Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

The Korea Travel Expo, scheduled from 22-24 June 2021, will offer Indian agents a chance to meet around 9 DMCs. Some of the DMCs are participating for the first time in the India market and are excited to meet Indian buyers,” said Young-Geul Choi, Director, Korea Tourism Organization. Register at www.koreatravelexpo.com, email Jaspreet at jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or call +91 9650196532.

According to Rajiv Subramanian, Vice President, Cleartrip, “There are very initial signs of recovery with reduced caseloads and relaxation of restrictions by several states. Traffic and booking volumes have almost doubled from a couple of weeks back. Share of round trips and advance bookings has also seen an uptick. This recovery should continue with more cities seeing reduced caseloads and accelerated vaccination.”

The Uttarakhand government has approved a compensation of Rs 29 crore for the state’s tourism industry reeling under the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the compensation package, Rs 10,000 would be provided to registered travel and adventure tour operators, tour and rafting guides. The government will also waive off the interest on loans for homestays.

The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has issued detailed guidelines to unlock the state, which also paves way for the entry of tourists into the region. There will be no restrictions of entry of tourist in J&K whether by road, rail or air apart from undergoing a COVID-19 antigen test. Restaurants in hotels can remain functional for in-house guests.

All popular holiday destinations in Kerala may soon be declared as complete “vaccinated zones” as the state government is mulling to provide COVID-19 jab to everyone in the tourism sector. “We are mulling to make famous tourist destinations in the state 100% vaccinated zones by July 15 with the support of the health department,” said Kerala Tourism Minister, PA Mohammed Riyas.

Union Tourism and Culture Minister, Prahlad Singh Patel on Thursday conducted a meeting on ‘National Strategy and Roadmap for Sustainable Tourism with focus on Adventure and Eco Tourism’ with the officials of Ministry of Tourism in New Delhi. He also reviewed other topics such as social media, global media and tourism highway during the meeting attended by Secretary, Arvind Singh, Joint Secretary, Rakesh Verma, Additional Director General, Rupinder Brar and others.

The Tourism Office of Spain – Mumbai continues with its webinar series exclusively designed for the Indian travel trade with one-hour webinars in June-July. The next one will be held today at 3pm IST and will focus on Valencia. Those who attend all three webinars and participate in the educational quiz stand a chance to win Amazon gift vouchers. To register, write to jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or 9650196532.

Arvind Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, said that he has written to Commerce Secretary as well as Revenue Secretary to release 2019-20 SEIS payments on priority. “I also spoke to Principal Advisor in the Ministry of Finance for the same,” he added. Inbound tour operators in the country have been pleading the government to clear their SEIS dues for a long time.

Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State, Tourism & Culture, launched Confederation of Hospitality, Technology & Tourism Industry (CHATT), and called it a revolutionary movement in tourism sector. The event was also graced by Arvind Singh, Secretary, MOT; Rupinder Brar, Additional Director General, MOT; and Rakesh Verma, Joint Secretary, MOT. Speaking at the event, Patel also shared that they have sent 9 memorandums to UNESCO.

VFS in India has started accepting visa applications for Croatia for categories including tourist, student, work permit and immediate family member. Applicants should have Negetive RT-PCR test report not older than 48 hours at the movement of entry in Croatia and they should be in self-isolation for 14 days. The cost of RT-PCR test should be brone by the travellers.