Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

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.

Abu Dhabi has revised its COVID-19 travel restrictions and protocols following positive indicators that signal the emirate has entered the recovery phase of the pandemic. Under the updated regulations from the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi), the Green List system has been removed for all travellers flying into Abu Dhabi.  Fully vaccinated inbound travellers from India no longer need to take a rapid RT-PCR test at Indian airports before boarding their flight. They are, however, still required to show an official COVID-19 vaccination certificate with a readable QR code upon arrival. Unvaccinated inbound travellers will still need to present a negative PCR test result taken within 48 hours of their scheduled departure, or a COVID-19 recovery certificate dated within 30 days of departure, complete with a readable QR code.

As the global travel and tourism sector prepares to return to full strength in 2022, VisitOman.om aims to connect the world with Oman’s beauty by offering a full Omani travel experience through sustainable partnerships. Shabib Al Maamari, Visit Oman Managing Director, said, “Our goal is to set uniform standards for regulated routes, trip package inclusions, pricing, clear terms and conditions, and well-defined customer service agreements. The platform offers stimulating business opportunities for our network of partners, while delivering on our aim to drive tourism to Oman and support Oman’s position among global travel and tourism markets in line with the National Tourism Strategy 2040.”

India retains its place amongst the top-3 focus markets for South African Tourism. This is aided by the fact that prior to the pandemic, India served as the 8th largest international source market for South Africa. The country is expected to maintain its position in the top-10 this year as well. Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Pune continue to be top Indian source markets to South Africa. Where as , Ahmedabad emerges as one of the fastest growing source markets in India revealed Neliswa Nkani, Hub Head, MEISEA, South African Tourism.

Centara Hotels & Resorts, Thailand’s leading hotel operator, has revealed its recent business performance, expansion plans and strategic direction for the future, including multiple new hotels, fresh destinations and new brand concepts. This exciting era of growth will help the group reach its long-term goal of becoming a top 100 global hotel operator within five years – a vision that will see it reach a total of 200 hotels and resorts by 2026, up from 88 properties at present, and with approximately half of that growth coming from destinations outside of its native Thailand. Centara has just confirmed that it achieved total revenues of almost THB 1.09 billion (USD 33 million) in Q4 2021, an increase of 54% year-on-year, despite the continued impact of the pandemic. The growth is expected to gain more momentum in 2022 with the acceleration of the global travel and hospitality recovery, which will be supported by the further relaxing of travel restrictions into Thailand, and is buoyed by the resilience and strong performance of Centara’s key international destinations such as the Middle East and the Maldives.

Chalo DMC LLP is pleased to announce the appointment of \Pranav Kapadia as the Director Sales and Marketing and Sumit Jain as Director Finance to the organization effective 12th March 2022. A leading destination management company having a philosophy to specialize in key destinations, ChaloDMC very recently merged their Domestic arm – Sapphire Ventures and brought their South Africa vertical Chalo South Africa, powered by Albatros Travel under the parent Company – ChaloDMC. With these significant appointments of Kapadia and Jain, the firm now plans to move towards expansion and strengthen its business presence across India. These leaders bring unique skillsets and fresh perspectives to the business and are much admired by their peers for their expertise and management styles in their respective fields. Together they aim to exemplify Chalo DMC’s reach and business with innovative thinking, passion, and business-like mindedness. Pranav Kapadia with a tourism experience of over 30 years in Sales & Marketing, started his career in Mumbai with Lufthansa German Airlines and held leadership roles at Air New Zealand and South African Airways prior to starting his own travel representation company, Global Destinations in 2008. Pranav’s vast tourism experience has ensured a 25% YOY growth for all companies represented by Global Destinations. Sumit Jain an alumnus of IIMA and JBIMS with experience of 22 years in Finance, Supply Chain is currently focussed on building an organizational culture of performance-based service delivery, driven by IMU philosophy translating to the customer and employee experience. Founder Director Chalo DMC \Siddharth Jain, highlighted – “This is an exciting time for Chalo DMC and our team. Our success has come from putting our clients first and by making these strategic appointments we aim …

To accelerate travel recovery momentum in India, South African Tourism looks at capitalizing on strong consumer demand in the country with their biggest travel trade initiative in India – their annual Roadshow. The tourism board showcased long-term investment and interest in the Indian market and outlined a strategic roadmap to garner 64% YoY increase in Indian visitors in 2022. Travelling to the Indian cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad this year, the 36-member South African trade delegation reiterated the tourism board’s emphasis on expanding the destination and product offering – thus, offering Indian consumers More & More! In addition to experiences, representatives from accommodation establishments, destination management companies, South African Provinces, SMMEs and women-owned companies showcased their product and services, while engaging Indian travel and trade associates. India retains its place amongst the top-3 focus markets for South African Tourism. This is aided by the fact that prior to the pandemic, India served as the 8th largest international source market for South Africa. The country is expected to maintain its position in the top-10 this year as well. Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Pune continue to be top Indian source markets to South Africa. “We have spent the last two years hoping for and preparing for this exact moment – the return of travel! As South African businesses land on Indian shores, we are excited to be introducing our partners and consumers to a host of value-driven and thoughtfully crafted adventures. Our evolved brand strategy will help us drive South Africa’s value proposition across stakeholders while creating customized engagement models to suit the unique requirements from each of our target regions within India. We are already seeing an uptick …

Costa Cruises continues its gradual restart plan for 2022. From 5 March, the date on which the new Costa Toscana, star of the recent edition of the Sanremo Music Festival, will set sail for her first cruise, an increasing number of the company’s ships will return to service, joining those already sailing. Next summer, the company’s entire fleet will resume operations, with all four of the new ships delivered in recent months – Costa Toscana, Costa Smeralda, Costa Firenze and Costa Venezia – deployed in the Mediterranean. Also, for the summer period, with the hope of favorable regulations, the company is planning to carry out again shore excursions in free mode, and, in light of the gradual relaxation of the measures in place, is working to be able to make them already available as early as this spring. Costa’s program includes a total of more than 1,800 cruises from spring 2022 to winter 2022-23, allowing guests to discover 179 destinations around the world, with cruises lasting from 3 to 127 days. All these cruises will feature the new product innovations the company has been working on in recent months, with an innovative range of shore excursions and an outstanding gastronomic offer featuring world-class chefs. “We are seeing the growth in demand for holidays, and I am sure that this trend will increase further in the coming weeks” – said Roberto Alberti, SVP & Chief Commercial Officer of Costa Cruises. “We think our offer is the best ever, thanks to elements that combine unique experiences, both onboard and ashore. Our rich itinerary program suits for every need and includes some great new features, such as cruises to Turkey. Our cruise experience …

Valmiki Hari Kishan, Chairman- Tourism Committee, Federation of Telangana Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FTCCI), has said that Telangana State still hasn’t released its tourism policy, which we have been pushing for the past few years. However, he says that news has come that it will be released soon. “I am happy to share that the policy is ready within the Secretary of the Tourism committee and they will be rolling it out very shortly,” he said.

Looking at the post-Omicron scenario of the continuous improvement in the condition of COVID-19 infection, the Covid-19 Crisis Management Coordination Center (CCMC) by the Government of Nepal on 7th March has decided to waive off the PCR test requirement for passengers who have completed full vaccination against COVID-19 before fourteen days of arrival. Nepal is also moving forward to revive the hard-hit tourism sector with the strategic action plans being formulated by the National Tourism Revival Committee, together in collaboration with the public and private sector stakeholders of tourism industry.