Category: News

As part of regulating the tourism activity and ensuring safety of visitors, the authorities have decided to give badges to the drivers of multi-utility vehicles (MUVs) offering off-road safaris to Kolukkumala in Idukki district of Kerala. A meeting called by Devikulam sub collector V R Premkumar had directed the Motor Vehicle Department (MVD) to inspect the condition of MUVs offering such services in Idukki. The meeting also decided to operate MUV safari at Kolukumala under the District Tourism Promotion Council (DTPC). A team of officials lead by Idukki DTPC secretary Jayan P Vijayan had earlier visited Kolukkumala and reviewed the off-road ... Read more

Civil aviation minister Suresh Prabhu has expressed his interest in creating an entertainment park at the upcoming greenfield international airport in Mopa so as to attract more global tourists to the site. “As much as 234 acres of land (at the Mopa airport site) has been allotted for commercial development. We should explore the possibility of developing a huge entertainment park here so that it can be a tourist attraction,” the minister said. He also suggested that the park could either be developed under a public private partnership (PPP) model, or outsourced. The minister was speaking to reporters after inspecting the airport ... Read more

Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) and Mizoram government have entered into an agreement to boost investment and develop tourism in the northeastern state. “The tourism and agro-market potential of the state were worth exploring, for which more states like Maharashtra and corporate houses can help. The best practices of cooperative societies in Maharashtra could be emulated to move away from subsistence farming to a more profitable commercial one,” said Mizoram Governor Lt. Gen. Nirbhay Sharma (retd).  The Governor also laid emphasis on roping in film makers and producers to explore the pristine nature of the state and involvement of the community while ... Read more

Foreigners touring India need not go to the Foreigners Registration Office/Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRO/FRRO) in person to registration or visa extension services, as it is from now onwards, can be done online through an e-FRRO platform. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh launched the web-based application e-FRRO scheme aimed at providing fast and efficient visa-related services online to visitors to India. The scheme has already been implemented and is running successfully as a pilot project in four FRROs in Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai since February 12. Now it has been rolled out in the remaining eight FRROs — Kolkata, Amritsar, ... Read more

Kerala Tourism has gone one step ahead to mainstream the transgender community and empower the differently-abled by posting them as tourism resource persons (TRP) under the responsible tourism mission. Kerala Tourism will post 1,000 TRPs as part of a responsible tourism initiative to organise tourism grama sabhas and promote the destination at the grassroots level. A transperson and two differently abled persons each will be among the TRPs to be roped in for the 14 districts. No previous experience is needed for those from the transgender community and the differently abed to become a TRP, rather a pass in Plus Two/ ... Read more

It was a happy news for the tourism industry, as the foreign tourist arrival exceeds to over 13.4 per cent more than that of the previous year statistics. Foreign tourist arrival for the period of January-March 2018 was 31.27 lakh, while January-March 2017 recorded only 28.45 lakh arrivals. The statistics can be further dissected as more foreign arrivals of about 19.59 % were registered from Bangladesh followed by UK (11.56%), USA (10.79%), Russian Federation (3.89%), Sri Lanka (3.72%), Malaysia (3.36%), Canada (3.35%), Germany (3.19%), China (2.67%), Australia (2.62%), France (2.58%), Japan (2.11%), Thailand (2.00%), Singapore (1.64%) and Afghanistan (1.60%). Meanwhile, ... Read more

Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), the public central university located at New Delhi is all about to introduce new courses, that includes PG Diploma course in Religious Tourism. The university has also proposed courses on PG Diploma in Kalp Vedanga, PG diploma course in Vaastu Shastra. India having a diversity in religious and architectural aspect could benefit a lot from these quality educations, that offer better employment opportunity for the coming generations. Meanwhile, the next phase of new courses would add  Sanskrit journalism and classical music that exhibit rich tradition of India. At present, the university offers MA, MPhil, PhD programmes ... Read more

Bulgaria, as part of providing a flawless tourism service to the neighbouring countries like Russia, has issued a fast processing of tourist visas within 48 hours. The new policy has been exclusively put forward by Nikolina Angelkova, Bulgarian Tourism Minister in a television interview. “Turkey is our main rival as its tourist industry has government support and it can make particularly good tourist offers as. We cannot do that but we have been making efforts to keep Russian tourists coming because Bulgaria remains one of the popular destinations among Russian tourists,” said Nikolina Angelkova. Meanwhile, the Bulgarian Tourism Ministry added additional ... Read more

The district police authorities of Maharashtra has issued an alert, for the group admin of popular messaging platform WhatsApp, as part of reducing no objectionable content circulation among groups. “We have issued a letter to all police stations, asking them to summon WhatsApp group admins in their areas in person, and tell them that they should avoid such content in the group,” said Parbhani, Sub Divisional Police Officer. Admins have to make sure that their groups are free from defamatory flagged contents on historical figures, places of worship, anything that may hurt religious sentiments in the form of pictures, audio ... Read more

India’s first high-speed bullet train project is all set to start from January next year. The 508 km long range bullet train service is projected to start its service from Mumbai to Ahmedabad sector. According to Indian Railway, the project is predicted to cost around Rs 1.08 lakh crore, that would be completed by the end of 2022.  Meanwhile, around 1,400 hectares of land has to be covered from both Maharashtra and Gujarat at a cost of  Rs 10,000 crore. The mega project also gets funds from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Also, the land acquisition programme is already underway in certain ... Read more

Photo Courtesy: ANI Aryaman Verma hailing from Ludhiana in Punjab became the ‘youngest drone developer’ to enter into the India Book of Records. The 13-year-old boy built a quadcopter, which can fly to a height of over 70 ft. According to various media reports, the Aryaman Verma’s family said that they are currently approaching Guinness World Records to register for a world title. Drones are unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that can be controlled by humans from the ground. Their uses are extensive in nature that adds up the possibility of bomb detection, surveillance, filming, shipping and disaster management. It requires ... Read more

China’s State Shipbuilding Corporation has started the construction of Snow Dragon 2, an ice-breaking ship dedicated to breaking the ice in Polar Regions. The is under construction at Jiangnan Shipyard in China. According to media reports, the ship is a combination of over 114 sections and 11 parts fused to form a single unit. The ship uses two-way technology to break ice simultaneously using both bow and stern. “The project is not simply purchasing the designs and drawings from foreign companies this time,” said Wu Gang, chief designer of Snow Dragon 2. The ship will be having the endurance to break ... Read more

The much-awaited 2018 edition of Great Indian Travel Bazaar (GITB) is about to hit the Pink City, which is also known as the Paris of India. Regarded as the biggest travel and tourism event held annually in India, FICCI GITB is expected to add another feather in the cap of this historical city by turning it into a tourism hub. Jaipur’s growing reputation as a tourism hotspot, speaks volumes for its chances of becoming a heritage centre in India and its suitability to host an event for the tourism players across the world to chart new growth strategies and discuss ... Read more

Philippine Airlines (PAL), the flag carrier of Philippines, has appointed Bird Travels Private Ltd, the Airline Management Services arm of Bird Group, as its local representative in India. The association marks the airline’s latest step in developing its sales distribution network within the Indian market. The appointment of Bird Travels is a part of the intensive preparations undertaken by Philippine Airlines to realize its firm plans to commence operations to India by Winter 2018, the airlines said in a statement. Reinforcing the airline’s commitment and growing confidence in the market, Bird Travels is given the challenge to take responsibility for ... Read more

The India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) has signed an MOU with Hyderabad-based Suraas Impex for developing a mega tourism destination project at Bairav Lanka in Kakinada, East Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh. The first phase of the project is estimated to cost Rs 550 crores. This project is the first of its kind for the state-owned ITDC with any private player. Ravneet Kaur, IAS, Chairperson and Managing Director (C&MD), ITDC; Piyush Tiwari, Director (Commercial & Marketing), ITDC; and Ravi Pandit, General Manager, Ashok Consultancy & Engineering Services (ACES), ITDC as well as officers from Suraas Impex were present at the ... Read more