Union Tourism Minister, G. Kishan Reddy has said that river cruise industry could become a new tourism avenue in India in the coming years. He stressed the vast potential of the river cruise industry in the country. Aligning in the direction, he also invited domestic and international tourists to ‘Come, Cruise in India.’ According to him, the Government is currently working towards a comprehensive Indian National Tourism Policy and cruise tourism will be a priority sector. With Government initiatives like the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan, tourism-related infrastructure is also being developed with a focus on shipping, river tourism, and forest and wildlife tourism.

With an aim to highlight the potential that the Indian outbound traveller poses for destinations post-Covid, TravTalk will organise a discussion titled ‘The Indian Traveller: Writing the global recovery sequel’. On the panel will be stalwarts from the Indian outbound sector such as MakeMyTrip, Travel Designer and InterGlobe Technology Quotient who will highlight new trends and redefine the evolved Indian traveller.

Speaking to International media on day two of ATM in Dubai, ADG Rupinder Brar said that the Middle East has been the major target market for Indian tourism and that large number of tourists from there visit India for MICE, medical, wellness, and luxury tourism. She added that her ministry has already undertaken ‘NamasteIndia’ campaign to encourage international visitors to travel to India.

Face masks will not have to be worn in airports and on flights in Europe from May 16, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said. From next week, face masks will no longer need to be mandatory in air travel in all cases, broadly aligning with the changing requirements of national authorities across Europe for public transport. Italy, France, Bulgaria and other European countries been relaxing or ending many or all of their measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Minister of Tourism, Government of Uttarakhand, Satpal Maharaj, highlighted the importance of developing tourist destinations in Uttrakhand and revealed that the state is looking at creating a Beatles Ashram. He said, “The problem with that is that it is located within the forest. So we will request the PM to expedite the process so that we can preserve the Beatles memorabilia from their visits to India and their influences. More than 48 of their best songs were written in Rishikesh. We don’t understand its importance; it’s a heritage site.”

The New Zealand Government today announced further relaxations in border restrictions, allowing all fully vaccinated international travelers, including India, to travel to Aotearoa (New Zealand) from August 1, 2022. Fully vaccinated Indian visitors will be able to travel to New Zealand without self-isolation on provision of a negative pre-departure test. Negative Rapid Antigen Tests [RAT] will be required on arrival and on day 5/6. New Zealand had been progressively opening its borders from April, first to Australian visitors and then in May to visitors from visa waver countries. Tourism New Zealand’s Chief Executive, René de Monchy said “We look forward to welcoming manuhiri [visitors], family and friends back from August. New Zealand has plenty to offer international visitors from breathtaking landscapes, rare and remarkable wildlife to our rich culture and heritage; our people and place are what make us unique, and we look forward to sharing this with the world again”.  In 2020, Tourism New Zealand in India rolled out the “Messages from New Zealand” campaign which featured everyday New Zealanders sharing video messages of hope and care with their international whānau (family). Through this initiative New Zealand reached out in a heartfelt and genuine way by sending messages of positivity and optimism to Indian travelers. As part of efforts to prepare for the reopening of borders, Tourism New Zealand has also  been supporting travel partners with new resources such as a dedicated marketing hub, regular training sessions and most recently, the launch of a revamped travel trade website.

The New Zealand tourism industry re-connected with the world, this April on TRENZ Connect 2022 through a series of exciting online events. These events are part of TRENZ Connect, a digital marketplace launched by TIA (Tourism Industry Aotearoa) last September to connect international market-ready New Zealand tourism operators with the international travel trade. This year, almost 300 travel and tourism buyers from around the globe with almost 24 from India connected virtually and discussed latest updates from New Zealand, a great indication of the support from the trade for the New Zealand tourism industry. Organised by Tourism Industry Aotearoa, the three TRENZ Connect Online events were a valuable opportunity for participants to talk business and discover new international market-ready products and learn about new developments in New Zealand’s best accommodation, transport, activities, and attractions. “The beauty of the TRENZ Connect platform is that it’s ‘always on’. It allows the international travel trade to access the details of New Zealand tourism businesses 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, no matter what time zone they are in. Participants can start a conversation by sending a message at any time. So, all is not lost if you can’t make it to these particular events,” says Ann-Marie Johnson, Communications Manager, TIA. “TRENZ is a fabulous opportunity for New Zealand to showcase what it has to offer to international buyers. Indian travel trade are our key partners   in our efforts to promote and sell New Zealand to Indian travellers. Looking ahead at the reopening of borders to India later this year, this innovative platform will continue to help us to showcase our new tourism products and strengthen our relationship with the travel trade …

AVIAREPS India is proud to announce that it has been appointed Sales, Marketing and PR representative for travel experiences platform, KKday Singapore. A mobile-first-e-commerce travel platform local experiences with a strong presence across key Asia-Pacific markets, KKday’s main objective is to make travel more accessible and convenient and safe for everyone. “Since 2014, KKday as pioneered the digitisation of tours, activities and attractions and brought them to everyone’s fingertips. With KKday’s app, travellers can discover and book interesting experiences anytime, anywhere. We are excited to appoint AVIAREPS as our Sales, Marketing and PR representative and we believe they will do their best to elevate our presence in Indonesia and India. We look forward to many collaborative opportunities in the months ahead.” Co-Founder, KKday, Wei Chun Liu said. Speaking about the collaboration Ellona Pereira, Head, AVIAREPS India, said, “We are delighted to be given the opportunity to work with KKday Singapore and we will work closely with KKday Singapore to enhance their presence in the Indian Market. KKday has many enriching travel packages and leisure product offerings and we are confident that they will be well-received in the Indian market.” KKday currently hosts over 30,000 travel and leisure products and services in more than 80 countries and 500 cities. In addition. Many of KKday’s products and APAC centric focusing on countries such as Japan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. KKday covers an extensive range of producs from attraction tickets to transportation to SIM cards, cruises and staycations. With multilingual website and mobile apps, KKday supports both traditional and simplified Chinese, as well as English, Japanese, Korean and many others. KKday’s success is built on innovation, a unique product portfolio and digital-first capability …

Rajiv Mehra, President, IATO, has said that they have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi again thanking him for the steps he has taken in addressing the Indian community in Copenhagen asking the non-residents to send five foreign nationals each from their country to India. “That’s a very good sign of promoting India and if all the Indians abroad start sending five people or motivating them to go to India, I think tourism will flourish in the coming years. We thank the PM for that, and we have again written to him that whatever hurdles we are facing here with the different ministries and departments, need to be addressed immediately and steps should be taken for the same. I’m quite hopeful things will happen in this regard soon,” he mentioned.

The Tourism Office of Spain – Mumbai, along with Ibiza Tourism, will conduct an exclusive webinar titled ‘Know Ibiza’ for the travel trade today at 3pm IST. Sign up today for the Spain Specialist Program (SSP) and register now to attend the webinar. The webinar will conclude with an exciting quiz on the destination and the winner will leave with a free trip to Ibiza. For more information, write to jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or 9650196532.