yuan (about 1.1 billion U.S. dollars), according to the regional Tourism Development Commission. Though the destination faced bitter weather this winter, the government’s intervention has saved it big way. The regional government came up with discounts, charter flights and train services to attract more domestic and overseas tourists in January this ... Read more

Emirates has launched a new non-stop service between Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) and Dubai from 1 June 2018, adding to its existing daily flight which operates with a stop in Athens, Greece. The new non-stop service is operated with an Emirates Boeing 777-300ER, offering 8 suites in First Class, 42 seats in Business, 306 in Economy Class, and 19 tonnes of belly-hold cargo capacity. Flight EK223 departs Dubai at 03 am and arrive in Newark at 09 am. The return flight EK224 departs Newark at 1150am, arriving in Dubai at 08.20 am the next day. Emirates’ non-stop service to ... Read more

British Airways has launched a new weekly service to Manchester. Welcoming the new service, Vincent Harrison (Dublin Airport Managing Director) said, “We are delighted to see British Airways expand its route network from Dublin Airport and I have no doubt this new service will be popular for both Irish and UK-based passengers.” “We’re thrilled to be able to grow our summer schedule from Dublin Airport, offering our customers access to our new Manchester route. Manchester is a city known for being unique and eclectic with plenty of restaurants, shops and museums for visitors to enjoy, our new flight is ideal for travellers ... Read more

Etihad Airways has announced the introduction of a new scheduled service linking Abu Dhabi, capital of the UAE, and Barcelona, Spain, effective 21 November 2018. The route will initially be operated five times a week by a two-class Airbus A330-200 before becoming a daily operation from 31 March 2019. Barcelona will become the second city in Spain served by Etihad Airways, complementing the airline’s existing daily service to the capital Madrid. The new link will provide business and leisure travellers with convenient timings to travel between Abu Dhabi and Barcelona, also providing seamless onward connections through Abu Dhabi to major ... Read more

The reports and statistics indicate that tourism is the major source of income for all countries and Sweden is earning huge revenue through it. The total expenditure of tourists in Sweden amounted to 317 billion kronor, recording a 7.4 per cent increase when compared to 2016. This makes 2017 the all-time best year for tourism. The tourists from other countries accounted to 42 per cent of the total tourist expenditure. Tourism also contributed to the total exports of the country last year, registering a growth of 6.3 per cent in total exports. The scenic nature is what makes the tourists ... Read more

Sri Lanka is trying to woo more Chinese tourists to the island nation. As part of its marketing efforts, the Minister of Tourism Development John Amaratunga has held talks with Chinese tourism and airline officials to encourage more visitors to Sri Lanka from China. The talks were held during a visit to promote the island at the Shanghai World Travel Fair held at Shanghai Exhibition Centre in China. The team has conducted a series of promotional events and meetings across major cities in China, including Shanghai, Nanjing and Chengdu, during the past week. The Sri Lankan tourism minister has held talks with Xu Weiwan, ... Read more

Vanchikulam freshwater lake was once a busy waterway connecting Thrissur and Kochi. However, the waterway lost all its prominence with the arrival of Shoranur-Kochi rail line and NH47, and soon turned out into a waste dumping yard. Now, Thrissur Corporation and Tourism Department has made plans to restore the waterway and convert it into a tourism hub. The inauguration of first phase works was done recently by Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran. The construction works will be headed by the Kerala State Nirmithi Kendra. The plan is to revive Vanchikulam as an eco-friendly park with solar lighting system. A walkway, cycle track, ... Read more

As the Telangana state celebrates its 4th anniversary, the government’s prime lift irrigation project Kaleshwaram will be added to the tour circuit on June 2nd. The Telangana State Tourism Development Corporation (TSTDC) will have a day-long special tour from Hyderabad to Kaleshwaram. They will also be conducting a paragliding event from Jun 3rd-5th at Bison Polo Grounds, Secunderabad, first of its kind in the state. Another exciting initiative is the ‘Telangana Formation Flight-2018,’ which will have an aircraft fly past the audience at the Bison Polo Grounds fluttering national flag and showering flower petals over them. The itinerary of the ... Read more

In a move to promote cruise tourism substantially, the Union Government has planned to develop terminals at major ports. The government plans to make a single company in charge of executing the contracts of maintenance and operations of cruise terminals. The cruise terminals at 4-5 ports will be maintained and operated by one company. The contracts will be implemented by the Ministry of Shipping after discussing with the major port authorities and state naval boards. Reports suggest that Mumbai port will be set as the as home port. The ports in New Mangalore, Goa and Chennai will be ports of call where ships will be ... Read more