Category: News

With an aim to enhance commercial ties with the Indian travel trade fraternity, Israel Ministry of Tourism (IMOT) has conducted a roadshow in Kolkata on August 29. A 20-member delegation, comprising of destination management companies (DMCs) from Israel, interacted with over 100 key travel and tour operators, MICE providers, up-market leisure operators and media personnel during the event. The ministry has also conducted another road show in the capital city of New Delhi on 30th August, 2018. The roadshow started off with a presentation followed by an interactive workshop with the IMOT team and trade partners. The roadshow included B2B sessions, ... Read more

Kerala’s popular tourist destination, Thekkady, famous for the Tiger Reserve and wild life sanctuary, which has been closed following the rains, is returning to its normal days. The ban on tourism and operation of heavy vehicles, following rain and floods, has revoked last day by the District Collector. As soon as the restrictions have lifted, tourists started flowing to Thekkady. Lots of people came to Thekkady lake to enjoy boating. Members of different organizations operating in the region have come to experience boating after the havoc created by the rigorous rain. Most of the roads to Thekkady have damaged due ... Read more

After the incessant rains and flood, Kuttanad in Alappuzha, renowned for its house boats, is bouncing back to normal. House boats resumed operation in Alappuzha on 31st August 2018. This year was expected to be a better tourism season for the houseboats, with the announcement of the first-ever Boat League, Nehru Trophy Boat Race and Monsoon Tourism in the tourism chart. However, the unexpected rain and flood have stumbled all the plans. “It is not easy to recover from the disruption at once. Our efforts are to move slowly to normality,” said Jobin J Akkarakkalam, Secretary of Kerala Houseboat Owners ... Read more

Disrupted by the devastating rain and flood, the lives in Kerala have been striving to bounce back from the chaos. Kerala tourism sector have also been passing through one of its bad times in history. It was just recovering from the bruises given by Nipah virus outbreak; then came the unpredicted rain and flood. Still, everyone is hopeful to reinstate the golden days of the Gods own Country. The main tourist destinations of the state like Munnar, Thekkady, Alappuzha, Kumarakam etc. are returning to normalcy. The inflow of tourists has been slow following the cancellation of Nehru Trophy Boat Race ... Read more

Photo Courtesy: Gizmodo Tourism Australia has launched a campaign in South and South East Asia to crack the typecasts of what Australia has to offer and challenge common misconceptions. The campaign will cost around $10 million. The campaign consist promotional videos explaining what else Australia has to offer to the tourists, other than the stereotypes like Kangaroo, beaches etc. The videos are created by Clemenger BBDO Sydney and UM, with a tagline ‘Undiscover Australia.’ The campaign targets travellers from India, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia by showing unexpected activities and experiences Australia has to offer. Each video shows a cliched activity ... Read more

The government of Goa has re-formed the committee to evaluate the progress of the works on preparation of a master plan and tourism policy for the state. The work has been assigned to the renowned consultants, M/s. KPMG Advisory Services Private Limited of Spain. The 12 member committee will be headed by the Tourism Secretary, with association of the Additional Secretary of Finance. The committee will also have the Managing Director of Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC), Member Secretary of Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA), the President of Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry etc. The objective of the ... Read more

Ban on tourism and operations of heavy vehicles in Idukki, imposed by an advisory on 9th September 2018 has been lifted with effect from 31st August 2018. The new advisory issued by Jeevan Babu,  District Collector of Idukki, on behalf of the District Disaster Management Authority, states that the advisory banning tourism and operations of heavy vehicles in the Idukki District has been revoked by this order. The ban on tourism and operation of heavy vehicles was imposed following insessant rains that caused flood and landslides in the state. In Idukki, most of the major roads had been closed due ... Read more

The longest flight I have ever had is my flight to Taiwan, back in 2014, which made travel almost 4400 kilometres in a flight. And, in those long hours spent in the flight,  I finished two movies, had a couple of snacks and slept for some time, and still, there was more time left made me stare at the ceiling. The thought of a non-stop 20 hour flight, which is going to be the longest flight, was literally a blow for me. But, the Qantas Airways flight between London and Sydney, is not going to be the mundane, boring travel it seems. ... Read more

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

Kerala is slowly recovering from the devastating floods that caused widespread destruction to the state. Some of the areas are still under water. The state government has formulated plans to rebuild Kerala, but the things are beyond the capacity of a state government. Pinarayi Vijayan, the Chief Minister of Kerala, has been appealing to the world to contribute generously to the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund to take Kerala back to its golden days. Donations and relief aids have been flowing from around the globe to help Kerala to arise from the disaster of the century. Here is one such ... Read more

Air India is all set to start flight services to New York from Mumbai. The national carrier also has plans to resume services to Frankfurt, which it discontinued in 2010, from winters this year. At present, Air India flies to New York, Washington and San Francisco from New Delhi; Chicago from Hyderabad through New Delhi and to Newark from Mumbai. It also flies directly to destinations such as Stockholm, Madrid, Vienna, Paris, London, Rome, Birmingham and Milan. Air India is planning to spread its wings further in the US and Europe from the coming winters. As part of this, the airline ... Read more

The Netherlands Board Tourism & Convention (NBTC) has witnessed tremendous growth from the Indian market last year and wants to continue the momentum in 2018. Netherlands welcomed 1,65,000 Indians in 2017, with India being the second fastest emerging market along with Brazil, witnessing a 31 per cent increase over 2017. Realising the potential, Netherlands has set a target to clock 25 per cent growth this year thereby reaching the figure of two lakh Indian arrivals. NBTC has already recorded over 67,000 visitors from India until May 2018. NBTC has recently organised Holland Sales Mission 2018 in New Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai. NBTC Holland ... Read more

TPC volunteer conducts survey in the flood affected areas Kerala is slowly recovering from the devastating flood that caused widespread destruction to the state.  Thousands of houses damaged fully or partially. Many of the people lost their home appliances and utensils. It will take time to reinstate the lives of the flood affected areas.  In order to alleviate the losses of the flood ridden people, Tourism Professionals Club, a non-profit organization of people working in the tourism industry, has expressed their willingness to provide the necessary household items to 100 homes. Tourism Professionals Club (TPC) is a non-profit, membership based ... 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