Development of Northeastern Region, DoNER, Minister G. Kishan Reddy has said that the government has placed development of the northeastern region as a foremost priority through the ‘Act East’ initiative. During a virtual event, the Minister interacted with entrepreneurs and potential startups. He urged the business community to confidently carry the message of ‘investment ready North East’ across the country and beyond. Reddy felt that the Northeastern region now has the opportunity to lead the development journey of New India.

G Kamala Vardhana Rao, Director General, Tourism, has shared that recently, MOT has come out with the formation of tourism clubs in schools and colleges. “These clubs will make a calendar of events, which will include adventure tourism activities. We are trying to tell them to have more curriculum and activities under adventure tourism. State governments are trying to promote these activities and I am sure these tourisms clubs will give the much-needed orientation to the students. Future generations will see the result of all our efforts,” he claimed.

The travel services market share in India is expected to increase by USD 11.11 billion from 2020 to 2025, and the market’s growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 11.55%. This travel services market research report of India provides valuable insights on the post COVID-19 impact on the market, which will help companies evaluate their business approaches. Furthermore, this report extensively covers market segmentation by service (domestic flight services, hotel accommodation services, rail ticket services, cab services, and others) and booking (online and offline).

Rupinder Brar, Additional Director General, Ministry of Tourism, has said that the MOT has increased the use of digital ticketing at all the state managed monuments, which includes all the UNESCO World Heritage sites. “This step has not  to not only avoid long lines, but also to make sure that you can just plan your travel better, safer and with much more hygiene. Therefore, looking at investment in India is the right thing to do at this time,” she claimed.

Rupinder Brar, Additional Director General, Ministry of Tourism, has said that as they gear up for increased tourist footfalls, both domestic and international, they need to focus on the fact that the tourists that we will see in 2022-23 are bound to be different from the ones that visited in 2019. “Covid-19 has re-shaped our thought processes, and many people have started looking at alternate options to where they would have travelled in 2019. They are choosing more open green areas to travel in 2022. Also, the new age tourists are much more tech-savvy, owing to the pandemic, fuelled digitization and are very conscious about their health and safety. Hence, we need to work to make sure that the needs of the travelers and tourists post-pandemic are adequately met,” she added.

Tourism & Events Queensland, in conjunction with Tourism Australia, has specially produced tutorial guides on how to capture the best ‘Night’, ‘Action’ and ‘Landscape’ photography shots. These tutorials (a series of 3 x 2mins videos) are produced in association with Queensland’s content creator Jesse Lindeman. To inject a bit of fun, the State Tourism Organisation is running a photography contest only for its India-based trade partners. The first 25 qualified entries will win a A$20 Amazon vouchers. In addition, the top three winners will also win one of Jesse’s exclusive Queensland print (framed).     The contest is open to all outbound travel trade staff based in India. However, the participant will need to register as an Aussie Specialist Program (ASP) agent in Tourism Australia’s online portal. It is easy. All the staff need to do is to login (or register if he/she is not yet an ASP agent) to learn from a few easy tips explained in the tutorials. Each participant then submit his/ her your own favorite photo(s) to Diksha Singh (dsingh@tourism.australia.com) by 28th January 2022. Participant may choose to submit his/her photo under any of the below categories (note : please indicate chosen category in their email headline): (A) Night (B) Action (C) Landscape He/she can submit up to 3 photos per category. There is also the flexibility to submit across ONE, TWO or all THREE categories. Winners will be announced at the Queensland ‘Scenic Rim – ‘Top 10 destinations to visit in 2022’ webinar on 4 February 2022 at 11am IST. Do register your seat at this webinar: Webinar Date: 4 February 2022 Time: 11 AM – 12 PM IST Register here for the webinar

The events industry in India is all set to get a new address with the latest offering from Swosti Group – Swosti Premium Beach Resorts, the first five-star premium luxury beach resort at Sipasurubuli, Puri. The property that comes equipped with facilities to host mega conferences and elaborate wedding ceremonies, boasts of large open-air landscaped lawns. The 125 luxury rooms (including 5 premium luxury long suites on the 12th Floor) offer a no-obstruction view of the sea. The centrally air-conditioned property boasts of more such state-of-the-art facilities. Each banquet hall will be attached to an open-air lawn. For the young and young-at-heart, there is also a game zone at the food court area to make sure there are enough activities to keep the guests occupied. A state-of-the-art wellness spa and gym will also be made available at the resort to ensure fitness and wellness are at the top of everyone’s mind. And the basement comes equipped with ample parking space to be able to host large weddings and conferences. Having provided employment to more than 1200 people with offices in Delhi, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and associated offices in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai, Swosti Group under the leadership of J K Mohanty has been promoting the tourism sector of Odisha successfully since 1981. The new Swosti Premium Beach Resorts will give direct employment to 375 people and indirectly employ around 700 people, including all vendors. Emphasis will be given to the local people who have experience in the hospitality industry or have done courses in hotel management from Swosti Institute of Management & Social Studies. Apart from Swosti Grand, Swosti Premium at Bhubaneswar and Swosti Palm Resort at Gopalpur-on-Sea, Swosti Chilika Resort …

The Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) Pune Chapter recently organised a fruitful meeting in Pune for about 60 members. The meeting was led by Chapter Chairman Sunil Uttam and Secretary Sameer Kulkarni. Pune sales heads of all five domestic airlines along with leading international Emirates’ were present at the event.

Sarbananda Sonowal, Minister of Ports, Shipping & Waterways, Minister of AYUSH, recently tweeted on social media platform requesting individuals, especially the younger generation, to “protect our traditional systems of medicine and knowledge, study them scientifically and prove to the world that AYUSH can serve humanity. Today, AYUSH has a market size of $ 18.1 billion and growing!”

In view of the weather advisory issued by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), the Directorate of Tourism Kashmir has established an emergency 24×7 helpline number service to facilitate the tourists seeking help during any emergency arising due to inclement weather, rain or snowfall in the valley.