Category Archives: States

Three female bikers — from Assam, Nagaland and Mizoram – are on a road journey to promote tourism in the north east region. The trio who are promoting their trip on social media are touring all the 7 sister states of the Northeast Indian region within a span of 7 days.

The recently-held AGM of the Tour Operators Association of Assam (TOAA) in Guwahati was marked by the formation of the new Executive Committee where Debajit Borah was selected as the new President, Rajkumar Das, Mukul Medhi and Dipak Sarma as Vice Presidents, Kundol Roy as Secretary, Nipan Sarmah as Treasurer, Pranjal Bora and Sushmita Hazarika as Joint Secretary along with 10 new EC members. The outgoing President is Ranjeet Das.

In a virtual address at the inauguration of the mega tourism promotion event in Srinagar titled, ‘Tapping the Potential of Kashmir: Another Day in Paradise’ Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State, Tourism & Culture, said, “The country has seen a five-time hike in tourists in January 2021 compared to January 2020 in Jammu and Kashmir. This initiative will further help to revive tourism in the UT.” He added that tourists started visiting J&K after the abolition of Section 370.

As part of its efforts to develop tourism in the state, the Karnataka government has decided to build heliports at major tourist destinations, informed, Tourism Minister CP Yogeshwar. He said that Kalaburagi, Bengaluru, Mysuru, Hubballi, Hampi and Mangaluru are the destinations where heliports will be developed.  

Pu Robert Romawia Royte, Hon’ble Minister of State for Tourism, Mizoram, recently graced the function of Certification and graduation ceremony of tour guides sponsored by the North Eastern Council in Aizwal, Mizoram. Out of 95 trainees, 83 qualified for certified tour guide. Rajasthan government gave its nod to the selection, training and licensing of 6,000 new tourist guides, and approved the use of residential premises as guest houses in urban areas.

The Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Limited (TCGL) will offer 15% commission to Andhra Pradesh-based travel agents and agencies for promoting the ‘Statue of Unity’ at Kevadia in Gujarat. TCGL Tourism Officer (Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Tamil Nadu) Ajit Kumar Sharma, said, “Our state government is welcoming travel agents from Andhra Pradesh to be registered with the TCGL to give a fillip to the tourism at the Statue of Unity. Post COVID-19, we will offer a maximum of 15% commission to the agents from Andhra Pradesh.”

The sixth edition of the Bengal Travel Mart (BTM) will be held from 10th April, 2021 to 12th April 2021 at Mayfair Tea Resort, Siliguri – the gateway to the North Eastern part of India. Bengal Travel Mart is an initiative of the Eastern Himalaya Travel & Tour Operators Association (EHTTOA), West Bengal Tourism and the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India to showcase tourism in Siliguri, West Bengal.

Kerala Tourism today launched a pioneering travel initiative led by ten influencers from around the country who will carry out a new-media campaign to attract domestic tourists in the post-Covid era. Rani George, IAS, Principal Secretary, Tourism, flagged off the Kerala Blog Express, titled ‘My First Trip 2021’, which is slated to conclude on March 29. The influencers will tread different itineraries for six nights and five days, facilitating production of exclusive contents for Kerala Tourism.The images, videos and literature generated by them will be shared on social-media platforms as #MyFirstTrip.  They will announce to the world that destinations in God’s Own Country continue to be open for tourists. Kerala Tourism Director V.R. Krishna Teja, IAS, and Biju. B.S, Deputy Director, Marketing, Kerala Tourism, were also present at the function held at the Hotel Mascot in the city. “The trip will give the participants a chance to not just visit the famous tourist destinations in Kerala, but experience the cuisine, culture, art and other popular activities around,” Smt George said. “Tourism industry was struck by the pandemic and Kerala was no exception. Gradually, we learned to live on with Covid-19. We started to see visitors coming to Kerala from November-December 2020. Now, these vloggers can also spread the word to the world that Kerala is safer to explore since Covid-19 cases are on the decline in the state. So, people would understand the situation,” she added. Teja, in his address, said that through the trip, the vloggers would certainly experience the warmth of people and understand how safe the state was to explore. While the previous editions of the Kerala Blog Express had only international bloggers and social media influencers, …

Sharing his views on the potential of Kevadiya and the Statue of Unity, Nirav Munshi, Manager Commercial (Tours, Travels & Hotels, Marketing, PR), Gujarat Tourism, says, “Kevadiya and the SoU are a two-day destination but it can be more since there are many attractions to be visited at Kevadiya. A night trip to SoU is even more fantastic with colorful lightings. We believe international tourists will also enjoy these attractions at Kevdiya due to the high level of cleanliness and hygiene, proper security and amenities that will suit their standards.”

Manmeet Singh, Chairman, IATO Punjab Chapter & ADTOI Haryana & Chandigarh Chapter has shared that he, along with other tourism stakeholders of the region met with Amarinder Singh, Chief Minister, Punjab, and apprised him with the issues plaguing the industry. “We had a meeting with the honourable Chief Minister of Punjab, where we reiterated the points which we had earlier emphasised. The CM gave us a patient hearing to our points, which were pending. He also wanted to know what is the current scenario in which we were facing problems, especially the movement restriction owing to night curfew in the region. The said that he will get back to us. We have also been sharing things with the bureaucracy,” he said.