Jewar Airport will come up in 5,000 hectare area when fully constructed and is estimated to cost Rs 29,560 crore. Zurich Airport International AG will develop this airport on the outskirts of Delhi. The proposed airport is said to have six runways, at par with a few world’s largest airports like Chicago O’Hare International Airport and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. The airport in Uttar Pradesh’s Gautam Buddh Nagar district will be the third in the National Capital Region after Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport and in Ghaziabad’s Hindon.

Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has announced that, 20 airports are available for bidding under UDAN 4.0 in Maharashtra. These airports include Akola, Baramati, Darna Camp, Dhulia, Jath, Kawalpur, Latur, Osmanabad, Shirpur, Chandrapur, Deolali, Gondia, Karad, Kudal, Lonavla, Paltan, Waluj, Amravati, Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri. This will boost the regional connectivity and help promote tourism opportunities in these regions.

MITT has introduced the new Travel Technology sector for its 2020 edition. At its last edition, 4,000 visitors said they were interested in travel technologies such as online booking systems for hotels, transport, and transfers, payment systems, insurance companies and travel agencies. Over 6,000 visitors to MITT 2019 were travel agents. MITT’s event programme includes the popular annual MITT Digital conference, where industry experts discuss the most pressing issues facing travel, current trends, new business opportunities and the future of the tourism industry. This highly-anticipated event creates additional interest and helps attract a targeted audience of travel agents.

The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, organised a workshop in  Delhi on its ambitious online Incredible India Tourist Facilitator Certification Programme (IITF) for industry stakeholders to give them an overview about the training programme. The registration for the programme starts from December 20 and the course will begin from January 1, 2020. The fee for the same is Rs 2,000 and applicants belonging to SC/ST category and residents of J &K, Ladakh are exempted from any fee. 10+2 is the minimum educational qualification to enrol into the programme. However, applicants above 40 years of age need 10th passing certificate. Going forward, the Ministry is looking to come up with an e-market place, which can accessed by individual travellers too. For providing support and assistance, the Ministry has also released a new toll free helpline number.   Expressing her views during the workshop, Meenakshi Sharma, Director General, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India said that the Ministry has received a very good response since they have announced the programme. “We have already received 7,500 queries for IITF on our system. We are expecting to get around 20,000 registrations in one month’s time after it starts. It is very encouraging to see such a response,” she said.   The content of the course and module has been designed by the Indian Institute of Tourism & Travel Management (IITTM) and strategic and technological support has been provided by Wipro.  

Virgin Atlantic has announced the introduction of their new Indian flying icon- Aria, which will feature on the side of their aircraft from 2020. Aria is the name of Sir Richard’s Great, Great, Grandfather’s wife who was from India. This forms part of a series that have been created to showcase the diverse range of men and women that represent modern Britain. Virgin Atlantic’s use of the Flying Lady was inspired by figureheads that have decorated ships since 16th century and the original version was inspired by the pin up girls made famous by Alberto Vargas in the 1930’s and 40’s and this move represents the changing face of one of Britain’s most loved brands. Sir Richard Branson, Founder, Virgin Atlantic, said, “India holds a very special place in our hearts and we are excited to be celebrating 20 years of flying here in 2020. We thought that the best way to celebrate this milestone would be by adding more choice of routes for our customers to fly directly between Mumbai & Delhi to London. We are committed to this market and will continue to invest and grow our operations at the same time as offering an unrivalled service for those choosing to fly with us to the UK and onto the US.’’ With the additional daily flight to Delhi and the newly launched Mumbai service, Virgin Atlantic will offer more choice to India than ever before. Together with Delta Air Lines, Virgin Atlantic will offer seamless connections between Delhi and New York JFK, Boston, Detroit and Atlanta via Heathrow.tgers

The Centre recently has initiated the process to setup six more airports in the new state of Telangana. Telangana’s only airport in Hyderabad is also used by Andhra Pradesh since both the states jointly share the capital for 10 years. Andhra Pradesh on the other hand has six operational commercial airports out of which three are international airports. The greenfield airports will be built by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) although the timeline for the same has not been decided yet. The state government has been pressing the issue of more air connectivity in the state. Last year, it has identified sites for setting up three airports and sought upgradation of three existing airstrips which have not been operational.

The Government has formulated special action-plan for the development of tourism in Sri Anandpur Sahib parliamentary constituency under the Swadesh Darshan Scheme. The Ministry of Tourism has sanctioned a project development of Heritage Circuit: Anandpur Sahib – Fatehgarh Sahib – Chamkaur Sahib – Ferozpur –Amritsar – Khatkar Kalan – Kalanour – Patiala in Punjab for Rs.99.95 crore in the year 2018-19. Submission of project proposals by the State Governments/ UT Administrations under the above scheme is a continuous process. The projects under the schemes are identified in consultation with the State Governments/UT Administrations and are sanctioned subject to their adherence to relevant scheme guidelines, submission of suitable Detailed Project Reports, availability of funds and utilization of funds released earlier.

Residents of Mumbai and New Delhi travelling to Bulgaria can now apply for their visas through VFS Global at the new Bulgaria Visa Application Centres launched in the cities. In the coming months, VFS Global will commence Bulgaria visa services in 14 additional cities across India, namely Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Goa, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jalandhar, Kochi, Kolkata, Puducherry, Pune and Thiruvananthapuram. The wide network of operations will also be leveraged to promote Bulgaria as an ideal destination for Indian travellers. Vinay Malhotra, Regional Group COO, Middle East, South Asia and China, VFS Global said, “VFS Global has been working closely with Bulgaria, offering visa services in other regions, and is honoured have this trust reinforced through this extension of services to India. Bulgaria has been rapidly climbing every Indian traveller’s wish list, and we look forward to providing our best-in-class visa services to them.”

India’s tourism sector is adopting a new digital and social media strategy to increase the flow of visitors from the East Asian markets, with a focus on China’s millennial, said, Rupinder Brar, ADG, MOT, post Incredible India roadshow in Singapore. She adds, “The feedback from Chinese millennials has helped understand their travelling needs. With such feedback, tour operators have been urged to plan tour products that offer more than the clichés.”

Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of Tourism, Government of India, unveiled ‘Indian Culture’- an interactive web portal for digital preservation of cultural artifacts of India. Patel said that this portal will be a one-stop-shop for all the information along with pictures related to rare images of monuments, detailed accounts of Indian UNESCO World Heritage Sites, rare books, paintings, cuisines and research papers. The platform is live now on www.indianculture.gov.in and hosts data of cultural relevance from various repositories and institutions all over India. The portal was envisioned by Ministry of Culture in 2016 and IIT Bombay built the resources of the portal from scratch. Apart from the content hosted on the portal, one can also browse content available on the website of Ministry of Culture organisations.