Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

Abhishek Narang, a 2008 IRS-IT officer, was has been appointed as Deputy Secretary in the Ministry of Culture for a period of four years. He is currently on ‘compulsory wait’ in the Department of Personnel & Training. Narang will relieve his duties immediately as per instructions to take up his new assignment in the Ministry of Culture office.

Virtual networking hub, GPS Connect 2021-22, a year-long platform for tourism industry is now open for registrations and will be held virtually from 1 May, 2021. Harmandeep Singh Anand, Managing Director, Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) said, “Exhibitor participation starts from as low as Rs 1,500 and gives an opportunity to businesses of all sizes located anywhere in the world and interested in developing business from India to exhibit and optimise their returns and stay connected year long.”

In a virtual address at the inauguration of the mega tourism promotion event in Srinagar titled, ‘Tapping the Potential of Kashmir: Another Day in Paradise’ Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State, Tourism & Culture, said, “The country has seen a five-time hike in tourists in January 2021 compared to January 2020 in Jammu and Kashmir. This initiative will further help to revive tourism in the UT.” He added that tourists started visiting J&K after the abolition of Section 370.

The government has directed airlines to serve or sell in-flight meals from April 15 only on those domestic flights that have a duration of over two hours, in wake of the sharp surge in Covid-19 cases. However, there are no restrictions on inflight meals on international flights as of now. The move is aimed at preventing the passengers from taking off their masks while on the aircraft.

Sharing the idea behind participating in the upcoming virtual MICE show MICE Engage 2021 on April 28, Raymond LIM, Area Director, India (New Delhi), Singapore Tourism Board, says, “JTB India is one of the key MICE players in India and together with Singapore Tourism Board, we work very well to bring India’s MICE traffic to Singapore. We are privileged to be invited as a country partner at the MICE Engage 2021 roadshow – it being the first virtual MICE show of 2021 in India. This event gives us another excellent platform to re-enforce Singapore’s position as a MICE destination among India’s corporates. We also want to share our MICE support schemes that we has customised for the India market.”

TAFI has written to Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray requesting him to consider travel agents (similar to cargo service staff) as essential service providers and allow at least 50 per cent of the staff to report to work during the current partial lockdown as they are necessary to be in office to be able to provide travel services to clients.

Tourism Office of Spain – Mumbai will organise its next webinar ‘Costa del Sol-Malaga: The Real Gateway to Andalucia’ on April 15 at 3pm, conducted by representatives from the regional tourism board. Attendees stand a chance to win Amazon vouchers on attending all webinars. To register, write to jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com or 9650196532.

Türkiye started full fledge vaccination of the tourism employees in coordination with The Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Ministry of Health and Türkiye Tourism Promotion and Development Agency (TGA). Vaccination program will cover the employees of the airlines, airports, accommodation facilities, travel agencies as well as the professional guides. Vaccination of the entire tourism staff will be completed before the beginning of 2021 summer season. Within the scope of ‘Safe Tourism Certification Program’, vaccination program aims to welcome international travellers for the upcoming summer season and ensure the health and safety of tourism employees and its residents. Since the launch of ‘Safe Tourism Certification Program’ in June 2020, Türkiye has been following stringent health and safety guidelines and taking all necessary steps to ensure it continues to be safe. Before the opening of the season, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism started to work on inclusion of the tourism sector employees into the vaccination program to ensure that the tourism services in the country remain open throughout the year. The vaccination program is carried out meticulously in coordination with the Ministry of Health. Vaccination program of tourism employees started in line with priorities and within the scope of the ‘Safe Tourism Certification Program’. As part of continuing effort to fight against COVID-19 and further enhance position as one of the world’s safest destinations, Türkiye is continuing to invest in ‘Safe Tourism Certification Program’ which is one of the first and most successful examples in the world in this field. The Country has expanded the scope of the practice and made it compulsory for accommodation facilities with 30 or more rooms. Up to now more than 8.000 facilities were certified. As …

Travelport has launched its next-generation platform, Travelport+, that creates a simplified, capability-rich marketplace for travel retailing. Travelport+ will bring together the most compelling range of air (ATPCO, LCC and NDC), car, hotel and rail content. It will achieve this by simplifying how Travelport connects and delivers travel-relevant content regardless of the source, the seller and how it’s consumed.

Boeing’s commercial market outlook for India reveals that the country’s air passenger market will double in size by from the pre-pandemic level by 2030. The first to recover be VFR traffic. International traffic, by comparison, is expected to take at least until 2023 to make a full recovery, primarily owing to travel restrictions, vaccine roll-outs and a slow return of business travel.