Category: News

Dubai is likely to benefit the most in aviation from the United Arab Emirates’ historic deal to normalize relations with Israel, Bloomberg has reported, gaining a new stream of travellers that can help the Gulf travel hub bounce back from the coronavirus crisis that has decimated air traffic. The agreement between the two countries sets aside decades of enmity, opening ties through air travel, tourism, investment, security and telecommunications. Delegations from the two countries are set to meet soon to work out the details. The opening will give the UAE’s biggest carriers – Emirates and Etihad — an opportunity to feed Israeli passengers through ... Read more

Vinay Dube has been replaced by Kaushik Khona as GoAir’s new CEO. Six months after he joined GoAir from the now-defunct Jet Airways, Dube has quit the Wadia group owned carrier, which seems to be struggling the most among all airlines in the fray. “Vinay Dube has ceased to be in employment with immediate effect and hence, ceases to be the CEO of the company,” a statement from GoAir said. “The nominations and remuneration committee and the board met today and appointed Kaushik Khona as CEO with immediate effect.” Khona had earlier served as the CEO of the airline between ... Read more

The US administration has suspended all private charter flights between the United States and Cuba, to increase economic pressure on Havana, the BBC has reported. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted that “the Castro regime uses tourism and travel funds to finance its abuses and interference in Venezuela”. Last October the US banned regular scheduled flights to all cities in communist-run Cuba except Havana. Tourism to Cuba has already been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Hardline policies towards Cuba and its regional ally Venezuela are welcomed by conservative Cuban-American groups in Florida, a key battleground state which Donald ... Read more

The Indian government on Friday reduced port tariff by 60% to 70%, to promote domestic cruise tourism. “The decision will support the cruise industry and protect it from the adverse economic impacts due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Union Shipping Minister Mansukh Mandaviya. “It will provide an opportunity for the country to earn huge amounts of foreign exchange and generate sizable direct and indirect onshore employment in cruise tourism,” the Minister added. The port charges for a cruise ship will be $0.085 per GRT (Gross Registered Tonnage) instead of the present rate of $0.35, for the first 12 hours stay ... Read more

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has said it has formed a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to fast-track the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway project. “NHAI has proceeded to form a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) company for financing, construction and operation of the Delhi-Mumbai ‘Greenfield’ Expressway,” the company said in a statement. The SPV has been registered by the name of ‘DME Development Ltd’ and will be wholly owned by NHAI, it said. “By floating SPV specific to a corridor, the NHAI is aiming at diversifying its resource base and developing a sustainable and self-liquidating approach to raise finances,” it said. Spanning ... Read more

Prime Minister Narendra Modi while launching the ‘Transparent Taxation’ platform has announced multiple reforms to improve tax compliance, faceless assessment and ease of filing returns. As part of the overhaul, the government has also proposed to reduce the threshold of various transactions for tax disclosure. This is aimed at widening the income tax base and checking tax evasion, Moneycontrol has reported. The list will now include white good purchases, property tax payment, medical and life insurance premium and even hotel payments. So, the next time you pay a hotel bill or medical insurance premium of more than Rs 20,000, incur ... Read more

Bali, Indonesia’s famous holiday island, is set to reopen to international tourists in September. Bali had officially reopened to domestic tourists on July 31, as part of its three-step plan to resume travel activities. As outlined by Bali governor Wayan Koster in July, the provincial government is expected to re-evaluate the plan on opening the border for international tourists “by the end of August” for an  opening date of September 11. These plans have been given a further shot-in-the-arm following comments by Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan. During an address to the Jakarta Foreign ... Read more

Domestic air traffic made a minor recovery in July, growing to 21.07 lakh passengers, a 6.1% increase from June, when 19.84 lakh fliers took to the air. Year-on-year, however, the traffic declined 82.3% in July.  In July 2019, 1.19 crore passengers had travelled by air. But here also there is a silver lining. The drop is lower than what was seen in June when the decline was 83.5%, year-on-year, Moneycontrol has reported. The data was released by industry regulator DGCA, on August 13. For the year till July, the industry had a total of 3.72 crore passengers, a drop of ... Read more

SpiceJet has unveiled an automated customer service and check-in facility via WhatsApp. The carrier’s customer service agent called “Ms Pepper” can be accessed by passengers at the mobile number 6000000006, SpiceJet said in a press statement. Earlier, these facilities were available in SpiceJet’s website or mobile application. “WhatsApp “Hi” to Ms Pepper on your way to the airport and she will help you with the mandatory web check-in process without the need to visit SpiceJet’s website and deliver your boarding pass directly to your mobile phone,” it stated. Moreover, the automated agent will solve customer’s queries on WhatsApp, the airline ... Read more

India’s largest crocodile park may have as little as four months before it runs out of funds to feed animals, pay staff and do research, as ticket revenue shrinks after coronavirus lockdowns choked the flow of visitors. Annual sales of about 5 million tickets usually make up roughly half the revenue of the park, located about 40 km from Chennai, but it has been shut since March 16, with no prospect of reopening in sight, says news agency Reuters. The lockdowns during the summer vacation season have cost an estimated ₹1.4 crore ($187,000) as visitors dropped by almost 2.5 million, said ... Read more

The pandemic has dealt a huge blow to tourism-dependent countries like Spain and cities such as Barcelona, one of Europe’s most popular. But now they are seeking to lure visitors back and are also debating the need to change their economic models to tackle a longstanding overcrowding problem, says Reuters. “There’s a total change of strategy,” said Marian Muro, director of Turisme de Barcelona, a public-private consortium, explaining the shift away from general promotion of the city. “Quality is more important than quantity” and a greater respect from visitors to Barcelona’s residents are among the factors behind the city’s more ... Read more

India has signed an air bubble agreement with the Maldives, making it the sixth country in a growing list of places where Indians can travel to.  The first flight to Male will leave from here on August 18. An air bubble between countries allows citizens to travel freely between specified nations without having the need to undergo on-arrival quarantine. India currently hasallowed travel to the US, the UK, Germany, France and Kuwait, and is in talks with Canada for a similar travel arrangement. The agreement with Maldives was inked during a video conference between External Affairs Minister Jaishankar and his Maldives ... Read more

Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality is extending its efforts to provide creative solutions for residents impacted by the coronavirus outbreak.  With the coronavirus outbreak proving particularly challenging for the cultural sector worldwide, outdoor initiatives are representing almost the sole solution for cultural events.   Last week, Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality’s Arts and Culture Division, in partnership with municipal companies: Tel Aviv Cinematheque, Expo Tel Aviv and Sport Palaces of Tel Aviv-Yafo invited residents to park up, sit back and enjoy the nostalgia as the city’s famous drive-in theatre was opened. Each movie screening was opened to 200 cars at the Shlomo Group Arena parking lot ... Read more

Emirates airline will resume passenger services to three more destinations in the coming weeks, taking its network to 74 cities.  The Dubai carrier will resume operations to Birmingham (September 1) four times a week, Cebu (August 20) two times a week, and Houston (23 August) three times a week. The addition of Houston will see Emirates resume flights to six US destinations in total, in addition to New York JFK, Washington DC, Boston (15 August), Chicago and Los Angeles, with a total of 27 weekly flights to the country. All inbound and transit passengers arriving to Dubai require a negative ... Read more

The Tourism Authority of Thailand’s (TAT) deputy governor for international marketing, Chattan Kunjara Na Ayudhya, has said there was “no talk of a timeline issued for reopening the country to inbound or outbound leisure travel”. He said he doesn’t expect Thailand to welcome tourists until at least 2021. He noted that discussions about potential re-openings had been very “risk averse”. “The Christmas period, usually the high season, is in jeopardy and I’m looking horribly even to Chinese New Year in February, which is an iffy proposition at best now. Unfortunately, this is not a rosy picture.” Earlier plans for travel ... Read more