Category Archives: States

Goa Government has announced the Tourism Policy 2020 and Tourism Master Plan. The license fee for beach shacks has been reduced by 50%. Tourism Minister Manohar Azgaonkar said under the tourism policy, a tourism board would be constituted having experts from various fields. The required infrastructure would be developed on the Public-Private Partnership mode to develop tourism in the state.

The National Mission for Clean Ganga launched an eco-tourism programme that includes dolphin safari at six sites on the occasion of ‘Ganga River Dolphin Day’ celebrated on October 5. These six sites are in three states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal, which are blessed with the River Ganga.

Helipad service for devotees going to Kedarnath Dham, which had been stalled for a long time due to COVID-19, has now restarted. It has begun at three places – Gupt Kashi, Sirsi and Fata helipad. Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Authority has started online booking of heli tickets. Seven aviation companies are operating helipad services from Sirsi, Phata and Gupt Kashi in which Aero Air Craft from Guptkashi to Kedarnath, Pawan Hans for Fata to Kedarnath, Thambi Aviation, Pinnacle Air, Chipson Aviation and Ketral Aviation to Kedarnath from Sirsi, Himalayan Heli and Arrow Air Craft are being served. Fare per passenger is Rs7,750 from Guptkashi, Rs4,720 from Fata and Rs4,680 from Sirsi.

The Maharashtra Cabinet approved ease of doing business policy by bringing down the number of licenses required to start a venture in the hospitality sector from 70 to 10. HRAWI said, “Due to the continued efforts and liaisoning of Hrawi this is possible and is finally a dream come true. State Tourism Minister Aaditya Thackeray said in a tweet, ‘This was long overdue.’ He added that his dept is setting up a single-window system for one online application for permissions to facilitate faster approvals.

The Rajasthan government has brought the tourism industry under the Rajasthan Investment Promotion Scheme-2019 extending the benefits offered under the scheme. Tourism projects having an investment of Rs  5 crore or above will be granted benefits like capital subsidy equivalent to 20% of the investment made, subject to maximum Rs 25 lakh or 5% interest subsidy on term loan taken by enterprise from financial institutions for a period of 5 years subject to Rs 25 lakh annually.        

After the recent Unlock 4 guidelines coming into play and movement starting to normalize, the Uttarakhand tourism sector has started to revive at a slow but steady pace. In order to breathe life into tourism industry during the ongoing COVID-19 scenario, the Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board (UTDB) has been coming up with several guidelines which are being issued in accordance with the pandemic. Sharing his views on the revival of tourism industry, Secretary, Uttarakhand Tourism, Dilip Jawalkar, says, “UTDB has been coming up with several schemes during the revival period to support various sectors in the tourism industry. To ease the travel of visitors coming to Uttarakhand, we have removed all kinds of movement restrictions for tourists having the mandatory COVID-19 negative test report. Such people are allowed to enter the state and stay in a hotel for any number of days they want. We are also planning to deploy tourist facilitation counters at all important state borders and provide on-the-spot COVID-19 testing facility to visitors not carrying the COVID-19 negative test reports.” He adds, “Simultaneously, it is our collective efforts at UTDB to constantly be in touch with all the stakeholders and to thoughtfully and mutually come up with apt guidelines, in order to support the industries at every step during these difficult times. For instance, recently we held an online meeting with the stakeholders and effective steps during the revival period of adventure tourism were discussed.” Adventure Tourism contributes to a majority part in the state’s overall tourism industry. Uttarakhand is a heavenly destination when it comes to offering various adventure activities to tourists. White Water River Rafting Rishikesh is the name that pops-up when someone talks about …

Chief Minister of Gujarat, Vijay Rupani has announced Heritage Tourism Policy 2020-2025 for the state to boost international as well as domestic tourism. According to the policy, historical monuments, palaces, and forts constructed before 1950 could be converted into hotels, heritage museums, heritage banquet halls and restaurants provided that ‘basic heritage’ structure is not altered.

After much deliberation from travel trade and associations in India and in the state of UP, Taj Mahal and Agra Fort are all set to be opened for tourists, starting September 21, 2020.

The Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board (MPTB) has resumed water sports activities in the state, which were stopped in view of COVID-19. Besides boating, river rafting, kayaking and canoeing have also been permitted. Sheo Shekhar Shukla, Principal Secretary, Tourism & MD, MPTB said that relevant guidelines have been issued to the managers of the boat clubs in the state. It has been decided to run all boats on 50% occupancy. Speed Boats will now carry three persons instead of six, pedal boats, two instead of four, raft boats four instead of eight and cruise boats, 30 instead of 60. MP Tourism runs boat clubs at several places in the state including Bhopal, Halali, Udaygiri, Tawa, Bargi, Bhedaghat, Hanuwantia, Tighra, Gandhisagar dam, Shivpuri and Orchha.

Andhra Pradesh government has issued the ‘AP Tourism Trade (Registration and Facilitation) Guidelines, 2020’, under which it will be easier for tourism service providers to register themselves. Rajat Bhargava, Special Chief Secretary, Tourism and Culture. AP, said that they will provide a simple mechanism for registration of tourism trade, which would allow them to collect statistical information from service providers and establish a database on tourism for planning and development of tourism in the state.