The Directorate of Tourism (DoT), Maharashtra Tourism, Govt. of Maharashtra is finally kick-starting the inspection of hotels for awarding industry status to them. The Tourism Directorate of Pune is the first one to commence the inspection on the 3rd and 4th August 2022. A total number of 181 non-classified hotels have registered and applied since June 2021 in Pune region that the inspection committee and the appointed agency will be visiting. The Government of Maharashtra had awarded Industry status to the Hospitality sector in April 1999 but that remained only on paper and wasn’t implemented. In 2020, there was a development in the decision when the State government issued the GR, announcing the criteria for levying taxes and charges at the industrial rate for the non-classified hotels. Since then, non-classified hotels were appealed to register and apply to avail the benefits. And now, as the regional offices have received a considerable number of registrations, the inspection committee will begin their site visits. The Committee will be chaired by the Deputy Directors of the respective regions, a representative of the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) department, regional representative of Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), local representative of Hotel and Restaurant Association (HRA) and a representative of Tour Operator Association (TOA). The agency Qualstar has prepared a road map for inspecting sites which will be followed by the committee. Dr. Dhananjay Sawalkar, Joint Director, Directorate of Tourism (DoT) informed, “So far 446 applications across Maharashtra have been received by DoT. After inspection, if these hotels fulfill all the said criteria, they will be eligible to receive industrial status. This will make electricity charges, water bill, property tax and,non-agricultural tax available to the registered …

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced passenger data for June 2022 showing a strong recovery. In terms of the domestic passenger market, India constitutes 2.2 percent of the global share, it revealed. Demand for air travel remains strong. “After two years of lockdowns and border restrictions people are taking advantage of the freedom to travel wherever they can,” said Willie Walsh, Director General, IATA.

To make travel more accessible, KTO has launched the Let’s Go Korea Savings Plan in association with Shinhan Bank in India. It is a Recurring Deposit scheme to help potential travellers to South Korea save up for their trip, with special interest rates and added benefits. With a minimum deposit amount of IN 2,000 per month for a year, members can avail benefits with Utazzo Travel to book their trip to Korea. The investment will act as a regular recurring deposit in case a member is unable to travel to Korea after a year.

The travel market in India is projected to reach US$ 125 billion by FY27 from an estimated US$ 75 billion in FY20. International tourist arrivals are expected to reach 30.5 million by 2028, according to a report by Nangia Andersen LLP.  

With Turkiye recently relaxing all the Covid-19 related travel restrictions for Indian visitors, the country hosted the highest ever number of travellers from India, in June’22. Turkiye received more than 27,300 Indian tourists in the month of June’22, breaking all the previous inbound travel records from India, in a single month. 

NIMA to launch country’s first MICE expo “I-MICE” in 2025. “Though we do have many tourism exhibitions in India, there is a void when it comes to MICE vertical. I-MICE will be the event for the global MICE stakeholders to connect with their Indian peers”, said Jagdeep Bhagat, National Coordinator, Network of Indian MICE Agents (NIMA). 

Eight craft villages have been taken under the ‘Linking Textile with Tourism’ programme, benefitting around 1,000 artisans to promote craft and tourism at a single location, said Ministry of Textiles. Under the programme, major tourist places are being linked with handicraft clusters and infrastructure supports combined with soft interventions.

A successful sales mission was organized by the Oman Tourism India Office through an interactive session with more than 40 prominent outbound travel operators in Chandigarh on July 5 and Bengaluru on July 7. To showcase their new products to the travel industry, representatives from Oman Air attended the event as well. The objective of the roadshows was to educate key travel operators about the destination offerings of Oman for Indian travellers who are interested in traveling in the leisure and luxury segments. The trade stakeholders were surprised to learn about the exquisite culture, heritage, and adventure offers of Oman, which led to the session’s success and effectiveness as an educational one. Most importantly, they promised to promote and market Oman to their clients.

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has stated that Taj Mahal remains the highest revenue-generating monument in India. Despite the pandemic, resulting in travel restrictions with limited number of visitors allowed inside the monument, Taj Mahal sold tickets amounting to a total of Rs 132 crore. In 2019-2020, the total revenue received from Taj Mahal was Rs 97.5 crore. In 2021-22, it was Rs 26.61 crore. ASI noted that 24 per cent of the total revenue has been generated by the Taj Mahal alone. 

According to the WTTC Annual Research INDIA, the domestic visitor’s spend in India in 2021 was close to 2019 levels. The figures revealed that it was $155.8 billion in 2019 and 151.1 billion in 2021. In 2020, however, it was only $97 billion.