Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

The Ministry of Tourism (MOT) has been allocating 15-20 per cent of their budget every year to the North East region, crossing the earmarked 10 per cent by the government, said Suman Billa, Joint Secretary – Tourism, Govt. of India at the ‘Destination North East 2016’ meet. He said, MOT is also planning to organise a major Investment Summit around June-July. How to drive private investment into the Northeastern states to further the participation of private sector and help encourage growth will be one of the main components of the summit, he said. The event was organised by the Ministry of Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER) and the Ministry of Culture.

The biennial election of Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) is slated for April 23, shared Pronob Sarkar, Hony Secretary, IATO, at the inaugural day of the ‘Destination North East 2016’ mega event. Sarkar added that the IATO Convention would take place sometime in September this year. Elections will be held as per Article 11 of the Memorandum of Association for the offices of President, Senior Vice President, Vice President, Secretary, Joint Secretary, Treasurer, Executive Committee Members (Active) and Executive Members (Allied) to be elected by the active members of the association. Speaking at the event, he highlighted the need to spread awareness about the Northeastern region’s tourism products and that public private partnership (PPP) mode would be instrumental in promoting growth in the region.

For celebrating its first ‘State Tourism Day’ on February 14, Uttar Pradesh Tourism Department will organise a travel meet in Bareilly. More than 200 Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) travel agents, hoteliers and resort-owners will be in attendance at the meet. According to reports, the participants will be educated on how they can use the opportunity for developing tourism in Bareilly and Moradabad, which serve as the gateway of Uttaranchal. The travel-meet will also be open for general public who can avail lucrative discounts. The event will be held on Sunday at Hotel Rohila and will open for public post lunch.

National carrier Air India will charge Rs 500 more on its domestic flight ticket cancellation. After the proposed revised charges come into effect, the Government-run carrier would deduct as much as Rs 2,000 in case of “no-show” by a passenger at the time of a domestic flight departure, according to a PTI report. The move comes days after budget airline SpiceJet hiking its ticket cancellation charges to Rs 1,899 from Rs 1,800 earlier. The airline has already issued the circular with revised charges to travel agents early last week, the report read.

Budget hotel rooms aggregator, OYO Rooms has acquired its rival ZO Rooms. OYO’s largest investor, SoftBank has listed the transaction in its most recent financial report. However, the value of the acquisition has not been disclosed. The acquisition came after Zostel Hospitality, the promoters of ZO Rooms, failed to raise additional funds for further growth from their existing investors or bring in new investors. Zo Rooms raised roughly USD 35 million from Tiger Global and Orios Management in 2005.

The maiden Bengal Travel Mart 2016 (BTM 2016) will be organised from February 26-28, 2016, at Hotel Mainak in Siliguri. It will be jointly organised by the Department of Tourism, Government of West Bengal with North Bengal Development Department (NBDD) and Eastern Himalaya Travel & Tour Operators’ Association (EHTTOA). A total of 100 buyers and 80 suppliers are expected to attend the three-day exhibition. Surajit Bose, Joint Director, West Bengal Tourism, has reportedly revealed that BTM 2016 will comprise exhibition of travel and tourism products, B2B meetings, panel discussions, and cultural events. While the first day will only see B2B engagements, general public will be allowed on the second and third day.

The fifth India Heritage Tourism Conclave “Making Incredible India – Swachh, Sundar & Sashakt Bharat,” was held at Rambagh Palace in Jaipur (Rajasthan). The one-day conclave, was organised by PHD Chamber and supported by the Ministry of Tourism (MOT). Special addresses were given by H.E. Sabit Subasic, Ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina; Ajay Data, Chairman, Rajasthan Chapter, PHD Chamber; Vijay Goel, Member of Parliament, and special guest Parvez Dewan, Advisor to the Governor, Jammu and Kashmir Government. An Extensive Study on Tourism was also launched at the event. The first technical session saw discussions on “Opportunities and Challenges- Making Incredible India: Swachh, Sundar, Sashakt Bharat,” followed by a second session on “Importance of Start-ups in contributing to the restoration of Indian heritage and hospitality” and “Role of Royal families of India in preserving Indian heritage for across all generations” was discussed in the last session of the day.

BIT 2016 Milan opened its doors to thousands of tourism experts, along with over 80 Indian Hosted Buyers reinstating the importance of the Indian outbound traveller. Business to India is also on the rise with 20 exhibitors from the country showcasing their products at the Fair from Feb 11-13. During the inaguration of India pavillion, Air India announced that it will fly four flights a week to Milan starting this summer.  BIT 2016, Italy’s number one international tourism event, held at the heart of Fiera Milano Fairs hosted over 100 nations on five continents which participated at the Fair to promote themselves and showcase a host of new developments and experiences people can try out for themselves.

Dream Cruises’ first ship, Genting Dream that was launched in India this January, will dock in Mumbai on October 29, 2016. Thatcher Brown, President, Dream Cruises, who was in Mumbai to make this announcement, said, “We will announce the price of the packages agents can start selling by February end. We will offer a really good value proposition to our trade partners and the commission structure will be similar to the one of Star Cruises. Itineraries will include two-, five- and seven-night cruises. As of now, we don’t have plans to make Mumbai a permanent stop for it.” The ship will be stationed out of China for regular sailings and will be priced higher than Star Cruises’ existing cruises. The new ships will have of 1,700 staterooms, 35 restaurants and bars, various entertainment areas, outdoor adventures, rejuvenation facilities and more. Her sister ship World Dream will sail in November 2017.

Sri Lanka received 28,895 Indian tourists in January 2016, an increase of 25.9 per cent this year as compared to the same period in 2015. The total number of tourists in Sri Lanka rose by 24.3 per cent in January 2016, with 194,280 tourist arrivals as compared to the 156,246 in January 2015. The data released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) showed that India contributed 14.8 per cent of the total tourist arrivals, retaining the spot as the largest source market for the country. The region wise data of tourist arrivals for January 2016 showed 122.3 per cent increase from China; 48.1 per cent increase from the East Asia; 23.8 per cent increase from Western Europe; 20.7 per cent increase from South Asia; 17.9 per cent from Australasia; 17.3 per cent increase from North America; 17.2 per cent increase from the US; 14.7 per cent increase from the Middle East; 11.6 per cent from Africa and 11.1 per cent increase from Eastern Europe. However, Sri Lanka witnessed a decline of 9.5 per cent from Russia and 28.5 per cent decline from Pakistan for the month of January 2016 as compared to the same period in 2015. SLTDA has set a target of 2.5 million tourist arrivals by the end of 2016.