Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

In its recently-updated guidelines, Ministry of Civil Aviation has advised airline operators to accept only those passengers who are carrying a negative RT-PCR test report with QR code for boarding international flights departing from lndia May 22 onwards. This will ensure minimum physical contact and smooth movement of passengers.

HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President – Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, CEO & Founder – Emirates Group and Chairman – Dubai World, inaugurated Arabian Travel Market (ATM) 2021, marking the start of the 28th edition of the Middle East’s largest travel and tourism exhibition. He was accompanied by HE Helal Saeed Al Marri, CEO – Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) and Director-General – Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) and other VIPs. Taking place from May 16 to 19, this year’s event has 1,300 exhibitors from 62 countries. Consistent with the existing density restrictions and social distancing guidelines and regulations, there will be 11,000 people in the halls at any given time.

TravelBullz is happy to announce the preferred partnership with Vervotech, SaaS Company.  Founded by a team of passionate entrepreneurs in 2018, Vervotech’s vision is to organize all accommodation data with Vervotech Hotel Mapping and Room Mapping using large-scale aggregation, AI-based processing, and ever-evolving ML models. With this preferred partnership, TravelBullz will gain express access to UNICA, a hotel mapping platform with an accuracy of 99.99% and a coverage of 98%. This enables all 150,000 hotels under TravelBullz express access to unified content through UNICA and its seamless integration into existing platforms. With the commencement of this deal, TravelBullz’s clients will reap the following benefits: Real-time content updates along with content insights. Better conversions with de-duplicated inventory. 99.99% mapping accuracy and 98% mapping coverage with reduced processing time. Opinionated Content to deliver a more streamlined user experience. In accordance with TravelBullz’s Dynamic Packaging Module that was launched back in March 2020, integration of UNICA into our existing platform is expected to enhance all travel components with opaque hotel pricing, providing hotel chains greater flexibility for yielding packaged rates. Sanjay Ghare, Co-Founder & CEO at Vervotech said, “This is an extremely crucial time for the global travel industry and we are looking at changes at an astronomical level. It is important that the businesses operating today under such circumstances are not only aware but are also prepared to integrate the latest technologies in the market in order to circumvent the shortcomings. We feel that strategic mutual partnerships are the key to overcoming the challenges that are plaguing the industry today”. According to Nidhi Gupta, Global Head Supplier Partnerships & Activities of TravelBullz, “We are constantly working to revolutionize the way business is transacted in …

In his letter to the PM, JK Mohanty, Chairman, IATO – Eastern Region and Co-Chairman, FICCI – National Tourism Committee, has suggested measures to battle the financial crunch, including extension of moratorium for a year with minimal interest rate, one-time rescheduling of principal and interest dues of borrowers in hospitality in line with revised estimated cash flows of each project, among others.

IRCTC has launched packages for professionals to continue with their work from the comfort of hotel rooms. A statement by the Corporation said, “Professionals can pick their favourite destination in Kerala among the list of hotels offered under ‘work from hotel’ concept.” Destinations presently offering the service are Munnar, Thekkady, Kumarakom, Marari (Alappuzha), Kovalam, Wayanad and Kochi.

In a bid to curb the spread of the new COVID-19 variant, the European Union has urged all countries of the bloc to halt all non-essential travel from India. “It is important to limit to the strict minimum the categories of travellers that can travel from India for essential reasons and to subject those who may still travel from India to strict testing and quarantine arrangements,” it added.

Etihad Airways has introduced its ‘Verified to Fly’ travel document initiative for travellers flying from Abu Dhabi with Etihad Airways. The move enables travellers to validate their COVID-19 travel documents before arriving at the airport. Future developments are in progress to introduce the service for other destinations.

Turespaña has launched a new feature within the TRAVEL SAFE microsite of the official Spanish tourism portal www.spain.info, whereby international tourists who wish to go to Spain can consult the travel restrictions due to COVID-19 in the country, as well as the entry and exit requirements for their respective countries. TRAVEL SAFE microsite has included an information system, permanently updated on travel restrictions due to COVID-19, which allows to consult the information necessary to make any trip from 50 countries, including India, to Spain.

Sharing his views on how adventure tourism in India can be developed, Mandeep S Lamba, MRICS, President (South Asia), HVS Anarock, says, “The government’s adventure tourism guidelines should be implemented and executed uniformly across the country to ensure consistency. It is imperative to establish high standards of safety by leveraging the best practices from popular global adventure travel destinations such as New Zealand, Australia, and Brazil.”

Calling tourist guides the backbone of tourism in India, Tapan Kumar Mishra, National Tourism Awardee for Best Tourist Guide (Odisha), says, “If taxi drivers are eligible for a monthly Covid allowance of Rs 5,000 by the Delhi government, why not tourist guides from the Ministry of Tourism? Kerala has provided one-time help of Rs 10,000 to 328 guides. Why is MoT asking them not to take up any other job without providing them any help during off-season or during a pandemic?”