Category: News

The Ministry of Tourism as part of its Dekho Apna Desh webinar series featured ‘Vedic Food and Spices of India’, in an attempt to showcase ancient culinary wisdom. Two renowned chefs, Rajeev Goyal and chef Gautam, held centre stage. While Rajeev Goyal is a culinary tourism expert and the president of India Food Tourism Org, the first of its kind food tour company in India, chef Gautam has been closely associated with some of the leading premium brands such as Radisson, Oberoi before heading to the Beverly Hills in the US. From adding a sprig of tulsi in the water ... Read more

The Uttarakhand government is trying to generate more employment opportunities for the youth of the state, by starting an online registration facility under the Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali Tourism Self-Employment Scheme. Under the scheme, the beneficiary can purchase buses/electric buses to operate on state routes and avail 50% subsidy or up to Rs 15 lakhs for the purchase of the bus. This self-employment scheme has been provided to the people of Uttarakhand state and the buses will be operated only on the designated routes of the Uttarakhand Transport Corporation. Along with this, it will also be mandatory that all such ... Read more

A new interactive has been designed to help Canadians navigate travelling in a world still plagued by the COVID-19 pandemic. Created by the Canadian Travel and Tourism Roundtable with the goal of promoting safe travel and “to help save the summer travel season,” the map allows users to enter where they’re travelling from, as well as their province of residence – at which point it will indicate where all they’re currently allowed to visit.  Quebec residents travelling from Quebec, for example, are allowed to visit British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatoon, and Ontario, as indicated by a green colour on the map. Manitoba and ... Read more

Thailand Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha called on fellow ASEAN members to begin discussion about reopening certain limited lines of interregional travel, to begin the recovery from the pandemic’s impact on the regional economy. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a regional grouping that promotes economic, political, and security cooperation among its ten members: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam   No specific time was mentioned around when such discussions would take place, but it was a significant first step to begin deeper discussions, as many ASEAN nations now have low to no active ... Read more

Losses suffered by Malaysia’s tourism sector has amounted to around RM45 billion, during the first half of this year. Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri said tourism is one of the economic sectors hit the hardest by coronavirus, and is expected to be the last to recover. To fight the issue and to assist local tourism stakeholders, Nancy said a grant known as Galakan Melancong Malaysia (GAMELAN) will be extended, primarily for domestic promotion and marketing activities. “The ministry has also introduced a Special Fund for Tourism or SFT that supports the development of small and medium ... Read more

Foreign holidays are back on the cards in the UK after Prime Minister Boris Johnson admitted he will lift coronavirus travel curbs. The UK Government is still in talks with countries in a bid to persuade them not to quarantine UK tourists when they arrive, the Mirror reports. Favourites including France, Spain, and Greece, are among the destinations as quarantine restrictions are lifted for people returning from those countries. However, it remains unclear whether British nationals could be forced into self-isolation as they begin their holidays. An official announcement is expected next week when the Prime Minister is expected to confirm deals for “air bridges” ... Read more

The Australian tourism sector is expected to cop a $55 billion hit over the next financial year amid uncertainty over the reopening of state borders and the assumption that international travel bans will remain until July 2021. Tourism expenditure is forecast to fall from $138.5 billion in 2019 to $83.8 billion. The prediction comes from a report in May by the Australian Trade and Investment Commission seen by The Sun-Herald and The Sunday Age. It assumes international travel bans will remain until at least July 2021 but state border restrictions will be lifted. The economic impact could be even worse if internal travel restrictions ... Read more

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the UNWTO are joining forces to boost the recovery of the tourism sector across the 38 economies where the Bank invests. According to UNWTO, all worldwide destinations introduced restrictions on travel in response to Covid-19. While some destinations are starting to ease restrictions, the crisis is far from over and this lockdown has led to a massive fall in international tourist arrivals. In light of such unprecedented events, the EBRD and UNWTO have agreed to take immediate action to facilitate the recovery of tourism. The immediate response was designed along the three ... Read more

Air India has announced eight evacuation flights between India and Australia under the Vande Bharat Mission. The flights will be operated from July 1 to July 14. Bookings will begin on June 28 from 12 PM — only on the Air India website. The national carrier will operate four flights each to Melbourne and Sydney. Since May, Air India has carried out repatriation flights under the Vande Bharat Mission. Recently,  the US, France and the UAE governments raised objections to these flights saying that India was not allowing these countries to carry out their own repatriation flights. While India was ... Read more

Dubai carrier Emirates is looking to resume another seven passenger services next month as the emirate continues to ease travel restrictions. The airline will relaunch flights to Khartoum from July 3, Osaka from July 7, Narita from July 8 and Athens, Larnaca and Rome from July 5. The latest series of resumptions means the airline will fly to 48 destinations. The Dubai carrier previously reopened routes to London Heathrow, Frankfurt, Paris, Milan, Madrid, Chicago, Toronto, Sydney, Melbourne, Manila, Kabul, Bahrain, Manchester and Zurich. It will also restart services to Auckland, Beirut, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh from July 1 and ... Read more

The tourism sectors of India, Indonesia and the Philippines are likely to be the laggards among countries trying to revive the travel industry, a report released by ANZ Research has said. Since most countries are now past the worst of their Covid-19 outbreak, restrictions on travel are being eased and appetite for travel would gradually return, the report said. But in the three aforementioned countries, the number of active coronavirus cases continue to rise, making recovery difficult. Tourism in the region is entering the recovery phase, but the pace of this recovery [would] depend on the evolution of the pandemic ... Read more

Eighteen international repatriation flights are expected to bring 3,630 expatriates to the Kochi airport today. Air India will operate a flight from Paris via Delhi and Azur Air is scheduled to operate a direct flight from Kiev in Ukraine. Repatriation flights from Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah, Kuwait, Doha, Muscat, Paris and Ukraine are also scheduled to arrive on Saturday. On Friday, 21 flights brought 3,960 passengers at the airport. Rapid antibody tests were conducted on 85 passengers who arrived till 6pm. Meanwhile IndiGo airlines cancelled its Riyadh flight while SpiceJet rescheduled its Ras Al Khaimah flight to Saturday. The ... Read more

Russia’s Energia Space Corporation has said it will take a tourist on a space walk in 2023, under the terms of a new contract with a US partner. Energia has inked a contract with Space Adventures, which promises to take two space tourists to the International Space Station (ISS) that year.  “We plan that one of the participants of the expedition will do a space walk from the Russian segment, together with a professional Russian cosmonaut,” said Energia, which is part of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos. The announcement comes days after NASA signed a deal with Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic ... Read more

People who planned to travel to Las Vegas are increasingly having second thoughts about their vacations as coronavirus cases have shot through the roof in Nevada. Members of the Nevada Commission on Tourism met by videoconference earlier this week to hear how hard tourism has been hurt by coronavirus and how to move forward. Steve Hill, head of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, said the demand for Vegas visits was higher than expected when casinos reopened earlier this month but a drumbeat of bad news has chilled the enthusiasm. “That information has started to cause the numbers that ... Read more

One of Kazakhstan’s top ten travel destinations, the Balkhash Lake shoreline, will have a major “infrastructure renovation” finished by 2025. The Karaganda Region Akimat (administration) plans to build more than 20 new coastal recreation areas, to complete the repair of the Karaganda-Balkhash highway and to reconstruct the Balkhash city airport, the regional akimat’s press service has reported. Balkhash Lake is one of the largest lakes in Asia and one of the most unique features of the lake is its chemical composition. The western part of the reservoir has freshwater, while the eastern part is salty. The region attracts approximately 80,000 people ... Read more