Category: News

The carbon footprint of tourism is about four times larger than previously thought, according to a world-first study published in Nature Climate Change. The researchers worked to assess the entire supply chain of tourism, which includes transportation, accommodation, food and beverages, souvenirs, clothing, cosmetics and other goods. Altogether, global tourism produces about 8 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, much more than previous estimates. The study, published in Nature Climate Change, estimates that global tourism produced about 4.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2013. Air travel accounts for one-fifth of these emissions. And the United States, which is ... Read more

The no change in visa rates for Pakistani citizens confirms that they will still have to pay 0.1 million to rupees 0.4 million for attaining the tourist visa. Reports say that the Pakistan embassy in Saudi and the Pakistan’s foreign office wasn’t aware of this policy and are yet to respond on this. The double pricing in visa policy of Saudi has come under discussion and has even put Pakistan under scanner. The reduction in the visa fee was initially denied by Saudi Gazette, the leading English-language daily newspaper published in Jeddah. However, they gave credibility to the news as ... Read more

After launching a series of award-winning design and renovation projects last year, Belmond revealed the details of seven highly distinctive developments across its portfolio of hotels, trains and cruises in 2018. Beginning last month with the launch of three new Art-Deco Grand Suites onboard historic Venice-Simplon-Orient-Express, Belmond’s diverse range of designs honour timeless craftsmanship, celebrate heritage and tradition and look to the future working with innovative designers and local materials. Lined up for the year is Belmond Savute Elephant Lodge in Botswana; Belmond Casa de Sierra Nevada in Mexico, a historic renovation of Belmond Cadogan Hotel in London and a ... Read more

Lemon Tree Hotels Ltd announced it will be investing Rs 850 crore in the next three years for expanding its footprint in the country. The company has earmarked a total of Rs 1,700 crore for adding 1,500 rooms, which are currently under construction and expected to be completed by financial year 2021 and spent half of the total budget. “The total capital that will be deployed in these 1,500 rooms will about Rs 1,700 crore. Of this roughly half of it has already been deployed and another half of it will be deployed near completion by FY21. All the 1500 rooms ... Read more

As a part of expansion and attracting more tourists to Kingdom of Bahrain, Gulf Air, flag carrier of Bahrain is set to undergo rebranding and the new brand identity was unveiled at the VIP event marking the beginning of Gateway Gulf Investor Forum Bahrain 2018. Gulf Air launched the worldwide exclusive premiere of its outdoor 3D projection #yearofchange video at one of the topmost projections in the world, on the Four Seasons Hotel, Bahrain Bay. The video will soon be displayed across the airline’s network. The event was carried out under the backing of Shaikh Khalid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, ... Read more

In its endeavor to further ease visa applications for Indians planning to visit Greece, Global Visa Center World (GVCW), the Greek visa service provider for India, said it will open its Visa Application Centres on Saturdays also. Applicants can now avail prime time visa services offered by GVCW to submit their applications at the 15 visa centres across India. There centres are in cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Goa. “These services will be available every Saturday from 10 am to 4 pm. Applicants can also collect their passports on Saturdays,” said a GVCW press release. GVCW ... Read more

SriLankan Airlines  said its traffic went up 48 per cent from Delhi and 24 per cent from Mumbai “mainly daily due to the capacity additions effected from these stations,” said Chinthaka Weerasinghe, Manager – North & Eastern India, SriLankan Airlines. The airline has introduced two daily flights from Delhi and Mumbai stations to Colombo last year. “It is genuine leisure traffic which is largely point to point filling up our aircraft from North and West. The load factors are in the range of 85 to 90 per cent from these regions,” he said. Overall, India is the top source market for tourism ... Read more

Cusco Three weekly non-stop flights have been announced by LATAM Airlines Peru which will connect Santiago, Chile and Cusco, Peru. Airbus A319 aircraft will be operating the route which will have a capacity to fly 144 passengers, with a total of 45,051 seats offered in a year. The service beginning on August 15th will have services on Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday. The tickets are already on sale. The LATAM Airlines Peru flight (LA2366) will depart from Santiago on Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday at 15:35 (local time), and will arrive at Alejandro Velasco Astete International Airport at 17:00 the same day. ... Read more

An artificial intelligence module has been developed by IRCTC to find anomalies in standard operating procedure using CCTV footage. With this module base Kitchens will be monitored pan India. The Artificial Intelligence module realises the value of their videos and photos with vision computing. It can detect an unexpected change or an event that does not conform to the expected pattern using their machine learning algorithms. To begin with, 16 base kitchens of IRCTC have been installed with high definition cameras connected to huge monitors for AI vision detection. Live streaming of 16 base kitchens is played all the time. ... Read more

The Telangana state government has constituted Manair River Front Development Corporation Limited for development of the river front along the shores of Lower Manair Dam (LMD) reservoir at Karimnagar. A Haritha hotel and convention centre on the shores of LMD reservoir is also proposed along with the project. The hotel would serve as an added advantage to encourage tourism by providing accommodation facilities. The Haritha hotel and the convention centre would be constructed at a cost of Rs 15 crore with Additional Central Assistance funds from the Union government. The foundation stone for the project would be laid by Minister ... Read more

As part of its agri-tourism project in the Chembakassery area of Alappuzha, the Pattanakkad panchayat is planning to set up a wind park in the village. The wind park is expected to be open to the public by August 2018. The panchayat is planning to begin the work on the project by the end of May. The park will be constructed close to the Chembakassery paddy fields on the Padmakshi Kavala-Andhakaranazhi road. The park would be set up as an elderly- and youth-friendly park to attract tourists. Tenders have already been awarded for constructing benches, swings, lights, and other related works. ... Read more

The first ibis Styles will be opened at Sultanate of Oman as AccorHotels has signed agreement with the Oman Tourism Development Company (Omran). The hotel which will be opening by 2020 will have 280 standard rooms with design and facilities that symbolize ibis Styles. This will be the first internationally branded economy hotel in the OCEC master development (Oman Convention & Exhibition Centre), giving a strong foothold for AccorHotels in Oman. OCEC is Oman’s largest and only dedicated meeting, conference, incentive and exhibition destination with superior design and state of the art convention infrastructure. The ibis Styles all-inclusive breakfast package ... Read more

The four-day annual summer festival in Yercaud is slated to begin on May 12. Chief Minister, Edappadi K Palaniswami, will inaugurate the event. The horticulture department is taking all measures and have begun to decorate the flowers of various varieties for the flower show. The department has already procured eye catching colourful flowers from various parts of the state and also from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. It is reported that around 22,000 rose flowers have been fetched from Uthagamandalam alone. A replica of St. George Fort, tractor, and arch towers would be the highlights of this year’s festival. Vegetables and fruits carving, ... Read more

  Concorde flights were a popular name till the start of 21st century. This supersonic passenger airline which commenced the operations in 1976 had to terminate its service in 2003 as it never had enough travellers to make a commercial impact. British Airways and Air France were the two airlines which had a try with the supersonic giants. The love for Concorde may be ignited again as Boom, a Denver-based start-up, is planning to give another try with a 55-seat jet and will be having a long-range cruising speed of Mach 2.2 (1,451mph/2,335km/h). The company hopes to have lower operating ... Read more

Photo Courtesy: scroll The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has announced that it will start issuing receipts for the food items sold on trains. IRTC had issued a letter to all zonal heads on Monday instructing that a minimum 10 point-of-sale (POS) machines should be provided in each train in their respective zones. According to a Railway Board directive, it is mandatory for licensees to issue proper bills to passengers for the sale of food items. “However, it has been observed that despite the instructions issued to licensees and IRCTC zones, hand-held electronic bill printing devices are not ... Read more