Kushok Bakula Rimpochee (KBR) Airport Leh has announced that it is offering free-of-cost COVID-19 test facilities for both RAPID testing as well as RT-PCR testing for incoming passengers. The airport authorities, however, do advise passengers to carry their RT-PCR test reports not older than 96 hours to avoid testing at the airport.

DidaTravel has announced that it has raised “hundreds of millions of yuan” in its Series B financing round that had Alibaba as the lead investor. Rikin Wu, Founder and CEO of DidaTravel, says that the proceeds will be dedicated to the company’s continuous expansion and development in the days to come.

GMR’s Delhi and Hyderabad airports have opted for the HOI App – a passenger engagement platform – to address the travel needs of passengers through their journey. The App, which enable airports to run digitally, helps extend a contactless experience to flyers, ensuring their journey is safe.

In its ongoing effort to strengthen the hospitality and tourism industry, especially in these times of a pandemic, Ministry of Tourism has signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with Cleartrip and EaseMyTrip. The tourism ministry says that more such MoUs will follow in the near future.

Odisha Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik has inaugurated the Silver City Boat Club in Cuttack to promote water-based recreation in the Mahanadi River. The revamped boat club has been created by Odisha Tourism through OTDC, and is expected to boost tourism to the region. While infrastructure augmentation at the Boat Club will be undertaken in phases, it is said to offer activities such as jet skis, speed boats, day cruises, water scooters, kayaking, canoeing and scuba diving among other offerings.

Sharing the idea behind participating in the upcoming virtual MICE show MICE Engage 2021 on April 28, Raymond LIM, Area Director, India (New Delhi), Singapore Tourism Board, says, “JTB India is one of the key MICE players in India and together with Singapore Tourism Board, we work very well to bring India’s MICE traffic to Singapore. We are privileged to be invited as a country partner at the MICE Engage 2021 roadshow – it being the first virtual MICE show of 2021 in India. This event gives us another excellent platform to re-enforce Singapore’s position as a MICE destination among India’s corporates. We also want to share our MICE support schemes that we has customised for the India market.”

TAFI has written to Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray requesting him to consider travel agents (similar to cargo service staff) as essential service providers and allow at least 50 per cent of the staff to report to work during the current partial lockdown as they are necessary to be in office to be able to provide travel services to clients.

Tourism Office of Spain – Mumbai will organise its next webinar ‘Costa del Sol-Malaga: The Real Gateway to Andalucia’ on April 15 at 3pm, conducted by representatives from the regional tourism board. Attendees stand a chance to win Amazon vouchers on attending all webinars. To register, write to jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or 9650196532.

Türkiye started full fledge vaccination of the tourism employees in coordination with The Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Ministry of Health and Türkiye Tourism Promotion and Development Agency (TGA). Vaccination program will cover the employees of the airlines, airports, accommodation facilities, travel agencies as well as the professional guides. Vaccination of the entire tourism staff will be completed before the beginning of 2021 summer season. Within the scope of ‘Safe Tourism Certification Program’, vaccination program aims to welcome international travellers for the upcoming summer season and ensure the health and safety of tourism employees and its residents. Since the launch of ‘Safe Tourism Certification Program’ in June 2020, Türkiye has been following stringent health and safety guidelines and taking all necessary steps to ensure it continues to be safe. Before the opening of the season, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism started to work on inclusion of the tourism sector employees into the vaccination program to ensure that the tourism services in the country remain open throughout the year. The vaccination program is carried out meticulously in coordination with the Ministry of Health. Vaccination program of tourism employees started in line with priorities and within the scope of the ‘Safe Tourism Certification Program’. As part of continuing effort to fight against COVID-19 and further enhance position as one of the world’s safest destinations, Türkiye is continuing to invest in ‘Safe Tourism Certification Program’ which is one of the first and most successful examples in the world in this field. The Country has expanded the scope of the practice and made it compulsory for accommodation facilities with 30 or more rooms. Up to now more than 8.000 facilities were certified. As …

Travelport has launched its next-generation platform, Travelport+, that creates a simplified, capability-rich marketplace for travel retailing. Travelport+ will bring together the most compelling range of air (ATPCO, LCC and NDC), car, hotel and rail content. It will achieve this by simplifying how Travelport connects and delivers travel-relevant content regardless of the source, the seller and how it’s consumed.