Indonesia’s national carrier, Garuda Indonesia has temporarily terminated its Mumbai operations. This marks the end of direct flight from the South Asian nation to Mumbai. However, the airline is hoping to revive the services by the end of this year, apart from looking at Delhi as the next destination in its network. Garuda had started the direct connection in April 2018. Earlier, the airline used to operate one-stop service to Mumbai from Jakarta via Bangkok, before starting a non-stop service Airbus A330 between Denpasar and Mumbai. The only connection which India shares with Indonesia now is from Chennai to Medan via Kuala Lumpur on Batik Air, part of the Lion Air group.

Worldwide Rail Journeys has announced that the company once again has made a huge investment with Palace on Wheels for 2021 by making bulk pre-purchase of the cabins. Three months ago the company had invested in cabins for season 2019 and 2020 also. Worldwide Rail Journeys will soon be opening its office in Mumbai, which will cater to the demands of our trade partners in Mumbai.  

In a recent update, Emirates has reduced its frequency from Dubai to Thiruvananthapuram for its winter schedule of 2019/20 starting 27 October.  The overall frequency has been reduced from 11 to 7 weekly. Right now, two flights operate on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday has a single flight deployed on this route. This route is operated by 2-class Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft.

The Global Panorama Showcase(GPS) has kick-started in Lucknow. Elaborating on the 2 days B2B travel trade, outbound  event focussed on Tier-II Tier-III cities, Harmandeep Singh Anand, Managing Director, GPS informed that ,”This is our second year in Lucknow, we had a very good response last year. The market has accepted that this is an E-event and have downloaded the app and pre registered. Through Lucknow we hope to reach the travel fraternity in UP, Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand. This is a very promising market, and we hope to empower through knowledge, networking and face to face business interactions.’

VFS Global is extending its business hours to include Saturdays, with an aim to provide more flexibility to student visa applicants to the United Kingdom. The new ‘Student Saturdays’ initiative is one of three special packages being rolled out for Indian students heading to the UK for further education, each featuring various additional services to provide convenient visa application process at a discounted price.  Furthermore, for the first time ever, VFS Global will offer UK student visa applicants the option of availing the popular On Demand Mobile Visa (ODMV) service for applications and biometric enrolments from home or campus.  The United Kingdom has long been one of the top choices for Indian students wanting to go overseas for higher education, with close to 20,000 students applying to universities from South Asia every year. In 2018, VFS Global processed over 19,900 student visa applications in South Asia, of which over 17,600 were from India.   With the UK academic year starting in September, the months of July and August become the peak season for student visa applications, and VFS Global aims to provide this year’s students a further enhanced visa application experience through a slew of special offers.   To provide flexibility, VFS Global will keep its UK Visa Application Centres across all 17 cities open on Saturdays throughout the season, to accept student visa applications via the ‘Student Saturdays’ package. In all, VFS Global has three carefully curated packages to choose from – Standard, Premium and Student Saturdays, each featuring a range of additional services to provide a seamless visa application experience, at a reduced price. Applicants opting for any of the packages can complete their applications from designated counters …

Ministry of Tourism under the Swadesh Darshan Scheme has sanctioned funds to the tune of Rs 14.10 crores for developing tourist/pilgrim facilities like Community Halls, Toilet Blocks, Cafeteria, Illumination, Sitting Spaces, Drinking Water Facilities, Landscaping etc. at 25 religious sites in Kottayam District under the project “Development of Spiritual Circuit: Kasaragod, Wayanad, Kannur, Kozhikode, Palakkad, Mallapuram, Thrichur, Ernakulam, Idukki, Kottayam, Allaphuza, Pathananamithitta, Kollam, Trivandrum in Kerala” sanctioned in year 2018-19:

Ministry of Tourism under the Swadesh Darshan Scheme has identified Tirthankar Circuit as one of the fifteen thematic circuits for development in the country. All the sites associated with Jainism are covered under this circuit. The project is under implementation and Ministry has released Rs 26.19 crores for the project. Ministry has sanctioned the project-Development of Tirthankar Circuit: Vaishali-Arrah-Masad-Patna-Rajgir-Pawapuri-Champapuri in Bihar for Rs.52.39 crores in 2016-17. The projects under the above scheme are identified for development in consultation with the State Governments/Union Territory Administrations and are sanctioned subject to availability of funds, submission of suitable Detailed Project Reports, adherence to scheme guidelines and utilization of funds released earlier.

Indian arrivals to The Philippines has reached 11,275 in the month of May, registering a growth of 6.68 per cent versus the same month last year. Last year, in May the number reached 10,569. The total number of Indian tourists that have visited the country this year reached 57,536. The Philippines is becoming one of the most frequented places by Indians.

Hope Island, located off the coast of Kakinada city in Andhra Pradesh and sanctioned in 2014-15 for development as a world-class coastal and eco-tourism circuit under Ministry of Tourism’s Swadesh Darshan Scheme, has attained physical completion. This was announced by Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State (I/C) for Culture and Tourism, Government of India, at a recent address. The project was initially sanctioned for Rs 67.84 crore, with the intention to create a natural getaway hub for the Kakinada-Hope Island-Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary loop for both domestic and international visitors. Under the Swadesh Darshan Scheme, Ministry of Tourism provides Central Financial Assistance to State Governments/Union Territory (UT) Administrations for development of thematic tourist circuits in the country, with the objective of improving connectivity and infrastructure of tourism destinations to enrich overall tourist experience, enhance livelihood and employment opportunities, and attract domestic as well as foreign tourists to the destinations. The projects for development are identified in consultation with the State Governments/UT Administrations and are sanctioned subject to submission of project proposals, their adherence to relevant scheme guidelines, submission of suitable detailed project reports, availability of funds, and utilisation of funds released earlier.

IndiGo has announced new daily non-stop flights on Delhi-Agartala and Delhi-Dibrugarh routes, effective August 14.  IndiGo will be the first airline to fly on Delhi-Agartala route. Bookings on these routes are open with immediate effect. William Boulter, Chief Commercial Officer, IndiGo added, “IndiGo is committed to offering its leisure and business travellers an on-time, courteous and hassle-free service and affordable flying experience consistently.”