Maharashtra Tourism has joined hands with Things2Do to launch the Mumbai Festival from January 25 to February 14. The Festival aims to provide support to over 1000 enterprises in Mumbai.

Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State (I/C) for Tourism & Culture, was recently on a tour of Mumbai city. While there, he convened a meeting with the officers of Ministry of Tourism and Ministry of Culture at Indiatourism office in Mumbai. Senior officers of both the ministries, its attached/ autonomous body and subordinating offices situated in Mumbai attended the meeting.

TAFI is preparing to hold its elections in January 2021. Pradip Lulla, Acting President & VP, TAFI, says, “We will first hold all our chapter elections followed by our national elections around mid-January. While chapter elections could be held physically, the national committee election could either be virtual or through postal ballot.”

Darpan Jain, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, has said that as part of Champions Services Sector, an amount has been earmarked for development of tented accommodation in the Buddhist Circuit. “We are aware that people from China and Southeast Asia travel to places of Buddhist interest, but don’t come to India,” he said.

GB Srithar, Regional Director, India, Middle East & South Asia, Singapore Tourism Board, has revealed that the theme of the STB India Virtual Tradeshow 2021 will be ‘Charting Our Pathways to Tourism Recovery’ which, according to him, will heighten or hasten the pace for increased partnerships and alliances among NTOs and their partner friends.

The Board of Enterprising Travel Agent’s Association (ETAA) has decided to waive the annual membership fee for Financial Year 2020-2021. Members who have paid membership fee for three years, valid till March 2021, will get an extension till March 2022. This was announced at ETAA’s virtual AGM on December 18.

According to Thomas Cook India’s travel survey for December 2020, confidence to travel is on the upswing, with 67% Indians willing to travel within the next 6 months.

Meenakshi Sharma, Director General, Ministry of Tourism, was on a three-day visit to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, during which she visited Uma Maheshwaram, Mannanur, Farhabad, Alampur and Hyderabad in Telangana, as well as SriSailam in Andhra Pradesh. These sites are being developed by the respective state governments under MOT’s Swadesh Darshan and PRASHAD schemes.

Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has removed the cap on number of visitors to Centrally Protected Monuments & sites. However, the total number of visitors to be allowed per day may be decided by the Superintending Archaeologist. Selling of physical tickets (where there are problems in QR code and network) and Sound & Light shows may also be resumed.

Singapore Tourism Board (STB)’s upcoming Virtual Tradeshow (to be held on 12th, 15th, 19th and 21st January for South, North, West and East India, respectively) aims to have profound interactions with the travel industry from each region. GB Srithar, Regional Director, India, ME & South Asia, STB, says, “With the intent to have deeper and focused dialogues, including pre-scheduled meetings, the roadshow will be held by region.”