Category: India

A scheme to provide free SIM cards to foreign tourists arriving in India to help them to stay connected while in India has been “discontinued” as it was felt “unnecessary”, informed tourism secretary Rashmi Verma. Under the scheme, foreign tourists availing e-visas were provided free SIM cards on arrival in India. The scheme was launched in February last year by the then tourism minister Mahesh Sharma. The BSNL SIM cards provided to the foreign tourists were with Rs 50 talk time and 50 MB Data. The cards would be activated, once the tourists land in India. It has validity of ... Read more

Trichy, said to be deprived of development projects in recent years, is going to have tourism development projects worth Rs 53 crores as approved by a high power committee of the government. The project is part of the Smart City Mission, which is aiming at make six prominent tourist places neat and tidy. It will be an ABD project (Area Based Development) around Rockfort, consisting of historical places, a park and a water body. It will propagate the rich cultural heritage of Trychy by displaying the authentic historical information of the empires that ruled it. Rockfort, Main Guard Gate, Theppakulam, ... Read more

Representative picture only With an aim to promote religious tourism, IRCTC is all set to launch a special tourist train linking key site in Ramayana. The train, called Sri Ramayana Express, will start operations from November 14. The tour by train will link all the important places that linked to the epic ‘Ramayana”. It will set off from Delhi through Ayodhya, the birth place of Lord Rama as per the epic, to Colombo, Sri Lanka were he fought Ravana to salvage Sita Devi. The train will have 800 seats and the total cost for the tours is expected to be ... Read more

Railways have agreed to accept soft copies of driving licence and Aadhar as identity proof if they are stored in DigiLocker. DigiLocker is a digital storage device used by people to store official documents on cloud. Indian Railways sent a message to all zonal principal chief commercial managers which conveyed that from now onwards Aadhar card and driving licence stored on DigiLocker will be considered valid identity proof. “While undertaking journey in a train, if a passenger shows the Aadhaar/Driving Licence from the ‘Issued Documents’ section by logging into his/her DigiLocker account, the same should be considered as valid proof ... Read more

Jet Airways said it is offering flat 10 per cent discount on return flights within India. The offer is valid for bookings done from May 19 to September 30. Customers have to book their tickets 15 days prior the date of departure to avail the discount. The discount applicable for the travel period is till September 30, 2018. The offer is applicable only on return journey flights tickets and, on Premiere and Economy class on flights operated by the carrier within India. Customers can avail this promotional offer only on ticket bookings through Jet Airways website or mobile app, said ... Read more

Picture Courtesy: Economic Times Train 18, India’s much-awaited locally manufactured semi high-speed train, is expected to be launched in September, 2018. The train is built by Integral Coach Factory (ICF) of Chennai under PM’s Make in India programme. It is capable of running at a speed of 160 km per hour. The luxury train was earlier scheduled for roll-out in July. When asked about the reason for the delay, ICF Chennai General Manager Sudhanshu Mani said, “There is no delay. The train has been built in record time of 16 months while it takes 2 to 3 years to manufacture ... Read more

Nijhawan Group has been appointed as the Advisor on Tourism Promotion of Uzbekistan Tourism in India. The primary objective of this partnership is to increase the number of arrivals to Uzbekistan and to strengthen the image of the destination. “We are excited about the new partnership. We aim to generate wide awareness and publicity on Uzbekistan as a preferred leisure and business destination and boost the country’s tourist arrivals. With this partnership, we are confident to unravel the full potential of India’s growth story. With the Indian outbound at a record high, we are confident of strong numbers coming in ... Read more

Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed the Non Resident Indians (NRIs) to contribute for the growth of the country when it is on the ‘rapid path of progress.’ He was addressing Saurashtra Patel Cultural Samaj of the US via video-conference. PM urged each NRI to inspire five foreign families to visit India to give a boost to tourism.  He said the Gujarati Patel community in the US, popular as “hotel motel Patel wallas” can contribute much for the promotion of India’s tourism among their guests by putting slides about the our country on their hotel TVs. “Whenever you get a guest in ... Read more

ITC Kohenur Hyderabad ITC Limited said it plans to add 2,500 rooms to its hotel segment to take the total inventory to 12,000 in five years. At present, the group has 9,500 rooms. Sanjiv Puri, Managing Director, ITC said the company would invest Rs 2,500 crore in the next two to three years in Telangana, among others, to set up an integrated consumer goods manufacturing unit and logistics facility and for the capacity augmentation and efficiency of Bhadrachalam Paperboard. ITC has appointed a committee internally to examine the possibility of foraying into the healthcare space. Once it submitted its report, ... Read more

After the rain havoc halting the Amarnath Yathra for the past two days, it restarted again with the sixth batch of 3,489 pilgrims leaving from Jammu today. The pilgrims, including 774 women and 237 sadhus, are headed to the 3,888-metre-high cave shrine in south Kashmir Himalayas, amid tight security. The pilgrims left for the cave shrine in 114 vehicles from the Bhagwati Nagar base camp at 2:30 am. So far, 36,366 pilgrims have visited the shrine by taking the 36-km Pahalgam track in Anantnag and 12-km Baltal route in Ganderbal since the commencement of the annual 60-day pilgrimage on June 28. ... Read more

The new, improved infrastructure facilities and air connectivity to the North-East have made it a tourist hotspot among travellers, and is expected to grow by 10-12 per cent in 2019. “The bookings for North-east have gone up by 18 per cent as compared to the same period (April-June) last year. Tourism in the North-east region is expected to grow by at least 10-12 per cent even in the next year,” Cox & King’s Head, Relationships, Karan Anand told PTI. Improved air facilities is considered as one of the prime reasons for an increase in tourists in the eight northeast states. “Air connectivity ... Read more

Lalitha Mahal Palace Hotel, Mysuru As part of the initiatives taken by Karnataka Tourism Ministry for the overall development of tourism industry in Mysuru, an innovative programme named ‘Tent Tourism’ is recently announced by the Tourism Minister. The idea behind this project is to make Mysuru an ideal place for tourists to stay overnight, than a one-day picnic destination. Tents in Rann Utsav – Kutch, Gujarat Increasing demand for eco and adventure tourism where tourists prefer staying in tents instead of holidaying in permanent concrete structures made the Mysuru tourism authorities think differently to cater the demands of the tourists. ... Read more

Over 1500 pilgrims along the route of Kailash Mansarover Yatra in Nepal are stuck in Nepal due to bad weather. About 525 pilgrims are stranded in Simikot, 550 are in Hilsa and another 500 more in Tibet side, an official statement by the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu said. Indian Embassy has issued helpline numbers for pilgrims and their family members. The pilgrims have been stranded after heavy rains caused landslips at several locations. The embassy said that the stranded pilgrims are being given proper medical attention and arrangements have been made to ensure the availability of food and water. “The Indian Embassy in Kathmandu ... Read more

On the meeting held for the review of the progress of comprehensive development of the Andaman-Nicobar and Lakshadweep islands on Saturday, 1st June 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi insisted an integrated tourism-centric ecosystem in the areas selected for tourism development. An Islands Development Agency has been formed for the comprehensive development of 26 islands. He also urged to expedite the activities for the energy self-sufficiency in the islands that could be based on solar energy. A presentation was also made by The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayogon) depicting the programme for holistic development in the region, which include ... Read more

Nagaland Tourism Department has organized a one-day workshop on “Tour guide” in Kohima on June 25. Fifty-three tour guides from all over Nagaland have participated in the event. Neteno Yhoshu,Ddirectorate of Tourism stated in a press release that, the first resource person Richard Belho, architect from ‘Zynorique Initiatives ’ spoke about the career prospects in the tourism industry. Discussing the economic system, he stated that Nagas needed to work out a business ecosystem and systematic procedures for a scenario where successful businesses can be operated. Zynorique Initiatives is a registered society under the Govt. of Nagaland. The primary objective is ... Read more