Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board has announced 10 lucky winners for its Facebook campaign it had launched recently to promote its new B2B dedicated Facebook page ‘Los Angeles Tourism – Travel Trade’. The campaign drew the attention of travel agents from across the country and helped popularise the destination’s social media page among the trade. The winners are Seema Narang (Dewan Travels), Prateek Jain (Thomas Cook India), Sushmita Angolkar (Red Carpet Travel), Gagan Singh (The Holiday Planner), Abhishek Anavkar (Veenaworld), Nikita Sarrof (Pristine Travels), Srinath Telukunta (Travel world), Harjit Singh (Signature Tours), Sumit Churiwalla (Nimbus Tours), and Himmat Gori (My Dream Holidays).

FHRAI has initiated #GoDirect campaign requesting patrons to book their hotel stays #BookDirect or order their food directly from restaurants #OrderDirect. This is in order to eliminate intermediaries and reduce the burden of exorbitant commissions levied by online travel aggregators (OTAs) and food service aggregators (FSAs).

IndiGo will operate flight numbers with subset series 6E 5500 – 6E 5900 to and from Terminal 1 at Mumbai International Airport from March 10, 2021, as directed by Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL). All other flights, including 5000 series, will continue to operate from Terminal 2.

Union Minister for Culture & Tourism, Prahlad Singh Patel, was the Chief Guest at the inauguration ceremony of Udaipur Science Centre in Tripura. Late last year, it was announced by Government of Tripura that the state will have its first Science City by early 2021, while a sub-centre of the science city will also be inaugurated around the same time. Also present at the inauguration was Tripura Governor Ramesh Bais. The Ministry of Culture operates Scheme for Promotion of Culture of Science (SPOCS) which provides for setting up of Science Cities and Science Centres in all the states of the country. Science Cities are already established in Kolkata, Kapurthala, Ahmedabad and Lucknow.

Post the ease in travel guidelines and resumption of domestic tourism, ITDC along with other industry leaders participated in a webinar organised by Indo Sri Lanka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ISCCI) to discuss the overview of tourism industry in Sri Lanka. G. Kamala Vardhana Rao, Chairman and Managing Director, ITDC joined the discussion along with other eminent dignitaries including Dr Krishna Kumar, Former Union Minister, Government of India, Lt Gen Rakesh Kumar Loomba, PVSM, AVSM, Engineer Naseer Ahamed, Member, Parliament in Sri Lankan Parliament, Mr Dushan Wickramasuriya, Director Marketing of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau and Mr Aamir Ali, ED, Sri Lanka Airlines. While delivering keynote address during webinar organized by Indo Sri Lanka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ISLCCI) on ‘An Overview of Tourism Industry in Sri Lanka’  C&MD, ITDC highlighted that there is a great potential for improving tourism and tourism related activities between India and Sri Lanka during COVID scenario.  He highlighted the importance of various products such as Buddhist circuit and Ramayana Circuit and mentioned the efforts made by Ministry of Tourism in promoting Indo Sri Lanka tourist relations and strengthening the eco system.  He also highlighted the potential growth in cruise tourism between Sri Lanka and India, Ayurveda and Yoga are the other significant areas of mutual cooperation.

In order to showcase this new destination to the India market, the Saudi Tourism Authority (STA) will be organising a two-day roadshow on March 2-3, 2021 between 8am – 8pm IST. The event titled ‘Journeys in Arabia’ virtual roadshow will showcase the best of what Saudi has to offer. It will also offer the trade an opportunity to meet senior representatives from up to 30 destinations, experiences and hospitality brands one-on-one.

Ministry of Tourism organised a three-day Incredible India Mega Homestay Development & Training Workshop in Darjeeling from February 22 to 24, 2021 to enrich the hospitality skills of the Homestay owners of the region and to ensure a better experience for the tourists. It was organised by MOT Regional Office (East), Indiatourism Kolkata, in association with Eastern Himalayas Travel & Tour Operator Association as Resource Partner and IIAS School of Management as Knowledge Partner.

First direct Bengaluru-Rajkot flight, operated by SpiceJet, was welcomed in the city with a water salute on 24th February, 2021. Hyderabad will also be connected with Rajkot from 1st March via SpiceJet. Flights between Goa and Rajkot will also start in March.

KB Kachru, Vice President, Hotel Association of India, has shared that they have created state chapters so that they can deal both at central level and state level. “We realised that we needed to have a better voice and we needed to be significant enough to make a difference. Keeping that in mind, we felt that we needed to deal both at central level and state level. Hence, we decided that in order to expand, we need to get more quality products, respective to the segment, whether it’s luxury hotels, first-class hotels, mid-market hotels, or good economy hotels, and make them part of us, so that we have right numbers and then work towards getting our due from different states because all of them have different policies. Hence, we established state chapters in different states,” he said.

Usha Padhee, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, has said that tourism and civil aviation have been complementing each other for a long time. “By working together these sectors can achieve all objectives. We have the coordination committee at the level of Secretary, which MOT is also part of and under UDAN, we have regular meetings, where they communicate their requests, based on their stakeholders’ inputs,” she said.