NITI Aayog’ CEO Amitabh Kant has said that systematic tourism promotion campaigns will be important in the near future for the growth of Indian tourism industry. He also said that a domestic-focused Incredible India 2.0 campaign that showcases what the nation offers to Indians could be the post-pandemic plan for the tourism sector.

Celebrating 20 years of operations, Happy Tours will conduct a live webinar on Slovenia on June 25, 2020 at 3pm (IST).  Happy Tours has offices in Slovenia, Croatia, London and Athens and a dedicated team based in Pune. Happy Tours is a inbound European tour operator for both MICE and leisure groups throughout Europe. It also owns a hotel near Plitvice Lakes – Hotel Lyra www.lyraplitvice.com in Croatia and has its own coaches. To register, contact Jaspreet Kaur on ‪9650196532‬ or jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com.  

The Jim Corbett National Park based in Uttarakhand has reopened for eco tourism with strict guidelines in place after a duration of 2 and half months when it was closed during nationwide lockdown. Tourists can visit the Dhela, Jhirna, Bijrani and Pakhro zone for now.

The Lords Hotels and Resorts have resumed operations with heightened precautionary measures and new SOPs in place.

China Eastern airlines has announced its joining forces with Hainan Communication Investment Holdings, Sanya Development Holdings, Juenyao Airlines and Ctrip to form a new airline despite COVID-19 scars. The new airline will be called Sanya International Airlines and will be based in the island city of Hainan which is often terms as ‘Hawaii of China’. China Eastern will hold majority shares in the airline with 51 per cent stake.

Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Civil Aviation, has said that a he wants to see Indian Civil Aviation emerge stronger from this pandemic, especially with India having a strong domestic civil aviation system where the number of passengers travelling and with an intent to travel is very high. “Indian aviation would be one of the three largest international markets in a few years, and I would like to see our carriers including private sector to reclaim the space in international civil aviation, which regrettably we have not been able to claim,” he said.    

The Uttarakhand government has decided that the Char Dham Yatra for pilgrims from outside the state will start after June 30. Till then only locals from Uttarakhand districts where temples are located will be allowed to visit the shrines with a cap on the number of devotees allowed per day at the constituent shrines of Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath as per the guidelines and standard operating procedure (SOP) released by the state. Pilgrims will be allowed to visit the shrines between 7 am to 7 pm after taking a mandatory free of cost token from counters set up at the shrines.

The Supreme Court has asked airlines to find a way out to refund the air fare of passengers whose flights were cancelled during the lockdown, along with the ministry of civil aviation withhin 3 weeks. The apex court said that the credit facility must be for at least two years and passengers should be allowed to avail it across all sectors.

The Fiji Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama has announced that the country has no more active cases of COVID-19 and the destination is free of the virus now

The Maharashtra government has allotted 54.40-hectares of land in Shiroda, Vengurla tehsil of Sindhudurg area to the Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL), which runs Taj Hotels, for developing a five-star tourism centre. The land has been given at 90-years lease at a nominal rent for the construction of cottages in Vengurla for tourism development. The proposal of the allotment of land for the construction of the hotel by IHCL was taken after the state government announced Sindhudurg as a tourism district more than two decades ago. After a decision of allotting land to the Taj Group was taken in 1994, the land was acquired in stages till 1998 by the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC). Part of the land is in the group’s possession, while it has been pushing for possession of the remaining land. The government has now decided to hand over the remaining part of the plot, which is a connecting track of land to other two plots handed over to the company.