Ministry of Tourism has appreciated Vasuki K. Sundaram, Chairperson, IATO Maharashtra Chapter, on twitter for her positive feedback on her recent trip to Shirdi, where she mentions that her experience was great in the temple without crowds, social distancing maintained, hotels adhering to compliances, and she pointed out that the wayside amenities on her way back to Mumbai were clean. MOT, in their tweet shared a video of Sundaram saying that it shows the idea of Dekho Apna Desh being executed thoroughly.

Rupinder Brar, ADG, Ministry of Tourism, has shared that the content they are creating for international and domestic market will also focus on the growing infrastructure in the country and not just the heritage of the country. “We noticed that we do focus on monuments, cities, palaces, etc., but we are not showing and leveraging on the growing infrastructure in the country. Hence, the content needs to show that when you land in India, you are landing in a country which may be 1000s of years old, but at the same time, it is backed up with infrastructure that is as modern as it can get,” she added.

The government has proposed to sell up to 20% of its stake in IRCTC through an Offer for Sale (OFS) which opens for subscription on Thursday. “Offer for Sale in IRCTC opens tomorrow for Non Retail investors. Day 2 for retail investors. The government would divest 15 percent equity with a 5 percent green shoe option,” said Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Secretary, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) in a tweet. As of September 30, the government had held an 87.40 stake in IRCTC which went public last year. To meet SEBI’s public holding norm, the government has to lower its stake in the company to 75%.

Consortium led by Murari Lal Jalan and Kalrock Capital has announced the revival of Jet Airways as a full-service carrier. The Jet 2.0 program is aimed at reviving the past glory of Jet Airways, with a fresh set of processes and systems to ensure greater efficiency. As per the resolution plan, Jet Airways intends to operate all of its historic domestic slots in India and restart international operations. Jet Airways will be back in the skies by summer of 2021 provided it receives NCLT and regulatory approvals on time.

Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Vistara have signed a Commercial Cooperation Framework Agreement, which is an extension of a codeshare partnership that was established in 2017. Taking it a step forward, the new agreement would allow both airlines to achieve further synergies on services between Singapore and India, as well as in the key regions of South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand. JoAnn Tan, Acting Senior Vice President Marketing Planning, Singapore Airlines, said: “By bolstering our partnership, Singapore Airlines and Vistara are able to work together to provide additional options for our customers. It also reflects the importance of the Indian market to Singapore Airlines, as well as our commitment to grow our network in the coming years.” Leslie Thng, Chief Executive Officer, Vistara said: “We are thrilled to further strengthen our partnership with Singapore Airlines. The intent is reflective of our deep-rooted commitment to providing our customers the finest and the most convenient way to fly across the world with the consistency of a five-star travel experience. This is in line with our long-term growth plan of expanding Vistara’s global presence and presenting India’s best airline to the world.”

The Department of Foreign Affairs, Philippines  in cooperation with Department of Tourism & National Commission for Culture and Arts have launched “Fiesta Filipinas: An Online Celebration of Philippine Festivals”, a 6-part, multi-format online event series from December 2020 until May 2021, which will simulate the experience of a festival through a combination of live and pre-recorded videos and live workshops and activities. The project aims to introduce and showcase Philippine festivals, culture, and traditions to our global audience and invite them to the country when conditions are more favorable.

The two-day Virtual Spanish Travel Show concluded successfully with more than 1,300 buyers from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh interact with 20 Spanish exhibitors. Spain’s first-ever virtual roadshow witnessed more than 3,200 one-to-one meetings take place between travel agents and tour operators, and suppliers that included regional tourism boards, hotels and DMCs.

IndiGo has said that they will make complete payment against all pending credit shells latest by 31st January, 2021. The airline has been refunding amounts owed to customers whose flights had been cancelled during the lockdown and has processed close to INR 1000cr of refunds already, which is approximately 90% of the total amount owed to the customers. Ronojoy Dutta, Chief Executive Officer, IndiGo said, “The sudden onset of Covid19 and the resulting lockdown, brought our operations to a complete halt by the end of March of this year. As our incoming cash flow dried up, we were unable to immediately process refunds for cancelled flights and had to create credit shells for the refunds that were due to our customers. However, with the resumption of operations and a steady increase in demand for air travel, our priority has been to refund the credit shell amounts in an expedited manner. We are pleased to commit that we will disburse the full 100% credit shell payments latest by January 31, 2021. We would like to thank all our customers who stood by us for their patience and understanding during this unprecedented crisis.”

Sunil C Gupta, Chapter Chairman, IATO -Northern Region, has said that the construction of Agra Metro Project, inaugurated by the Prime Minister, would make many monuments like Sikandra and Rambagh accessible to tourists. “There are a lot of tourists—both domestic and international coming to Agra. The Agra Metro for the first time connects the monuments of Agra and especially monuments alike Sikandra and Rambagh, which due to traffic congestion, distance and time taken to travel to these monuments were not being visited. Now the tourists will be able to easily visit these monuments. The Metro will also ease the traffic. This metro is going to be world-class and will be better than the ones in Lucknow and Noida,” he said.

India Tourism Kolkata, Regional Office (East), Ministry of Tourism, Government of India celebrated the Constitution Day, led by the Regional Director (East) followed by a brief discussion on the salient features of the Indian Constitution.