Punita Singh, Joint Director, Rajasthan Tourism, has said that they are looking at promoting border tourism in Rajasthan. She said, “We have identified three border points in the state for developing border tourism products.” She was speaking at the PATA India & BBC News webinar ‘The New Ways of Marketing to Recharge Tourism’.

Pratima Badhwar, Head – Commercial, Accor India & South Asia, shares that they have a strong pipeline of four openings this year across the region. “For India, we are aiming to reach 70 hotels by 2025. Our well-rounded portfolio of leading hotel brands across the luxury, premium, mid-scale, and economy categories compliments the multi-layered Indian market, while supporting our long-term growth strategy.

Nikhil Desai, Managing Director, Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC), has said that a new convention centre is being opened by the end of year to boost MICE Tourism in the state of Goa. MICE will be one of the products that will be in focus of their strategy, he revealed. He said that they are working towards repositioning Goa apart from sun, sand and sea. “While Goa is synonymous with sun, sand and sea, we are trying to attract the attention of tourists to various other offerings in Goa including wildlife, nature, MICE, etc.” he added. He also informed that they are seeing a huge rise in social events in the last one year at a number of properties across Goa.

Valmiki Hari Kishan, Chairman- Tourism Committee, Federation of Telangana Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FTCCI), has said that Telangana State still hasn’t released its tourism policy, which we have been pushing for the past few years. However, he says that news has come that it will be released soon. “I am happy to share that the policy is ready within the Secretary of the Tourism committee and they will be rolling it out very shortly,” he said.

Looking at the post-Omicron scenario of the continuous improvement in the condition of COVID-19 infection, the Covid-19 Crisis Management Coordination Center (CCMC) by the Government of Nepal on 7th March has decided to waive off the PCR test requirement for passengers who have completed full vaccination against COVID-19 before fourteen days of arrival. Nepal is also moving forward to revive the hard-hit tourism sector with the strategic action plans being formulated by the National Tourism Revival Committee, together in collaboration with the public and private sector stakeholders of tourism industry.

The Ministry of Tourism has invited final comments from the stakeholders on draft report for setting up of National Digital Tourism Mission. The draft report has also been published on website for suggestions and feedback from public. MOT had constituted an inter-ministerial task force for National Digital Tourism Mission on 23rd July, 2021. The Task Force has prepared a draft report on proposed National Digital Tourism Mission, which inter-alia lays down domain and technology principles, standards, digital stack, governance structure and plan for implementation of the envisaged National Digital Tourism Mission.

Boost your confidence and get ready to sell Europe, America, Asia and Australia again. Learn more about the on-ground situation and updated travel protocols of these destinations at the Thomas Cook webinar on Tuesday 15th March, 2022 at 3pm IST. Attendees can also get access to a host of packages for their customers.  Register for free at https://event.webinarjam.com/register/381/3v7k1iv1 or contact jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com; +91 9650196532.

Ebixcash has filed draft papers with Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for ₹6,000 crore IPO. The initial public offering (IPO) comprises of fresh equity issue aggregating up to ₹6,000 crore. Further, the issue includes a reservation of part equity shares for subscription by eligible employees. The employee reservation portion will not exceed 5% of post-issue paid-up equity share capital. Also, the company may explore a pre-IPO placement of up to ₹1,200 crore. If such a placement is completed, the issue size will be reduced.

The Government of India has decided to resume scheduled commercial international passenger services to/from India from 27th March i.e. start of Summer Schedule 2022. The suspension of scheduled commercial international passenger services to/from India, thus, stands extended only upto 2359 hrs IST on 26.03.2022 and air bubble arrangements shall accordingly be extended to this extent only. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had suspended operations of scheduled international commercial passenger services to/from India with effect from 23rd March 2020.

According to the latest country classification announced by France from 3rd March 2022, India has been moved to the green list of countries. Also, the French Prime Minister announced the suspension of the vaccination pass from 14 March 2022. The French Prime Minister announced the abolition of the mask requirement as of 14th March, with the exception of transport.