Category: News

Following Kerala Tourism, who has entered into a partnership with TikTok recently, the Ministry of Tourism, Dubai has also announced its partnership with mobile video application TikTok for their #ThisisDubai social media campaign. As part of the partnership, the app created “AR stickers with exclusive Dubai themed music”. Participants were asked to capture unique aspects of the city to tell the story of Dubai. Over 9,800 videos were created for the campaign. Two winning entries will receive an exclusive holiday package, with the first prize winning a two-night stay at Kempinski Mall of the Emirates, and both first and second prize ... Read more

VFS Global, the leading visa outsourcing and technology partner for several governments and diplomatic missions worldwide, has achieved another milestone by processing a record 200 million visa applications. Set up in 2001, the company touched its first 100 million applications milestone in May 2015. Since then, the next 100 million applications were processed over a record four-year period. In 2018 alone, VFS Global processed 26.7 million applications globally – the most number of visa applications processed in any single year, registering a 16 per cent increase year-on-year. “We take pride in this achievement of processing our 200 millionth visa application, ... Read more

The South Asian Voluntary Association of Environmentalists (SAVAE), a Kashmir based organization which focuses on environmental policy in South Asia, has concluded its drive of identifying and promoting the young environmental ambassadors. The underlying goal has been to bring focus and steer on campaigns to combat global warming and securing water conservation and sustainability in the politically volatile and ecologically fragile Kashmir region. The youngest hiker in the drive was three-year-old Aizel from the business town of Sopore. She accompanied her father, Shafkat Masoodi, a veteran hiker. This baby hiker remained the main attraction of this week-long eco-campaign that concluded ... Read more

Pride Plaza Hotel Aerocity, New Delhi announced the appointment of Vikas Pant as Executive Chef. With over 22 years of culinary management expertise, Vikas Pant brings on table the best of innovative practices to the hotels’ diverse culinary scene. A seasoned F& B professional, he will helm the kitchen team and present a refreshing dining experience at the hotel’s flagship restaurants, which includes a tranquil poolside barbecue – Angare, a global all-day restaurant – Café Pride, a Pan-Asian Restaurant – Oriental Spice and a bakery & confectionery outlet – Mr. Confectioner. “We are delighted to welcome Vikas Pant as our ... Read more

Ministry of Tourism, Government of India spent Rs 1687.06 crore and Rs 1986.04 crore during the years 2017-18 and 2018-19 respectively under its plan scheme on tourism sector. The Budget Estimate under the plan scheme for the sector during the financial year 2019-20 is Rs 2075.12 crore, informed Minister of State (I/C) for Culture & Tourism, Prahlad Singh Patel. The tourism sector contributed an estimated (direct + indirect) 5.06 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product of the country during 2016-17. The estimated share (direct + indirect) of jobs due to tourism was 12.38 per cent during 2017-18. An estimated ... Read more

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Friday said the government will build 17 iconic sites to encourage arrival of tourists in India. “One hundred new clusters will be set up in 2019-20 to enable 50,000 artisans to come into the economic value chain,” she said. “Developing key tourist centres will have ripple effects on job creation in areas such as tour and safari guides, hotels, catering and housekeeping staff, shops at tourist spots etc. It is possible to identify 10 tourism spots in each of the larger 20 states and 5 spots in the 9 smaller states and build road and air connectivity ... Read more

Club Med’s newly renovated La Pointe aux Canonniers resort in Mauritius was inaugurated by Henri Giscard d’Estaing, President of Club Med on June 6, 2019. More than 200 guests from 20 countries around the world attended the inauguration to experience the new face of the resort. Elected officials, partners, investors, journalists, local actors and institutions discovered all the new experiences offered to guests such as the new family zone and the new zen zone exclusively reserved for adults. Carried out in 2018 and over a short period of 5 months, the renovation and extension work of Club Med La Pointe ... Read more

When you are touring in India, and wish to file a complaint, then just tweet your concerns to the Ministry of Tourism. The Ministry of Tourism is planning to launch a Twitter-based grievance redressal mechanism for tourists to file their complaints in real time. The ministry wants to replicate the External Affairs Ministry’s Twitter Seva Service, which was launched in 2016 with an aim to centralise and expedite its grievance redressal mechanism. Tourism Minister Prahlad Patel had a meeting with officials of Twitter this week and requested them to create a dedicated mechanism. The ministry is also likely to create ... Read more

  10.6 million foreign tourists arrive in India 2018-19 compared to 10.4 million in 2017-18. Economic Survey says that “Tourism sector is a major engine of economic growth that contributes significantly in terms of GDP, foreign exchange earnings and employment.” In India, the Tourism sector had been performing well with Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) growing at 14 per cent to 10.4 million and Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEEs) at 20.6 per cent to US$28.7 billion in 2017-18. However, the sector witnessed a slowdown in 2018-19. The Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTA) in 2018-19 stood at 10.6 million compared to 10.4 million in ... Read more

One of the most sought-after tourist destinations in India, Ooty in Tamil Nadu is going to be plastic-free from August 2019 onwards. The Nilgiri District Administration, is in charge of Ooty, has passed a rule to ban the sale of single-use plastics that include water bottles, food items packed in plastic, and soft drinks in the town and the highways leading to the district’s major towns. The ban has been announced following an order by Madras High Court prohibiting the entry of any kind of plastic packages into the district. The court has banned the entry of single-use plastics in ... Read more

Air Arabia has announced that it will launch direct flights between Sharjah and Vienna, starting September 15, 2019. The non-stop six-hour flight to Vienna, popularly known as the ‘City of Music’, will initially operate four times a week, on Sundays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and will increase to daily flights starting mid-December. “We are pleased to announce the new route from Sharjah to Vienna, one of Europe’s leading cultural and economic centres. This new service linking the two cities will further strengthen the trade and tourism ties between both nations, while providing our leisure and business travellers with a new ... Read more

IATO Convention 2018 The 35th convention of the Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) is scheduled to be held in Kolkata from September 12-15, said Rajesh Mudgill,  Secretary, IATO. Further details will be announced in due course of time, he informed. “The 35th convention will likely be organised in Kolkata. We had some deliberations regarding the dates but things are almost finalised now. We are looking make this convention much bigger and better,” said Mudgill. The upcoming monthly luncheon meeting of the association, scheduled on July 10 at The Oberoi, Delhi will be followed by the Executive committee meeting, where ... Read more

Odisha Tourism will conduct roadshows in Kochi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru etc. The recent roadshow of Odisha Tourism in Mumbai witnessed the participation of over 150 tour operators from the city, who conducted rapid B2B networking with 18 leading tour operators from Odisha. Tourism Minister of Odisha J P Panigrahi lead the delegation in the Mumbai roadshow. “Bhubaneswar, one of India’s smartest and most liveable cities, is being increasingly connected to other parts of India and the world. It is this city which received commendations from the sporting world’s who’s who for conducting arguably the best sporting events ever in ... Read more

Thailand is planning to introduce compulsory travel insurance for foreign visitors this year. Foreign travellers will be required to pay 20 baht each for the compulsory insurance at immigration offices in airports, which will be directed to Thailand’s Tourism Promotion Fund for coverage of payments in the event of claims. The compulsory travel insurance will offer up to 1 million baht of coverage in cases of death, with a maximum duration of 30 days. The insurance will have to seek approval from the Tourism and Sports Ministry before being forwarded to the cabinet later. The travel insurance coverage is intended to ... Read more

With an aim to expand its presence in Thailand, Hilton has announced its plans to launch two new properties in Bangkok by 2022. Both the hotels will be in the Thai capital of Bangkok, and will form part of Hilton’s expansion into this territory, joining seven hotels currently in the pipeline. Currently, the brand operates eleven properties across Thailand and is looking to expand beyond the country’s central areas of concentration, Phuket and Bangkok, to areas including Chiang Mai and Krabi. Hilton has recently signed a management agreement with Thailand-based real estate developer Lucky Living Properties Co., Ltd. to launch ... Read more