Category: News

Moai – stone statues at Easter Island Chilean authorities have imposed new restrictions for visitors of the prominent tourist spot of the country, the Easter Island. The restrictions were endorsed by the President, Sebastian Pinera on Wednesday, 1st August 2018 “It is a magical island, we all want to visit it, but it is also a sensitive island and therefore we have to take care of it,” said Pinera while speaking on the country’s 24-hour news channel. The remote island is famous for its giant stone statues called Moai, built by the indigenous Rapa Nui people. It is told that ... Read more

A six member all-women biker team has started their expedition from Kochi to Delhi today. All the team members are Federal Bank employees, of which five are Malayalis. The team, christened ‘Motor Cycle Angels’ will cover a distance of 3000 km from Kochi to Delhi within 20 days. The trips, as part of ‘Federal Motor Cycle Expedition’ was flagged off from Federal Towers at Ernakulam Marine Drive. The six travellers, who will be known as ‘Federal Motor Cycle Angels’, are Merlin Hamlet, Sangeetha Sikhamani, N Lavanya, Surya, Febina and Sita Nair. The trip aims to let the world know that ... Read more

India retained its first position as the favoured tourist market for Duabi Tourism, with more than a million Indians visiting the city of gold during the first half of 2018, which is three per cent more than that of last year. As per statistics from Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism), Saudi Arabia and the UK are in second and third places respectively, while China in the fourth place. Russia improved their position to be in the first 10, with a soaring 74 per cent increase than 2017, delivering 405,000 visitors to the country. The visa-on-arrival facility ... Read more

Queensland, second largest state of the Australian province, is planning to issue a grant to a crypto start-up as part of their innovation funding. As per the government statement, the state government will grant over $8.3 million to TravelbyBit digital currency payments platform for the travel and tourism industry. It is part of their Advance Queensland Ignite Ideas funding, which supports entrepreneurs in Queensland in developing their businesses. “The role of the company will be to enhance the number of inbound tourists to Central Queensland through selling travel offers with cryptocurrencies and creating more jobs,” said Kate Jones, Innovation Minister. ... Read more

ITB Asia, ‘Asia’s Leading Travel Trade Show’, has seen a record number of buyers registering for this year’s show with nearly 1,000 approved buyers set to attend, a 12 per cent increase on last year. Hosted at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre in Marina Bay Sands, the conference will take place from 17 – 19 October 2018. This year, the top ten source markets for buyers from the Asia Pacific region include China, Oceania, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and Thailand. ITB Asia has been working closely with new industry partners to bring in a fresh ... Read more

  The Oberoi group is planning to start three resorts – one in Kenya and two in India- to explore benefits of wild life tourism. As per reports, The EIH group, one of the giants in the hospitality industry, will start a luxury resort on the outskirts of Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. Named as The Oberoi Wildlife Resort, the new hospitality center will spread on a 5000-acre site overlooking the Mara valley offering views of Mara Triangle and annual migration of animals from the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania into the Maasai Mara in search of green pasture.. ... Read more

Durga Devi In the forthcoming Durga puja, which is to be celebrated in October, a puja committee at Santosh Miitra Square in Kolkata is planning to use a chariot made of silver, priced at over Rs 40 crore, to carry its Durga idol. The offering is planned in relation to the committee’s 83rd year of celebrating Durga Puja. “The chariot would be worth Rs 40 crore,  and will be sponsored by a jewellery brand. Last year, we made the sari of Durga idol in gold weighing 30 kg,” said the president of the committee. Model of the Chariot “Using jewellery ... Read more

Dal Lake Officers from the tourism sector have conducted a meeting on 31st July 2018, which was chaired by Rigzin Sampheal, Tourism Secretary. The agenda of the meeting was to plan the tourism festival to be conducted in the Jammu and Kashmir. Director Tourism Kashmir Tasaduq Jeelani, Director Finance Lateef Poswal, Director Planning Tourism Parvez Sajad Kakroo, Additional Secretary Tourism Gulzar Ahmed, Joint Director Tourism Jammu Showkat Mehmood and other concerned officers of the department attended the meeting. Tasaduq Jeelani briefed the Tourism Secretary about the preparations to be done to facilitate a hassle-free Kashmir festival. Jeelani has suggested that ... Read more

Ayodhya – Photo for representative purpose only A new tourist township, ‘Navya Ayodhya’ is coming up in Uttar Pradesh, near Ayodhya. The township will be spread across 500 acres of land on Faizabad-Gorakhpur National Highway with an estimated cost of Rs 1,200 crore. The initial project report is being prepared by a London-based consultancy. The proposal from the Uttar Pradesh Tourism Department is awaiting state government approval to start the works. One of the main features of the township is there will be a special place named the ‘Nirvana Abode’— a destination to attain ‘moksha’ (salvation). The Navya Ayodhya project ... Read more

Effective 28 October 2018, Etihad Airways will increase its flights from Abu Dhabi to Canada’s largest city, Toronto, from three to five weekly services. The flights will be operated by Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, featuring 40 seats in Business Class and 340 in Economy Class. “We are thrilled to announce more flights to cosmopolitan Toronto, one of the most successful and popular destinations on our global route network. This news has been eagerly anticipated,” said Robin Kamark, Chief Commercial Officer, Etihad Aviation Group. “We have welcomed well over a million guests on our flights to Toronto since we launched the service almost ... Read more

Rwanda targets to raise revenue of USD 74 million through its Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Events and Exhibitions (MICE) tourism strategy this year, Rwanda Convention Bureau said on Tuesday, 31st July 2018. As part of its diversification strategy of tourism sector, the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) has introduced the MICE tourism policy in 2014. It aims at providing innovative products in the tourism sector, while preserving existing popular tourism sectors like gorilla tourism, eco-tourism, cultural and community-based tourism. The new products will work as complimentary to the existing tourism sectors. “Last year Rwanda hosted 192 conferences, generating revenue of USD 42 ... Read more

The Mangaluru district administration and the Department of Tourism will hold a series of capacity building training programmes in August for different stakeholders of tourism initiatives. As per a press release on Tuesday, 31st July 2018, an orientation class for travel agents and hoteliers will be held at Koteshwar in Udupi District on August 6. A training programme for home stay providers in and around Udupi will be held on August 8. Another training programme for taxi drivers operating around Byndoor, Kollur and Kundapur will be held on August 9. Taxi drivers associated with Udupi tourism packages operating in Udupi ... Read more

Emirates announced that it will introduce two additional flights to its Toronto (YYZ) service, complementing its existing schedule and providing even more choice and convenience to travellers. The additional Toronto flights will be introduced on August 18 2018 and will operate on a Saturday departing Dubai as EK241 at 03:30 and arrive in Toronto at 09:30. The return flight, EK242, leaves Toronto at 14:25 and arrives in Dubai at 11:40 the next day. On Sundays, EK241 will depart at 03:30 and arrive in Toronto at 09:30. The return flight, EK242, will leave Toronto at 14:30 and arrives in Dubai at ... Read more

Alexis Stephens and Christian Parson, a North Carolina couple has been on an adventure trip, hauling their miniature house nearly 80,000 kilo meters across 36 states in US and one province in Canada. The couple has spent nine months building the miniature home on wheels before commencing their three years of travel. They’re documenting their trip on a YouTube channel focused on disseminating the nomadic tiny home lifestyle. “We own the world’s most travelled tiny house,” claimed the couple Setting up the home for the journey meant using every bit of available space. “Every single inch matters in a tiny ... Read more

Jet Airways has commenced new flights on the Indore – Chandigarh – Indore – Hyderabad and Bengaluru – Guwahati routes. It has also commenced services from Indore to Hyderabad and Chandigarh. Jet Airways flight 9W 955 departed from Indore at 1245 hrs arriving at Chandigarh at 1445 hrs. On its return journey, flight 9W 958 will depart from Chandigarh at 1515 hrs and land at Indore at 1715 hrs. The flight will then depart for Hyderabad at 1800 hrs arriving at its destination at 1925 hrs. This flight will be operated by on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Similarly, Jet ... Read more