Category: India

Odisha’s Chandrabhaga beach on the Konark coast is the first beach in Asia to get the Blue Flag certification — the tag given to environment-friendly and clean beaches, equipped with amenities of international standards for tourists. It was awarded as an honour on World Environment Day on June 5. Twelve more beaches in the country are to be developed into plastic-free zones with international amenities. These beaches are being developed by the Society for Integrated Coastal Management (SICOM), an Environment Ministry’s body working for the management of coastal areas, in accordance with the Blue Flag standards. These 12 beaches include – Shivrajpur (Dwarka) Gujarat, ... Read more

Though the government has passed a legislation way back in April 2014 stating that every trekker should bring back at least 8 kgs of waste per person including their own, the Himalayas are drowning in trekker’s waste. The legislation has not reached all who travel up the hill. It is in this situation that the Green Stars is taking initiative to launch the ‘Guardians of the Himalayas’ programme on the World Environment Day this year. Green Stars Founder, Alan Bywaters has decided to launch ‘Guardians of the Himalayas’ programme in an effort to engage everyone involved in the trekking and expedition industry ... Read more

Taj Mahal, the 17th century structure which is one of the Seven Wonders of the World, is soon going to be plastic-free, as part of the Taj Mahal Declaration. This World Environment Day, areas in and around the historic Taj Mahal are going plastic-free. The monument is visited by numerous tourists from across the world. In recent times the Taj Mahal has been turning yellow, as the area struggles with the problem of pollution. The Taj Mahal Declaration has been adopted by Mahesh Sharma, Minister of Culture and Tourism and Civil Aviation; Erik Solheim, Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP); and ... Read more

The wildlife sanctuaries and eco-tourism spots in Andhra Pradesh are declared to plastic-free zones from today onwards.  The Forest Department has decided to take up different activities in response to the theme — Beat Plastic Pollution — given by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. “We have decided to declare all wildlife sanctuaries and eco-tourism spots in the State as plastic-free zones. We are going to take up special campaign from Tuesday, including organising workshops, elocution contests for students and awareness programmes through films to trainee forest beat officers and other staff. The Forest Department has decided to ... Read more

The Delhi government has decided to hire a ‘social media agency’ to project Delhi as a tourist-friendly destination on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The tourism department of the capital state has prepared a plan under which it will undertake several initiatives – one of them is hiring of a professional social media agency. The department has plans to hire an agency by September 2018. The work of this agency would be to brand Delhi as a tourist friendly destination on social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Delhi has several tourist destinations which include monuments, ... Read more

The stall set up by Southern Railway has bagged the first place among the Central government stalls at the recently concluded 44th India Tourist and Industrial Fair 2018 at Island Grounds. The Southern Railway General Manager R K Kulshrestha congratulated and sanctioned a cash award of Rs 10,000 to staff from Carriage and Wagon Works, Golden Rock Workshop, (Tiruchi), Mechanical Branch of Chennai and Salem divisions, RPF wing of Chennai division and the Public Relations department (PR) of Southern Railway for having put up the exhibits and bagging the first prize. Principal Chief Mechanical Engineer A K Kathpal and Principal ... Read more

The Government of India is planning to reshape its foreign tourism offices into eight regional hubs for greater efficiency. Union Tourism Minister K J Alphons said the ministry is likely to shut seven of its 14 overseas tourist offices, including the ones in Paris, Amsterdam, Toronto and London. The offices in Milan (Italy), Sydney (Australia) and Johannesburg (South Africa) are also likely to shut shop. “In today’s digital world, having these many overseas offices are not required. The plan is to reshape these 14 offices into eight regional hubs for greater efficiency,” said the minister to IE. The offices in Toronto and Los Angeles are the ... Read more

Jet Airways said it will connect Patna with Allahabad from June 14 under the UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik) scheme. The flight will leave Allahabad at 8 am and reach Patna at 9.40 am. For the return journey, the flight will take off from Patna at 10.10 am and reach Allahabad at 11.50 am. The 72-seater aircraft will operate thrice a week -Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. With Allahabad on the map, Patna will now have direct flights to 11 cities. At present, direct air service from Patna is available to New Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Bangalore, Lucknow, Pune, Varanasi, Ranchi, Chennai and Hyderabad. ... Read more

Delta Air Lines has announced it will resume nonstop flights next year between United States and India’s financial capital, Mumbai. The airline is crediting recent U S agreements with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates over alleged subsidies to three big Arabian Gulf carriers that also fly to India. Delta said it will announce the schedule details later this year. It also has plans to sell other flights within India on partner Jet Airways. Atlanta-based Delta stopped their services to India in 2015, leaving United Airlines as the only US carrier flying to Mumbai and Delhi. Trump administration deals with Qatar ... Read more

New Delhi has bagged the Best Destination for Shopping award by Lonely Planet Magazine India Travel Awards 2018. The awards were distributed at a glittering ceremony held at the St. Regis hotel in Mumbai. Sudhir Sobti, Chief Manager, PR & Publicity, Delhi Tourism received the award during the ceremony among the top industry professionals. The Lonely Planet Magazine invited the country’s elite travelers to choose their favorite destinations and most favored travel experiences along with the jury of travel experts and professionals. The readers voted online in large numbers across various categories, to celebrate the best in travel. Delhi was ... Read more

SpiceJet has announced the launch of 10 new flights on domestic routes using its Bombardier Q-400 aircraft on these routes, which will strengthen its network across South India with new flights and additional frequencies. The airline is all set to introduce daily direct flights on the Chennai-Mangaluru-Chennai sector from 16 June, 2018. SpiceJet will enhance its operations on the Hyderabad-Rajahmundry, Chennai-Kozhikode, Bengaluru-Kozhikode with an additional evening flight on each of these sectors and introduce its third flight on the Chennai-Hyderabad route. “SpiceJet is on the path of a major fleet expansion which means new routes and destinations for our customers. ... Read more

IRCTC has partnered with Ixigo to power hotel bookings the IRCTC’s users. Through this partnership, ixigo’s wide range of accommodation offerings from its domestic and international hotel partners and OTAs will be available on IRCTC’s web and mobile platforms. Railway travellers can now go to IRCTC Hotels and compare budget and luxury hotels across prices, ratings, reviews and amenities through this new hotel search and booking platform. ixigo searches and compares over 40,000 hotels from all leading travel websites and allows travellers to filter by offerings such as ‘pay at hotel’ and ‘free cancellation’. “Our partnership with ixigo is a part ... Read more

The Uttarakhand government is banking on the guru-shishya tradition practiced in the Himalayan region ages ago to revive its fast fading folk traditions. The tradition is expected to give a boost to cultural tourism, giving a fillip to the state’s tourism-based economy. “We have a number of vibrant folk traditions in the state. We have introduced the guru-shishya tradition to ensure that all those local traditions — folk dance, singing and music are not wiped out forever,” said Beena Bhatt, director, department of culture. “This (guru-shishya) tradition ran in families where elders passed on the age-old folk traditions to the younger generations orally ... Read more

According to a senior home ministry official, the government has received Rs 1,400 crore as revenue from the e-visa scheme. Since its inception of e-visa in 2014, the tourists from 163 countries are benefited from the scheme. The e-visa has been instrumental in boosting the tourism sector of India. It is evident from the fact that 19 lakh tourists used the e-visa facility to visit India last year. The government expects that the tourist arrivals will be more than 25 lakh this year. The e-Visa scheme was implemented by the foreigners division of the home ministry as to improve the ... Read more

The Ministry of Civil Aviation has released the first draft of the passengers’ charter, spelling out rules for cancellation fee, compensation for missing connecting flight and plans to introduce wi-fi services in flights. The new regulations will come into effect after being approved by the Union Cabinet. If the passenger is informed about the cancellation of flights less than two weeks before and up to 24 hours of the scheduled departure time, the airline must offer alternate flight allowing the passenger to depart within two hours of the booked scheduled departure time or refund the ticket, as acceptable to the passenger. ... Read more