Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

An upgraded version of the Indian Railways e-ticketing website www.irctc.co.in and the IRCTC Rail Connect mobile App were virtually launched by Piyush Goyal, Union Minister for Railways; Commerce & Industry; Consumer Affairs and Food & Public Distribution. The new versions are set to enhance passenger convenience.

With the government having announced the resumption of passenger flights between India and the United Kingdom, Air India has opened bookings for travellers and even added to the frequency. The additional flights between January 6 and 8 will connect both Delhi and Mumbai with London Heathrow.

Maharashtra Tourism has joined hands with Things2Do to launch the Mumbai Festival from January 25 to February 14. The Festival aims to provide support to over 1000 enterprises in Mumbai.

Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State (I/C) for Tourism & Culture, was recently on a tour of Mumbai city. While there, he convened a meeting with the officers of Ministry of Tourism and Ministry of Culture at Indiatourism office in Mumbai. Senior officers of both the ministries, its attached/ autonomous body and subordinating offices situated in Mumbai attended the meeting.

Acknowledging that in 2021, approach towards policy-making and implementing them will be vastly different, Union Minister for Tourism & Culture Prahlad Patel said that India’s wellness centres, Ayush hospitals offering alternative care will draw tourists post the pandemic and the ministry is in talks to tie up such centres with insurance firms so that tourists can avail insurance before arriving in India for treatment.

The new tourism policy aims to attract large scale investments in the tourism and encourage organisations in the sector, Minister for Tourism Avanthi Srinivasa Rao. Releasing the ‘Andhra Pradesh Tourism Policy 2020-2025’ he said that four circuits (Rayalaseema, Coastal Andhra, North Andhra and Godavari) will be developed for which investor meets will be organised in the next couple of months. A restart package of Rs 200 crore for tourism is also being sanctioned.

After establishing air bubbles with USA, UK, France, Germany, UAE, Qatar and Maldives, the government is in the process of establishing arrangements with 13 more countries. Union Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said negotiations are underway with Australia, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Nigeria, Bahrain, Israel, Kenya, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand to allow bilateral flight operations.

FlyBig plans to commence three times weekly Ahmedabad-Indore service from Jan 3, 2021. From its Indore hub, FlyBig started flights to Bhopal and Ahmedabad with Jabalpur to follow later on. FlyBig started booking for Raipur-Indore from Jan 13, 2021. Its second phase will focus on North East India market for which it will set up a base in Guwahati. Apart from the Delhi-Shillong route, it will serve Imphal and Aizawl. It is yet to debut operations using its own aircraft ATR72-500.

Ministry of Tourism’s Regional Office, Indiatourism Mumbai conducted a domestic tourism marketing campaign ‘Dekho Apna Desh’ under the theme ‘Explore Incredible India’ with a brand activation event in Reliance Mall, Borivali in Mumbai from Dec 25 until 31 Dec. Mall visitors were provided information on special promotional packages prepared by local travel agents and tour operators.  

GB Srithar, Regional Director (India, Middle East & South Asia), Singapore Tourism Board, has said that the STB Virtual Tradeshow would allow them to reconnect with the travel trade in India. “It is in line with our ‘United we stand’ messaging for the travel trade in this crisis time. We would like to show our solidarity with the travel trade fraternity in terms of  communication and messages. We want to tell them that we are getting prepared, and as and when the restart happens, we hope to welcome Indian travellers to Singapore through the help and cooperation of our travel trade partner friends,” he said. The STB India Virtual Tradeshow is scheduled on Jan 12, 15, 19 and 21 for South, North, West and East India respectively. Register on: www.stbindiatradeshow2021.com, email: Jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com, or call +919650196532.