Category: News

Emirates has launched a new service for customers in Bangladesh, giving them the option of applying for short stay visas to at the airline’s ticket counters. Emirates’ Bangladeshi passengers can now easily submit their visa applications for short stay visas at Emirates’ ticket counter in Dhaka. The new visa application service is valid until August 31st for submission while the travel period is until December 10, 2018. The new visa service is complimented by a special offer for Bangladeshi passengers traveling to Dubai during the same time period. All-inclusive return fares for Economy class tickets start from USD 708 while for ... Read more

The Bristol Balloon Fiesta makes its long-awaited return to Bristol’s Ashton Court this weekend and is sure to attract visitors from across the country. Bristol’s biggest annual festival is the largest hot air ballooning event in Europe and crowds of around 100,000 people are expected to descend on Ashton Court each day. The festival runs from August 9-12, with its famous Night Glows taking place on the Thursday and Saturday evenings and its mass ascents happening daily, subject to the weather. Bristol balloon fiesta is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2018 and is marking the occasion in style with a ... Read more

Pootharakulu Sweet AP Tourism Development Corporation (APTDC) is all set to prepare the largest ‘pootharekulu’, a traditional sweet from Andhra Pradesh, and set a Guinness record on Thursday. APTDC is hosting this event at the Berm Park, aiming spreading the name of the traditional sweet around the world.  The process of making the 10 meter Pootharekulu will start in the morning and go on till the evening. The entire process may take 6-8 hours. “The department was striving to give a global identity to the traditional dishes of Andhra Pradesh and unique event is part of that objective,” said Himanshu ... Read more

Vice President of India, M Venkaiah Naidu will inaugurate the Indian Culinary Institute on August 19 in Tirupati.  The construction of the Rs 98.6 crores ICI has been completed. Union Minister of Tourism K J Alphons will also participate in the programme. The State government has provided 14.21 acres of land for ICI near Tirupati Airport. The completed works have been visited by Visiting secretary of department of tourism Mukesh Kumar Meena, APTDC MD Himanshu Shukla and district collector P S Pradyumna. “With the expansion of tourism sector, the students who come out of ICI may get good employment opportunities,” said Mukesh Kumar.  ... Read more

Preah Vihear Temple Preah Vihear temple is located in Svay Chhrum village, Kantuot commune, Choam Ksan district, about 108 kilo meters north of Preah Vihear provincial town. Preah Vihear province was created in 1964 by cutting the land from Stung Treng, Kampong Thom and Siem Reap provinces.   The province is at the north of Cambodia, on the plateau that is rich in forests, mountains and streams. Preah Vihear temple is an ancient Hindu temple built during the reign of the Khmer Empire that is situated atop a 525 meter cliff in the Dangrek Mountains. In 1962, following a lengthy ... Read more

IndiGo has announced the launch of 24 new flights on its network. The airline has introduced four new routes and will operate its first flight between Ahmedabad and Bhubaneshwar, Ahmedabad and Varanasi, Hyderabad and Patna and Kolkata and Surat. All 24 new services will commence from September 2018. IndiGo will provide a second flight in Agartala-Guwahati, Hyderabad-Guwahati and Kolkata-Nagpur routes. It is also planning to run a fourth flight between Hyderabad and Bhubaneswar and a fifth flight between Ahmedabad and Hyderabad. IndiGo has also introduced a discount offer for domestic air passengers, with tickets costing as low as `981 between ... Read more

As torrential rain lashes Kerala, the tourism department has decided to postpone the Nehru Trophy boat race, which was scheduled on Saturday (Aug 11) at Punnamada lake in Alappuzha. The tourism department has made the announcement considering the risk from the heavy rain and flood. Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar was invited as the chief guest of the event. About 78 boats will contest in different categories in the race this time. Twenty five chundan vallams (snakeboats) will participate in the 66th edition of the boat race. Apart from it, 26 boats in Iruttu Kuthi ‘A’, four boats each in Churulan and ... Read more

Photo Courtesy: South China Morning Post Tourism experts expect a setback in the booming US tourism industry due to the escalating trade tensions between the United States and China. “There will be impacts on the tourism. The question is how long. We hope it’s temporary,” said Barry Lin, Vice General Manager of Destination Marketing Services at Chinese online travel agency, Tuniu to the media. “The tourism industry is monitoring the situation closely, as the National Day Golden Week, a national seven-day holiday starting on Oct. 1 in China, is getting closer,” said Lin. China is one of the major inbound ... Read more

Photo Courtesy: Voice of Sikkim The Khangchendzonga Biosphere Reserve (KBR) in Sikkim, surrounding the world’s third highest peak Mount Khanchendzonga, has been added to UNESCO’s World Network of Biosphere Reserves, making it the 11th biosphere in India to be included in the network. It is to be considered an opportunity for joint collaboration and conservation of biodiversity with neighbouring countries like Nepal, and Bhutan. The Khangchendzonga National Park (KNP) in Sikkim is popular among trekking and hiking enthusiasts, is also the starting point for several stunning trails, taking explorers up and through a dizzying variety of forests and terrains to ... Read more

Kampot Beach (Photo Courtesy: Mad Monkey Hostels Cambodia is planning to construct the first international tourism port in the coastal province of Kampot. The foundation stone for the port has been laid on Wednesday, on 8th August 2018. “The port will be developed with the financial aid of USD 8 million from the Asian Development Bank.  The four-hectare is coming up in Chhum Kreal commune of Tek Chhou district,” said Thong Khon, the Tourism Minister “The port will improve tourism in the province by connecting seaborne tourists from Thailand and Vietnam,” he said in a speech during the ground-breaking ceremony. ... Read more

Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) is a Premier Business Networking Event and Business-to-Business team, who have been conducting trade shows in various cities of India. The events provide a platform for interaction and business between tour operators and travel Agents to understand the each other and build good business relationships. GPS is conducting an event in Kochi to facilitate interaction between the buyers and sellers in the tourism industry. The event, which will be hosted at Le Meridian hotel, will be for three days starting from Thursday, 9 August, 2018 to Saturday, 11 August, 2018. First day of the event will ... Read more

GOAMILES, Goa’s first mobile app based taxi service,  was launched by Manohar Parrikar, Chief Minister of Goa at the Secretariat Complex, Porvorim. GOAMILES will provide the convenience of booking a taxi immediately upon arrival in the state at reasonable, government approved rates. The GOAMILES app can be downloaded from Google Play Store and Apple Store. Speaking at the launch, Parrikar said, “Goa can now take tourists for miles through the new app based taxi service which will be affordable and give travellers a comfortable journey from the time they arrive till they leave. I congratulate Goa Tourism for launching this initiative ... Read more

Picture Courtesy: Hatten Land Malacca (Melaka) is expected to have a RM200 million (USD 49.2 million) water theme park, the largest in the Malaysian UNESCO World Heritage city. A collaboration between Singapore’s Hatten Land, Samsung C&T Corporation – which also operates South Korea’s Everland Resort – and water slides designer Polin Waterparks, Splash World at Harbour City is due for completion by end of 2019 and expected to be opened to the public in the first half of 2020. A joint statement by the partners said that the water park, located 14 floors above ground, will be “the world’s first ... Read more

Wide body aircrafts can now operate from Calicut airport. The application from Saudi Airlines has been approved by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, allowing them to operate wide body aircrafts. The airport was partially closed on May 1, 2015, after the Airport Authority of India (AAI) banned operation of wide-bodied aircrafts including Boeing 777 and B747-400 and Airbus 330 for the runway re-carpeting, to ensure safety of passengers. A convoy of Kerala MPs have visited the Union Aviation Minister several times to seek permission for making the airport fully functional. Revamping works of the runways to facilitate operation of ... Read more

Emirates is planning to introduce two additional flights to its Toronto (YYZ) service, to complement its existing schedule. The additional Toronto flights will be introduced on August 18, 2018 and will operate on a Saturday departing Dubai as EK241 at 0330 hrs and arrive in Toronto at 0930 hrs. The return flight, EK242, leaves Toronto at 1425 hrs and arrives in Dubai at 1140 hrs the next day. On Sundays, EK241 will depart at 03.30 hrs and arrive in Toronto at 09.30 hrs. The return flight, EK242, will leave Toronto at 14:30 and arrives in Dubai at 11:25 the next ... Read more