Category: News

Finland has witnessed a 15 per cent growth in Indian arrivals in 2018 and over 80,000 overnights, said Jukka Holappa, Commercial Counsellor, Country Head—India and Sri Lanka, Business Finland, at VisitFinland and India Workshop 2019 held in Delhi on February 25. “The numbers from India have been growing. At our roadshows in Delhi and Mumbai, we have 10 partners from Finland and are looking at a participation of about 70-80 agents in each city. Indians usually like to explore more countries in one single visit, often going to Russia and Estonia; we are hoping to get them to stay longer ... Read more

The Jatayu Earth’s Center at Chadayamangalam, near Kollam district in Kerala, is organizing a month-long selfie contest, ‘snap n win’. The contest is aimed to popularize the tourism destination that is slowly evolving as one of the best international tourist destinations of Kerala. The Jatayu Earth’s Center, which is the first BOT (Build, Operate, and Transfer) project of the Kerala Tourism, stands tall as a symbol of women safety and honour. The giant sculpture of the mythical bird Jatayu, symbolises the protection of women. The sculpture has a length of 200 feet, width of 150 feet and height of 70 feet. ... Read more

Thousands of devotees from Kerala and Tamil Nadu have started the annual Sivalaya Ottam, from Thirumalai Shiva Temple at Munchirai, the first Sivalaya temple of the total 12 temples. The devotees will run from one Siva temple to the other on the day of Mahasivarathri. There are 12 prominent Lord Shiva temples in different parts of Kanyakumari district including Vilavancode and Kalkulam taluks, within a radius of 110 km. The objective of the pilgrimage is to uphold that Siva and Vishnu are both the manifestations of one supreme being. The devotees usually observe a one-week fast, with some having only liquid food ... Read more

Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) plans to build a Monorail corridor inside General Jagannathrao Bhosale (JB) Park at Sawantwadi in Sindhudurg district to lure tourists over a distance of around 400 metre. The park, named after Jagannathrao Bhosale, a veteran freedom fighter, has a playing area for children, a cultural gathering area, an amusement park, a restaurant, and a pool. The state tourism corporation has initiated invitation of bid from private companies to construct the proposed 400 meter-long Monorail corridor in a period of six months. It was confirmed by Abhimanyu Kale, Managing Director of MTDC to the media. According ... Read more

Malaysia is expecting that its participation in the International Tourism Bourse (ITB) in Berlin from March 6-10 will help it reach the target of attracting 30 million tourists by 2020. “I believe Malaysia’s cultural uniqueness is a big draw for the European market,” said Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister, Mohamaddin Ketapi, highlighting the increase in the number of renowned hotel property brands opening in Malaysia. “Several established hotel brands have ventured into Malaysia for the first time recently, while some of them are poised to enter the market in the near future. We are pleased that brands such as Double Tree, Hilton, ... Read more

Prayagraj Kumbh Mela 2019 has been placed in the Guinness World Records in three sectors. It includes largest traffic and crowd management plan, the biggest painting exercise of public sites under paint my city scheme and biggest sanitation and waste disposal mechanism. It was announced by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, in a press release. A three member team from Guinness World Records visited the Prayagraj for this purpose. Exercise at large scale was done before the team members for three days from 28th February 3rd March 2019. Around 503 shuttle buses were pressed into service in one ... Read more

Odisha Tourism has received an award in the category of ‘Best Festival Destination’ in the India Today Tourism Awards 2019 for Puri rath yathra festival in festival category in New Delhi. Odisha Tourism Minister Ashok Kumar Panda received the honour from Union Minister for State Alphons K J, at a special award ceremony in New Delhi. Odisha Tourism has been conferred the ‘Tourism Leadership Award’ at the Global MICE & Luxury Travel Congress and Awards held in Mumbai earlier this month. The award was received by Sunil Kumar Patnaik, Assistant Director, Odisha Tourism. “I am thankful to the jury for bestowing ... Read more

Himachal Pradesh has bagged three awards at the India Today Tourism Awards 2019. The state received three runner up awards for ‘Best Adventure Destination”, ‘Best Mountain Destination’ and ‘Most Scenic Road’ during the India Today Tourism Survey and Awards 2019 function held in New Delhi. Union Minister of State for Tourism K J Alphons presented the award to the state. Vivek Mahajan Deputy Resident Commissioner has received the award from the minister. Hang Gliding Bir Billing was presented best runner up award under “Best Adventure Destination” category, Sangla in Kinnaur district bagged runner up award in ‘Best Mountain Destination’ category whereas ... Read more

Bamboo Chicken Andhra Pradesh Tourism Department has organized a food festival at AS Raja Grounds MVP Colony in Visakhapatnam on Friday, 1st March 2019. The event was inaugurated by HRD Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao in the presence of AP Protocol additional secretary M Ashok Babu. The festival showcased different types of indigenous food tastes of Andhra Pradesh, from Araku bamboo chicken and Bhimavaram pickles and Atreyapuram Pootharekulu. The venue saw a steady stream of food connoisseurs making a beeline to the counters to relish a range of items at the three-day festival. Bamboo Biriyani The event was organized in association ... Read more

The expo is organized by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India with a concept – Global Housing Technology Challenge – India (GHTC- India), which aims to identify and mainstream a basket of innovative technologies from across the globe that are sustainable and disaster-resilient. PM Modi inaugurated the event in New Delhi today. While addressing the gathering, Modi  reiterated the need of focusing on disaster-resilience, energy efficiency, and local innovative construction systems in the country. Modi said that the need for the Global Housing Technology Challenge was felt in the light of rapid urbanization in India. “Elements from ... Read more

IIM Kozhikode is hosting an International Conference on Global Health and Medical Tourism (GIoHMT) on March 7-10, 2019. The event will be organized in association with the tourism department of government of Kerala and MVR Cancer Centre & Research Institute. Renowned Ayurveda Medical center, Kottakkal Arya Vaidya Sala will also take part in the event, which is being co-hosted by Indian Institute of Health Management Research (IIHMR) University in Jaipur MVR Cancer Centre & Research Institute is one of the leading facilities in Kerala that provides advanced cancer treatment facility at affordable costs. MVR Cancer Centre and Research Institute has ... Read more

The Saudi cabinet has recently announced a new visa category to woo international tourists to the country. Introduction of the special ‘event’ visas is part of plans by the Kingdom to become a major global entertainment destination. Foreign tourists can now choose from the growing number of sporting, entertainment and business attractions available in the country. As per the circular issued by the cabinet, announcing the new visa category, Embassies and consulates will be able to issue the visas within 24 hours of receiving a request. Under the visa upgrade, the Kingdom’s General Investment Authority, General Sports Authority and General Entertainment ... Read more

Dhaula Kuan interchange Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways, will inaugurate a four-lane flyover at Dhaula Kuan junction near Dhaula Kuan Metro Station on NH 8 today. The flyover is expected to reduce waiting time at the traffic light by 30 minutes at peak hours. This is the first step towards development of an eight-lane, signal free Dhaula Kuan – Airport corridor, as stated in a press release by Ministry or Road Transport and Highways. National Highway No.8 (New NH-48) is the prime link providing connectivity to Indira Gandhi International Airport from Delhi and NCR. The frequent ... Read more

Assam is having the first train of Indian Railways to be fully branded with a state government publicity campaign. The 12552/12251 Kamakhya-Yesvantpur- Kamakhya AC Express became the first Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) train to be used for promoting the brand ‘Awesome Assam’ of the Assam Tourism Department. The train was flagged off by tourism minister Chandan Brahm and chairperson of the Assam Tourism Development Corporation (ATDC) Jayanta Malla Baruah in presence NFR officials at Kamakhya Railway Station on 27th February 2019. The train will travel for Bangalore covering a distance of 3025 km and is a good platform for advertising ... Read more

International yoga festival, organised jointly by the Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board and Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam, has kick started in Rishikesh. “The practice of yoga has paved the way for happiness and peace for humans,” said Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat after inaugurating the event. Referring to Rishikesh as the Yoga capital of the world, he said that Yoga had helped India gain a special identity in the international community. In addition to the spiritual benefits, Yoga has also given the message of good health to the world, he said. About 1,200 people had registered for the week-long International Yoga Festival being ... Read more