Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

In order to create a robust framework and synergy amongst the Central Government Ministries, State Governments, and Private Sector for promoting India as a Medical and Wellness Tourism destination, the Ministry of Tourism has formulated a National Strategy and Roadmap for Medical and Wellness Tourism. To provide a dedicated institutional framework to take forward the cause of promotion of Medical Tourism, the Ministry of Tourism has constituted a National Medical and Wellness Tourism Board with the Minister of Tourism as its Chairman. As part of its ongoing activities, the Ministry of Tourism, releases global print, electronic and online media campaigns in important and potential markets overseas, under the ‘Incredible India’ brand line, to promote various tourism destinations and products of the country. Digital promotions are also regularly undertaken through the Social Media accounts of the Ministry on different themes including the theme of Medical Tourism. 

The government will remove the remaining restrictions on international travel for all passengers ahead of the Easter holidays, the Transport Secretary announced. From 4 am Friday 18 March, all COVID-19 travel restrictions will be lifted, including the passenger locator form (PLF) for arrivals into the UK, as well as all tests for passengers who do not qualify as vaccinated. This change, therefore, removes the need for unvaccinated passengers to take a pre-departure test and a day 2 post-arrival test. 

At Goa, a new airport should open later this year, one of few during the period of the coronavirus pandemic. As it will be heavily tourist-oriented there will be great interest around the world in how it performs during the winter 2022-23 period – the acid test for the industry’s ‘recovery’ ahead of schedule.  The airport is scheduled to begin operation in Aug-2022, said Center for Civil Aviation in a recent report. 

The development of Tourism is primarily the responsibility of the State Governments/Union Territory Administrations. However, the Ministry of Tourism under its Swadesh Darshan scheme since its inception has sanctioned 76 projects under 13thematic circuits including ‘Buddhist theme’ for the development of tourism infrastructure in the country. The projects under the scheme were identified for development in consultation with the State Governments/Union Territory Administrations and sanctioned subject to availability of funds, submission of suitable detailed project reports, adherence to scheme guidelines and utilization of funds released earlier, etc. 

SriLankan Airlines celebrates the undaunting spirit of women the world over by welcoming the female athletes who are participating in ‘Raid Amazones 2022 Sri Lanka,’ scheduled to take place from 13 March to 6 April 2022. Accordingly, the first batch of athletes arrived from Paris to a memorable welcome at Bandaranaike International this morning on flight UL 564, which was operated by an all-female crew led by Captain Chamika Rupasingha and Cabin Manager Anju Jayasinghe.   SriLankan announced the event at a press conference in Colombo on International Women’s Day. Further, the airline has branded an aircraft with Raid Amazones 2022 themed livery to bring Sri Lanka into the limelight as an adventure and sports tourism destination on a global scale.     SriLankan Airlines’ Chairman, Ashok Pathirage said, “SriLankan Airlines is an organization that advocates for women’s empowerment and equal opportunity. We take pride in the strides made by our female employees and have always supported the remarkable women that have become national icons. With Raid Amazones 2022, we are taking one step ahead to celebrate the strength and resilience of women in the backdrop of our home base, and hoping that it would inspire many others to follow in the trail and find their adventure in Sri Lanka. “   Raid Amazones is one of the most sought-after adventure trails in the French travel market and is held every year in an iconic tourist destination. The 20th edition of this annual sporting event features over 550 French female athletes, and will take place in the areas surrounding the Sigiriya rock fortress. The event is expected to bring over 15 million euros worth of global media visibility for Sri …

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N Chandrasekaran, the Chairman of Tata Sons, has been officially appointed as the Chairman of Air India. The national airline was recently acquired by Tata group from the government. The appointment was cleared at a board meeting held by Air India. Alice GeeVarghese Vaidyan, former CMD of General Insurance Corporation, will also be inducted as an independent director on board

Punita Singh, Joint Director, Rajasthan Tourism, has said that they are looking at promoting border tourism in Rajasthan. She said, “We have identified three border points in the state for developing border tourism products.” She was speaking at the PATA India & BBC News webinar ‘The New Ways of Marketing to Recharge Tourism’.

Pratima Badhwar, Head – Commercial, Accor India & South Asia, shares that they have a strong pipeline of four openings this year across the region. “For India, we are aiming to reach 70 hotels by 2025. Our well-rounded portfolio of leading hotel brands across the luxury, premium, mid-scale, and economy categories compliments the multi-layered Indian market, while supporting our long-term growth strategy.

Nikhil Desai, Managing Director, Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC), has said that a new convention centre is being opened by the end of year to boost MICE Tourism in the state of Goa. MICE will be one of the products that will be in focus of their strategy, he revealed. He said that they are working towards repositioning Goa apart from sun, sand and sea. “While Goa is synonymous with sun, sand and sea, we are trying to attract the attention of tourists to various other offerings in Goa including wildlife, nature, MICE, etc.” he added. He also informed that they are seeing a huge rise in social events in the last one year at a number of properties across Goa.