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.”

Akasa Air operated its first flight from Lucknow – the 11th city in its network, marking the airline’s entry into Uttar Pradesh. Akasa Air will offer daily flights on the Lucknow-Bengaluru and Lucknow-Mumbai route starting today. The first flight on the Lucknow-Mumbai route departed at 1100 hrs IST from Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport in Lucknow. Commenting on the commencement of the first flight from the state, the Honourable CM of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath stated, “Uttar Pradesh is one of the leading states in domestic tourism and tourist movement in India. Our state is transforming into the most preferred investment destination in India and therefore, enabling new growth trajectories for shaping the vision of a new India. Witnessing India’s newest airline, Akasa Air, starting operations in Uttar Pradesh early in their journey, reaffirms my faith in the potential of the state in generating employment and ensuring economic prosperity for our country.” Commenting on the commencement of the maiden flight from Lucknow, Vinay Dube, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Akasa Air said, “We are thankful to the Honourable Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Shri Yogi Adityanath-ji for his support on this momentous occasion as we launch our inaugural flight from Lucknow, the 11th city in our fast-growing network. Lucknow is renowned for its rich culture, architecture, and cuisine while being a popular tourist destination, established textile and an emerging automobile hub. We believe, with the important work being done by the Honourable Minister to further boost tourism in the state, Lucknow will surely become an important part of our plans while we start today with connecting this key state capital with Mumbai and Bengaluru.” “The Akasa story is aligned with …

Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board’s Rural Tourism Programme could not have come at a better time. The target was to make tourism destinations friendly through a cultural experience-based tourism which involved local communities. With the intention of offering new products and experiences to tourists visiting Madhya Pradesh, the Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board came up with the Rural Tourism Programme. The intention behind the Rural Tourism Programme is to connect rural communities with tourism for their social and economic development besides preserving the local environment. Rural tourism not only provides tourists with a completely new experience, it creates engagement between city and village dwellers through meaningful interactions. It also strengthens the rural economy, generating employment at the village level, minimises migration towards urban areas, preserves local culture & heritage, and encourages art and craft as well as landscape conservation. MP Tourism Board launched the Rural Tourism Programme in 2018. Covid slowed progress a bit but the work went on. The work first started in about 10 villages on a pilot basis. Villages close to prominent tourist sites, like Orchha, Khajuraho, Panna National Park and Sanjay-Dubri National Park, were initially selected. Seeing positive results, the scheme has been extended to many more villages. MADHYA PRADESH’S PIONEERING RURAL TOURISM PROJECT MP Tourism Board has launched its Rural Tourism Project under the auspices of the Madhya Pradesh Responsible Tourism Mission. Under the Rural Tourism Project, 100 villages across MP have been identified with the goal of developing them as Tourism Villages. As per the scheme, the state has been divided into six key cultural experience regions. Baghelkhand, Bundelkhand and Chambal in the north and northeast apart from their cultural specialities, also showcase the essence of …

Showing concern about the recent spurt in Covid cases, Ajay Prakash, President, TAFI, said, “To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson ‘The price of good health is eternal vigilance!’ We’ve all gone back to business as usual and assumed that the virus has been conquered but the recent spurt has clearly demonstrated that there is no room for complacence. So, while it might affect tourist numbers in the short term, there is a need to reinstate some health and screening measures, especially for international arrivals.”

Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that Amritsar and Chandigarh together have 42 air traffic movements internationally per week, including 33 in Amritsar and nine in Chandigarh. He expressed confidence that whenever Indian carriers will expand, Punjab will be a very key element of that. “We have international connectivity from Amritsar and Chandigarh to almost 7 countries: UK, Qatar, Dubai, Malaysia, Sharjah, Singapore and Italy. As far as Amritsar is concerned, we have 17 air traffic movements per week to Singapore, Doha, Kuala Lumpur, as well as to Tibilsi and Milan Malpensa.”

Rajnish Kaistha, Hon Secretary, IATO, said, “We have been pushing for more than 8 months now to allow e-tourist visas for many countries which had not been original list. This has caused lots of heartburn among our members and has been loss to all of us as tour operators, hotels and of course revenue loss for the Govt. I am glad that in the last one month the Govt finally started seeing our point of view with e-visa for UK, followed by Malaysia and now much needed Canada. This will help us for 2023 and beyond from these tourism generating countries. We continue to push for remaining countries like South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, etc for e-visas.”

Akasa Air has announced the addition of Goa, the 12th destination to join the airline’s fast-growing network. It offers two daily flights from Goa to Bengaluru, increasing to three daily flights from February 1, 2023, and two daily flights from Goa to Mumbai. Commenting on the new destination announcement, Praveen Iyer, Co-Founder, and Chief Commercial Officer, Akasa Air, said, “We are pleased to announce our 12th destination, Goa with flights from New Goa Manohar International Airport (Mopa), one of the newest airports that was inaugurated by our Honourable Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi-ji on December 11, 2022. We are really excited to connect Goa with two of our strong metro cities in the South and West, Bengaluru & Mumbai. We launch Goa with five daily departures connecting to Bengaluru and Mumbai. The city of beaches, Goa, has played a significant role in putting Indian tourism on the global map and is one of the most popular tourist destinations within India, all year round. It has also emerged as a manufacturing base for several leading companies, that constantly require greater connectivity to metro cities. The commencement of this route will enable us to enhance connectivity between these cities while offering our signature warm and efficient service to our passengers. Our operations from the city will cater to business and leisure travellers who are on the lookout for convenient and affordable flying options.” Akasa Air, which commenced operations in August 2022, has been progressively scaling up its operations and has taken delivery of 10 aircraft, carrying over 5 lakh revenue passengers in less than six months from the start of its operations. By end-December 2022, the airline expects to cross over 500 …