Tag: covid-19 pandemic

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

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

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 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

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

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

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

To showcase the benefits of India’s ancient form of health science – yoga – and the potential of it as a tourism product, the Ministry of Tourism presented a webinar on ‘India as a Yoga Destination’ under the Dekho Apna Desh series. The webinar highlighted the current yoga landscape and how it can be leveraged to broad base and scale up tourism in India. The session was moderated by Rupinder Brar, additional director general of Ministry of Tourism and  presented by Achal Mehra who is the CEO of Greenway (a social impact company) and founder of an eco-friendly resort Mahua ... Read more

Rajasthan’s tourism minister Vishvendra Singh has expressed his public displeasure at the functioning of the tourism department in the state. The coronavirus outbreak has severely impacted the sector, counted as one of the major sources of Rajasthan’s revenue. In a series of tweets, the minister questioned the indifferent working of the department officials and their shortcomings while urging chief minister Ashok Gehlot to take harsh action against the errant officials. “I have maintained a silence on too many things for too long, going against my temperament and work ethics. But, my chief minister, has always advocated transparency and in that ... Read more

Commercial international flights to and from India will continue to remain suspended till July 15, according to a government release issued on Friday. A circular released by the Director General of Civil Aviation in New Delhi said that “scheduled International commercial passenger services to/from India shall remain suspended till 23:59 hours IST of 15th July, 2020.” It specified that this restriction will not apply to international cargo operations and certain flights specifically approved by the aviation regulator. The official release says some international scheduled flights on “select routes” may be allowed by the competent authorities on a case to case ... Read more

“It took us 12 years to build Airbnb, and we lost almost everything in four to six weeks,” the company’s co-founder Brian Chesky has said. The company was preparing to go public this year, and now that is up in the air, he said during an interview to CNBC. Chesky noted that Airbnb faces an uncertain future due to fear of outbreaks that are already being experienced around the world. “Travel as we knew it is over,” he said. “It doesn’t mean travel is over, just the travel we knew is over, and it’s never coming back.” The CEO noted that at least in ... Read more

Dubai Tourism has teamed up with Snapchat with the aim to remind travellers of the fantastic weather in the Middle East and showcase all the top attractions virtually. Currently Dubai is preparing to welcome back tourists from July 7. Snapchat users will be able to select from four different augmented reality (AR) Snapchat Lenses, which have been developed with the intention of transporting users to Dubai (virtually) to experience the famous attractions that Dubai has to offer, including the Burj Khalifa, Dubai Frame, Al Seef and Madinat Jumeirah. “Dubai Tourism is delighted with the success of this creative partnership with ... Read more

In an effort to encourage domestic travel and offer much-needed support to Canada’s tourism sector, the Canadian government has announced that it would be committing a total of over $70 million. The funding includes $30 million towards domestic marketing through Destination Canada, and a little over $40 million towards destination marketing organizations (local tourism groups like Tourism Toronto) and select tourism-related projects in Southern Ontario, Northern Ontario and the West. There are also discussions to distribute funds to other regional development agencies for Atlantic Canada, Quebec and the North. “Our tourism sector and the 1.8 million people it employs across ... Read more

India’s leading heritage hotel chain, WelcomHeritage, has announced the appointment of Abinash Manghani as its Chief Executive Officer. Earlier, he was with the ITC Hotels where he was responsible for the leisure & luxury verticals nationally and area manager for north India. He has been in the hospitality industry for over three decades. Speaking on his appointment, Abinash Manghani, CEO, WelcomHeritage said, “I am extremely delighted to join the WelcomHeritage group.” “WelcomHeritage Hotels, Palaces and Resorts are uniquely positioned and offer a “Safe Haven” during this pandemic. We have started the ‘Safety Ensured” initiative at all our properties to ensure cleanliness and disinfection ... Read more