The Board of the Company TATA SIA Airlines has named Vinod Kannan who will succeed CEO Leslie Thng effective 1 January, 2022. Thng, after leading Vistara for more than four years, will move on to take up a senior appointment with Singapore Airlines from 1st January 2022. Kannan is currently serving as Vistara’s Chief Commercial Officer.

The resumption of short-stay entry visa processing for Ireland has been announced and has come into effect from 13 September, 2021. Indians fully vaccinated with COVISHIELD can now apply for short-stay entry visas to Ireland. There are no quarantine requirements for fully-vaccinated Indians with COVISHIELD or recently recovered travellers to Ireland. Travellers must fill out a Passenger Locator Form before departure.

Garima Singh, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, emphasized on the development of connectivity in the region. There are altogether 15 airports ensuring efficiency of travel in the region. She also spoke about the new Greenfield Airport Project which is under development; the aim is to inaugurate it by 15th August ’22, in line with the celebration of 75 years of Independence. The commencement of operations at Tezu Airport in Arunachal Pradesh along with some other important projects was also brought forward in the discussion. Initiatives are being undertaken to enhance air connectivity for the development of tourism in the North Eastern Region.

Speaking at a forum in Assam, G. Kishan Reddy said that the Ministry has sanctioned 16 projects under the Swadesh Darshan Scheme in the North Eastern region. He added that through the schemes, his ministry is giving special emphasis on developing infrastructure, ground capacity and skills in the region as well as providing branding and marketing assistance. He revealed that projects worth approximately Rs 200 crore has been sanctioned for these projects.

In a recent webinar, Kimarli Fernando, Chairperson, Sri Lanka Tourism, revealed that the island nation has launched a US$12 (Rs890) mandatory insurance for a policy of US$50,000 (Rs37 lakh) valid up to one month. “We are using this opportunity to shift gears in tourism. Despite COVID, 2021-2030 has been declared as the tourism decade for Sri Lanka and we see this as a time to do things we did not do in the past. We are creating a strategic development plan.”

The Adventure Tour Operators Association of India (ATOAI) is organising a webinar titled ‘The Great Indian Outdoors at the threshold’ today at 11am. Guest speakers include Dr. V Venu, Additional Chief Secretary, Tourism, Government of Kerala; Rupinder Brar, Additional Director General, Ministry of Tourism; and Brig Ashok Abbey, President, Indian Mountaineering Foundation. The webinar will focus on how the sector can keep up with the growth, and guidelines and regulations that need to be implemented to curb accident rate.

The Indian Railways has recently started two Vistadome train services in Assam and North Bengal. The Vistadome tourist special trains will run between Guwahati and New Haflong in Assam and New Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar Junction in North Bengal. There are jungles, wildlife and tea gardens on the route between NJP and Alipurduar, thus providing a tourist with the opportunity to view the natural beauty of Dooars during their travels.

On his recent visit to Nepal, Sadhguru met Dhananjay Regmi, CEO, Nepal Tourism Board, and shared his experience of Kailash Darshan from Nepal. He said, “Nepal can be Switzerland of Asia for its natural beauty while all kinds of diversities add further value and importance as tourist destination,” and stressed the urgency of earmarking Nepal’s tourism industry as a prioritised sector by the government. Regmi also updated Sadhguru about NTB’s efforts of promoting Nepal in Indian markets as spiritual destination, and the destination for the holistic health of body, mind and soul.

Air Tanzania has announced the resumption of its services between India and Tanzania. The first flight out of DAR was on 30th August, 2021 and return from Mumbai was on 31st August 2021. To start with, this will be a bi-weekly service every Tuesday and Saturday out of Mumbai with convenient departure timings of 05.50 hours arriving in Dar es Salaam at 09.20 hours. It will operate B787-800 new Dreamliner aircraft. Once the situation normalises, the flights are likely to increase to thrice a week.

The Karnataka Chapter of TAAI, in collaboration with the MSME Development Institute, conducted a virtual workshop to educate members about various schemes of Ministry of Micro, SME. This is part of the series initiated by TAAI at pan-India level to educate its members about the benefits and reliefs extended by the Ministry of MSME. Gopinath Rao, Deputy Director, MSME Development Institute, Bengaluru shared various schemes and initiatives of MSME and explained how it can benefit businesses at large. He specifically mentioned the schemes which attendees may avail finance, both at micro and macro levels.