One Above Global with its presence in over 30 countries has now ventured into cruise liners, we are now the preferred selling agents for Carnival Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean International, Costa Cruise Line, Genting Dream Cruise Line. Sharing this news is Rahim Aslam, its Founder Director, who says, “With One Above, our partners can look at land plus cruise packages making us the one-stop solution for all their B2B requirements. We are excited to announce that soon  we will be joining hands with other cruise companies such as Norwegian Cruise Line and MSC Cruises to expand our services. Ensuring to offer more destinations, more packages, and more discounts to our agents, making it easier for them to plan their perfect cruise. Preeti John comes with immense knowledge and experience in handling sales and operations for cruises. We are confident to support our B2B customers and help grow our businesses mutually.”

Harpreet Singh (IPoS), Joint Secretary, Ministry of Development of North-Eastern Region (DONER), mentioned that tourism continues to be an important sector for the Indian economy and majority of the infrastructure development projects undertaken by the Government are towards the tourism sector. He added that the 8 states of NER comprising 8% of the area of the country and close to 4% of the population has huge potential for tourism but it still has only 0.3% share of domestic tourists and 0.93% share of the foreign tourists. There holds immense potential which needs to be tapped in the NE region through effective infrastructure development and better connectivity, added Singh.

Union civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia hailed the rapid uptick in the usage of the DigiYatra app at Varanasi airport, saying that it had improved the ease of travel considerably. The DigiYatra facility will allow passengers to link their travel and identity documents and create a facial scan beforehand, which will do away with the need for them to produce boarding passes or identity cards when they arrive at an airport, drop their baggage, or proceed for boarding. Instead, passengers will need to show their face to a facial recognition camera to authenticate themselves.

The millennial generation and Gen Z are driving change in the hospitality business and it is important to understand their expectations. The incredibly tech-savvy and adaptable Gen Z are leading to changes in travel preferences in this digital age. For them, 4 out of 5 methods for planning a trip are online-based channels. Thus, a shift from multichannel marketing to omnichannel marketing will be more effective. As a result, the hospitality sector must adapt to these developments. This generation is the first digital natives and value experiences.

The state government of Meghalaya has implemented a number of different initiatives such as encouraging ecotourism and locally developed products, with the goal of making tourism more sustainable. These also include promoting festivals like Cherry Blossom Festival and the Shillong Literary Festival. Meghalaya also hosted ‘Megha Kayak festival’ in October 2022.

Over the past few years, Odisha, under the visionary leadership of Hon’ble Chief Minister  Naveen Patnaik, has undertaken several ground-breaking sports initiatives to transform itself into a ‘preferred global sports destination’. From hosting marquee events to developing world-class infrastructure to strengthening sports grassroots programs, Odisha has been at the forefront of supporting all forms of sports. It is also the hub of High Performance Centres. The state has contributed massively to the development of sports is a prime example of sports tourism. Hockey is deeply connected to Odisha’s rich culture. It has produced champions like Dilip Tirkey, Pramod Tirkey, Lazarus Barla, Jyoti Sunita Kullu, Sunita Lakra, Amit Rohidas, Deep Grace Ekka, Namita Toppo, among others. Hon’ble Chief Minister himself was the goalkeeper for his school team, hence he has  a deep   emotional connect with the sport. Hockey is integral to the state and attracts audience in  thousands. Odisha has been one of the pivotal reasons behind Indian Hockey’s success in the recent years. The Odisha State Government became an official partner of Hockey India in 2018, and since then Indian Hockey teams have significantly improved. Over the years, Odisha has hosted various marquee tournaments such as Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup Bhubaneswar 2018, FIH Men’s Series Finals 2019, Olympic Hockey Qualifiers 2019, FIH Odisha Hockey Men’s Junior World Cup Bhubaneswar 2021, FIH Hockey Pro League 2020, 2021-22 and 2022-23. The FIH Odisha Men’s Hockey World Cup Bhubaneswar 2018 was hosted with grandeur at the state-of-art Kalinga Hockey Stadium, which was refurbished with two new galleries, increasing the capacity to 15,000 seats.  It received an overwhelming response from hockey followers world-wide. It attracted massive tourists from India as well as around …

After becoming the pharmacy of the world, India has emerged as a medical tourism hub on the global healthcare map, said Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, she said India’s medical tourism industry is estimated at $9 billion, which makes India the 10 th biggest global medical tourism hub. “It is good medical institutions that train and mould good doctors. About 2 million patients from around 76 countries visit India for medical, wellness and IVF treatments, generating $6 billion for the industry. This is expected to increase to $13 billion by 2026” she added. Sitharaman said India is already recognised as the pharmacy of the world as the Indian pharma industry is sought after by most countries mainly due to its expertise in producing medicines in accordance with global standards and for its cost competitiveness.

In view of rapid expansion of air services within India and on international routes to/from India and with the increase in the volume of passenger traffic, it has been noticed that sometimes Airlines downgrade passengers (tickets). For example when a passenger who has booked his ticket on first class, business class or premium economy, is downgraded to a lower class at the time of check-in due to various reasons like unserviceable seats, change of aircraft, overbooking, etc. In order to cater to such situations, DGCA is in the process of amending its Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) “Facilities to be provided to passengers by airlines due to denied boarding, cancellation of flights and delays in flights.” to protect the rights of air travellers affected by downgrading of their ticket. The amendment will allow the passenger, who is downgraded involuntarily from his booked class of ticket, to receive the full value of ticket including taxes as refund from the airline and the airline will carry the passenger free of cost in the next available class.  However, this proposal will go through stakeholder consultation and the final regulation shall be published and made applicable afterwards.

Arvind Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, mentioned that the recovery of India’s tourism post Covid can be witnessed through the whooping number of tourists of approximately 20 lakhs, who visited Jammu & Kashmir till October 2022. “As most of the countries of Asia Pacific opened up a little late post Covid as a preventive measure, we are still going slow on global tourists coming into India, affecting our inbound numbers but we have been able to revive strongly due to our rapid vaccination drive and prompt Government action for opening up to the globe attracting foreign tourists,” he said.

Commenting on the recent paragliding accident in Kullu involving a 30-year tourist from Maharashtra, Ajeet Bajaj, President, Adventure Tour Operators Association of India (ATOAI), says, “It is a very unfortunate incident and we send our heartfelt condolences to the family. The ATOAI stands for responsible adventure travel and we have issued safety guidelines which have been endorsed by the Ministry of Tourism and we expect all adventure tour operators across India to follow the guidelines in letter and in spirit to mitigate risk in adventure activities. For tourists, our request is to always do their due diligence and opt only for government-approved, licensed adventure operators.”