Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

WTM London to be held on 2-4 November, 2020 at ExCeL

WTM London is going ahead this year as planned on 2-4 November, 2020 at ExCeL. If attendees aren’t able to travel for the live event, WTM is also hosting ‘WTM London Virtual’ on 10-11 November. The virtual event will feature live conference sessions, roundtables, speed networking sessions, one-to-one meetings, and virtual networking sessions. The theme of WTM this year will be ‘Connecting the industry together’.

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100% investment from NRIs permitted in Air India now

The government has notified changes in FDI norms on civil aviation, which will permit non-resident Indian nationals to own 100% stake of Air India. The gazette notification states that foreign investments in Air India, including that of foreign airlines shall not exceed 49% either directly or indirectly except in case of NRIs, who are Indian Nationals, where it is permitted up to 100%.

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Responsible tourism foundation of new tourism policy: MoT

Meenakshi Sharma, DG, Ministry of Tourism, has said that they are in the process of making some changes in the new tourism policy, making responsible tourism as its foundation. She added that responsible tourism cannot be discussed as a separate entity; it should be a part of everything we do going forward. “We will add more elements to responsible tourism as we move forward. One will be health and hygiene. It’s also about developing new practices and behaviour of the tourist as a responsible visitor. It cannot be the responsibility of only the service provider, but also the one receiving the services. Honestly, we had not put our minds into this aspect as much as we should have earlier. It will be our priority now,” she said.

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MoT to up marketing aid for ‘recognised’ agents

Venkatesan Dhattareyan, Regional Director (West & Central India), Indiatourism Mumbai, Ministry of Tourism, said, “By enrolling in our ‘MoT Recognized Service Provider’ programme, agents can use the Market Development Assistance (MDA) which includes financial support. MDA for domestic tourism was earlier Rs 30,000 which will be enhanced keeping the pandemic in mind. MoT is also working on relaxing certain requirements for this programme.

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SpiceJet to operate its first long-haul flight on August 1

Budget carrier SpiceJet will operate its first long-haul flight between Amsterdam and Bengaluru on August 1. The airline was given permission by the DGCA to operate flights to Europe and the US as a scheduled carrier last week. The flight will depart Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport at 2:45 pm on August 1 and reach Bengaluru in the early hours of August 2 before heading to Hyderabad.

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Railways to have contactless ticketing; tickets to be QR code-enabled

The Indian Railways has started introducing contactless ticketing system with QR code-enabled tickets, which will be scanned on handheld devices and mobile phones at the stations and on the trains. VK Yadav, Chairman, Railway Board said while 85 per cent train tickets are currently being booked online, a QR code will also be available for those buying tickets from counters.

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New tourism policy, 5-star hotel in Aizawl on anvil in Mizoram

The Mizoram government is working on a new tourism policy, which will aim at enhancing the livelihood of people and make way for more funding support. It is also planning to construct a 5-star hotel in Aizawl to attract more tourists. A draft of the new policy has already been shared with tour operators, ticketing agents and hoteliers. A total of 1,61,677 tourists from the country and abroad visited Mizoram during 2019.

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Rs. 15,00,000 crore at risk to tourism

Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism & Hospitality and cause partner AIRDA has further revised upwards it’s value at risk to Indian tourism to rupees 15 lakh crores. FAITH’s first guidance which was calculated and was shared with the Government in March 2020 had put tourism’s economic value at risk at rupees five lakh crores from this pandemic. FAITH revised this further during the quarter as the situation deteriorated and the value at risk was put at rupees 10 lakh crores. This has been revised again to touch a value at risk of up to rupees 15 lakh crores in terms of the economic output of tourism in India The direct and indirect economic impact of Tourism industry in India is approximately estimated at ~ 10 per cent of India’s GDP.  This roughly puts the full-year economic multiplier value of tourism in India at ~ rupees 20 lakh crores. Minimum three quarters of tourism will be fully impacted. This value covers the whole tourism value chain from airlines, travel agents, hotels, tour operators, tourism destinations restaurants, tourist transportation, tourist guides. Each of these segments of tourism is non-performing or under performing and will stay that way for many months of this year.

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