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Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) that runs the Taj brand of luxury hotels, entered into Saudi Arabia with a 340-keys property in Makkah. IHCL, in partnership with Umm Al Qura Development and Construction Company, will open the hotel in January 2023 in the tony King Abdul Aziz Road (KAAR) project, one of the largest urban rejuvenation projects in Makkah. The property, fourth in the Middle East region for IHCL, is situated within walking distance of the Grand Mosque of Masjid Al-Haram, the main attraction for over 6 million pilgrims who visit the city each year. “We are happy to bring the first Taj hotel ... Read more

More than 13 lakh online tickets are booked through the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) portal – www.irctc.co.in – the e-ticketing outlet of the national carrier. About 2 crore people travel by Indian Railways every day. The national carrier is always upgrading the system so as to ease the booking processes and provide better services. A traveller is allowed to book tickets in advance up to 120 days through the IRCTC portal. “The date of journey (for the originating station of the train) will not be counted in 120-day limitation,” said Minister of State of Railways Rajen Gohain. The ... Read more

Iconic cruise ship Queen Elizabeth II (QE2) is undergoing a major transformation into an epic floating hotel – and will be opening its doors to the Emiratis tomorrow. It spent more than 40 years at sea and arrived in Dubai’s Port Rashid 10 years ago. Rooms of this 13-deck hotel ship starts at around Dhs600, with deluxe rooms from Dhs900. The hotel houses 224 rooms altogether. There will also be 13 dining options on board, and the guests will be able enjoy the Chartroom Bar for a time-capsule experience, or try the original menu at the Queens Grill. The hotel also ... Read more

കൊല്ലം ഗസ്റ്റ്‌ ഹൗസ് Kerala government is on a mission to rebrand its existing guest houses functioning under its tourism department. Around 24 guest houses, functioning in and out of Kerala are chosen for the facelift, with all modern amenities that a guest demands. Additionally, new Wi-Fi Hotspots, guest house logo, menu card, table mat, guest folder, linen as well as, POS swiping machine for an effortless cashless transaction for the guest was introduced. The rebranding was inaugurated by State Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran today. Tourism Director P.Bala Kiran IAS; Tourism Secretary Rani George IAS; S.S Thampi Principal General Manager BSNL; ... Read more

Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) and Mizoram government have entered into an agreement to boost investment and develop tourism in the northeastern state. “The tourism and agro-market potential of the state were worth exploring, for which more states like Maharashtra and corporate houses can help. The best practices of cooperative societies in Maharashtra could be emulated to move away from subsistence farming to a more profitable commercial one,” said Mizoram Governor Lt. Gen. Nirbhay Sharma (retd).  The Governor also laid emphasis on roping in film makers and producers to explore the pristine nature of the state and involvement of the community while ... Read more

Foreigners touring India need not go to the Foreigners Registration Office/Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRO/FRRO) in person to registration or visa extension services, as it is from now onwards, can be done online through an e-FRRO platform. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh launched the web-based application e-FRRO scheme aimed at providing fast and efficient visa-related services online to visitors to India. The scheme has already been implemented and is running successfully as a pilot project in four FRROs in Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai since February 12. Now it has been rolled out in the remaining eight FRROs — Kolkata, Amritsar, ... Read more

Kerala Tourism has gone one step ahead to mainstream the transgender community and empower the differently-abled by posting them as tourism resource persons (TRP) under the responsible tourism mission. Kerala Tourism will post 1,000 TRPs as part of a responsible tourism initiative to organise tourism grama sabhas and promote the destination at the grassroots level. A transperson and two differently abled persons each will be among the TRPs to be roped in for the 14 districts. No previous experience is needed for those from the transgender community and the differently abed to become a TRP, rather a pass in Plus Two/ ... Read more

It was a happy news for the tourism industry, as the foreign tourist arrival exceeds to over 13.4 per cent more than that of the previous year statistics. Foreign tourist arrival for the period of January-March 2018 was 31.27 lakh, while January-March 2017 recorded only 28.45 lakh arrivals. The statistics can be further dissected as more foreign arrivals of about 19.59 % were registered from Bangladesh followed by UK (11.56%), USA (10.79%), Russian Federation (3.89%), Sri Lanka (3.72%), Malaysia (3.36%), Canada (3.35%), Germany (3.19%), China (2.67%), Australia (2.62%), France (2.58%), Japan (2.11%), Thailand (2.00%), Singapore (1.64%) and Afghanistan (1.60%). Meanwhile, ... Read more

Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), the public central university located at New Delhi is all about to introduce new courses, that includes PG Diploma course in Religious Tourism. The university has also proposed courses on PG Diploma in Kalp Vedanga, PG diploma course in Vaastu Shastra. India having a diversity in religious and architectural aspect could benefit a lot from these quality educations, that offer better employment opportunity for the coming generations. Meanwhile, the next phase of new courses would add  Sanskrit journalism and classical music that exhibit rich tradition of India. At present, the university offers MA, MPhil, PhD programmes ... Read more

Bulgaria, as part of providing a flawless tourism service to the neighbouring countries like Russia, has issued a fast processing of tourist visas within 48 hours. The new policy has been exclusively put forward by Nikolina Angelkova, Bulgarian Tourism Minister in a television interview. “Turkey is our main rival as its tourist industry has government support and it can make particularly good tourist offers as. We cannot do that but we have been making efforts to keep Russian tourists coming because Bulgaria remains one of the popular destinations among Russian tourists,” said Nikolina Angelkova. Meanwhile, the Bulgarian Tourism Ministry added additional ... Read more

India’s first high-speed bullet train project is all set to start from January next year. The 508 km long range bullet train service is projected to start its service from Mumbai to Ahmedabad sector. According to Indian Railway, the project is predicted to cost around Rs 1.08 lakh crore, that would be completed by the end of 2022.  Meanwhile, around 1,400 hectares of land has to be covered from both Maharashtra and Gujarat at a cost of  Rs 10,000 crore. The mega project also gets funds from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Also, the land acquisition programme is already underway in certain ... Read more

The India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) has signed an MOU with Hyderabad-based Suraas Impex for developing a mega tourism destination project at Bairav Lanka in Kakinada, East Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh. The first phase of the project is estimated to cost Rs 550 crores. This project is the first of its kind for the state-owned ITDC with any private player. Ravneet Kaur, IAS, Chairperson and Managing Director (C&MD), ITDC; Piyush Tiwari, Director (Commercial & Marketing), ITDC; and Ravi Pandit, General Manager, Ashok Consultancy & Engineering Services (ACES), ITDC as well as officers from Suraas Impex were present at the ... Read more

Okinawa Scooters, the Gurugram based electric scooter manufacturing company, has launched the new Okinawa Praise. Unbelievably the scooter can cover a distance of about 150-200km on a single charge. The scooter has a top speed of about 75 kmph, with aggressive futuristic designs. The Okinawa Praise comes with a bunch of features like digital instrument panel, USB charging port, slots to store water bottle, and disc brakes on both front and rear wheels for added safety. The scooter runs in a calm nature with no aggressive sounds. The model comes with two modes attached to its handlebars- Economy and Sport, ... Read more

Kuwait Airways has announced that it has suspended flights to Beirut because of security concerns. According to the airline, the decision was made following “serious warnings” from authorities in Cyprus. Earlier, Lebanon’s national airline, Middle East airline, said it was rerouting some flights because of the “recent security situation” between the United States and Syria. On Wednesday, European aviation authorities issued a warning to airlines that operate in the Eastern Mediterranean and Nicosia flight information region (FIR) area, which covers an area stretching from Turkey’s southern coast to areas near the shores of Egypt, Israel, Lebanon and Syria. The warning advised ... Read more

Sri Devi bags the National Award for Best Actress and A R Rahman takes home two of the awards for the best music director and best background score. Malayalam films including ‘Bhayanakam’ and ‘Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum’ has bagged ten awards in total in the 65th National Film Awards declared today. The List of winners:  Dada Saheb Phalke Award: Vinod Khanna Best Director Award: Jayraj for Bhayanakam Best Book on Cinema: First book on Manipuri films. This is the first time that a book on Manipuri Films has got award Best Film Critic: Giridhar Jha Special Mention for Film Criticism: Sunil Mishra of ... Read more