Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

EM Najeeb, Chairperson, Confederation of Kerala Tourism Industry and Sr VP, IATO has said that frontline tourism workers in travel and tourism should be given priority for COVID-19 vaccination. “For a state like Kerala, a healthy, robust tourism industry is critical to the overall recovery of the economy as it contributes over 10 per cent of the GDP,” he said.

Travellers from the 103 countries including India are now allowed to enter Oman without securing a prior visa and can stay for up to 14 days after the Sultanate decided to extend it Visa-free period.

The Sikkim government has announced 2022 as ‘Visit Sikkim’ year, a declaration on year-long tourism promotion and marketing for the state focusing on having tourists in Sikkim for the whole year instead of otherwise practised season-based tourism endeavour.

Sharing his expectations from the Union Budget, Madhavan Menon, Chairman & Managing Director, Thomas Cook (India), says, “I look forward to Government support on soft loans to finance working capital, incentivisng tourism spends by providing income tax concessions, payment of overdue SEIS benefits, easing of indirect taxes and waiving off TCS to help aid recovery.”

Russian authorities have said that flights between Moscow and the capitals of India and three other countries including Qatar, Finland and Vietnam that were suspended since the early weeks of the pandemic, will restart from January 27, 2021, after certain epidemiological criteria were met. These routes will have several flights per week.

The International Air Transport Association and Etihad Airways have announced a partnership to launch the IATA Travel Pass for the airline’s guests. The IATA Travel Pass is a mobile app to help passengers manage their travel in line with government requirements for COVID-19 tests or vaccines. IATA Travel Pass will initially be offered to Etihad’s guests on selected flights from Abu Dhabi in Q1 of 2021.

Manipur is planning to develop war tourism in the state by preserving the historic Koirengei in Imphal, which is an old airfield in the northeast state. The British had built nine airfields in the state, all of which played some role in the war. N Biren Singh, CM of Manipur, says, “As Manipur is now on War Tourism Map with numerous British and Japanese tourists flowing in to visit the war memorial sites, it is important to develop these sites.”

According to global data provider OAG, most of the large domestic markets have stabilised at between 25-30% of last year’s levels. As per its Jan 2021 data, India’s domestic capacity is increasing from -30% down last month to -23% this month in terms of domestic market seats, making it the third-largest market after China and the US.

Blade India has resumed its by-the-seat service to Shirdi from Mumbai. Mumbai-Shirdi takes 6-7 hours on the road but with Blade, pilgrims can fly to Shirdi in an hour, and be back on the same day. It also offers customers in need of special assistance or a VIP darshan service. It flies from Mahalaxmi vertiport every Monday and from Juhu vertiport on Thursday and Saturday at 11am.

Seychelles Tourism Board has announced the appointment of BRANDit as its official representative in India. BRANDit will handle marketing, sales and public relations for the island nation in the Indian subcontinent. Commenting on the appointment, Sherin Francis, CEO, Seychelles Tourism Board said, “We have commissioned BRANDit to plan our marketing and communication strategy in India. Various ideas have been chalked out to bring Seychelles tourism to a new dawn moving ahead with a fresh perspective. India is a promising market and its ever-evolving dynamic nature has always made it an exciting playing field for our outbound marketing efforts. Seychelles will serve as a safe haven and an exotic getaway for the pent-up travel demand among Indians. Despite a challenging 2020, we are positive to emerge through this phase stronger and better.”