Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

TAAI and Kazak Tourism have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to promote mutual interest and tourist arrivals between Kazakhstan and India via cooperation and collaborative relationship and experience changes on reciprocal basis. The signatories were Jyoti Mayal, President, TAAI and Kairat Sadvakassov, Acting Chairman of the Board, Kazakh Tourism. TAAI members will get an opportunity to showcase ‘Incredible India’ towards inbound and M!CE segments for Kazak Tour Operators and travellers.

To provide regional connectivity and boost trade & tourism in the remotest parts of the country, Pawan Hans will now fly on the Chandigarh-Kullu-Chandigarh route from August 15 at reduced fares under the UDAN scheme. The flight will be operated thrice weekly, on Monday, Friday and Sunday. Bookings are open and can be made on the Pawan Hans website. The fare has been set at Rs6,500 (one way).

Commenting on how bringing tourism under the Concurrent List will help the industry, Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, VP, FHRAI says, “We had been asking the government for this since decades. What happens now is that we have one minister dedicated to this sector. There are certain laws and policies that will be formulated by the Centre and those will have to be liable on all the states. This means things will be regulated and everything will get streamlined. A sector such as tourism which has been a state matter until now will now be brought under the Centre.”

Tourism ADG Rupinder Brar has announced that the country will have a uniform national travel guidelines soon, stating that demand for balancing internal travel has been raised by private industry stakeholders. “The Ministry is working on this and directions will be given to states in this regard. The Ministry is also in dialogue with Ministry of Health and is working on systems that can assure safety to reopen destinations for international travel.”

Using microblogging service as a platform, the DGCA has issued an advisory to passengers travelling to international destinations. It said that these passengers are requested to check the airfare preferably from the website of the concerned airline directly because the meta search engines at times do not reflect the actual point to point fare and do make combinations of multiple airlines and end up with an exaggerated figure.

VisitBritain along with British Educational Travel Association will conduct a Youth Travel Workshop 2021 from 19-20 October 2021. This virtual event is aimed at youth, student and educational travel professionals who are buying and selling products, programmes, itineraries and services, specifically aimed at the inbound UK youth, student and educational travel market. Registrations are open now. The event will be split into two half-day sessions.

Gujarat Tourism recently conducted a physical roadshow for travel agents and tour operators of Telangana. It was also attended by Chairman of Telangana State Tourism Development Corporation, Uppalla Srinivas Gupta who stressed the need to promote tourism ties between the two states. Sai Rupa Datta, Assistant Director, India Tourism, was also present at the event.

DDP Digital Conclave brings you an opportunity to learn from some of the brightest, most experienced minds in the hospitality sector strategies that will truly help bring business back. Speakers at the hour-long session titled ‘The Post Pandemic Reset’ are Abinash Manghani (WelcomHeritage), Alok Sharma (Shycocan Corporation) and Vineet Wadhwa (Fio Restaurants). To register, write to jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or call +91 9650196532.

With the coronavirus situation improving, Cordelia cruises are all set to resume sailing operations from September 2021.  While their maiden cruise was cancelled by the deadly second wave, the team is upbeat and cautiously optimistic that they can travel freely again. “The second wave led to the cancellation of our initial sailing plans but we were equipped to handle such exigencies. Our team is in touch with guests who have booked with us, and we are regularly checking on the status of their health and vaccination. Safety is the most crucial word in travel today” says Jurgen Bailom, CEO & President for Waterways Leisure Tourism who also added that the response from the guests to the new itineraries has been encouraging. The timeline is also in sync with that of the international cruise industry which is making a comeback in a phased manner. Most cruise liners are commencing sailings with a few ships on certain routes as per the permissions received. It is expected that most of them will start operations between July and August 2021 on specific routes and gradually become fully functional by 2021 end. Cordelia has implemented all the standard protocols for its crew members and guests.  This includes fully vaccinated crew, daily health checks for crew members, hourly sanitization of facilities, air-filtration and aocial distancing norms, limited guests as per the official mandate by the government, special services team in charge of the safety and health of senior citizens and children, and pre-requisite of tests and vaccination before boarding for guests being worked out apart from comprehensive pre travel checks. Cordelia promises sailing to some of the best Indian and international destinations like Goa, Diu, Lakshadweep, …

Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy has said that the sector has always been a strong driver for economic growth in the country and has one of the highest job creating potentials. “In 2019, the industry contributed US$194 billion to the Indian economy. For a Rs10 lakh investment, tourism can provide 78 jobs, as compared to 45 jobs in the manufacturing sector,” he added.