Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

Faraway Tree to conduct virtual tour of Andaman on July 24

Faraway Tree, a B2B operator specialising in holidays packages to the Andaman Islands, will conduct an exclusive, one-of-its kind virtual tour for the trade on Friday, July 24 at 11 am, followed by a extensive product update on the destination. One lucky couple attending the webinar can win a 6N/7D holiday worth Rs 80,000 as per the showcased itinerary. To register, please contact Jaspreet Kaur on 9650196532 or jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com.

Read More »

Celestyal adds mid-size cruise vessel with 789 cabins

Celestyal Cruises, that sails to the Greek Islands and the Eastern Mediterranean, has added to its fleet the Costa NeoRomantica from Costa Cruises. Built in 1993 and extensively refurbished in 2012, the 1,800-guest ship has 789 cabins, 132 of which feature balconies, as well as a variety of dining and entertainment venues, bars and lounges, two pools, a gym and a panoramic spa. Celestyal Cruises’ CEO, Chris Theophilides, says, “While Covid-19 has brought a temporary pause to our operations, it is important that we look to the future with optimism and continue to deliver on our strategic plan to grow the business and enhance the Celestyal experience through investment. This mid-size cruise vessel is ideally suited to our business model.” Details of the ship’s delivery and deployment will be announced at a later date. Celestyal Cruises’ existing 2021 and 2022 itineraries that were recently launched remain unchanged.

Read More »

Airlines lose cash influx with consumers using travel vouchers

IATA has reported that intra-EU passengers have used many vouchers, issued since mid-March 2020 in lieu of refunds, to pay for travel between 15-Jun-2020 and 15-Jul-2020. Airlines are now incurring the deferred cost of transporting these passengers against limited or zero new revenues. IATA stated, “Whilst the issuance of vouchers helped decelerate cash burn a few weeks ago, their use will now accelerate cash burn in the coming months’. The data is based on IATA’s Billing and Settlement Process, which underestimates the use of vouchers because it does not record vouchers as exchanges in all cases.

Read More »

MoCA offers single-window clearance to speed up investment

Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has set up a single-window clearance mechanism to expedite various investment proposals in the domestic aviation industry. “MoCA has an Investment Clearance Cell (ICC) for prompt assistance and clearance,” the ministry mentioned in a tweet recently. According to MoCA the setting up of the ICC was announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in 2020-2021 Union Budget in February this year. The cell was also set up following an order from the Department of Promotion of Industry (DPIT) on July 1 in this regard. The 10-member ICC will be headed by Amber Dubey, Joint Secretary, MoCA. The ICC has been mandated to serve as a single-window system for attracting investment and its terms of reference include accelerating investments, bringing projects to the Empowered Group of Secretaries (EGoS) which require special incentive, policy interventions, expeditious clearances and systematic references, among others, the MoCA order said.

Read More »

Air ticketing agents don’t fall under ARTO in UP

After the recent news of Regional Transport Office (RTO) warning travel agents in Uttar Pradesh to obtain registration licenses within 10 days, Siddharth Yadav from the Assistant RTO (ARTO) Enforcement Office in Lucknow has clarified that this license is required only by those travel agents who are into car and bus rentals. Air ticketing agents do not fall under their purview. Interestingly, registration of travel agents and tour operators is part of the tourism policy passed by Uttar Pradesh but which is yet to see the light of day.

Read More »

Pilgrimage amenities at Somnath inaugurated- virtually

Prahlad Singh Patel, Union Minister of State (I/C) for Tourism & Culture, along with Chief Minister of Gujarat Sh. Vijaybhai Rupanion, joined the inauguration of project ‘Development of Pilgrimage Amenities at Somnath, Gujarat’ under the PRASHAD scheme. Sanctioned under the PRASHAD scheme in March 2017, the project has been successfully completed with the cost of Rs. 45.36 crores. High quality world-class facilities for parking, tourism amenities centre and solid waste management have been developed under the project.

Read More »
error: Content is protected !!