Category: India

Air India will fly 114 flights while IndiGo and GoAir will operate 457 and 41 flights respectively between July 3 and July 15 under the fourth phase of the Vande Bharat Mission, news agency PTI has reported. The government started the mega mission to evacuate stranded Indians from abroad on May 6. Scheduled international passenger flights have been suspended in India since March 23 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Under the fourth phase of the mission, Air India will operate 114 flights to India from 17 countries. Canada, the US, the UK, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Kyrgyzstan, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, ... Read more

Various stakeholders representing Pahalgam tourism on Sunday requested the administration to allow tourists from other districts to visit Pahalgam so that local businesses can survive the COVID-19 aftermath. The point was raised at a meeting organised by the Pahalgam hoteliers, tourist taxi operators, adventure operators, pony wallas and other tourism allied service providers. The meeting was presided by Faheem Behaqi, sub-divisional magistrate of Pahalgam. The tourism trade representatives requested that since there are no tourists coming from outside, it would be good if administration would allow locals to visit Pahalgam. The representatives were informed that the Jammu & Kashmir tourism ... Read more

The Hotel and Restaurant Association of Odisha (HRAO) has urged the Indian government for long term measures to save the hotel industry from sinking further, due to the pandemic. In a letter to Union Tourism Minister Prahlad Singh Patel, HRAO chairman JK Mohanty said although hotels have been allowed to run with 30% capacity, there is no occupancy as people are scared to travel by trains and flights. The hoteliers said they have not yet received any relief either from the Centre or the State Government despite the repeated appeals explaining the miserable condition.      Meanwhile, the Odisha Cultural Circle ... Read more

The Ministry of Tourism as part of its Dekho Apna Desh webinar series featured ‘Vedic Food and Spices of India’, in an attempt to showcase ancient culinary wisdom. Two renowned chefs, Rajeev Goyal and chef Gautam, held centre stage. While Rajeev Goyal is a culinary tourism expert and the president of India Food Tourism Org, the first of its kind food tour company in India, chef Gautam has been closely associated with some of the leading premium brands such as Radisson, Oberoi before heading to the Beverly Hills in the US. From adding a sprig of tulsi in the water ... Read more

The Uttarakhand government is trying to generate more employment opportunities for the youth of the state, by starting an online registration facility under the Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali Tourism Self-Employment Scheme. Under the scheme, the beneficiary can purchase buses/electric buses to operate on state routes and avail 50% subsidy or up to Rs 15 lakhs for the purchase of the bus. This self-employment scheme has been provided to the people of Uttarakhand state and the buses will be operated only on the designated routes of the Uttarakhand Transport Corporation. Along with this, it will also be mandatory that all such ... Read more

Air India has announced eight evacuation flights between India and Australia under the Vande Bharat Mission. The flights will be operated from July 1 to July 14. Bookings will begin on June 28 from 12 PM — only on the Air India website. The national carrier will operate four flights each to Melbourne and Sydney. Since May, Air India has carried out repatriation flights under the Vande Bharat Mission. Recently,  the US, France and the UAE governments raised objections to these flights saying that India was not allowing these countries to carry out their own repatriation flights. While India was ... Read more

To showcase the benefits of India’s ancient form of health science – yoga – and the potential of it as a tourism product, the Ministry of Tourism presented a webinar on ‘India as a Yoga Destination’ under the Dekho Apna Desh series. The webinar highlighted the current yoga landscape and how it can be leveraged to broad base and scale up tourism in India. The session was moderated by Rupinder Brar, additional director general of Ministry of Tourism and  presented by Achal Mehra who is the CEO of Greenway (a social impact company) and founder of an eco-friendly resort Mahua ... Read more

Rajasthan’s tourism minister Vishvendra Singh has expressed his public displeasure at the functioning of the tourism department in the state. The coronavirus outbreak has severely impacted the sector, counted as one of the major sources of Rajasthan’s revenue. In a series of tweets, the minister questioned the indifferent working of the department officials and their shortcomings while urging chief minister Ashok Gehlot to take harsh action against the errant officials. “I have maintained a silence on too many things for too long, going against my temperament and work ethics. But, my chief minister, has always advocated transparency and in that ... Read more

Commercial international flights to and from India will continue to remain suspended till July 15, according to a government release issued on Friday. A circular released by the Director General of Civil Aviation in New Delhi said that “scheduled International commercial passenger services to/from India shall remain suspended till 23:59 hours IST of 15th July, 2020.” It specified that this restriction will not apply to international cargo operations and certain flights specifically approved by the aviation regulator. The official release says some international scheduled flights on “select routes” may be allowed by the competent authorities on a case to case ... Read more

Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren on Thursday directed senior officials to initiate action to acquire ITDC’s Ranchi Ashok Bihar Hotel that had been lying idle for over three years. At a meeting held at the state secretariat at Project Bhavan, Hemant discussed the possibility of a full take-over of the property with chief secretary Sukhdev Singh, his principal secretary Rajeev Arun Ekka, finance and planning secretary Himani Pandey and tourism secretary Pooja Singhal. The hotel was established as a joint venture between Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) and Bihar Tourism and started functioning in January 1987 when Ranchi was in ... Read more

India’s leading heritage hotel chain, WelcomHeritage, has announced the appointment of Abinash Manghani as its Chief Executive Officer. Earlier, he was with the ITC Hotels where he was responsible for the leisure & luxury verticals nationally and area manager for north India. He has been in the hospitality industry for over three decades. Speaking on his appointment, Abinash Manghani, CEO, WelcomHeritage said, “I am extremely delighted to join the WelcomHeritage group.” “WelcomHeritage Hotels, Palaces and Resorts are uniquely positioned and offer a “Safe Haven” during this pandemic. We have started the ‘Safety Ensured” initiative at all our properties to ensure cleanliness and disinfection ... Read more

The Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL), which owns the Taj group of hotels, has announced the launch of its online food delivery platform, Qmin. Consumers can use the platform to order food from eight restaurants in Mumbai including Golden Dragon and Souk from Taj Mahal Palace, Thai Pavilion and Trattoria from President and Ming Yang from Taj Lands’ End to name a few. The launch will cover top ten markets in India including Delhi, Chennai and Bengaluru among others over a period of five weeks. The Qmin mobile application will be launched on July 25. Puneet Chhatwal, managing director and ... Read more

The Oberoi Group, in association with Tourism Industry Stake Holders Association (TISHA) and Shimla Hotel Restaurant Association (SHRA), conducted an awareness programme on COVID preparedness on Thursday. Aligned with the Standard Operating Procedures issued by the Government of Himachal Pradesh, the programme was conducted with the vision to educate and build confidence amongst the hoteliers and restaurateurs in the state. The purpose of this programme was to help the hoteliers of Himachal Pradesh learn the finest practices and deliberate strategies for implementing high standards of safety measures. The training programme focussed on preparing the hotels to be COVID ready in ... Read more

The Delhi Hotel and Restaurant Owners Association on Thursday announced that Chinese nationals would no longer be provided accommodation in over 3,000 hotels and guest houses across the city. Said association president Sandeep Khandelwal, “The Chinese are not the world, we can survive without them as well. We are all law-abiding citizens and no one will take law in their hands, but this would make the Chinese worried. War and trade cannot happen at the same time.” Khandelwal added that the association would also try to get five-star hotels on board with this decision. While a majority of hotels have ... Read more

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given his approval for declaring Kushinagar Airport in Uttar Pradesh as an international airport, during a cabinet meeting. Its elevation as an international airport will help the state to grow its tourism fortunes. Kushinagar Airport is located in the vicinity of several Buddhist Cultural Sites like Sravasti, Kapilvastu, and Lumbini. Kushinagar itself is a Buddhist cultural site. Declaring it an international airport will offer improved connectivity, wider choice of competitive costs to air-travellers from Kushinagar. It will result in boosting domestic/international tourism and economic development of the region. Kushinagar is located in the north-eastern part of Uttar ... Read more