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In a bid to encourage tourists and promote tourist destinations, Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) has upgraded 23 of its resorts in Maharashtra. The Corporation has also successfully completed take-over of 98 per cent of the restaurants linked with all the resorts across the state that were previously owned by private players. Abhimanyu Kale – Managing Director, MTDC commented, “Tourism industry in Maharashtra has tremendous potential given the rich historical and cultural heritage of the state. Having said that, we have observed that there is a surge in demand from a lot of local travelers, travelers from outside Maharashtra from other states and even foreign tourists who are keen to visit the various destinations across the region. And to compliment the same, we have undertaken and successfully completed the project of revamping 23 resorts across the state which took around six months and was done in a budget of around INR 1 crore.”      The state of Maharashtra has some unexplored and attractive tourist destinations which consist of beaches, forts, hill stations, heritage and sanctuaries. And MTDC has its resorts located across Pune, Amravati, Aurangabad, Nagpur, Nashik, Ratnagiri and even Mumbai. MTDC puts a lot of impetus to manage and improve the infrastructure to meet global standards and hence they have taken the initiative to upgrade their properties.

Lords Hotels and Resorts continues its mission in bringing smiles by entering in to a strategic tie up with Save The Children India – a most trusted NGO that has changed the lives of more than 1 CRORE Indian Children since 2008.   Lords Group has placed donation boxes in front office at all its hotels. The amount collected every month is donated by respective hotels to the NGO. The NGO helps children with the donation money and provides them access to quality education, food and shelter. Commenting on the occasion Pushpendra Bansal, COO – Lords Hotels and Resorts said “At Lords we aim to create enduring value in the lives of children coming from marginalized communities. This tie up will surely help them leverage future opportunities.” Rakesh Mathur, Director and Advisor, Lords Hotels and Resorts further added “We aim to enrich lives of underprivileged children for a better future through this endeavor”.

When booking a flight, value is a top priority for over four out of five (86%) travellers today with just one in five (18%) now booking solely on cost, reveals Travelport’s Global Digital Traveler Research 2019, which surveyed 23,000 people from 20 countries. This trend is apparent across all age groups led by Baby Boomers (91%) who prioritize value marginally more than younger generations. To find offers of value, travellers ‘nearly always’ use a combination of travel review sites like TripAdvisor (42%), price comparison sites like Kayak.com (38%), recommendation sites like Kiwi.com (36%) and have conversations with travel consultants (31%).

Passengers carried by domestic airlines during Jan-Aug 2019 were 943.58 lakhs as against 913.95 lakhs during the corresponding period of previous year, registering annual growth of 3.24% and monthly growth of 3.87%, revealed Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

The majority of Chinese travellers coming to India are middle-aged visitors, reveals China Outbound Tourism Research Institute. A total of 57,451 Chinese travellers between the age group 30-49 years visited India, making it around 68% of the total Chinese travellers travelling to the country, claimed the report, implying that potential visitors from the neighbouring country coming to India are middle-aged.

India moved up to 8th position in 2019 from 9th position in 2018 in terms of cultural resources & business travel across the world, according to the World Economic Forum’s Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index 2019 edition. China was at the top when it comes to cultural resources & business travel owing to its oral and intangible cultural heritage and cultural & entertainment tourism digital demand. India stepped up one place on these standards because of getting more international association meetings in the country.

At the occasion of the second edition of the Tamil Nadu Travel Mart and Medical Value Travel Mart 2019, Apurva Varma, Additional Chief Secretary to Government, Tourism, Culture and Religious Endowments Dept , Government of Tamil Nadu, says, “295 sites have been identified for the development under Tamil Nadu Integrated Tourism Promotion Programme.” He also shares that the Tamil Nadu Government has kept Rs 100 crore aside for the development of tourism in the state.”

In a recent interview, Rishi Puri, Senior Vice President – Operations & Development, Lords Hotels & Resorts, says, “We are looking at ‘MICE-W’ segment for our expansion. Lords will be opening properties in Goa, Morbi, Kurnool, Rajkot and Bharuch in the same category. All these properties are expected to open by end of this year.” Lords Hotels and Resorts will be aggressively looking at ‘MICE-W’ Hotels and has chosen a few locations in the country that it would like to tap as the segment is bound to do well and the great Indian Wedding continues to be a major source of revenue for Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.

PATA Travel Mart 2019 (PTM 2019), hosted by the Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Kazakh Tourism National Company, has attracted 347 sellers from 180 organisations and 34 destinations, along with 252 buyers from 244 organisations and 48 source markets with first time buyers comprising 44% of the total. Mario Hardy, CEO, PATA, says, “This is the first time that PATA is organising an event in Central Asia, and our aim is to highlight the unexplored region of Central Asia, particularly Kazakhstan. Unexplored by many, PATA Travel Mart provides the perfect opportunity to showcase this unique destination vast landscapes and beautiful culture and heritage.”

In a grand opening ceremony, the second edition of the Tamil Nadu Travel Mart and Medical Value Travel Mart 2019 was inaugurated at the Chennai Trade Centre in Chennai. The three-day exhibition, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in association with Tamil Nadu Travel Mart Society will showcase the potential of Tamil Nadu’s tourism on a global platform. The inauguration was followed by an array of cultural programs and networking dinners organised for all the delegates. TTM 2019 will witness more than 300 exhibitors showcasing tourism business opportunities in the state along with 1000 domestic and international buyers from 54 countries. Apart from TTM, the Medical Value Travel Mart this year will reiterate the importance of Tamil Nadu in the medical value travel sector. Yogendra Tripathi, Secretary, Union Tourism Ministry, said the government had recognised the potential of tourism and approved 77 projects under Swadesh Darshan and 24 under Prasad in Tamil Nadu.