Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

Speaking at the 4th Odisha Tourism Conclave, Rupinder Brar, Additional Director General , Ministry of Tourism, Govt of India, says, “Goods and Services Tax is the top most priority for us and we are hoping for a positive result. We are encouraging all stakeholders to send across their suggestions and feedback so the GST council has all the right data to take a positive decision. We are also hoping to identify an iconic site for Odisha. MOT has come out with schemes to promote tourism. With ‘Adopt a heritage’, we not only want to encourage PPP but also get the community to participate. A global marketing campaign will be started soon by MOT and Odisha will be an important part of it.”

Discussing about their rapid pace in the Indian market, Suhail Kannampilly, CEO, The Fern Hotels & Resorts, says, “We have set up a target of opening 100 properties by the year 2020. We are already on our way to achieve this. In the current year, we will open 25 properties. We have already opened 10 and by the end of this year, we will surely achieve this milestone.”

It is mandatory for Indian passport holders to travel with return ticket if they are travelling on tourist visa, according to a recent statement issued by Thai Airways. The statement advises passengers that the immigration department in many countries have deported passengers due to one-way tickets seeking entry into the country on tourist visa. Hence, Indian nationals travelling on tourist visa must have confirmed return tickets, in order to avoid any inconvenience

Jean-Michel Cassé, Chief Operating Officer (COO) – India & South Asia, Accor says, “Looking forward, the market is optimistic about H2, with no new supply coming in major markets like Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore. These markets will continue to benefit from constraint demand, especially in months of November and December which will have a high demand of weddings and MICE, apart from corporate transient movement. Overall India growth should continue to see a positive growth over LY, with robust growth in the last two months of the year.”

The award-winning JA Beach Hotel at JA The Resort, Jebel Ali Beach, Dubai, has completed its 2019 makeover and has reopened for business from September 1, 2019. The resort has completed a renovation of the entire building façade and the interiors giving their rooms a fresh new feel with glass balconies that overlook the beach. It is an all-inclusive resort where guests can book a variety of all-inclusive package meal plans. JA The Resort is also preparing to open its third hotel – JA Lake View hotel – which is in the same premises as JA The Resort. It will feature a signature Indian restaurant by Celebrity Chef Vikas Khanna of Michelin star acclaim. This property will be operational from September 22, 2019 and will have 348 rooms. Situated on a one million square metre plot of landscaped gardens, JA The Resort features a huge 800-metre private beach, a 104-berth private marina and a 9-hole, and par 35 championship standard golf course, horse-riding, swimming, etc.

The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India will work on targeting the Indian diaspora settled abroad and encourage them to travel to India and explore the domestic destinations of the country under ‘Dekho Apna Desh’ scheme. Sharing details, Meenakshi Sharma, Director General, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India said, “Our emphasis has been to increase the tourist inflow to India. There is a huge Indian diaspora, which is travelling to various parts of the globe, and they should consider India as a destination as well. They should look towards enjoying the culture and experience of the country, where they have their roots. Getting the diaspora to travel to India is as good as getting the foreign tourists in the country. The industry should also start looking at this segment in a holistic manner and start offering packages, information and the facilities.”

Vishal Kumar Dev, Commissioner – cum – Secretary, Tourism, Sports and Youth Services, Government of Odisha, has said that the state will be coming up with a new tourism policy in 2020. Congratulating Hotel & Restaurant Association of Odisha for conducting the 4th Odisha Tourism Conclave, he shared, “An important agenda for the department of tourism is the drastic simplification of the process of allotment of land for new construction of hotels. There is a lack of enough star hotels in Odisha, especially in Bhubaneswar, which is a necessity for tourism.” They will be starting the Konark Sun City Festival to attract more tourists to the destination soon. Impetus remains on developing infrastructure, the department has also identified nine circuits touching 13 destinations, where developing infrastructure is the priority. While they have held six roadshows to promote Odisha, six more roadshows will take place this year. Next year, they hope to have international roadshows to promote tourism in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and Cambodia

In a bid to boost tourism, Madhya Pradesh Forest Department has proposed to develop 12 new wildlife sanctuaries in the state. The state government is reportedly looking for new ways to generate revenue and hence there is a focus on tourism sector. The Forest Department is working with the tourism corporation to provide more tourism activities in forest areas. In addition, district forest officers have been given the mandate to identify areas in their districts where parks and wildlife sanctuaries can be developed. Currently, Forest Department has directed to allocate 200 ha land for each sanctuary. At present, the state has 25 sanctuaries and 10 national parks, which generates around INR 27 crore every year to the government. With the new developments, the Govt. aims to increase the revenue by INR 200 crores from tourism activities. Also, in order to boost revenue from tourism, new wildlife sanctuaries and wildlife environmental zones have been proposed. As per the proposal, wildlife sanctuaries are being planned in districts like Balaghat, Sheopur, Mandla, Chhindwara, Shahdol, Dindori, Sagar, Khandwa, Jabalpur, Indore, Seoni and Hoshangabad. There are also plans to develop Ratapani and Mandhata (Shivpuri) as national parks. Source: Times of India

The 42nd edition of the PATA Travel Mart (PTM) opened in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan at the Korme Exhibition Center. With over 1000 delegates from 60 destinations are expected to participate in the two-day event. This is PATA’s first-ever event in Central Asia. This year, PATA is welcoming 19 hosted buyers and 21 seller organisations from India , who will be taking up 310 sqm of floor space at the event (out of 2,100 sqm of total exhibition space). “In addition, to the two full days of pre-matched business appointments between global sellers and qualified international buyers, we have also organized two PTM Forums with a dynamic line-up of speakers that will explore the power of technology and the evolution of content marketing,” said Mario Hardy, CEO, PATA. PTM stands out this year with a human capacity building training programme, which PATA is organising to provide further value to its host.

The Himachal Pradesh government has approved the draft of the new tourism policy in the state aimed at holistic development of tourism. The state cabinet has approved ‘Capital Investment Subsidy’ for tourism projects in underdeveloped areas of the state and grant for access of roads and water supply to tourism units. There will be five per cent capital subsidy for the new projects under this category maximum up to Rs 3 crores. To provide accessibility to new tourism projects, which lacked road connectivity and drinking water supply, the government proposed a 15 per cent subsidy. Srikant Baldi, Chief Secretary, Himachal Pradesh government said after the meeting, “There is also going to be subsidy component for the adventure tourism project of all kinds, and those setting-up tents will be encouraged with additional 10 per cent incentives on investments.” The policy will have special focus on ecotourism, agro organic tourism, snow tourism, lake tourism, adventure tourism, pilgrimage tourism, cultural and heritage tourism, health and wellness tourism, film tourism and  MiCE tourism. The main objectives of this policy is to promote tourism diversification through theme based development, to safeguard state’s tourism destinations through sustainable interventions, to ensure that sustainable tourism primarily benefits host communities, to build capacity and develop quality human resource for the tourism industry, to provide safe, secure and unique ‘tourism for all’ and to create enabling environment for investments for sustainable tourism.