Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

Arvind Singh, Secretary, MOT, has revealed that the Ministry has come up with the first draft of a national strategy and roadmap for sustainable tourism with a focus on adventure and eco-tourism. “The national strategy will include a certification scheme and capacity building, and we are also thinking of a system of assessing the states and ranking them as we have done in many programmes like ‘Ease of Doing Business’,” he said.

German carrier Lufthansa has announced that it has lifted the ban on passenger flights to India, and will operate 10 weekly flights from Germany to Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. The Netherlands, too, has lifted the ban on passenger flights from India that had come into force on April 26 this year. The European Union’s (EU) list of ‘safe countries’, however, does not include India yet.

Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI), in a letter to the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW), has suggested making necessary changes in the vaccination guidelines to include banquet halls in hotels as venues for mass immunization of the corporate sector. FHRAI has stated that banquet halls in hotels are better equipped than schools, colleges, or community halls for the purpose.

Johan Lundgren, the CEO of easyJet, does not believe the Delta variant of the novel coronavirus to be particularly damaging to Europe’s summer travel season for the year. While the UK continues to impose travel restrictions for most destinations that are said to have had cases of the Delta variant, some other European countries are also following suit. Lundgren has added that the industry’s survival could be at risk if it had to endure a second summer of restricted travel.

In a recent Tweet, Madhya Pradesh Tourism (MPT) Hotels & Resorts has stated that it is now ready to welcome guests back to its properties, wholly committed to providing them with completely sanitised rooms, and a safe & hygienic environment. MPT offers a wide variety of accommodation choices to suit every taste and budget.

Indiatourism Hyderabad, in association with RBVRR Women’s College, Hyderabad, recently organised a webinar on Incredible India Tourist Facilitator (IITF) certification course. Students from two other colleges in Mumbai also joined in. A section of the webinar session focused on the behavioural techniques, grooming, etiquette and common knowledge about the culture of international tourists.

In a statement, IATO said that it is hugely disappointed that its request for rationalising GST and cascading impact it causes on the tourism industry was not even discussed in the GST Council meeting. The apex-inbound tourism association hoped that the government and GST council would sympathise and do its bit in providing relief to the tourism sector.

Uttarakhand Tourism Minister, Satpal Maharaj has set up a committee to find land for the construction of an international airport between Dehradun and Haridwar. The state Tourism Secretary has also been asked to examine procedures required for the construction of an international airport. Besides, District Magistrates of Dehradun and Haridwar have been asked to help the department during the process.

Vishwas Makhija, President, ATOAI has said that his association is finding ways forward to create new Chapters at the state level. “We have identified five states where we will go forward with our detailed Chapter formation and have ATOAI-representative on the ground in every state. There will be 2 liason each from the local association, state government and tourism authorities,” he said.

Kerala’s West Coast Canal project traversing through 11 districts is all set to be a tourism water highway. Around 50 tourism spots will be created along the banks of the WCC corridor from Kovalam in the south to Kasaragod in the north with the involvement of local bodies. The government aims to connect the existing canal network with the rest of the state.