Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

Prabhulal Joshi, President, Maharashtra Tour Organisers Association (MTOA), believes the industry is looking at another year of losses due to the second wave of infections. “Post October, things had picked up, bookings had started for the April-May holiday season. But everything now has again come to a standstill. The combined loss to the industry is estimated to be nearly Rs 200 crore,” he says.  

Regional carrier TruJet has secured Andhra Pradesh Government nod for viability gap funding (VGF) to continue its Chennai- Kadapa-Vijayawada and Vijayawada-Kadapa-Chennai routes for one more year starting from May 1, 2021. The State Cabinet approved a move to provide about Rs 20 crore per year as VGF by the state government.

Winner of Amazon voucher on participating in all the webinars organised by the Tourism Office of Spain – Mumbai recently, Sonal Swamy, MD, Syrisa Travels, says, “The webinars were amazing, interactive, incredibly interesting, very useful and packed with great content. I enjoyed every bit of it especially the part of Seville which got back pleasant memories of my trip around the coast of Spain. I can’t wait to get back to Spain!”

Yatra Online has announced the launch of a new platform ‘Covid Connect’, which enables people to get verified information on COVID-19 resources. The team and volunteers at Yatra.com have put in efforts to ensure that the resources are verified beforehand for quick and accessible information. The platform has resources on the availability of oxygen, hospital beds, ambulances, medicines, food services, test centres, doctor consultations, and home ICU options. At present, the platform includes information from Delhi and Mumbai and its nearby areas. Additionally, interested people can also volunteer to be a part of the team and contribute to the platform for resource verification and resource curation. Commenting on the new initiative, Dhruv Shringi, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Yatra.com said, “We at Yatra, have always believed in creating memorable travel experiences for our customers, however, with COVID – 19 we are currently operating in such uncertain situations. Owing to the same, we as a company are stepping up to provide easy access to reliable information to the consumers. We are focused on using our resources and voice to assist in curating a platform with crucial and verified information regarding COVID resources.” The new platform aims to bring together people to combat the pandemic. For COVID resources, click here: https://www.yatra.com/covid-resources For volunteering, click here: https://forms.gle/D6UzwLieim4AGZxLA  

In a marathon session fielding member queries, Jyoti Mayal, President, TAAI, urged everyone to register themselves on the Ministry of Tourism website. She said, “Agencies who don’t do this may not be allowed to call themselves a travel agent.” The association has also written to MoCA to help resolve matters with Air India bookings multiple times, and has sought an online appointment directly with the PM.

The IATO Executive Committee recently reviewed and restructured the IATO Regional and the State Chapters to expand its wings and strengthen its membership base in Uttarakhand, Ladakh, Lakshadweep, Dadra, Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu. In continuation, IATO has further expanded its wings by appointing Co-Chairman and in-charge in various states and union territories. Rajasthan being a large state with a strong membership basis was considered to have a Co-chairman and Mahendra Singh of Holidays N Vacations, Jaipur has been appointed as Co-Chairman of Rajasthan. It was for a long time in the mind of IATO EC to have a Co-Chairman of Uttar Pradesh who should be based in Varanasi, keeping in view the importance of Varanasi as a big tourist attraction,  both for international and domestic tourists and Bhuvanendra Vikram Singh of Prime Value Tours Pvt. Ltd has been given this responsibility. Sikkim being a prime tourist destination needed a Co-Chairman, keeping in view the distance between North Bengal and Sikkim.  Namgyal P Sherpa of Namgyal Treks & Tours, Gangtok has been appointed as co-chairman to assist the Chairman of Sikkim and North Bengal Chapter who is based in Siliguri, Darjeeling. Similar is the case of Andaman & Nicobar and Mohamed Jadwet has been appointed as Co-Chairman in Andaman & Nicobar to assist the Chairman based in Chennai. Besides the above, two-state in-charge have been appointed in Manipur & Tripura to assist Chairman of IATO North East Chapter and H Radhakrishna Sharma, of Seven Sisters Holidays and Soumen Dutta of Hindustan Tour & Travels have been appointed State In-Charge of Manipur and Tripura respectively. Rajiv Mehra, President of the Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) expressed his happiness and mentioned …

In its latest order, Government of Goa has prohibited inter-state movement for tourists till May 24. Exceptions to the rule are people who are residents of Goa or are entering Goa for work, or who have with them full vaccination certificate or COVID-negative test report for a test done a maximum of 72 hours prior to entering Goa.

Department of Tourism, Government of Maharashtra, will hold a two-day international conference on the potential of Agri-tourism on May 15-16, 2021. The virtual event will include interactive sessions to discuss farm tourism in India, and will focus on empowering and encouraging the rural women farming community to embrace new opportunities in the realm.

Indian carrier Vistara will fly to the Japanese capital Tokyo from New Delhi June 16 onwards. The weekly flight will depart from Delhi every Wednesday at 03:00 hrs, while the return flight will depart from Tokyo every Thursday at 17:50 hrs. The airline will fly once a week between the two capital cities under India’s travel bubble agreement with Japan. The airline will use its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft with three-class cabin configuration to serve the route. This makes Vistara the only Indian carrier to offer the choice of flying Premium Economy class in addition to Business and Economy cabins. Vistara has also trained its cabin crew in the Japanese language to extend the warmth of true Indian hospitality to travellers from Japan. Leslie Thng, Chief Executive Officer, Vistara, said, “Far East has been an extremely important geography for our global expansion from the beginning for its tremendous growth potential. We are delighted to add Japan to our international network, under the travel bubble and  look forward to providing the best of Indian hospitality while maintaining the highest standards of safety and hygiene for our customers on this sector.” Bookings for the flights are being progressively opened on all channels, including Vistara’s website, mobile app, and through travel agents. Introductory, all-inclusive, round-trip fares between Delhi and Tokyo are as follows:   Route Economy Premium Economy Business Delhi–Tokyo-Delhi INR 45,049 INR 73,699 INR 150,399 Tokyo–Delhi-Tokyo JPY 90,099 JPY 184,699 JPY 410,999   SCHEDULE OF FLIGHTS TO AND FROM TOKYO HANEDA: Sector Flight No. Day of Operation Departure Arrival Delhi (DEL) – Tokyo Haneda (HND) UK083 Wednesday 0300 Hrs 1450 Hrs Tokyo Haneda (HND) – Delhi (DEL) UK084 Thursday 1750 Hrs 2335 …

Indiatourism Mumbai along with IHM Mumbai conducted a session on ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’ for the institute’s students and faculty. The online session, attended by 120 students, was a commemoration of the Revolt of 1857 and the lesser-known freedom fighters of India. It was guided by Venkatesan Dhattareyan, Regional Director, West & Central, Indiatourism and Malti Dutta, Assistant Director, West & Central, Indiatourism. This was the first of many sessions that will be conducted following the programme charted out for ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’.