A joint delegation of members from HRAWI, FHRAI, NRAI, AHAR and HAI met Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray over the continued timing restrictions on restaurants in the state, and informed the CM of restaurateurs’ distress. Thackeray has assured that he will be present in the next meeting of the COVID-19 task force and look for ways for a graded reopening of the restaurant sector.

Indian Railways has launched RailMadad, a one-stop solution for customer grievance, enquiry, suggestion and assistance, providing passengers access through website, App, SMS, social media and helpline number 139. A number of helplines that earlier existed in the Railways for various purposes have been merged into this, and will be available round the clock in 12 languages.

Indiatourism Hyderabad organised a ‘Walk and Cycle Rally’ to create awareness on ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’. The event saw enthusiastic participation, and about 100 students of University College of Women, Koti, participated in the rally. At the culmination of the event, everyone got together and sang the national anthem. Government of India is commemorating 75 years of India’s independence, which falls on 15th August 2022, at national and international levels in the form of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.

Bollywood actor Sonu Sood has announced that he will be launching a travel-tech business venture to digitally empower and build a travel agent business community in rural India. The launch is slated to take place virtually on August 6, 2021. Called Travel Union, it is an assisted travel business brand for rural India and has an App as well as a web portal. Travel Union promises to empower the rural audience by enabling them to do business at zero investment.

Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy has said that 31 MSME units were sanctioned Rs234.7 crore during 2021 by way of sanctioned Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) to MSME by Tourism Finance Corporation India (TFCI) under Atmanirbhar Bharat package announced on May 13 this year. Apart from that, loan of Rs1541.65 crore was also sanctioned to 47 borrowers by TFCI during 2018-19 to 2019-20, he said.

In a bid to bring some much-needed relief to its tourism industry, the Andaman & Nicobar administration has announced that all tourist activities in South Andaman and North & Middle Andaman district have re-opened. Tourists will only have to undergo quarantine at hotels till the availability of their RT-PCR report; a free test will be conducted on arrival at Port Blair.

With industry-wide air travel demand (in RPKs) having dropped by 65.9% year-on-year, Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General, says, “2020 was a year that we’d all like to forget. But analysing the performance statistics for the year reveals an amazing story of perseverance. It was the rapid action by airlines and the commitment of our people that saw the airline industry through the most difficult year in its history.”

Indian carrier IndiGo has partnered with IATA to launch a pilot project for the IATA Travel Pass. The Pass (a mobile App) will enable travellers to create a digital passport where they can share their test and vaccination certificates, to meet the SOPs of the destination they are travelling to. The pilot project will begin in the country from August 20. The IATA Travel Pass will also enable authorised labs and test centres to securely send test results or vaccination certificates to passengers.

The United Arab Emirates has lifted the ban on transit flights from India. Travellers will have to still submit a negative RT-PCR report of a test taken 72 hours prior to departure. Final destination approval would also have to be provided, the authority said, adding that UAE departure airports would arrange separate lounges for transiting passengers. The ban has been lifted for 10 other countries as well, including Nepal and Sri Lanka.

More than 200 travel agents pan-India took part in the ‘SingapoReimagine Virtual Experiences Familiarisation Day’ organised by STB on July 27 and 31. Featuring virtual experiences by Singapore Airlines, Singapore Zoo, Monster Tours and a masterclass by Brass Lion Distillery, the full-day event set new standards of how virtual experience engagement can be presented immersively and seamlessly.