Category Archives: States

Tripura Government is all set to host an event on similar lines of Nagaland’s Hornbill Festival from February 8-9, 2020, in order to boost tourism in the state. The two-day festival will be organised in Hathai Kortor or Baramura Hills in West district. It was decided last year that the Government will organise a festival on the lines of the Hornbill Festival in Nagaland since forest official Animesh Das said several hornbills are spotted in Tripura. The name of the festival in Tripura has not been decided yet. The forest officials have even set up a Hornbill viewpoint at Baramura hills, where fruit-bearing trees have been grown for the birds.

Kerala Tourism is organising partnership meets and participating in in ten cites across India in the first quarter of 2020, in order to attract domestic tourists to the destination. The cities include Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Kolkata, Guwahati, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Delhi, Jaipur, Bengaluru, and Chennai. Kadakampally Surendran, Tourism Minister, Kerala, revealed that domestic tourist arrivals in Kerala in 2019 saw an overall increase as compared to 2018. The number of domestic tourist arrivals in Kerala is up by 16 per cent for the first three Quarters in 2019

The Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has announced a ban on ‘domiciled Goans’ from entering casinos (both offshore & onshore) and placing bets in the state from February 1 and said a mechanism to enforce the restriction will be framed soon. “All Goans will be banned from entering casinos for playing purposes from February 1. They can continue to work in the industry but will not be allowed to gamble. The Commercial Tax Commissioner will be appointed a Gaming Commissioner, who will enforce the ban. The authority will have the powers to check if any local Goan is gambling. The Gaming Commission will be given the powers to formulate rules and regulations for the industry,” told the CM in Panaji.  There are currently six offshore and nine onshore casinos operating in Goa.

Ajay Bakaya, MD, Sarovar Hotels & Resorts says, “We are looking forward to opening around 10-15 hotels in 2020 and I hope to crack 100-hotel mark by the end of this year, which means we will be opening 800 plus rooms this year. Some of the locations where we will be opening our hotels are, Morbi, Dalhousie, Latur, Udaipur, Jalandhar, Katra, Greater Noida West etc.

The Sun Temple at Konark, Odisha will soon be included in the list of iconic tourist sites, said the Union Tourism Minister, Prahlad Singh Patel. Last year, the government announced in budget to develop 17 tourism sites across the country under the Iconic Tourist Sites Development Project with a budget of Rs 5000 crore. Leaders and stakeholders from Odisha have since then demanding to include the Sun Temple of Konark in the list. No other destination from the state was included in the list. “The people of Odisha will soon receive the good news about Konark being included in the list of iconic sites. We will organise a special event to announce the inclusion very soon,” said the Minister while addressing at the concluding ceremony of two-day long National Tourism Conference at Konark. He also visited the Sun temple and reviewed the necessary preservation plans with the Archaeological Survey of India officials. Last year, there was a huge hue and cry about Konark not making it to the list announced by the Ministry of Tourism. Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had requested the Union Tourism Minister to include at least two tourist places of importance from the state in the list of iconic tourist sites to be developed by the Centre.

The government of Odisha and Gujarat have signed a Memorandum of Intent (MoI) for cross-promotion of tourist sites in both states as well as across India. A formal Memorandum of Understanding mentioning key frameworks and policies will be signed soon after discussions with relevant departments of both the states, said Sachin Ramchandra Jadhav, Director of Tourism, Government of Odisha. The agreement was signed amidst the presence of Union Tourism Minister on the concluding day of a two-day National Tourism Conference 2020 at the Konark Eco Retreat.

Homestays in West Bengal is growing at a pace of 30 per cent compound annual growth rate, said Nandini Chakravorty, Principal Secretary, Tourism Department, West Bengal. She also revealed that the foreign tourist arrivals in the state have grown up by 2.57 per cent despite the slowdown in the global economy.  “The state government’s homestay policy encouraged the homestay sector and is growing at a CAGR of more than 30 per cent,” she claimed. Tourism minister Gautam Deb focused on the tourism and homestay policies and said that there are around 3000 homestays in north Bengal.

To increase the number of foreign tourist arrival, stakeholders in Goa tourism are looking at China to tide over the slump in the arrival of inbound tourists. A six-member delegation from China is scheduled to arrive in Goa to prepare content and guide the Goa tourism department and stakeholders on how to promote the coastal state in Chinese markets, which is virgin territory for the state’s tourism industry. Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) president Savio Messias said that there is a downfall in international tourist arrivals in Goa by almost 30-40 per cent. “There are several factors responsible for this phenomenon, and one of them is shutting down of Thomas Cook, UK, which was flying charters in Goa,” he said. “Promotions in China are different from the rest of the world. They don’t use Facebook, Google or Whatsapp. We will have to design websites in the Chinese language to reach to them,” he said. Goa attracts around four lakh international visitors every year, whose number has gone down significantly in the last two years. Russia and Britain are two traditional markets for Goa.

Along with developing world-class infrastructure and organising several national events, the Madhya Pradesh government has now decided to promote sports tourism in a big way across the state. Sports Minister of MP, Jeetu Patwari has announced that the state government is drafting a policy in this regard. “Sports tourism is a fast-growing sector and has been giving a fillip to the global travel industry for a while. I think the time has come to start promoting sports tourism; the policy will be soon prepared on this,” said Patwari while giving information on the 20-point departmental action plan for the year 2020. Patwari said that sports infrastructure will be set up in Bhopal Gwalior, Jabalpur and Ujjain through PPP model. In last one year, MP has organised several national and international sports meet. In 2020, the state will host events like world dragon boat championship in Indore, where teams from 43 countries will participate. Bhopal will host the rowing championship around October-November 2020.

Madhya Pradesh Tourism has announced ‘Namaste Orchha’ festival, which is scheduled to be held from 6-8 March 2020, in the historic town of Orchha. The festival, aimed at celebrating the cultural landscape of MP, was announced at a curtain raiser event in New Delhi, in the presence of Sonia Meena, Additional Managing Director, Madhya Pradesh State Tourism Development Corporation (MPSTDC) and Yasmin Kidwai, Festival Director and Curator, Director of Spring Box Films. The 3-day festival offers unparalleled travel experiences for visitors to Madhya Pradesh, the government has announced this festival in the heritage city of Orchha to promote tourism, celebrate cultural diversity, natural beauty and the architectural heritage of the state. Namaste Orchha will showcase Madhya Pradesh in Orchha, bringing it alive with music, dance, heritage tours, workshops, local cuisine, arts and handicrafts. Madhya Pradesh boasts popular tourist destinations like Khajuraho, Ujjain, Sanchi, Bhimbetka as well as untapped places like the recently awarded National Award for Best Heritage City – Orchha.