Tag Archives: Madhya Pradesh

Gujarat Tourism recently conducted a physical roadshow for the travel agents and tour operators of Madhya Pradesh. The event was held in Indore as well as Bhopal and was attended by RK Misha, Assistant Director, Director of Tourism, Deepika Roy Choudhary, Deputy Director of Madhya Pradesh Tourism, along with Hemendra Singh Jadon, Chapter Chairman (MP-CG) of TAAI. Gujarat showcased its new and popular tourism products including the Statue of Unity and Champaner. Dholavira in Gujarat has also been recently added to the UNESCO World Heritage list.

Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, Union Minister of Civil Aviation, has announced that four new Indigo Flights will start operating in Madhya Pradesh from September 1, 2021 with everyday frequency. In his tweets, he said, “Four new flights of Indigo are going to start from Madhya Pradesh from 1st September: Delhi-Gwalior-Delhi; Gwalior-Indore-Gwalior; Indore-Gwalior-Indore; Gwalior-Delhi-Gwalior. Under the guidance of our visionary Prime Minister the Ministry of Civil Aviation is committed to facilitate the movement of citizens across the country and give wings to their development.”

Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia, the new Cabinet Minister for Civil Aviation, has shared that starting July 16, eight new flights will connect the state of Madhya Pradesh to other destinations in India via SpiceJet. The planned routes are Gwalior-Mumbai-Gwalior, Gwalior-Pune-Gwalior, Jabalpur-Surat-Jabalpur and Ahmedabad-Gwalior-Ahmedabad. Scindia says that his Ministry and the aviation industry are committed to taking UDAN to greater heights with these routes.

TK Jose, CEO of Jose Travels, has been re-elected as Chairman for the Madhya Pradesh chapter of TAFI for the term 2021-2023. The election was conducted through an electronic voting process owing to the pandemic. “We will collectively work for the betterment of our chapter and will take up various issues faced by our travel fraternity with the concerned department or airline,” Jose said.

India’s first hot air balloon wildlife safari in a tiger reserve has been launched in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve by Madhya Pradesh forest minister Vijay Shah. The balloon wildlife safari will be restricted to the buffer area and people can watch tigers, leopards, Indian sloth bear and other wild animals from a height,” revealed Shah. “One more adventure has been added for tourists coming to Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve with the launch of the hot air balloon wildlife safari. It is the first in any tiger reserve in the country. Now like Africa’s forests, tourists in India will also enjoy hot air balloon wildlife safari,” he added. The plan is to introduce this service in Pench, Kanha and Panna tiger reserves as well. The service will be operated by Jaipur-based Sky Waltz, whose official Jai Thakur said that they are hoping for a good response from tourists.

Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board has launched a social media campaign called #BufferMeinSafar to promote wildlife tourism in the state. The campaign aims to attract tourists to its national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. While the core area of the forests are closed during monsoon until September, the buffer areas remain open for visitors. Activities in its buffer areas include safaris and bird watching besides spotting various species in the buffer zones. MP Tourism is offering packages for tourists that are specially designed keeping in mind safe travel, stay, and excursion during pandemic. The board has come up with short road itineraries mainly for two to three nights for weekend travel from neighbouring states.

Madhya Pradesh has re-opened its State Tourism Development Corporation Hotels, Resorts and many private hotels at tourist destinations for tourists and hoteliers, promoting domestic tourism allowing in tourists from within the country. Madhya Pradesh forest department has also issued a circular regarding re-opening of national parks from 15th June 2020. National Park’s Buffer Zone will remain open during monsoon season.  Sonia Meena, IAS, Additional Managing Director, Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board said: “Madhya Pradesh being into inbound tourism promotion is very strong with its domestic tourism products, wildlife is one of them. Opening up tourist attractions would also give a sense of ‘returning to normalcy’. We see great potential after re-opening our destinations like wildlife, heritage, pilgrimage, leisure, and adventure tourism opportunities. Following the Health protection, safety and hygiene guidelines. We have sanitised and fumigated our premises. We are ensuring all hygiene and social-distancing norms and SOP issued by the Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India. The first segment of the travellers we are looking to attract, are people from within and neighbouring states coming to visit our tourist destinations. Madhya Pradesh is surrounded by 5 states and it is very easy to travel by car from neighbouring states to our state, we also have a very good road network, which connects major tourist destinations in the state. To begin with, people will start taking small/ weekend tours with 3/4 Days ITINERARY and MP will be perfect for that.”

Madhya Pradesh, the Tiger State of India, has reiterated its focus on wild-life tourism and strengthening its ongoing efforts towards combating the threats of climate change by focusing on wildlife conservation and upliftment of forest dwellers. The state will also be focusing on creating favourable conditions for the conservation of tigers especially the endangered Bengal Tiger and the rare White Tiger. Madhya Pradesh ranks first in the country with 526 tigers as per the results of the All India Tiger Assessment declared on July 29, 2019. The state has six tiger reserves (combining parts of national parks and wildlife sanctuaries) namely Kanha, Pench, Satpura, Bandhavgarh, Panna and Sanjay. The state also plans to create around 11 new protected areas within the state from the current numbers of 24 wildlife sanctuaries and 11 national parks. The new areas, covering over 2,100 sq. km, represent perhaps the largest addition of protected areas attempted by any state in the past three decades. According to Faiz Ahmed Kidwai (IAS), Secretary Tourism, Govt of Madhya Pradesh and Managing Director, Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board, “Madhya Pradesh is referred to as wildlife state of India with numerous sanctuaries and reserves. At a time where the numbers of many animal species are declining, Madhya Pradesh has played a pivotal part in India’s wildlife conservation programs. As the World Wildlife Day approaches on 3rd March, we would like to reiterate our commitment to protecting endangered wildlife, specially tigers through a scientific, planned and people-centric approach with strict enforcement guidelines and team support.” “From preserving tiger population, to being the state with the highest leopard, vultures and gharial (an endemic crocodile species) population to having successfully increased the population of …

Former Railway Board Chairman Ashwani Lohani has been reappointed Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Air India. Lohani headed the carrier from August 2017 to September 2017 when he was moved to the Railway Board as the chairman, from where he retired in December 2018. It was during his tenure that Air India made its first operating profit of ₹105 crore in FY17 since the merger of Indian Airlines and Air India in 2007. Touted as the ‘Turnaround specialist’, Lohani’s appointment will be crucial after Air India’s failed divestment attempt last year. This year, the government has already decided to transfer over Rs 29,000 crore of AI’s huge Rs 55,000 debt to a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), along with the airline’s assets like real-estate and other subsidiaries of Air India. Lohani succeeds the 1985-batch Karnataka cadre IAS Pradeep Singh Kharola, who earlier this month was appointed as the Civil Aviation Secretary following the superannuation of RN Choubey. Source: PTI

The government has urged the US to ‘withdraw or modify’ its advisory against travelling in India, which was issued after Zika cases were reported in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, saying the outbreak has subsided. Last month, US Government’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention had taken out an advisory for pregnant women against travelling to the two states in India to avoid Zika risk. Raising concern over the advisory, Dr Balram Bhargava, Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research, said it has created an impression that the outbreak of the disease is still continuing. “I wish to bring to your attention that Zika virus outbreak in both Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have now subsided completely. There are no reports of fresh cases and vector indices are also well within acceptable limits. I urge you to take up the matter with the concerned authorities at CDC and withdraw/modify the travel advisory,” Dr Bhargava said in the letter. The withdrawal of advisory is crucial, especially in the inbound season.