Category Archives: States

After a gap of two years, Kerala Tourism organised its first B2B meet in the Spanish capital Madrid and the Italian city of Milan, showcasing a range of its new tourism initiatives and popular destinations before the leading stakeholders of tourism and hospitality industry in the two European cities. Kerala participated in BIT Milan Trade Fair to build confidence in the market and include the state back in the itineraries of tourists from the European continent 

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said tourism is the backbone of the state’s economy and called for a collective effort to boost it. “Tourism promotion was at the root of Uttarakhand’s movement for statehood. It is the backbone of our economy. We have to work collectively to strengthen our tourism and hospitality industry,” Dhami said addressing a tourism and hospitality conference. He further said tourism will play a key role in catapulting Uttarakhand among the leading states of the country when it celebrates the silver jubilee of its existence in 2025. 

The Department of Tourism of Rajasthan Government on Wednesday signed an MoU with the Federation of Hospitality and Tourism of Rajasthan (FHTR) for organizing the Rajasthan Domestic Travel Mart (RDTM) 2022. The MoU was signed between the Director of Tourism, Nishant Jain and the President of FHTR, Apurv Kumar in the presence of Principal Secretary, Tourism, Gayatri Rathore. She Rathore said that the objective of the MoU is to promote Rajasthan as the most favourable tourist destination nationally and informed that the second edition of RDTM will be organized from July 22-24, 2022 at Birla auditorium, Jaipur.

The Tourism Department, Mizoram organized a B2B ‘Mystical Mizoram’ roadshow in Kolkata on 4 April 2022 at The Park Hotel.  Speaking at the function, Vantawl Lalengmawia, Director, Mizoram Tourism spoke about the need to capture Bengali tourists as Bengalis are avid travellers and are the most widely travelled people in India for they are looking for a new destination. He also spoke about easy accessibility of Aizawl from West Bengal which can be reached within 45 minutes from Kolkata, much lesser time taken for reaching Durgapur from Kolkata which takes around 3 hours. He invited tour operators in Bengal to experience the nature and culture of Mizoram before sending their clients to Mizoram and the need to bridge between West Bengal and Mizoram through tourism Industry. He also spoke about Mizoram Responsible Tourism Policy where the aim is focussing and developing services that promote tourism in a sustainable and responsible manner with diversification of tourism products and creation of employment opportunities for the people so that benefits of tourism should directly go the people. He said that the State’s tourism policy is a policy for the pro poor with a human face. He wanted the people of Bengal to explore Mizoram markets, to explore what its offer. He wanted to connect people, to open a new chapter of tourism between West Bengal and Mizoram that will boost economy of both States. Vantawl Lalengmawia, Director, Mizoram Tourism also conveyed the message of Mizoram Tourism Minister Robert Romawia Royte, that Familiarization Tour for the Tour Operators in Kolkata would be conducted in the near future. Anil Punjabi, President, Travel Agent Federation of India, Kolkata Chapter also spoke about the need to experience Mizo culture …

The Mumbai International Cruise Terminal, the iconic sea cruise terminal coming up at BPX-Indira Dock, is expected to be commissioned by July 2024. The terminal will have a capacity of handling 200 ships and 1 million passengers per annum. Out of the total project cost of Rs. 495 crore, Rs. 303 crores will be incurred by Mumbai Port Authority and the remaining by private operators. This was informed by the Chairperson, Mumbai Port Authority, Rajiv Jalota, while addressing the media in Mumbai , on the occasion of completion of 7 years of Sagarmala – Government of India’s flagship programme for port-led development of the nation. 

Apart from ayurvedic treatment, Kerala offers numerous experiences, such as backwater holidays, resorts, and houseboats. Responsible tourism and adventure tourism are also important aspects of Kerala tourism. “Adventure tourism has become part and parcel of travel today and Kerala has reinvented itself as a destination for nature-based adventure activities, especially in the hills and forests of the Western Ghats”, said V R Krishna Teja, Director, Kerala Tourism. 

Maharashtra Tourism has initiated a 9 city road show tour across the nation. As a part of this initiative, Maharashtra Tourism conducted a road show in the glorious city of Delhi. Milind Borikar (IAS), Director of the Directorate of Tourism, Govt. of Maharashtra said, “We at Maharashtra Tourism are organizing a road show series with a core motive of promoting tourism industry in Maharashtra and to boost inter-state travel and tourism opportunities. We are happy that post the second Covid wave, hospitality sector in Maharashtra is witnessing a steady increase in recovery and travel companies too are seeing surge in the booking trends. It is astounding to have received such an overwhelming response from Delhi towards Maharashtra Tourism road show and we wish to see the same response from other cities as well.”

Kerala Tourism launched its 24×7 WhatsApp chatbot ‘Maya’ to enable tourists to access all information and updates about the tourism ecosystem in the state. Tourism Minister PA Mohamed Riyas said “Maya will serve as a virtual travel assistant for tourists to ask and get complete information they need for a hassle-free travel experience in the state”. 

Punita Singh, Joint Director, Rajasthan Tourism, has said that they are looking at promoting border tourism in Rajasthan. She said, “We have identified three border points in the state for developing border tourism products.” She was speaking at the PATA India & BBC News webinar ‘The New Ways of Marketing to Recharge Tourism’.

Nikhil Desai, Managing Director, Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC), has said that a new convention centre is being opened by the end of year to boost MICE Tourism in the state of Goa. MICE will be one of the products that will be in focus of their strategy, he revealed. He said that they are working towards repositioning Goa apart from sun, sand and sea. “While Goa is synonymous with sun, sand and sea, we are trying to attract the attention of tourists to various other offerings in Goa including wildlife, nature, MICE, etc.” he added. He also informed that they are seeing a huge rise in social events in the last one year at a number of properties across Goa.