Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

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.

The Ministry of Tourism has invited final comments from the stakeholders on draft report for setting up of National Digital Tourism Mission. The draft report has also been published on website for suggestions and feedback from public. MOT had constituted an inter-ministerial task force for National Digital Tourism Mission on 23rd July, 2021. The Task Force has prepared a draft report on proposed National Digital Tourism Mission, which inter-alia lays down domain and technology principles, standards, digital stack, governance structure and plan for implementation of the envisaged National Digital Tourism Mission.

Ebixcash has filed draft papers with Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for ₹6,000 crore IPO. The initial public offering (IPO) comprises of fresh equity issue aggregating up to ₹6,000 crore. Further, the issue includes a reservation of part equity shares for subscription by eligible employees. The employee reservation portion will not exceed 5% of post-issue paid-up equity share capital. Also, the company may explore a pre-IPO placement of up to ₹1,200 crore. If such a placement is completed, the issue size will be reduced.

GB Srithar, Regional Director, IMESA (India, Middle East & South Asia), Singapore Tourism Board, said, “The extension of VTL to Singapore from all Indian cities provides the much needed impetus to travel between the countries for all traveller types, whether for leisure, business or cruise. This is part of Singapore’s calibrated and progressive approach in re-opening our borders. We look forward to sharing Singapore’s new, reimagined tourism offerings and experiences with our Indian visitors.”

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent suspension of Russian airlines’ flights is hitting Goa’s charter season hard. Nilesh Shah, President, Travel & Tourism Association of Goa, says, “Most charter guests spend 14-21 days in Goa. Many hotels that have been suffering for the past 20 months depend on charter business for survival.” At the moment, Goa is receiving only once-a-week charters from Kazakhstan.

In a paradigm shift from one-stop location-specific approach, Kerala has firmly marked itself as a destination for extended holidays for all segments of visitors with diverse experiences across the state like homestays, drive holidays, wellness vacations and adventure activities, State Tourism Director, V R Krishna Teja, announced. “Year 2022 is going to be the year of Kerala Tourism. The year ahead is packed with events and festivities including the Kerala Travel Mart in May, Champions’ Boat League (CBL) and Kochi Muziris Biennale besides several cultural and literary fests and adventure tourism activities,” he said.

G Kishan Reddy, Union Minister of Tourism, Culture and DONER, has launched an e-marketplace platform at a special event organised to coincide with the International Women’s Day at the Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management (IITTM), Gwalior. This portal will be similar to platforms like OLA, Uber, etc, which would help Incredible India Tourist Facilitators & Guides (IITFs/IITGs) to get business opportunities and work as a bridge between the customer and the service provider.

G Kamala Vardhana Rao, Director General, Ministry of Tourism, has said that they are looking at promoting river cruising across the country under the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav celebration and will be talking about the various tourism opportunities that can be developed around it. He was speaking at the BBC and PATA India webinar titled  ‘New Ways of Marketing to Recharge Tourism’.