Tag Archives: Director

SMA Sheeraz, Director, Sheeraz Tours, has said, “Travellers from Tier II & III cities want to explore places with longer itineraries for this summer, eg. Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, ALULA in Saudi, or destinations like Hua Hin & Chiang Mai in Thailand & Malaysian Kota Kina Balu, Radang. Regular itineraries are not trending anymore.”

Sunil B Satyawakta, Director, Civica Travels (Uttar Pradesh), has said that Modi has been his favourite for his vision and in depth understanding of tourism and its potentials. “His address to Indian community and to the world on 28th September 2014 at Madison Square Garden, New York showed his brilliant understanding on tourism in India. His appeal to every Indian to bring at least five foreigners to India could have been anyone’s guess but was real motivating as it came from the Prime Minister himself. Coming to his post budget webinar address on boosting India’s tourism potential where the emphasis is on pushing the states to involve students and promoting selected 50 destinations can be a game changer. To add to it, the states should make Students’ Tours a part of their curriculum and marks should be given on the students’ write-ups about their study cum pleasure tours,” he added.

IATO honoured Sunil Gupta, Director, Travel Bureau Agra and Badri Nath Bajaj, Founder, Perfect Travels & Tours, with their Hall of Fame award at its 37th annual convention that kicked off in Lucknow, UP. The awards were given away by Ashwini Kumar Patra, Minister of Tourism, Govt of Odisha and Arvind Singh, Secretary Tourism, Govt of India.

Senthil Nathan S, Director, EP (Services), Ministry of Commerce, mentioned that Commerce Secretary recently said that exports is merchandise contribute almost 60 per cent and more of our exports and services contribute to almost 37-40 per cent. “However, going forward, within the next decade by mid-2030s or so, services, given their momentum of growth and their inherent potential are going to outstrip the exports of merchandise. Within services exports, sectors like tourism and hospitality are going to do well because of their potential,” he said.

India has emerged as the number one international source market for Thailand. This was revealed by Cholada Siddhivarn, Director Tourism Authority of Thailand Mumbai office in a webinar organised by DDP for Akbar Holidays along with Tourism Thailand. The webinar saw 1200 registrations and focussed on the SOPs for travel to Thailand for Indian travellers. She said, “Thailand recorded 95,272 travellers from India in the period January to May 2022 making it our top source market.”

Uttarakhand is working towards setting up a cave tourism circuit in Gangolihat, Pithoragarh. It is a set of nine underground caves, which were recently discovered and have the potential to be a great tourist attraction. MPS Bisht, Director, Uttarakhand Space Application Centre (USAC), said in a statement, “These are natural heritage sites, which we are going to protect and eventually they will be opened for tourists. The central government has already given a nod. Slovenia earns almost 30 per cent revenue through cave tourism. We, too, can generate good tourism income this way.”

In the final week of #ThailandBetterTogether campaign, Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) India offices will highlight luxury and wellness. Vachirachai Sirisumpan, Director, TAT, New Delhi, shares, “For the final week, our theme will be luxury and wellness in Thailand, and our team will bring you up to the northern part of Thailand, where we’ll be learning about Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, which are the two charming provinces in the Northern part of Thailand. Chiang Mai is regarded as the Rose of the North because of the charm of its people, culture and nature. One can do a lot of things in Chiang Mai from eco-tourism, adventures, shopping, local experiences, learning about cooking, and last but not the least is spa, Thai massage and the hospitality of the people in the Northern part of Thailand. Going up a little bit is Chiang Rai, which is very nice and charming and its highlight is that it’s a place of art. There is a very beautiful temple, called White Temple or Wat Rong Khun, as well as another temple called Blue Temple or Wat Rong Suea Ten. These two temples represent the craft and art of the Thai people. Apart from this, there are a lot of adventures and other activities that one can do in Chiang Rai as well.”

Suman Billa, Director, Technical Cooperation and Silk Road Development, UNWTO, has said that India should open unhindered travel for those who are vaccinated. “This means that for domestic travel, if I have been vaccinated and I have a certificate to prove it, I should be allowed to travel wherever I can.” Billa also suggests that India needs an entirely new set of guidelines that can reassure inbound tourists of India’s safety.

Directorate of Tourism (DOT) Maharashtra is conducting ‘Special 5 days Guide Training Programme’ for tribal communities, at Karnala Sanctuary and Phansad Sanctuary in Raigad district from today till August 6. These will be offline trainings. Dhananjay Sawalkar, Director, DOT Maharashtra, says, “To make the visit enjoyable, tourists need good guides to provide authentic and relevant information.”

In order to ensure safety for its employees, Tripjack recently conducted a vaccination drive for its Mumbai office. Sharing this development is Hussain Patel, Director, Tripjack, says, “We at Tripjack took this important step towards the health and safety of our employees and managed to vaccinate more than 250 staff members. With the completion of our vaccination drive, we urge each and everyone to take this necessary step towards ending this pandemic. As travel begins, vaccination will become an important criterion.”