Category: India

Maharashtra tourism department plans to launch a web portal to provide a single source of authentic information about medical care and to eliminate hawkers and middlemen. “Maharashtra is trying to enhance its strength in the medical and wellness industry, which includes therapies like yoga, Ayurveda and meditation. The portal will include all the stakeholders in the industry like, doctors, practitioners, hospitals, spas, transport and travel agencies, service providers, bureaus providing bedside assistants for patients and even security services,” said a senior official from the state tourism department. Before implementing the program, inputs from experts in all the related sectors will ... Read more

The Union Ministry may consider reduction or waiver of GST (Goods and Service Tax) for cruise tourism service. It was announced by the Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport, Shipping and Highways. He was speaking at the first international conclave for global cruise tourism in India held on 30th August 2018. “The matter may be discussed in the coming GST financial meeting presided by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley,” said the minister. He expressed dismay on the slow progress of cruise tourism industry in the country. He exhorted for more investment in the shipping industry. The request for reduction ... Read more

Incredible India is conducting roadshow in China’s Beijing. “China has one of the biggest tourist inflows with 144 million outbound tourists last year. India received only 250,000 of that and, with an aim to increase the footfalls, we are conducting big-time roadshow in China,” said Tourism Minister, K J Alphons. The minister is currently visiting Beijing with 20 leading Indian travel agents for the first event of a series of road shows held by the Tourism Ministry, Government of India. The road show will also stop in Guangzhou, Wuhan and Shanghai, aiming to attract the high-spending Chinese tourists to India. In recent ... Read more

Himachal Pradesh government plan to have a light and sound show to depict the history of Shimla and its association with the Indian freedom struggle. “A place will be chosen for the light and sound show in line with the Cellular Jail in Andaman and Nicobar Islands,” said Jai Ram Thakur, the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh. He was replying a question regarding the tourism policy of the state in the Assembly. He said tourism could be the main revenue earner of the state’s economy. It could alleviate the issue of unemployment, as providing job opportunities to the youth in ... Read more

The Ministry of Tourism of Republic of Indonesia (MoTRI) has signed a strategic agreement with MakeMyTrip to promote Indonesian Tourism in India. Under this partnership, MakeMyTrip and MoTRI will actively run campaigns across MakeMyTrip platforms to endorse tourism to Bali, Jakarta and other regions in Indonesia. MakeMyTrip will launch a 360-degree online campaign on its platforms, external websites and social media to promote tourism to Indonesia. Through this association MakeMyTrip will aim to tap additional footfall of Indian tourists in Indonesia, this year. “We greatly look forward to working with the Ministry of Tourism of Republic of Indonesia to build ... Read more

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is on track to send human to space in its ‘Gaganyaan Mission’.  the space agency said Tuesday. “The total programme cost is expected to be less than Rs 10,000 crores. Two unmanned Gaganyaan missions will be undertaken prior to sending humans to space,” ISRO chief K Sivan said today. The GSLV Mk-III launch vehicle, which has the necessary payload capability for the mission, will be used. “The total programme is expected to be completed by 2022 with the first unmanned flight within 30 months. The mission will aim to send a three-person crew to ... Read more

Heavy rain hit several parts of Delhi and adjoining areas today, 28th August 2018. Water clogging caused traffic jams in different parts of capital city. The Meteorological department has predicted rain in Delhi till Thursday. Delhi and Gurgaon have been experiencing rain since morning. Social media pictures showed cars and bikes driving through flooded roads. Some of the schools in Gurgaon remain closed due to the bad weather. Delhi Traffic Police has issued alerts on Twitter with the hash tag #DelhiRains, which is one of the top trends on Twitter this morning. The traffic towards the busy Delhi-Jaipur-Mumbai highway was ... Read more

AirAsia has started its ‘Trust your Wanderlust’ promotional sale under which it will be selling flight tickets starting from Rs 1, 199. The promotional sale includes domestic destinations such as Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, New Delhi, Kochi, Goa, Guwahati, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Pune, Ranchi, Bagdogra, Bhubaneshwar, Indore and other places. The offer could be availed on tickets booked till 2 September 2018, and discounts applicable on travel period up to 17 February 2019. The sale offers the cheapest ticket of Rs 1, 199 for travel between 27 August 2018 and 17 February 2019, from Bengaluru to Hyderabad; and Rs 3,499 for travel from ... Read more

Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh government is formulated a number promotional programmes to lift the state’s tourism sector to the top of the country. “Our government is striving to make UP to the top of the country’s tourism chart. The government has come up with a number of programmes to develop tourism”, said Yogi Adityanath, Chief Ministr of Uttar Pradesh. He was addressing the inaugural function of the fourth edition of UP Travel Mart (UPTM) 2018. In order to increase tourism connectivity, the state has announced new airports in Bareilly, Moradabad, Aligarh and Azamgarh. The minister also said that the ... Read more

Next time before you blow the horn in Mumbai, just think twice as flouting noise pollution norms in Mumbai’s silent zones would attract a fine of Rs 1 lakh and a jail term for five years. In wake of the upcoming festival season, the state government has urged citizens to come forward and register complaints in police stations if they come across instances of violation of noise pollution norms in silent zones. Citizens could dial the police helpline number 100 to file complaints, announced the Maharashtra government on Sunday. A total of 110 areas in Mumbai have been shortlisted as ... Read more

As per the report published by Hotels.com in association with Ipsos, a global market research and a consulting firm; India ranks among the top ten popular destinations for Chinese tourists in Asia. The report says around 2 laksh Chinese tourists visited India during 2017. Mumbai and Delhi are the most favourite destinations for Chinese travellers with 69 and 51 per cent Chinese tourist footfalls respectively. The report was formulated during May 2018 by conducting interviews with 3,047 Chinese residents, within the age group of 18-58 years, who had travelled abroad in the past 12 months. The main sources of inspiration ... Read more

Khuldhara – Abandoned Village in Rajasthan Rajasthan, renowned for the presence of a large number of heritage buildings and monuments, is planning to promote the less known heritage sites of the state. Mostly tourism in Rajastan is focussed on the famous tourist spots, which are already in the world tourism map. The tourism department now has decided to bring the other unknown heritage spots to the limelight and thus attract more tourists to the state. To promote tourism at these rural and remote areas, the state government has formulated a plan which will not only provide tourists with new destinations, ... Read more

Low-cost carrier SpiceJet is all set to test India’s first biofuel-powered flight on August 27 as it is planning to cut its aviation fuel bill. SpiceJet is planning to operate a turboprop Q-400 from Dehradun to Delhi using this sustainable alternative fuel. If the test passes off successfully, the aircraft — powered by a mix of conventional air turbine fuel and biofuel — will operate a flight to Delhi. The biofuel for the flight has been developed by Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun. The made-in-India alternative fuel has acquired all statutory clearances, including those from designated testing labs and the Directorate General ... Read more

An order to ban night stay at high-altitude meadows and limiting the number of tourists, by the Uttarakhand High Court will adversely affect the adventure tourism in the state, experts say. It is expected that one lakh people engaged in trekking and mountaineering expeditions will be jobless, besides the loss of revenues to the state. .”Tourism, especially adventure tourism, is the only bread earner for the hill inmates and a court order like this is indirectly asking tourists not to come to the state,” said Jayendra Singh Rana,  President of Garhwal Himalayan Trekking and Mountaineering Association. “The judgment will deprive ... Read more

A set of recommendation for the development of the Odisha tourism industry have arisen from the 3rd Odisha Tourism Conclave that commenced on Friday, 24th August 2018 in Bhuvaneshwar, Odisha. “Now people can have tourism on the mobile handsets, but the growth is like on aeroplane mode. We need to have a vibrant campaign to brand Odisha in line with New Zealand, Thailand and Dubai to promote the destinations,” said JK Mohanty, Chairman of Hotel and Restaurant Association of Odisha (HRAO), while speaking in the Conclave. Social media should be used to market Tourism globally. Blog posts, podcasts, videos and ... Read more