Minister of Tourism, G. Kishan Reddy, said that his ministry will introduce ‘Medical’ visa which can be given for specific purpose to foreign travellers coming to India for medical treatment. ‘E-Medical Visa’ and ‘E-Medical Attendant Visa’ have also been introduced for travellers from 156 countries. The Ministry provides financial Assistance under its Market Development Assistance Scheme to medical tourism service providers accredited by National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH) for participation in fairs, conferences, and roadshows.

Indonesia has extended its ‘Visa on Arrival to Bali’ program on March that was launched on March 7 for holidaymakers flying in from 23 countries, including India in a bid to spur foreign tourist arrivals. It also revoked the obligation to have a sponsor for a tourist e-visa request. Indonesia’s Tourism & Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno said, “The tourism ministry proposed to add several countries to the VoA list, including India, and it has been approved.”

The Government of India has accorded ‘in-principle’ approval for setting up of 21 Greenfield Airports across the country. So far, eight Greenfield airports namely, Sindhudurg and Shirdi in Maharashtra, Durgapur in West Bengal, Pakyong in Sikkim, Kannur in Kerala, Orvakal in Andhra Pradesh, Kalaburagi in Karnataka and Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh have been operationalised. Under RCS-UDAN, 405 routes connecting 65 airports including 8 heliports and 2 water aerodromes have been operationalised as on 8 March, 2022.

A study by ParkSleepFly analysed the cost of an adult’s single-day admission ticket to 30 of the world’s top tourist attractions, as well as the number of ‘poor’ and ‘terrible’ reviews received by each attraction. The attractions were then given a normalised ‘value score’ out of ten to reveal the world’s best value for money tourist attractions. Ranking in second place is The Taj Mahal. Known for being one of the most beautiful examples of architecture in the world, the landmark is also relatively affordable, with an entry ticket costing $14.61(£10.81/€12.89). Just 1% of visitors to the Taj Mahal leave a bad review, representing the excellent value.

Ethiopian Airlines has announced that effective March 27, 2022 it will resume its regular  passenger services daily from Mumbai and Delhi. It is nearly two years since the resumption of normal services, prior to which it had to rely on the air bubble agreement of once a week flights from December 04, 2020 and before that ADHOC special repatriation flights. Bengaluru will also be reconnected after two years effective March 29, 2022, with thrice weekly flights.  With three Indian cities back on the radar, Ethiopian Airlines will continue to play a significant role in bringing India and Africa together in general and India and Ethiopia in particular.

Chalo DMC LLP is pleased to announce the appointment of \Pranav Kapadia as the Director Sales and Marketing and Sumit Jain as Director Finance to the organization effective 12th March 2022. A leading destination management company having a philosophy to specialize in key destinations, ChaloDMC very recently merged their Domestic arm – Sapphire Ventures and brought their South Africa vertical Chalo South Africa, powered by Albatros Travel under the parent Company – ChaloDMC. With these significant appointments of Kapadia and Jain, the firm now plans to move towards expansion and strengthen its business presence across India. These leaders bring unique skillsets and fresh perspectives to the business and are much admired by their peers for their expertise and management styles in their respective fields. Together they aim to exemplify Chalo DMC’s reach and business with innovative thinking, passion, and business-like mindedness. Pranav Kapadia with a tourism experience of over 30 years in Sales & Marketing, started his career in Mumbai with Lufthansa German Airlines and held leadership roles at Air New Zealand and South African Airways prior to starting his own travel representation company, Global Destinations in 2008. Pranav’s vast tourism experience has ensured a 25% YOY growth for all companies represented by Global Destinations. Sumit Jain an alumnus of IIMA and JBIMS with experience of 22 years in Finance, Supply Chain is currently focussed on building an organizational culture of performance-based service delivery, driven by IMU philosophy translating to the customer and employee experience. Founder Director Chalo DMC \Siddharth Jain, highlighted – “This is an exciting time for Chalo DMC and our team. Our success has come from putting our clients first and by making these strategic appointments we aim …

To accelerate travel recovery momentum in India, South African Tourism looks at capitalizing on strong consumer demand in the country with their biggest travel trade initiative in India – their annual Roadshow. The tourism board showcased long-term investment and interest in the Indian market and outlined a strategic roadmap to garner 64% YoY increase in Indian visitors in 2022. Travelling to the Indian cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad this year, the 36-member South African trade delegation reiterated the tourism board’s emphasis on expanding the destination and product offering – thus, offering Indian consumers More & More! In addition to experiences, representatives from accommodation establishments, destination management companies, South African Provinces, SMMEs and women-owned companies showcased their product and services, while engaging Indian travel and trade associates. India retains its place amongst the top-3 focus markets for South African Tourism. This is aided by the fact that prior to the pandemic, India served as the 8th largest international source market for South Africa. The country is expected to maintain its position in the top-10 this year as well. Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Pune continue to be top Indian source markets to South Africa. “We have spent the last two years hoping for and preparing for this exact moment – the return of travel! As South African businesses land on Indian shores, we are excited to be introducing our partners and consumers to a host of value-driven and thoughtfully crafted adventures. Our evolved brand strategy will help us drive South Africa’s value proposition across stakeholders while creating customized engagement models to suit the unique requirements from each of our target regions within India. We are already seeing an uptick …

Costa Cruises continues its gradual restart plan for 2022. From 5 March, the date on which the new Costa Toscana, star of the recent edition of the Sanremo Music Festival, will set sail for her first cruise, an increasing number of the company’s ships will return to service, joining those already sailing. Next summer, the company’s entire fleet will resume operations, with all four of the new ships delivered in recent months – Costa Toscana, Costa Smeralda, Costa Firenze and Costa Venezia – deployed in the Mediterranean. Also, for the summer period, with the hope of favorable regulations, the company is planning to carry out again shore excursions in free mode, and, in light of the gradual relaxation of the measures in place, is working to be able to make them already available as early as this spring. Costa’s program includes a total of more than 1,800 cruises from spring 2022 to winter 2022-23, allowing guests to discover 179 destinations around the world, with cruises lasting from 3 to 127 days. All these cruises will feature the new product innovations the company has been working on in recent months, with an innovative range of shore excursions and an outstanding gastronomic offer featuring world-class chefs. “We are seeing the growth in demand for holidays, and I am sure that this trend will increase further in the coming weeks” – said Roberto Alberti, SVP & Chief Commercial Officer of Costa Cruises. “We think our offer is the best ever, thanks to elements that combine unique experiences, both onboard and ashore. Our rich itinerary program suits for every need and includes some great new features, such as cruises to Turkey. Our cruise experience …

GB Srithar, Regional Director, IMESA (India, Middle East & South Asia), Singapore Tourism Board, said, “The extension of VTL to Singapore from all Indian cities provides the much needed impetus to travel between the countries for all traveller types, whether for leisure, business or cruise. This is part of Singapore’s calibrated and progressive approach in re-opening our borders. We look forward to sharing Singapore’s new, reimagined tourism offerings and experiences with our Indian visitors.”

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent suspension of Russian airlines’ flights is hitting Goa’s charter season hard. Nilesh Shah, President, Travel & Tourism Association of Goa, says, “Most charter guests spend 14-21 days in Goa. Many hotels that have been suffering for the past 20 months depend on charter business for survival.” At the moment, Goa is receiving only once-a-week charters from Kazakhstan.