Category Archives: Breaking News (All Categories)

Prahlad Singh Patel, Union Minister (IC), Culture and Minister of State (IC), Tourism, has announced that they have increased the opening hours of 10 historical monuments across the country till 9 pm including Rajarani Temple Complex, Bhubaneswar; Dulhadeo Temple, Khajurao; Sheikh Chilli Tomb, Kurukshetra; Safdarjung & Humayun’s Tomb, Delhi; Group of Monuments at Pattadakkal & 7 Gol Gumbaz, Karnataka; Group of Temples, Markanda, Chamursi, Gadchiroli, Maharashtra; Man Mahal, Varanasi; and Rani-ki-Vav, Patan. Now, these monuments will remain open from sunrise to 9 pm for public. Earlier, these monuments used to open from 9 am to 5.30 pm for general public. Patel said that this decision has been made for the benefit of general public/tourists who can visit and appreciate the beauty of such historical sites for long hours. He also said that apart from these 10 monuments, some other historical monuments are also under consideration for long opening hours for visitors.

Goa received 27,19,154 tourists for the period from Jan-May 2019 compared to 26,22,387 for the same period last year, witnessing an increase of 96,767 arrivals. According to statistics released by Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC), the tourism arrivals into the state have increased in the last three years. While in 2016, the tourist arrivals were 63,30,744, in 2017 it went up to 77,85,693 and in 2018 it was 80,15,400. Last year, the increase was minimal owing to the charter flights that stopped operating to Goa, especially from Russia. Earlier this year, the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa had submitted a white paper about the decline in the tourism to Manohar Ajgaonkar, Minister of Tourism, Goa, urging the state government to take urgent steps to address the dip in arrivals.

According to a recent report by Airports Authority of India, all operational airports handled 210.84 thousand aircraft movements and 28.93 million passengers, during the month of June 2019.  Out of this, 5.63 million were international movements and 23.30 were domestic passengers. While, the growth in international passenger movement from last year during the same month was 2.7 per cent, domestic passenger market witnessed 4.6 per cent growth.

Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) has banned single-use plastic in all its hotels. Nikhil Desai, Managing Director, GTDC, says, “GTDC hotels will strive to be plastic free. We have already started with our head office where we have banned all the plastic bottles etc. We have decided that we will reduce or completely do away with anything that has plastic. In the next step, all our hotels will stress on minimise the use of plastic like water bottles, and will shift to eco-friendly options like paper-based products, metal products or recyclable options, instead of going for one-time use plastics. Followed by its success, we will also ask the private players to join us. First we will show that it is possible for us to do it and lead a plastic free life. Once we are successful, we will request them that they should also follow the same.” This initiative comes in line with the bid to achieve the target that the state government has of making the state plastic-free by 2022.

Association of Domestic Tour Operators (ADTOI) is all set to open two new chapters in Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Tamil Nadu after its convention, revealed PP Khanna, President, (ADTOI). “Once we are free from the convention, we are planning to start two more chapters, which are almost ready, which will be in MP and Tamil Nadu. By September-October, we will have new entrants in the ADTOI family,” he adds.

The latest IATA Economics Chart of the Week states that with favourable forecasts in income per capita and population, there has been continued development in India’s air transport where the market appears positive, despite the recent disruption. “This is consistent with our long-term passenger forecast which expects the growth in India to propel it to the world’s 3rd largest air transport market by the mid-2020s,” says report.

Guruprasad Mohapatra, Chairman, Airports Authority of India (AAI) has said that the government is working on a proposal to privatise 20-25 airports, managed and operated by the authority and a final decision will soon be taken. “We have privatised six airports recently. We are now planning to privatise 20-25 airports in next phase with an expectation that there will be a significant participation by foreign airports. The Airports Authority of India is in the process of identifying airports with annual passenger traffic of 1-1.5 million. We will recommend them to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and they will take a final decision,” said Mohapatra in a press briefing.   Explaining about the planning related to the second round of privatisation, he said, “What we have done is we have appointed a consultant to understand relative attractiveness of various airports for private sector investments. It is open for everyone to bid. There are tremendous possibilities. With this (success in first round), I am sure that in the next round of privatisation we do, I am hoping to see a lot of foreign airports participating in it.”   In November last year, the government had decided to privatise airports in Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mangaluru, Thiruvananthapuram, and Guwahati for operation, management and development through public-private partnership (PPP) model.  

Amatra Hotels and Resorts has launched two properties in Haridwar and Mussoorie, Uttarakhand. The company is also looking to have 3,000 rooms and inventory of over 45 hotels in the next 3 years across strategic locations in India. In India, the company is looking to acquire properties in Goa, Rajasthan, Kerala, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and few other leisure locations across the country. In 2019, it plans to add five hotels to increase its total tally to 7 hotels. “We are launching these two properties in India with a clear focus to provide unmatched and distinct luxury in India, which is affordable for the masses. As we create a different league of identity for us in luxury hospitality, travellers will witness many firsts in this segment. We are also looking to acquire properties in other regions across India and will launch few more properties this year,” Sabry Salahudeen, Chief Growth Officer, Amatra Hotels said. The resort chain offers value for money offerings in the leisure category with handpicked properties in key destinations across the leisure landscape of India.

The Hotel Monitor 2020 by American Express Global Business Travel (GBT), predicts that hotel prices in most key cities will experience only modest rises in 2020. Bengaluru is one of the top business destinations in India. Demand from business travellers will lead to rise in room rates by 5% in 2020, even as supply grows at double-digit rates. Ashish Kishore, Managing Director at American Express Global Business Travel India, said “India is leading the way in global technology advancements, which we’re seeing through the increase of business travel opportunities to Bangalore.” Joakim Johansson, Vice President, Global Business Consulting at GBT, said: “Despite signs that the global economy is facing challenges, the number of people travelling for business and leisure continues to grow. But, in most cities, a full hotel development pipeline means this sustained level of demand will not feed into big rate rises.”

In the wake of protests at Hong Kong International Airport, several countries including Japan, South Korea, Ireland, Canada and UK have issued an advisory to passengers travelling to Hong Kong. This protest is to draw attention of international visitors to a controversial extradition bill. Reports indicate demonstrations are likely to continue to take place in Hong Kong over the weekend. The local police has granted approval for the rally at the airport, but banned another protest planned for Sunday in Yuen Long. However, the organisers of this weekend’s protest said they would go ahead with their march despite the ban.