India has steadily moved up the ranking in World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business report to rank 63 in 2019 compared to 142nd rank in 2014, reveals the ‘Ease of doing business – India Hospitality Sector’ report by HVS. India has also been ranked as one of the top 10 improvers across 190 countries, mentions the report.

During the month of November, 2019, a total of 3,75,484 tourist arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 2,61,959 during the month of November, 2018 registering a growth of 43.3%. During January- November 2019, a total of 25,51,211 tourist arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 20,61,511 during January- November 2018, registering a growth of 23.8%. The percentage shares of top 15 source countries availing e-Tourist Visa facilities during November, 2019 were highest from UK (12.22%), followed by USA (10.75%), China (8.06%), Russian Fed (7.85%), Malaysia (5.71%), France (4.61%),Germany (4.60%), Australia (4.16%), Canada (3.85%), Thailand (3.25%), Italy (2.32%), Singapore (1.87%), Spain (1.64%), Vietnam (1.50%) and Israel (1.40%).

US-based Delta Air Lines will restart its Mumbai-New York JFK non-stop, daily flight service from December 24, 2019. The airline is starting the flight after a decade as it used to fly this route till 2009. Its last flight in India, connecting Mumbai and Amsterdam, was in 2015. The relaunched flight will take off at 12.55 am from Mumbai on December 24, on a renovated Boeing 777-200LR aircraft and will land at New York’s JFK airport, 16 hours later. Jimmy Eichelgruen, Director- Sales for Africa, Middle East and Indian subcontinent, Delta Air Lines was in Mumbai recently to announce this. He said, “Delta’s return to India will ensure that Mumbai is even better connected to the United States. There will be 14 flights per week and the flying time will be 16 hours.” The airline has an existing interline agreement with Air India and has just established an interline agreement with Vistara. “We will first develop and establish out interline agreements with Indian airlines and once they are stabilized, we will explore codeshare,” Eichelgruen adds. Delta earlier had a codeshare agreement with Jet Airways which suspended operations in April 2019.

GIFT city developed with India’s first intelligent and green infrastructure has welcomed its first international hotel with Grand Mercure Gandhinagar GIFT city. Located on the bank of the Sabarmati river, GIFT city connects Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar in Gujarat. The nine-floor hotel features 151 guest rooms and six meeting rooms. “We are extremely happy to launch Grand Mercure Gandhinagar GIFT city, the first international branded hotel, in the foremost operational smart city of the country. With the support of Brigade Group, we have successfully established three Grand Mercure properties in the country and look forward to collaborating for more hotels going forward,” said Jean-Michel Casse, COO, India & South Asia, Accor.

According to the data released by the Ministry of Tourism, Government, Foreign Tourist Arrival (FTA) in India has registered a growth of 7.8 per cent in the month of November 2019 in compared to the same month last year. FTAs in November 2019 were 10,91,946 as compared to 10,12,569 in November 2018 registering a growth of 7.8 per cent. Whereas, FTAs during the period January- November 2019 were 96,69,633 as compared to 93,66,478 in January- November 2018 registering a growth of 3.2 per cent.

Amitabh Kant, CEO, Niti Aayog in New Delhi has said that tourism is one of the most pampered sectors by the government. He also said that if India has to become a $5 trillion economy by 2025, the tourism sector can be the biggest driver of India’s growth and jobs generations. Sharing his views during the CII Annual Tourism Summit, he said, “ The government has taken right policy decisions as far as promoting tourism is concerned. We have done every possible thing in that direction. The tourism sector has got such a pampered treatment by the government whether it be for a reduction of GST on hotel accommodation tariffs or the reforms in the e-Visa regime. No other sector in the country has received such progressive reforms by the government.” He also said that if growth has to take place with jobs, which India requires, tourism has to be the key sector to drive both growth and jobs. “Tourism has immense multiplier impact in the economy but its impact as far as direct and indirect job creation is concerned, is truly formidable. Therefore, if there’s one sector which greatly creates jobs, it is the tourism sector and that’s what India needs, growth with jobs,” he said. He further said, “But, I am also a believer that tourism is essentially a private sector with stakeholders such as tour operators, tour guide, transport operator, hotels, airlines involved. Therefore, if tourism in India has to grow, the private sector in tourism will have to be the key driver of growth. The government at best can be the catalyst. Secondly, it’s not the numbers of tourist which is critical, I believe that unit …

Telangana Tourism has opened an air-conditioned two-storey ferry, and ten three-star cottages in Somalisa, Kollapur, which is located at the backwaters of Krishna River. Located about 250km away from Hyderabad, these new facilities were inaugurated by Srinivas Goud, Minister of State, Tourism & Culture, Telangana. Previously a Naxal zone, Somasila, is now being transformed into a world-class eco-tourism destination.

Russia is set to offer e-visa facility to all regions of the Russian Federation by 2021, after offering free e-visa to Indians tourists travelling to four regions of the Russian Federation including St. Petersberg, Leningrad, Kaliningrad and Far East region. The Federal Agency for Tourism expects that introducing electronic visas for Indian citizens is an effective way to provide an increase in the flow of both group and individual tourists form the country by more than 20 per cent. The topic of e-visa and the mechanism for obtaining them was the key aspects in the framework of the presentation event, ‘Russia 2020, EURO as a gift’, organised in Delhi by the Federal Agency to present the main tourist products of Russia in the Indian market. India is placed third in terms of growth in tourist flow from the Asian region with 47.8 per cent growth.

Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has identified 138 monuments as must-see monuments and information of all these monuments is made available on ‘must-see’ portal of ASI, revealed Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State (I/c) of Culture and Tourism. He said that there are 38 World Heritage Sites in India, out of which 22 cultural sites including monuments/ buildings and caves are under protection of ASI. There is no such division between repair and maintenance activities. Conservation includes all actions at the site for repair, maintenance and protection of the monuments. The expenditure is incurred as per the requirement of works at different sites and availability of resources.

Around 32,000 domestic tourists visited Jammu & Kashmir between August and November, marking a decline of 87% from the 2.49 lakh domestic tourists visiting the Union Territory in the corresponding month last year. With regards to foreign tourists, the dip is 82%. Zahoor Qari, Chairman—TAAI, J&K Chapter, said, “Ever since Article 370 was revoked in J&K, we have not seen any development in tourism in the region. There has been a steep decline in tourists as compared to last year, with only 10% of tourists received as compared to last year. In winter last year, we saw a lot of tourists who came to Gulmarg, Srinagar etc., but owing to the restrictions by the Government, tourists are now hesitant to visit Kashmir right now.” The ban on leisure travel to the valley was officially lifted on October 10.