Category: India

Srinagar (Photo Courtesy: Lonely Planet) The Tourist Reception Center in Srinagar would be made a WiFi zone to provide free and easy internet access to the employees and the visitors. It was announced by Tasaduq Jeelani, Tourism Director of  Kashmir during his maiden meeting with the employees in his department on Thursday, 2nd August 2018 During the meeting, the director urged the employees to maintain the highest standards of professionalism while performing their works. While accentuating on the significance of tourism in the state, he told the employees to set a high benchmark and facilitate tourists, in order to provide ... Read more

Rajasthan tourism department is going to have a new tourism policy with priority to Destination Weddings and MICE activities (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions). It also focuses on encouraging film shooting in the state. The state expects to have improved private participation in its tourism projects. As per a recent report, wedding and MICE activities contribute around Rs 5,000 crores to the tourism industry in a year and have become major factors for increased hotel occupancy. By the new tourism policy, Rajasthan tourism aims at providing an atmosphere suitable for destination wedding and MICE activities, to surpass the existing competition ... Read more

A six member all-women biker team has started their expedition from Kochi to Delhi today. All the team members are Federal Bank employees, of which five are Malayalis. The team, christened ‘Motor Cycle Angels’ will cover a distance of 3000 km from Kochi to Delhi within 20 days. The trips, as part of ‘Federal Motor Cycle Expedition’ was flagged off from Federal Towers at Ernakulam Marine Drive. The six travellers, who will be known as ‘Federal Motor Cycle Angels’, are Merlin Hamlet, Sangeetha Sikhamani, N Lavanya, Surya, Febina and Sita Nair. The trip aims to let the world know that ... Read more

  The Oberoi group is planning to start three resorts – one in Kenya and two in India- to explore benefits of wild life tourism. As per reports, The EIH group, one of the giants in the hospitality industry, will start a luxury resort on the outskirts of Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. Named as The Oberoi Wildlife Resort, the new hospitality center will spread on a 5000-acre site overlooking the Mara valley offering views of Mara Triangle and annual migration of animals from the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania into the Maasai Mara in search of green pasture.. ... Read more

Durga Devi In the forthcoming Durga puja, which is to be celebrated in October, a puja committee at Santosh Miitra Square in Kolkata is planning to use a chariot made of silver, priced at over Rs 40 crore, to carry its Durga idol. The offering is planned in relation to the committee’s 83rd year of celebrating Durga Puja. “The chariot would be worth Rs 40 crore,  and will be sponsored by a jewellery brand. Last year, we made the sari of Durga idol in gold weighing 30 kg,” said the president of the committee. Model of the Chariot “Using jewellery ... Read more

Ayodhya – Photo for representative purpose only A new tourist township, ‘Navya Ayodhya’ is coming up in Uttar Pradesh, near Ayodhya. The township will be spread across 500 acres of land on Faizabad-Gorakhpur National Highway with an estimated cost of Rs 1,200 crore. The initial project report is being prepared by a London-based consultancy. The proposal from the Uttar Pradesh Tourism Department is awaiting state government approval to start the works. One of the main features of the township is there will be a special place named the ‘Nirvana Abode’— a destination to attain ‘moksha’ (salvation). The Navya Ayodhya project ... Read more

“The Walled City of Jaipur, Rajasthan, India” is the next proposed site for UNESCO World Heritage recognition, informed Dr Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State (independent charge) for Culture and Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate change . The site namely “The Walled City of Jaipur, Rajasthan, India” has been proposed for World Heritage. As per Operation Guidelines 2017, only one site can be nominated by the state party each year. The recognition of World Heritage is a matter of great pride. It impacts the local economy by giving a boost to domestic and international tourism leading to increased employment ... Read more

The Ministry of Tourism has sanctioned Rs 426.02 crores for Tribal and Rural Circuit under Swadesh Darshan Scheme, said K J Alphons, Minister for Tourism. Tribal and Rural Circuits are among the fifteen thematic circuits identified for development under Swadesh Darshan Scheme. “The projects under the scheme are identified for development in consultation with the State Governments/UT Administrations and are sanctioned subject to availability of funds, submission of suitable detailed project reports, adherence to scheme guidelines and utilization of funds released earlier,” said the minister. Based on above, Ministry has sanctioned projects under Tribal and Rural Circuit theme of Swadesh Darshan ... Read more

More than 1.6 lakh people visited India for cruise tourism in 2017-2018, Tourism Minister K J Alphons. The Ministry of Tourism is working towards attracting five million cruise tourists to India by 2040, he said. A Task Force on Cruise Tourism has been formed jointly by the Ministry of Tourism and Ministry of Shipping with representatives of all major ports and stakeholders for coordinated efforts to create an enabling ecosystem for the development of Cruise Tourism in India. The Task Force meets regularly and the last meeting of the Task Force was held on 21.05.2018, the minister said. During the ... Read more

India and Nepal will jointly promote the Ramayana and Buddhist tourist circuits, informed Tourism Minister K J Alphons. The second meeting of tourism Joint Working Group (JWG) between India and Nepal was held in Kathmandu on 06.07.2018. In this meeting it was agreed to set up the Indo Nepal Tourism Forum with representation from government and private sector from both sides for mutual consultation and promotion of tourism in both countries. “This JWG also decided to officially recognise two circuits, Ramayana Circuit and Buddhist Circuit by both governments for joint promotions through common branding and marketing exercises,” the minister said. Earlier, ... Read more

Deogarh Under the PRASHAD Scheme, 26 religious cities/sites in 19 States have been identified for development. The cities/sites are Amaravati and Srisailam (Andhra Pradesh), Kamakhya (Assam), Patna and Gaya (Bihar), Dwarka and Somnath (Gujarat), Gurudwara Nada Saheb (Haryana), Hazratbal and Katra (Jammu & Kashmir), Deogarh (Jharkhand), Chamundeshwari Devi (Karnataka), Guruvayoor (Kerala), Una (Himachal Pradesh), Omkareshwar (Madhya Pradesh), Trimbakeshwar (Maharashtra), Puri (Odisha), Amritsar (Punjab), Ajmer (Rajasthan), Kanchipuram and Vellankani (Tamil Nadu), Varanasi and Mathura (Uttar Pradesh), Badrinath and Kedarnath (Uttarakhand) and Belur (West Bengal). The Ministry of Tourism provides Central Financial Assistance to State Governments/Union Territory (UT) Administrations under the schemes of ... Read more

About Rs 12.68 crore was allocated for conservation, preservation and environmental development works at the Taj Mahal in the last three years, said Union Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma at the Rajya Sabha. “The essential conservation, preservation and environmental development work at Taj Mahal is attended regularly to keep the monument in good condition,” the minister said. The expenditure incurred by the government on the monument’s conservation, preservation and environmental development was around Rs 4.12 crore during 2017-18. In the previous two years, close to Rs 3.6 crore (2015-16) and Rs 4.6 crore (2016-17) have been spent by the government, Sharma said. ... Read more

Humayun’s Tomb, Delhi An amount of Rs 41,127.86 lakh (Rs 411.27 crore) was allocated for conservation of 3,687 protected monuments during 2018-19 under the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), informed  Minister of State for Culture, Mahesh Sharma. “The conservation work on protected monuments of National importance in the country, under ASI, is attended regularly as per the requirements of different sites and availability of resources and they are in a fairly good state of preservation. Similarly museums are also maintained properly,” the minister said. ASI has already formulated comprehensive conservation policy for conservation of protected monuments, the details of which ... Read more

As part of their mega ‘Destination Uttaraghand’ programme, the state government is planning various events to attract investment for the development of the state, especially in the tourism sector. An Investors Summit is scheduled in Dehradun on 4th and 5th October 2018. It will organize sector-specific Mini Investors Conclaves in different parts of the State in August. Out of the four Mini Conclaves, two conclaves specific to tourism sector will be held in Tehri and Nainital on August 7 and August 10 respectively. While the Tehri conclave will discuss tourism and wellness, the Nainital Conclave will focus on investment opportunities ... Read more

Kavita Singh, 2004 batch IAS officer has been appointed the Director of Tourism and Cultural Affairs in Punjab. The appointment was as part of a big reshuffle in the government’s administrative set up. Kavita was working as the Director for Social Security and Development of Women and Children. Earlier in 2014, she was appointed as Managing Director of Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Development Corporation Ltd (CITCO). Kavita Singh, originally hailing from Maharashtra, had also served as Additional Deputy Commissioner in Roop Nagar and Hoshiarpur and as Deputy Commissioner in Kapurthala, all in Punjab. In 2011-12, she was the MD of ... Read more