Tour Operators Association of Telangana (TOAT), led by its President, Siraj Ahmed Ansari, has appealed to Srinivas Goud, Minister of Tourism, Telangana, seeking help from the government for revival and survival of the travel & tourism sector in the state. TOAT has raised several vital issues, including financial assistance for monthly allowance for employees of tourism and hospitality. TOAT is the first registered travel & tourism association of Telangana state, and one of the larger regional association with 400+ members.

Arvind Singh, Secretary, MOT, has revealed that the Ministry has come up with the first draft of a national strategy and roadmap for sustainable tourism with a focus on adventure and eco-tourism. “The national strategy will include a certification scheme and capacity building, and we are also thinking of a system of assessing the states and ranking them as we have done in many programmes like ‘Ease of Doing Business’,” he said.

German carrier Lufthansa has announced that it has lifted the ban on passenger flights to India, and will operate 10 weekly flights from Germany to Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. The Netherlands, too, has lifted the ban on passenger flights from India that had come into force on April 26 this year. The European Union’s (EU) list of ‘safe countries’, however, does not include India yet.

Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI), in a letter to the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW), has suggested making necessary changes in the vaccination guidelines to include banquet halls in hotels as venues for mass immunization of the corporate sector. FHRAI has stated that banquet halls in hotels are better equipped than schools, colleges, or community halls for the purpose.

Johan Lundgren, the CEO of easyJet, does not believe the Delta variant of the novel coronavirus to be particularly damaging to Europe’s summer travel season for the year. While the UK continues to impose travel restrictions for most destinations that are said to have had cases of the Delta variant, some other European countries are also following suit. Lundgren has added that the industry’s survival could be at risk if it had to endure a second summer of restricted travel.

In a recent Tweet, Madhya Pradesh Tourism (MPT) Hotels & Resorts has stated that it is now ready to welcome guests back to its properties, wholly committed to providing them with completely sanitised rooms, and a safe & hygienic environment. MPT offers a wide variety of accommodation choices to suit every taste and budget.

Indiatourism Hyderabad, in association with RBVRR Women’s College, Hyderabad, recently organised a webinar on Incredible India Tourist Facilitator (IITF) certification course. Students from two other colleges in Mumbai also joined in. A section of the webinar session focused on the behavioural techniques, grooming, etiquette and common knowledge about the culture of international tourists.

The Bureau of Immigration is all set to install automated e-gates, which will scan passenger information without any human intervention, at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport starting July. The facility, called the Trusted Travellers Program (TTP), will reduce the clearance time by almost half. Initially, eight e-gates (four each in departure and arrival immigration areas) will be installed.

Kerala’s Tourism Minister PA Mohamed Riyas has assured stakeholders in tourism that the government will unveil various projects focusing on the revival of the sector. “Apart from completing the present projects on a time-bound manner, two new heritage projects focusing on Ponnani and Aranmula will be planned and implemented quickly,” he said, adding that more tourism circuits will also be formed.

As per a recent order of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the minimum airfare on domestic routes will get costlier from tomorrow, June 1. The Ministry has raised the base airfare between 13-15% across all sectors basis approximate duration of flight. The upper limit for airfare continues to remain the same as per the earlier order.