Category: News

With the coronavirus pandemic dealing a severe blow to Malaysia’s tourism sector and domestic travellers unable to revive the industry, the country’s tourism ministry has welcomed the government’s decision to launch travel “green zones” for foreigners, says a report by Arab News. “We’ve always been consistent in our approach of asking the government to review international borders,” Tan Kok Liang, president of the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA), told Arab News, adding that the green zones are “most welcome.” Domestic travel, despite several efforts taken by MATTA, is not enough to “regenerate sustainable revenues streams” for the ... Read more

The Indonesian island of Bali has bowed to the inevitable and will remain closed to foreign tourists until the end of 2020. For months, local government officials have insisted Bali would reopen to overseas tourists on September 11. It began allowing domestic tourists to visit on July 31, Sydney Morning Herald has reported. Earlier this month the Minister for Maritime and Investment Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan had supported the reopening, though he subsequently back-tracked. Bali’s economy is heavily reliant on foreign tourists and has been smashed by the coronavirus pandemic with hotel occupancy rates dropping by up to 95%. The decision to keep ... Read more

The executive chairman of Trip.com Group, Asia’s biggest online travel agency, says he wants to see Japan and China reopen their borders to each other for leisure travel “later this year,” projecting a strong recovery in tourism demand despite the coronavirus pandemic. A recovery in domestic travel would come first once infections start to ease, and the “next question” would be when Japan and China can reach an agreement about reciprocal travel, Co-founder and Executive Chairman James Liang in a recent video interview. “I hope this kind of agreement can be reached later this year,” Liang said from the Chinese ... Read more

The tourism industry of Kerala is largely supportive yet not even 50% of the industry partners are associating with the Responsible Tourism (RT) Mission activities, says Rupesh Kumar, the State’s Responsible Tourism Mission Coordinator. We hope by implementing the RT Classification system, industry partners will automatically cooperate with the Mission since RT Classification is a promotional tool in the international tourism market. Our activities have created a new face for Kerala Tourism in the national and international tourism market and RT has become a kind of tagline for Kerala Tourism, he says. Excerpts from an interview: Q: In what way has ... Read more

Costa Rica will soon reopen its doors to American tourists — but only from six states. Starting September 1, residents of Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, and Vermont will be permitted to travel to the Central American country, according to an announcement made by Costa Rica’s tourism board. “In these six states, there has been a very positive evolution of the pandemic and their epidemiological indicators are of high quality,” Gustavo Segura, Costa Rica’s Minister of Tourism, said in a statement. In order to enter the country, American travellers will be required to present a valid driver’s license ... Read more

The Indian Railways is working on a much-awaited project to connect the Char Dham sites in Uttarakhand through a 327-km-long railway line, ANI has reported. Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, taking to Twitter, announced that the Indian Railways is going to make the Char Dham Yatra easy for crores of devotees. “Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Railways is going to make the Char Dham Yatra easy for crores of devotees. Devotees will be able to travel by rail to visit Gangotri, Yamunotri, Badrinath, and Kedarnath situated in the holy plains of Uttarakhand,” Goyal tweeted. The railway line will ... Read more

A report from the United States Travel Association states nearly half of the 16.9 million jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector were wiped out in March and April, but at least in Niagara Falls, there are some signs that brighter days are ahead. “We are seeing some slight indications of recovery now,” said John Percy, the President and CEO of Destination Niagara USA, adding, “We’ve seen that hotel bookings have increased 28% week over week on an average.”  There could be many reasons for the recent uptick. For example, pent up demand for travel. “Our areas match up to what our ... Read more

The State and Central governments should support the tourism sector by offering moratorium on loan repayments for a period of 24 months, says Prasad Manjali, Director of Contour Group of Hotels & Resorts. They could also look at supporting salary payments of the hospitality and tourism employees, notes Manjali, who is also the Managing Director & CEO of Citrine Hospitality Ventures. He says the cost of property maintenance including basic salaries of staff, lease payments, generator fuel expenses and electricity was tough to deal with. The staff panicked as they realised that the pandemic had created instability, he says in ... Read more

Covid-19 pandemic has triggered an unprecedented crisis in the tourism ecosystem, however the crisis presents an opportunity to rethink the tourism ecosystem for a more sustainable and resilient future. Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State for Tourism and Culture, has said that the pandemic  opened new opportunities for development getting all the stakeholders together to fight against this situation. “We have been able to open all the monuments, hotels and soon we will be able to open the banquet halls in half capacity. We have been able to revive the air travel to a certain extent and we will continue ... Read more

The Ministry of Tourism has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) and FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO) for ensuring women empowerment in the tourism industry. Through this initiative FLO & TAAI would lay emphasis on personal and hospitality skills, a more flexible work balance and greater options for entrepreneurship with significantly lower capital. Speaking on the occasion Prahlad Singh Patel said that, “Women in our country are excelling in different fields. We have the best of women doctors, pilots, scientists and businesswomen. Women have also excelled in various adventure related activities and sports ... Read more

The President of the Wayanad Tourism Organisation (WTO), K R  Vancheeswaran, says that since properties in Wayanad are largely MSMEs, the chances of them closing down are very high.The quick buck makers are bound to close down, while the more serious and resilient ones will weather the storm and get back on their feet, he says. There are many fly-by-night operators who have already shut shop, Vancheeswaran, says in an exclusive interview, which is part of our mini-series Wayanad Matters. This being a glamour industry there are many who can’t even openly state their plight, for it will affect their pride. ... Read more

Bangkok tourist destination Khao San Road is usually heaving with people on weekends, its cheap beer bars, tattoo parlours, street vendors, hostels and buzzing nightlife drawing budget travellers and tour groups alike. On a recent Saturday evening, the street was deserted except for a few dozen locals who wandered past boarded up shops, ignoring restaurant staff calling out meal and drink deals, news agency Reuters reports in its industry feature. Khao San Road clearly shows the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Bangkok, the world’s most visited city for four consecutive years before a ban on international travel. “I have ... Read more

Emirates will operate repatriation flights to Bengaluru, Kochi, Delhi, Mumbai, and Thiruvananthapuram till August 31. These special flights will facilitate travel for Indian citizens in the UAE wishing to return home, and for UAE residents who are currently in India. Only Indian citizens stranded in the UAE will be allowed to fly from Dubai to the five Indian destinations. All flights will be operated with the Emirates Boeing 777-300ER and can be booked on emirates.com or via travel agents. Passengers must meet all the entry requirements of the destination to be allowed to board the flights. Flights will be available for UAE nationals ... Read more

A new in-depth data dashboard highlighting the recovery of travel demand across flights and hotels, as well as revealing the shifting intentions of travellers through online travel searches, has been launched by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC). The one-stop data shop or Interactive COVID-19 Travel Demand Recovery Dashboard was developed by WTTC, which represents the global Travel & Tourism private sector, with support from McKinsey & Company. This unique tool provides users with easy access to qualitative and quantitative travel data at the global and regional level as well as for 33 major countries around the world, by ... Read more

Passengers will have to pay Rs 10 extra for their air travel from September 1 as the Ministry of Civil Aviation has decided to revise the rates of aviation security fee (ASF) for domestic and international passengers. According to officials, the ASF for domestic flyers will be increased by Rs 10 to Rs 160 while the international passengers will have to pay $5.2 instead of the current $4.85. The ASF is used to fund the security arrangement at airports across the country. The ASF was hiked last year to Rs 150 from Rs 130, and international passengers were charged $4.85 ... Read more