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Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapati Raju today said the UDAN Phase 2 will connect 43 airports and helipads in the priority sector, the North-East and the hill states. The minister was speaking at the Award of Regional Connectivity Flights after Second round of Bidding under RCS Udan in New Delhi. States with maximum number of airports and helipads seeing activation under UDAN 2 are Uttarakhand (15), Uttar Pradesh (9), Arunachal Pradesh (8) and Himachal Pradesh (6) and Assam and Manipur (5 each).  “Kargil will be connected by airport for the first time. New greenfield airport in Kannur will get flights to ... Read more

Kuwait’s major low cost airline, Jazeera Airways, which has started its operation to Kochi, is said to be seeing the possibility of a tie-up with Kerala tourism. “There is a great opportunity for Kuwait and Kerala in the field of medical and leisure tourism. There is lot of traffic especially during weekends to Kerala out of Kuwait, many of whom could be seeking medical treatment in the state,” said Andrew Ward, VP Marketing and Customer Experience, Jazeera. Jazeera has launched four weekly flights to Kochi from Kuwait. Kochi is the third route in India after Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. The flights ... Read more

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has said they set a growth target of 8 per cent in tourism revenue from the international market. “Thailand’s ‘unbeatable geographic location’ is a major reason why visitor arrivals will continue to grow strongly in the years ahead,” said Tanes Petsuwan, TAT Deputy Governor for Marketing Communications, during the ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF) 2018 held in northern Thai city of Chiang Mai. “Thailand has the best connections within the entire region as there are approximately 30 overland border checkpoints open for travel by international visitors with Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Malaysia, as well as four Friendship ... Read more

Indian telecom sensation Jio has announced their most awaited Republic day offer for its loyal customers with extra data and new budget plans. New offer gives an added 500MB extra usage as well as 50 per cent more value than current plans, users will get 1.5 GB per day daily, instead of 1 GB per day and hence 1.5 GB per day users would get 2 GB per day. Photo Courtesy:youtube.com The new offer will come into existence on 26 January midnight. Jio has also announced their budget plan for Rs 98 with 2GB data for 28 days, with free ... Read more

Travel spice, an online hotel booking platform from Bangalore, has won the ‘Travel Tech’ start-up of the year 2018 award from the Government of Karnataka. Award, and a prize money of Rs 15 lakhs, was handed over by the Minister of Tourism Priyannk Kharge to the co-founders of travel spice Ankit Manglik and Prashant Mitta at Bangalore Palace. Photo Courtesy: m24news.com The company has business with over 8000-star hotels among 220 cities in India and abroad. Travel Spice provides online bookings with discounts as well as value-based services. “Travel Spice is based on the unique opaque model well suited for ... Read more

In an exclusive interview to Tourism News Live, the Canadian footballer who has been winning the hearts of soccer lovers across Kerala, says he is mesmerised by the beauty of the God’s own Country after spending a day in the backwaters of Alappuzha. Jobin Joseph, Director of Spice Routes with Iain Hume. Phot Courtesy: Spice Routes Iain Hume spent a day in the newly launched luxury houseboat of Spice Routes with his wife Christine and children Alyssa Fay and Keira. “It was a great experience and I am gonna come back again,” says a very excited Hume. Hume is all ... Read more

Da Jiang Innovations Science and Technology, commonly known as DJI, has come up with their brand new drone named as ‘DJI Mavic Air’ on Tuesday. The new design is a technological expertise towards the practicality of portability, with the new convenient foldable feature that helped the drone to be backpacked much more conveniently. Photo Courtesy: www.dji.com With more flight time and performance, the device has all the potentials to give the user countless possibility of fun and exploration. Photo Courtesy :www.dji.com Some of the new features of Mavic Air includes: 32 MP panorama shooting mode (The Mavic Air combines 25 photos ... Read more

Photo Courtesy: SPTO The World Health Organisation, in partnership with the South Pacific Tourism Organisation, is planning to improve the health of both the tourism workforce and tourists to the region. “The so-called ‘Healthy Islands’ project would promote smoke-free public places, increase the opportunities for people to eat healthy local foods and get physically active,” said WHO Technical Officer, Dr Ada Moadsiri. Under the new partnership, the organizations will promote smoke-free public places and increase opportunities for people to eat healthy local foods and get physically active. The partnership also aims to support improved accessibility for persons with disabilities in the ... Read more

Travel and tourism fraternity is flocking to Thailand for ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF) in Chiang Mai. The five-day ATF, one of the most momentous annual tourism promotion forum in Asia that includes Tourism Ministers from the ASEAN countries, various airline company meetings, tourism conference, travel exchange trade fair etc, will conclude on January 26. The theme adopted for 2018 was ‘ASEAN – Sustainable Connectivity, Boundless Prosperity’ with ‘Wonderful Indonesia’ being highlighted this year. Also this year Indonesia will detail a 182 square meter pavilion for the expo. Ministry’s development and marketing first deputy, Pitana said that the event also showcases 350 ... Read more

Photo Courtesy: Kerala Tourism Ten million foreign tourists visited India in 2017. With more projects in the anvil, the country has potential to push it higher. However, the state tourism departments are looking at the budget allocations from the Central Government for the year 2018. Officials from the ministry hint that it is not going be an exciting budget for the tourism industry. The safety and infrastructure of the industry are the sections which need immediate attention. A handful of projects are waiting for the fund allocation from the ministry. Tourism ministry has received Rs 1776 crore in 2017-18. This year, ... Read more

The state capital of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram, is all ready for the five day National Banan Festival 2018. The event, which is scheduled to be held from February 17 to 21, 2018, will be held at the Vellayani Grounds in Kalliyoor Grama Panchayat. Thiruvananthapuram-based Centre for Innovation in Science & Social Action (CISSA) is organising NBF 2018. A photography contest will also be held as part of the festival. The competition is open to amateurs as well as professionals. Photographs that are submitted for the competition should have ‘banana’ as the focal theme. Photographs can be of different varieties of bananas in ... Read more

Photo Courtesy: J&K Tourism The Government of India has sanctioned Rs 7.37 crore tourism projects for the development of tourism infrastructure on Kishtwar- Sinthan Top circuit, in Jammu and Kashmir. “Rs 5.89 crore have been released in the first instance for taking up various components envisaged in the tourism project at Sinthan Top, Dedpath and Mughal Maidan,” said Minister of State for Tourism, Priya Sethi in the Assembly. However, the works on some components were delayed due to litigation and non-issuance of forest clearance. She said the government was vigorously pursuing the court case to get the stay vacated, while tenders ... Read more

Kerala is all set its eye on the European travellers with a handful of new projects and packages. The Department of Tourism has set apart Rs 7.5 crore for promotional activities to woo the European tourists to the state. Kerala Tourism minister, Kadakkampally Surendran, said the state’s tourism department has activated a rigorous promotional campaign involving diverse products to promote the state in Europe as it holds the top slot in the list of high potential markets for overall tourism growth. ‘Through this promotional and marketing campaign, the state aims to double the foreign tourist arrivals by 2021,”Rani George, Secretary, ... Read more

Photo Courtesy: Prakriti Shakti CGH Earth have always been innovative in coming up with new ideas and projects, which never fail to astonish us with its grandeur and wholesomeness. After having more than two decades of experience in Ayurveda healing at their hospitals in Kalari Kovilakom and Kalari Rasayana, the CGH group started this new project, Prakriti Shakti. Prakriti Shakti is situated on the pristine hills of Panchalimedu in Kerala. With 19 rooms and a well-equipped team, Prakriti Shakti practises healing through nature, the only way to heal you from within and rejuvenate your mind, body and spirit. The treatments ... Read more

If you were waiting for that perfect holiday to the hills of Himachal Pradesh amidst snowy landscape, the time has arrived. Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand received fresh snowfall on Jan 23.  Places near to Shimla like Kufri and Narkanda have also been experiencing snowfall, turning the tourist destinations more picturesque. Temperature in Shimla fell to 2.7 degrees Celsius, after the hilly town recorded mild snowfall, while Kufri and Mashobra recorded moderate snowfall. Lower areas like Dharamsala, Palampur, Solan, Nahan, Bilaspur, Una, Hamirpur and Mandi towns received rain, bringing down the temperature considerably. Travel Alert: The national highway (NH 5) is blocked ahead ... Read more