Speaking about budget Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy expressed gratitude to PM and FM for the Atmanirbhar Bharat Ka Budget and said, “As India celebrates 75 years of independence with Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, we are entering Amrit Kaal and this budget presents a blueprint for India at 100. Vikas (Development) and Virasat (Heritage) go hand-in-hand and this is evident from the fact that this year’s budgetary allocations for Tourism and Culture Ministries have been significantly higher.” 

The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and five tourism industry associations in Singapore have announced the launch of the Safe Itinerary Guide and “Experience Singapore!” Compendium, which provides safe travel guidelines and itineraries for the tourism sector as Singapore prepares to welcome more international travellers. These two resources aim to help the industry design and deliver innovative experiences that are in line with new traveller demands, and are the result of private-public partnerships between STB and the National Association of Travel Agents Singapore (NATAS), Association of Singapore Attractions (ASA), Singapore Association of Conventions & Exhibition Organisers and Suppliers (SACEOS), Singapore Hotel Association (SHA) and Society of Tourist Guides Singapore (STGS). The Safe Itinerary Guide provides strategies to help tourism businesses better understand their consumers, so that they can personalise travel itineraries based on traveller profiles. It also outlines how businesses can design safe and engaging visitor journeys, while highlighting key capabilities such as data analytics and design thinking, which are needed to respond to future challenges. For example, tourism businesses are encouraged to explore cross-sector partnerships with healthcare providers to give travellers added assurance during their travels, or gamify their offerings to keep travellers engaged. The “Experience Singapore!” Compendium consists of tourism and lifestyle offerings for leisure and business travellers across various price points and interests. For example, visitors looking to satisfy their wanderlust can take part in an aviation experiential workshop or explore landscapes around the world with a virtual reality flight simulator. Art enthusiasts can interact with art pieces by renowned artists through augmented reality while those seeking a more exclusive experience can take part in back-of-house tours. Some of theseexperiences have already been incorporated by the providers into …

Secretary Tourism, Arvind Singh had called for a virtual meeting with the Associations and industry stakeholders to discuss and develop “India Vision @ 2047” for the tourism industry. Ajay Prakash, TAFI President gave his inputs and suggested that generating 100 million tourists would require a new mindset among all stakeholders – from luxury hotels and tour operators to the taxi drivers, guides and all other segments of the trade.

ITB India 2022 will be an all-virtual event with the physical show postponed to 2023. Scheduled on the same dates, ITB India 2022 Virtual will be held from 5 – 7 April 2022. After close observations of international developments of the COVID-19 pandemic, the spread of the Omicron variant, and extensive conversations with local authorities and partners, the show organisers made the difficult decision to move the show completely virtual, which now gives exhibitors and trade visitors maximum planning security. 

The 2022 travel forecasts by Bain & Company states that the Covid-19 Omicron variant’s surge continues to stall the travel recovery. It is projected that the global airline revenue for 2022 shall reach $432 billion in the baseline recovery scenario, representing 65% of 2019’s revenue. By the end of the year, global air travel demand could recover to 84% of 2019 levels in the baseline scenario.  

Asia is predicted to return to a significant level of dominance, supplying more than 64% of all IVAs into Asia Pacific in 2024, under each of the three scenarios, followed by the Americas and Europe. Overall, while the trends in these latest forecasts are positive, there are still challenges ahead, not the least of which will be containing the spread of the Delta and Omicron variants of COVID-19. As PATA CEO Liz Ortiguera notes, “International travel recovery to and within the Asia Pacific region is projected to return moderately over the next three years. Recovery will be uneven into the various sub-regions and destinations and will most likely still remain volatile over the next few years. Some individual destinations may see success but expedited recovery of the region requires a more collaborative approach.” 

The Ministry of Tourism celebrated the National Tourism Day by holding a two-hour program on a virtual platform today on the 25th of January 2022. During the program, Union Minister of Tourism, Culture and DoNER, Shri G. Kishan Reddy emphasised on aggressive promotion of various tourism products that India has to offer to the world. Tourism is one of the largest employmentsl generating sectors and it plays a vital role in direct and indirect employment. He also discussed the importance of domestic tourism and plans to start  Tourism Clubs to create more awareness among the students and youth of our country. Further he stressed on the promotion of tourism with special focus on North-Eastern region and to tap the potentiality of the region.  

G Kishan Reddy, Union Minister of Tourism, Culture and DoNER, on the occasion of National Tourism Day, launched a digital booklet on 75 incredible sites to visit in India and Incredible India 2022 digital calendar by the Ministry of Tourism dedicated to tourism sites. The National Tourism Day celebration happened virtually this year owing to Omicron scare and subsequent restrictions.  

A pioneer in global cruise travel with a 55-year history of breaking boundaries, Norwegian Cruise Line has launched Norwegian Central Asia, an online trade portal to help travel partners in India and Asia discover and market NCL holidays easily and seamlessly. Logging in to Norwegian Central gives partners direct access to NCL’s award-winning travel agent training platform, NCL University (NCLU). Through the reduced rate learning incentive program, travel partners can also earn discounts up to 30% off their own NCL cruise as a reward for completing different levels of NCLU courses. 

Speaking on the theme of National Tourism Day— Rural and Community Centric Tourism— Arvind Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, said that rural communities are custodians of indigenous, natural, and cultural heritage as well as have an inherent ability to coexist with natural ecosystems. “It is important at this juncture, that rural communities and landscapes are leveraged to develop and promote sustainable tourism development models,” he shared in his address.