Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

Minister of Tourism, Government of Uttarakhand, Satpal Maharaj, highlighted the importance of developing tourist destinations in Uttrakhand and revealed that the state is looking at creating a Beatles Ashram. He said, “The problem with that is that it is located within the forest. So we will request the PM to expedite the process so that we can preserve the Beatles memorabilia from their visits to India and their influences. More than 48 of their best songs were written in Rishikesh. We don’t understand its importance; it’s a heritage site.”

The New Zealand Government today announced further relaxations in border restrictions, allowing all fully vaccinated international travelers, including India, to travel to Aotearoa (New Zealand) from August 1, 2022. Fully vaccinated Indian visitors will be able to travel to New Zealand without self-isolation on provision of a negative pre-departure test. Negative Rapid Antigen Tests [RAT] will be required on arrival and on day 5/6. New Zealand had been progressively opening its borders from April, first to Australian visitors and then in May to visitors from visa waver countries. Tourism New Zealand’s Chief Executive, René de Monchy said “We look forward to welcoming manuhiri [visitors], family and friends back from August. New Zealand has plenty to offer international visitors from breathtaking landscapes, rare and remarkable wildlife to our rich culture and heritage; our people and place are what make us unique, and we look forward to sharing this with the world again”.  In 2020, Tourism New Zealand in India rolled out the “Messages from New Zealand” campaign which featured everyday New Zealanders sharing video messages of hope and care with their international whānau (family). Through this initiative New Zealand reached out in a heartfelt and genuine way by sending messages of positivity and optimism to Indian travelers. As part of efforts to prepare for the reopening of borders, Tourism New Zealand has also  been supporting travel partners with new resources such as a dedicated marketing hub, regular training sessions and most recently, the launch of a revamped travel trade website.

MOT participates in the Arabian Travel Market, Dubai 2022. During the Mart, India Pavilion showcased the country as a 365-day destination with multi-faceted appeal, including culture, adventure, cruise, MICE, luxury, wildlife, wellness, and medical tourism. India Reopening as a theme has been amplified during the mart with the ‘Namaste Campaign’ to welcome international travellers.

Prashant Ranjan, Director, MOT, has revealed that the National Digital Tourism Mission is on the anvil, for which guidelines will be released soon. “Under the mission, a digital platform will be there where tourism stakeholders can check the availability of the latest policies by state governments, central ministries, the initiatives that the line ministries like Ministry of Civil Aviation, Ministry of Road Transport, Ministry of Railways, AYUSH and after COVID even the Ministry of Health is taking. This would reveal how the government is trying to assist the tour operator to have confidence and how India is ready to welcome the tourist,” he revealed.

Maharashtra Tourism has received a Siver Play button award for crossing over 1 lakh followers on YouTube. Currently, at 127k subscribers, Maharashtra Tourism’s community is rapidly growing through different campaigns, informative and engaging videos that keep the audience hooked. The content has crossed over 10 million views, and its Youtube family is growing rapidly.

The New Zealand tourism industry re-connected with the world, this April on TRENZ Connect 2022 through a series of exciting online events. These events are part of TRENZ Connect, a digital marketplace launched by TIA (Tourism Industry Aotearoa) last September to connect international market-ready New Zealand tourism operators with the international travel trade. This year, almost 300 travel and tourism buyers from around the globe with almost 24 from India connected virtually and discussed latest updates from New Zealand, a great indication of the support from the trade for the New Zealand tourism industry. Organised by Tourism Industry Aotearoa, the three TRENZ Connect Online events were a valuable opportunity for participants to talk business and discover new international market-ready products and learn about new developments in New Zealand’s best accommodation, transport, activities, and attractions. “The beauty of the TRENZ Connect platform is that it’s ‘always on’. It allows the international travel trade to access the details of New Zealand tourism businesses 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, no matter what time zone they are in. Participants can start a conversation by sending a message at any time. So, all is not lost if you can’t make it to these particular events,” says Ann-Marie Johnson, Communications Manager, TIA. “TRENZ is a fabulous opportunity for New Zealand to showcase what it has to offer to international buyers. Indian travel trade are our key partners   in our efforts to promote and sell New Zealand to Indian travellers. Looking ahead at the reopening of borders to India later this year, this innovative platform will continue to help us to showcase our new tourism products and strengthen our relationship with the travel trade …

Très 2022, a two-day event showcased some of the most extraordinary boutique hotels and travel concepts from the Indian subcontinent. Speaking with Trunk India founder Ali Barter at the event, revealed that tourism from Australia to India is rising. “September of this year has been booked out for the first tour and a trip in March of next year is looking good as well”. “There is a strong cultural connection between Australia & Inda, there is always somewhere to come in India), and people here are very welcoming,” she added.

Kerala Travel Mart has used technology effectively and intelligently to ensure that no less than 55,000 meetings, have already been scheduled at the event, shared Dr.Venu V. (IAS), Additional Chief Secretary, Kerala Tourism “This is intelligent use of Technology. It is this spirit of innovation and change that has kept industry improving from one KTM to the next,” he said in his inaugural address.

Maharashtra Tourism organised a mother’s day event in Mother’s day week as a treat to moms in a Bollywood style. The mommy bloggers were shown around the Bollywood Theme Park created at Filmcity, Goregaon, on Thursday, 5th May 2022. Around 20 bloggers from Bloggers Meet Info (BMI) community participated in the event. The event started with delicious lunch treat to the mommies followed by 7D theatre experience at the park. They found it thrilling, exciting and entertaining. Most of them experienced 7D for the first time. In Croma theatre they learnt how film footages are shot, edited in VFX and the secrets of foley sounds used in movies to create dramatic effect. An AV on the history of Indian Cinema in a vintage Bollywood style theatre was shown to them. The participants had a fun time enjoying filmy performances of the troop. The park had huge beautifully created sets of different themes along with costumes of popular film characters on display for trial purpose. Dummy bollywood artists were also present to entertain them with their tricks and acts. Shreya Gautam, a mommy Influencer said, “We attend several events specially during mother’s day but this initiative by Maharashtra Tourism and Bollywood Park was truly a unique and entertaining experience. I really had a great time making filmy reels on the sets, trying the Jodha Akbar and Mastani’s costume, having a thrilling 7D experience and gaining insights of the film making techniques. The cake cutting was the cherry on the top since the organisers were considerate enough to get us a diet cake.” Stuti, another mommy blogger said, “I wasn’t expected such a hatake and quirky experience from a Tourism Board. My …

AVIAREPS India is proud to announce that it has been appointed Sales, Marketing and PR representative for travel experiences platform, KKday Singapore. A mobile-first-e-commerce travel platform local experiences with a strong presence across key Asia-Pacific markets, KKday’s main objective is to make travel more accessible and convenient and safe for everyone. “Since 2014, KKday as pioneered the digitisation of tours, activities and attractions and brought them to everyone’s fingertips. With KKday’s app, travellers can discover and book interesting experiences anytime, anywhere. We are excited to appoint AVIAREPS as our Sales, Marketing and PR representative and we believe they will do their best to elevate our presence in Indonesia and India. We look forward to many collaborative opportunities in the months ahead.” Co-Founder, KKday, Wei Chun Liu said. Speaking about the collaboration Ellona Pereira, Head, AVIAREPS India, said, “We are delighted to be given the opportunity to work with KKday Singapore and we will work closely with KKday Singapore to enhance their presence in the Indian Market. KKday has many enriching travel packages and leisure product offerings and we are confident that they will be well-received in the Indian market.” KKday currently hosts over 30,000 travel and leisure products and services in more than 80 countries and 500 cities. In addition. Many of KKday’s products and APAC centric focusing on countries such as Japan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. KKday covers an extensive range of producs from attraction tickets to transportation to SIM cards, cruises and staycations. With multilingual website and mobile apps, KKday supports both traditional and simplified Chinese, as well as English, Japanese, Korean and many others. KKday’s success is built on innovation, a unique product portfolio and digital-first capability …