In the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, CEO, NITI Aayog, Amitabh Kant, had an interaction with the Administrative Secretaries of different Departments in Srinagar today. Kant said that long term growth needs the involvement of private players in a transparent and competitive manner.”The industrial sector is the one having a major role in creating jobs, therefore focus on ‘Ease of Doing Business’ which will help bring in private players and that NITI will support the government through transaction advisors in range sectors that may need to involve private players, besides, creating an ecosystem for large companies,” he added.

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the state government is planning to craft a religious tourist circuit comprising all places travelled by 15th century Vaishnavite scholar Mahapurush Srimanta Sankardev. Sarma said that Sankardev was a great Indian and the greatest Assamese of all times. He was a great social reformer who laid the foundation of the greater Assamese society. He added considering the social and religious contributions of Sankardev, there is still ample scope for research on his life and works.

TravelBullz and the Tourism Authority of Thailand present Indian Travel League (ITL), a weekly online competition starting on 20th of October. The Indian Travel League (ITL) is a fun-filled quiz program aimed at engaging the travel agent community in India. ITL would focus on generating interest in destinations, hotels, resorts, attractions and sightseeing options in Thailand. The goal of the program is to help agents in India to increase their margins while selling Thailand’s destinations to generate interest, awareness and educate sellers about the destinations and hotels.

As AirAsia’s rapid transformation from an airline into a digital travel and lifestyle services group continues to gain strong momentum, the holding company for the airline group has been officially renamed AirAsia Aviation Limited. Bo Lingam, formerly President for AirAsia Group, takes over as Group CEO of AirAsia Aviation Limited, overseeing the four airlines in the Group (AirAsia Malaysia, AirAsia Philippines,  AirAsia Thailand and AirAsia Indonesia). Group CEO of AirAsia Aviation Limited Bo Lingam said: “This structural change helps facilitate strong projected growth in both airline and non-airline portfolio businesses.

Union Minister of Civil Aviation, Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, virtually flagged off 6 routes expanding the aerial connectivity of North-East India. The routes commencing operations from today are Kolkata – Guwahati, Guwahati – Aizawl, Aizawl – Shillong, Shillong – Aizawl, Aizawl – Guwahati, and Guwahati – Kolkata. “Mizoram is the gateway to North-East India. The city has an immense amount of importance for its tourism & economic sector. We are committed to giving wings to Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision of making it possible that every state’s uniqueness must be experienced by all citizens of the country”, said Scindia.

As Thailand prepares to re-open its borders to the World, TravelBullz and the Tourism Authority of Thailand prepares to welcome Indian guests back to Amazing Thailand through Indian Travel League. ITL will be a weekly campaign with a total of 4 rounds, starting on 20th of October. Each week a match would conclude with a wordplay format quiz. The goal is to to generate interest, awareness and educate sellers about the destinations and hotel & attraction partners. To register, click on: https://travelbullz.in/itl  

Neliswa Nkani, Hub Head (Middle East, India & South East Asia), South African Tourism, says, “With world-class safety and hygiene measures, screening techniques, unique accommodation establishments, off-beat socially distanced experiences and the warmest tourism service, we cannot wait to give the Indian trade fraternity a taste of our finest hospitality and luxury, as they get ready to sell travel. We look forward to mutually-beneficial and long term business partnerships as well as knowledge sharing between South African exhibitors and Indian buyers to stem from VirtuallyYoursSouthAfrica.”  

German airline Lufthansa on Wednesday received an investor for 2.14 billion euro ($2.47 billion). This will help motivate travel companies looking to weather the after effects of the COVID-19 crisis. The company said that its rights issue was 98.36% subscribed by investors, and the remainder was quickly sold in the open market soon after.

Guidelines for the Recognition of Tourism Service Providers of West Bengal has been approved and released by the state government. The new guidelines will replace the 2006 policy. Nandini Chakravorty, Principal Secretary, Tourism Department of West Bengal and the Tourism Department of West Bengal have made significant changes in the policy such as categorization of Tour Operators into Inbound, Domestic, MICE, Cruise and Adventure to enable them to specialize and extend superior services. The new guidelines categorically define the different segments of service providers as per the current industry structure.

Fully vaccinated Indians travelling to the United Kingdom will not be quarantined from October 11, the British High Commissioner to India, Alex Ellis, announced on October 7. Covishield or another UK approved vaccine now accepted by the UK government.”I’ll be cutting 47 destinations from our red list including South Africa, with just 7 countries and territories remaining banned, all others will be included in the “rest of world” category. I’m also making changes so travellers visiting England have fewer entry requirements, by recognising those with fully-vaccinated status from 37 new countries and territories including India, Turkey and Ghana, treating them the same as UK fully vaccinated passengers”added Rt Hon Grant Shapps, Secretary of State for Transport, UK