Jaipur has been the latest Indian city to be included in the UNESCO World Heritage list, a feat that was announced at the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Baku. Junhi Han, Chief, Culture Sector and Programme Specialist for Culture, UNESCO New Delhi Cluster Office for Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka shared that in case of need, any World Heritage site can utilise World Heritage Funds for purpose of conservation, training to build capacity for management of WH site. She says, “The scale is not that big, can go up to $100,000 at several occasions. It shows solidarity of international community toward a World Heritage in need of such assistance. This happens only in case of need and only upon request, which will be examined also by UNESCO and Advisory committee to the convention.”

Starting July 19, low-cost carrier GoAir will add seven new routes to its international network, which will include three new destinations – Bangkok, Dubai, and Kuwait. The daily flights, subject to final approval, will include Delhi-Abu Dhabi, Delhi-Bangkok; Kannur-Dubai, Kannur-Kuwait; Mumbai-Abu Dhabi, Mumbai-Bangkok, and Mumbai-Muscat services. GoAir has flown over 72 million passengers since its inception, and in the next two years the airline aims to touch the 100 million passengers mark. Speaking about the new routes, Jeh Wadia, Managing Director, GoAir, said, “I am very pleased to announce these planned launches which will strengthen GoAir’s presence in the Middle East and Southeast Asian countries. The network expansion is in sync with our vision to expand our footprint in strategic markets and to grow our business profitably. This time, we are entering new destinations – Kuwait, Dubai and Bangkok – and we intend to continue the momentum in the near future.”

Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) conducted its destination presentation in New Delhi on 8 July at The Park hotel. The event showcased the country’s many tourism offerings, as the Board targets a 25 per cent growth in arrivals from India. By 2020, the government plans to operate two new international airports in Pokhara and Lumbini which will help boost tourism from India to Nepal and vice-versa. NTB will conduct the presentation in Ahmedabad at Courtyard by Marriott on July 10, at The St. Regis Mumbai on July 11, and then move to Bengaluru on July 15 where it will be conducted at the Shangri-La hotel.

The Aviation Ministry has been allocated Rs 4,500 crore in the Budget for the current financial year, which is 115 per cent less than Rs 9,700 crore that was given to it during 2018-19 fiscal. According to Budget documents released on Friday, the Centre has allocated Rs 480 crore for regional connectivity scheme UDAN, under which the “proposal is for revival of 50 airports and Viability Gap funding for North East Connectivity”. In 2018-19, the UDAN scheme was given Rs 441 crore. The Centre has allocated just Rs 1 lakh in 2019-20 for the “turnaround plan for Air India”, as compared to Rs 3,975 crore that was given to the national carrier in the last financial year, as per the documents. Source: PTI

In a recent update, Air India has suspended its operations from Delhi to Osaka, Kansai International Airport via Hong Kong. At present, there are three weekly flights from New Delhi to Osaka via Hong Kong- Friday, Monday and Wednesday and Boeing 787 Dreamliner is deployed on this route. Despite this move by Air India, Japanese airlines like ANA and JAL are planning to expand their Indian operations. ANA is planning direct daily on Tokyo-Chennai route from this October and JAL will start its daily to Bengaluru from Tokyo from 2020.

Indian arrivals have seen a rapid growth owing to more direct flights, visa waiver and rise of the middle-class population. Thailand received about 180,000 Indian tourists in June, a record, the Tourism Ministry reported last week. It also said Indians spend 11% more per trip than average foreign visitors. “We’re starting to see new growth. Indians are now driving industry growth like the Chinese had previously done.” said Kongsak Khoopongsakorn, Vice President of the Thai Hotels Association. At least 10 million are now expected to arrive in 2028, a more than five-fold increase on 2018 visits. That sort of growth trajectory would mimic the rise of Chinese tourists, who jumped from 800,000 in 2008 to more than 10 million last year. News: Bloomberg

Capt. Swadesh Kumar, President, ATOAI, claims that they had high hopes from the government this time, but budget again disappoints. Nothing in there especially for the tourism industry. From our end, we have been having a lot of meetings with the government, and had also submitted a wishlist, but nothing has come of it. Adventure tourism is the future of job generation in India with many adventure activities possible in all parts of India, may that be the Himalayas, deserts or coastlines. It’s unfortunate that this has not been considered. The impetus on last mile connectivity through building 1.25 lakh kilometers of roads under PM Gram Sadak Yojna is a positive move. The only news in the tourism front stressed on development of 17 iconic tourism sites to be upgraded to world class levels to attract domestic as well as foreign tourists. The Prime Minister had identified that out of the Five pillars (Five Ts), ‘Tourism’ is one of the most important, and, in India, it aims to achieve greater heights and new milestones. But that is missing in this budget.

Complementing the Finance Minister for her maiden budget, Sanjay Narula, Vice President, TAAI, says that more has been outlaid for infrastructure. “I appreciate the fact that FDI has been relaxed for aviation and surface transport has got impetus because if you don’t have good roads, the tourism doesn’t get a boost. In terms of tourism we expected more. On taxation there should have been some relief for the industry, which has not come,” he says.

PP Khanna, President, ADTOI, says that while a lot of focus has been given to infrastructure in the Budget, not much has been done on tourism apart from development of 17 iconic sites. At the same time, I must appreciate the focus on railways which connects most of India domestically and that should really help boost domestic tourism, especially with the involvement of private players. Even the progress in Swachch Bharat Abhiyan is commendable and initiatives there are appreciated. The last mile connectivity gets a further boost with the upgradation of roads with an investment of 802.5 billion rupees. However, the safety part of adventure tourism for domestic tourists should have been looked into and enhancement of such facilities should happen. Taxation also needs to be looked into since not much clarity has been given to GST.

Pradip Lulla, Acting President and VP, TAFI, believes that there are no sops in this year’s Budget to boost the travel industry. “I hope that GST on services provided by travel agents at 18 per cent will be reviewed. Further, corporate tax reduction to 25 percentage is only on turnover of Rs 400 crore which excludes most of us! Also, double taxation on our tour pricing has been having a cascading on our costs making us uncompetitive. I hope that the industry receives some relief from the GST Council in future,” he said.