Asia Travel Show (ATS), from March 15-16, will see select buyers from South Asia – India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh – in attendance. They will be a mix of travel agents, corporate and M!CE buyers, as well as wedding planners.

 A delegation of Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO), led by association President Pronab Sarkar, recently met Arvind Singh, the new Secretary – Tourism, Government of India. IATO welcomed him and took the opportunity to discuss some of the issues that have been plaguing the tourism sector, such as SEIS, MDA, etc. Secretary Singh assured the delegation of his intervention and positive action.

“Tourism is the face of any nation. If the services are badly delivered, it will tarnish a nation’s face before the global population. And India being one destination known for its culture, tradition and hospitality, has its positioning because of the human element that delivers in hospitality. Unfortunately, our governments forgot to take care of the most boasted 55 million tourism industry people in India during last 10 months of suffering,” says a statement released by Tourism Leaders Club, whose President & Founder is Amesh Daftary and General Manager is Prakash Visani. The release says that a “peaceful protest campaign” has been planned by the Indian tourism fraternity on February 5, maintaining all COVID protocols of social distancing, mask and sanitiser. The statement also mentions, “Many are at the edge of breakage. Many are no more in tourism. This was so unjust from the ruling governments to discard such a dedicated selfless community which served the Nation’s progress. When all other sectors revived, Tourism is still not back and the governments didn’t even bother to take an account of job losses or business losses. It’s time for us to show our protest towards the inaction of Governments. Let us unite and show our integrity towards our own livelihood industry. Please join the campaign and make it a grand success.” “As it’s a pan India protest campaign,” the release adds, “our members at different destinations of India are requested to conduct similar cultural processions with their respective regional art forms to support the move. Our slogan will be ‘Tourism Lives Matter – Save Indian Tourism’. Our Demands for survival: GST Holiday for Two years for Tourism Rehabilitate tourism employees who lost …

IATO has finalised the list of contenders for the forthcoming election of the association on March 6. The contenders are Lally Mathews and Rajiv Mehra for President, EM Najeeb and Sarab Jit Singh for Senior VP, Lajpat Rai and Ravi Gosain for VP, Rajesh Mudgill and Rajnish Kaistha for Honorary Secretary, and Sunil Mishra and Viney Tyagi for Honorary Treasurer.

The State Department of Tourism, Kerala, has given great importance to the Pilgrim Tourism Circuit and it has conceived various projects to construct basic pilgrim amenities at many religious centres. Kerala Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran recently laid the foundation for the Rs3-crore pilgrim amenity centre at Madre De Deus Church, Vettukad.

VFS Global has been awarded the contract for Morocco visa services starting from 21 January 2021, and VACs have been rolled out in Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chennai and Mumbai. The centres are currently accepting work, business, seminars/conferences, student/researcher, family reunification, journalist and investor visas. Issuance of tourist visas is currently on hold due to the ongoing pandemic and related border closures. Pranav Sinha, Head – South Asia, VFS Global, says, “We are excited about starting the new year with a new partnership, and welcoming Morocco as VFS Global’s 65th client government.” As part of precautionary measures, customers visiting our centres may be subjected to body temperature checks to assess their health conditions and required to wear face mask and gloves. Customers exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms, including fever (higher than 37.3 degrees Celsius), cough and difficulty breathing will be allowed to reschedule their application submission for another day and will be advised to seek medical attention at the nearest healthcare facility of their choice.

Anmol Zutshi, GM, Ashok Events, ITDC, says that there will be an increase in the number of hybrid events, going forward. “With restrictions in place and with reduced number of people allowed at events, there will be a happy mix of physical and virtual events. We hope things open up soon, because events require human interaction and feel,” he iterates.

The road from Leh to Kargil in the Union Territory of Ladakh will soon be given a makeover as a tourist highway, according to a plan prepared by the Union Ministry of Culture & Tourism. Under the said plan, all facilities for tourists will be developed at regular intervals on the 230-kilometre stretch of highway between the two towns.

Under its ‘Ek Bharat Shrestha Bharat’ initiative, Indiatourism Mumbai office recently conducted a roadshow in Indore. This was followed by a three-day Fam tour to Mandu and Maheshwar in MP along with a city tour of Indore, sponsored by MP Tourism. Present at the roadshow were Sonia Meena, Deputy Secretary and Additional Managing Director of Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board. More than 20 agents were a part of this Fam. The Ahmedabad-Indore-Ahmedabad tickets were sponsored by Flybig.

In response to the request by Confederation of Kerala Tourism Industry (CKTI) and FHRAI to allow reopening of spas and Ayurveda centres in the state, Kerala government has said that the same will be allowed to operate with strict compliance of COVID protocols and guidelines, to help overcome the crisis faced by the tourism industry.