Tourists from India and China can visit Malaysia for 15 days without a tourist visa effective January 1. Throughout 2020, they will be able to enter the country for up to 15 days by using the electronic travel registration and information system – either individually or through travel agencies in their respective countries. However, the tourists must enter and exit Malaysia only through authorised airports or entry points. According to a statement from the government, these tourists will be able to travel to Malaysia three months after registration. Upon arrival, visitors must produce proof of sufficient cash for expenses, credit card or bank card, and produce their travel itinerary in Malaysia. They should also have a valid return ticket. In addition, the 15-day period cannot be extended, and these tourists cannot apply for any other passes under the Immigration Regulations 1963.

With an objective to bring in at least two million foreign tourists to Nepal, the ‘Visit Nepal 2020’ campaign was inaugurated in Kathmandu on January 1.  The launch of the campaign took place in a glittering ceremony alongside Ministerial Conclave 2020 – a high-level gathering of international tourism ministers in Nepal. Based on the theme, Sustainable Tourism through Preservation of Natural and Cultural Heritages, the objective of the conclave was to share initiatives taken by respective countries for sustainable tourism and make joint initiatives to fight against climate change and preservation of Natural/Cultural heritages/products. The conclave was chaired by Minister of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation of Nepal, Yogesh Bhattarai amidst the presence of Chief Guest, Bidya Devi Bhandari, President of Nepal and KP Sharma Oli, the Prime Minister of Nepal. At the closing of the Conclave, the Kathmandu Declaration was also issued. A post-event tour was organised to showcase different destinations of Nepal. Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State (I/C) for Culture and Tourism, Government of India represented India at the Ministerial Conclave 2020 and shared his views on sustainable tourism. Apart from India, tourism ministers and representatives from Nepal, China, Jamaica, Myanmar, Bhutan, Cambodia and Qatar attended the conclave. The Nepal government has committed the year 2020 to the tourism industry of the nation with a vision of making a reasonable brand picture of Nepal as travel and vacationer destination, backing up the tourism foundations of Nepal, enhance the growth of tourism industry and enhance local tourism as a supportable industry.

Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State, Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), has said that MoCA will be issuing expression of interest for Air India disinvestment within next few weeks. Talking about Air India disinvestment, he revealed, “Air India is a national asset and the Maharaja is a great brand. The problem with Air India is that it has an unsustainable debt. We tried two years ago for the same, which proved to be less successful, and we have learnt from the same. It is our endeavour now that we will be issuing an expression of interest in the coming few weeks, hopefully sooner or later, and that the process of privatisation will then follow. We should ensure that we find a buyer and we have to deal with an interim process,” he said.

Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State (I/C) for Civil Aviation has launched the Biometric enabled Centralised Access Control System (CACS) and e-BCAS Project Training Module. The two projects launched are important milestones to enhance security and ease of doing business at airports. Covering 43 Airports of AAI and 5 Joint Venture airports at present, the CACS project is aimed to digitise the employee movement process at the airports. The e-BCAS Project: Training Module is aimed at helping more than 1.5 lac employees of various stakeholders by migrating from manual process of training to digital platform. Puri said “CACS project shall facilitate the ease of processing, enhanced security and prevent unauthorized entry into airport, alert authorities to an attempted intrusion or other irregularities for an immediate response; overall not only leading to ease of doing business, but also an enhanced security system.” CACS project is bound to assist around 2 Lakhs employees of various stakeholders who move in & out of the airport on a daily basis, he added.

Welcoming 164,200 Indian visitors between January-November 2019, Japan has witnessed a 14.2 per cent year-on-year growth in terms of arrivals from India. The East Asian nation also registered a 12.3 per cent hike in the number of arrivals in November 2019 with 14,900 visitors recorded from India. The Japan National Tourism Organisation (JNTO) had set a target to receive 2 lakh visitors from India in 2019.

Air India is going to start bi-weekly direct flights between Bhubaneswar and from January 20, 2020, informed Usha Padhee, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation in a tweet. The flight, AI A321 will operate on Mondays and Thursdays at 8:40 am from Bhubaneswar and from Surat at 8:30 am on Fridays and Sundays. The lowest fare quoted on Air India’s website is Rs 4503. In the return direction, the lowest fare for which tickets are on sale is Rs 4213. The flight was a long-standing demand of leaders of Odisha community in Surat. Notably, the diamond city of Gujarat has Odia population of around 2.5 lakh. In August 2019, Chief Minister of Odisha, Naveen Patnaik had requested Civil Aviation Minister, Hardeep Singh Puri to consider the demand to start a direct flight between both the city. The flight was earlier expected to start from January 1.

After facing severe setbacks caused by Cyclone Fani in 2019, Odisha Tourism is recovering slowly and has set a milestone target for itself for 2022.  On this, Vishal K Dev, Secretary, Odisha Tourism said, “Through our efforts, we are targeting to receive foreign tourist arrivals of about 500,000, out of a total of 2.5 crore tourist arrivals, by 2022. Our top 10 source markets for FTAs are USA, UK, Japan, China, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Malaysia and the CIS, with the top four markets contributing over 30 per cent of total FTA. We are additionally very keen on promoting Odisha in the Middle East and Southeast Asia now. Sports tourism and sporting events, as well as eco-tourism, are a few segments that have been witnessing the most promising responses from these markets.”

Talking about the group’s aggressive growth in the Indian market, Ajay Bakaya, Managing Director of Sarovar Hotels & Resorts, said “We are looking forward to open around 10-15 hotels in 2020 and I hope to crack 100-hotel mark by the end of this year. As far as our international growth is concerned, I think Middle East is where Sarovar wants to be for the simple reason, I can source business and talent from both Africa and India.” Some of the locations where Sarovar will open its properties include Greater Noida, Dalhousie, Latur, Udaipur, Panipat, Bodhgaya etc.

GB Srithar, Regional Director – India, Middle East & South Asia (IMESA), shares that they want to position Singapore as an international wedding destination. “Another segment we seek to re-establish our attractiveness in is the Overseas School Trips (OST). We have been a popular OST destination for several years and we would like to re-introduce the refreshed OST options in Singapore for the Indian students,” he says.

Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board (MPTB) is tapping the potential it has for adventure tourism and is working with a private agency to develop camping sites in the state. It has built 30 new camping sites across the state that also offer adventure activities such as jungle safari, hiking, nature trails, trekking, stargazing, bird-watching, camping, canoeing, etc. These campsites have been developed in different regions of Madhya Pradesh such as Sole Adventure Park in Punjapura and Mandav, and Omkareshwar from Indore region. MPTB is also providing training to the local vendors. Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, IAS, Secretary, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh, and Managing Director, Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board and Madhya Pradesh State Tourism Development Corporation, said “Madhya Pradesh Tourism is working vigorously to build adventure tourism in the state, many of the policies like water tourism policy, camping policy, capital subsidy for adventure infrastructure development, has been formulated in the state for the attraction of adventure investors and operators. Currently we have set up 30 adventure campsites in Madhya Pradesh and are getting great responses from the tourists so we had planned to set-up around 100 campsites all around the state.”