Category: India

Air India on Sunday announced that it will operate 14 more flights under the Vande Bharat Mission for the evacuation of Indians stranded in the United Kingdom. The flights will be scheduled between July 15 to 24. Bookings will open today from 2 pm on the Air India website. Passengers may also visit the airport or city booking offices, the airlines tweeted. Air India flights to London are scheduled from several cities in India such as Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Cochin, Hyderabad, Goa, Kolkata, Vijayawada and Amritsar. Anurag Srivastava, an external affairs ministry spokesperson, announced that 637 international flights ... Read more

The Delhi High Court has asked SoftBank-backed Oyo Hotels & Homes to file an affidavit in the court in two weeks on its unencumbered assets. The July 7 order came in a case filed by hospitality company Anam Datsec, which has accused Oyo of non-payment of dues for its Golden Sands property at Calangute in Goa and sought more than Rs 8 crore in damages. Anam Datsec claimed that Oyo had agreed to pay Rs 14 lakh a month as the minimum guaranteed amount when it entered into a management services agreement with the company for the property in 2018. ... Read more

India’s national carrier Air India will connect Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai with Singapore, Canada and Germany. Bookings for the same will open later today. Here are the details: Air India will operate four additional flights from July 19 to July 22 connecting Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai with Singapore. Bookings will open today at 12 noon. Schedule: Bengaluru-Singapore-Bengaluru: July 19Mumbai-Singapore-Mumbai: July 20Chennai-Singapore-Chennai: July 21Delhi-Singapore-Delhi: July 22 India-Germany Air India will operate two additional flights on July 21 and July 23 connecting Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kochi with Frankfurt, Germany. Bookings will open today from 2 pm. Schedule ... Read more

In an effort to aid tourism in the state and revive the sector amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Gujarat government is looking to promote the Statue of Unity and the area surrounding the site as a place for destination weddings. The authorities have decided to map the Statue of Unity Tent City 1 as a wedding venue. Authorities have been quoted by The Indian Express as saying that the picturesque location that also has an open-to-sky setting with Narmada Dam in its backdrop makes Statue of Unity Tent City 1 a compelling location for people looking for destination weddings. The ... Read more

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that the Travancore royal family has the shebait rights over the  management of Thiruvananthapuram’s iconic Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple. The shebait is like the trustee of a religious endowment, as per the traditions of maintaining and preserving the idol and property. The Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple is one of India’s richest temples, which draws thousands of tourists to Thiruvananthapuram annually. It’s a major fixture in South India’s religious tourism circuit. In its verdict, the apex court said that death will not affect the rights of shebaitship of the family over the deity, and it will continue according ... Read more

Tourism News Live, India’s premier travel and tourism portal, is now read in 175 countries as it continues to expand its media platform highlighting the concerns and aspirations of the industry both in India and overseas destinations. While India continues to be the focal point of coverage, it has made significant inroads into the USA, Middle East, South-East Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia and South America. Indian readers constitute 61.7% of the readership but followers in the United States and UAE are growing at a fast rate as well. While readers in the US represent 12.9% of the total readership, UAE contributes 6.6%. There ... Read more

The fourth cycle of the All India Tiger Estimation 2018, results of which were declared to the nation on Global Tiger Day last year by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has entered the Guinness World Record for being the world’s largest camera trap wildlife survey.            Terming this achievement a great moment, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said that India has fulfilled its resolve to double the tiger numbers four years ahead of target. The country now has an estimated 2967 tigers as per the latest census. With this number, India is home to nearly 75% of the global tiger population and has ... Read more

Around 700 tourists have visited Himachal Pradesh since the state government allowed entry of tourists almost a week ago. The healthy tourist inflow has happened despite the majority of hotel owners and their associations in the state not wanting tourists from other states to enter Himachal. Tourism and civil aviation secretary Devesh Kumar said that the standard operating procedure issued by the department was prepared after examining SOPs of other states who have opened their borders for tourism. Tourism director Yunus said that officials are verifying the documents and registration of tourists at the entry points to the state and they are ... Read more

Ladakh, the roof of the world, is home to breath-taking Himalayan landscapes and an ancient Buddhist culture living in harmony with nature for over a thousand years. A traveller’s paradise, Ladakh attracts people from far and wide for its awe-inspiring nature, rural simplicity and spiritual intensity. The speakers in the Dekho Apna Desh webinar conducted by the Ministry of Tourism – Paras Loomba and Jaideep Bansal from Global Himalayan Expedition – took the viewers on a pictorial journey to the land of high passes and showcased the unexplored areas of Ladakh. They discussed Ladakh’s traditional homestays and focused upon the ... Read more

The world is going through unprecedented times and it has become imperative to keep the travel industry as well as individual minds engaged for revival. As an initiative to celebrate India’s diverse touristic and cultural landscape, the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India has taken the initiative of organising a series of Webinars under the overall theme of ‘Dekho Apna Desh’. The platform is connecting a large number of tourism enthusiasts to hear and watch experts talking about their region, city, tradition, culture, heritage, and history. As part of this series, the Ministry of Tourism presented a webinar on ‘Photo-walking ... Read more

The Dekho Apna Desh webinar series titled ‘Uttarakhand Simply Heaven’ highlighted the potential of tourism in Uttarakhand’s two regions namely Kedar Khand (Garhwal Region) and Manu Khand (Kumaon Region) and touched upon popular destination like Gangotri, Yamunotri, Badrinath, Kedarnath, Hemkhund Sahib and the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Valley of Flowers. The webinar session was presented by Pushpesh Pant, an eminent scholar, food historian and an expert in international relations, Ganesh Saili, a renowned author, noted photographer and an authority on the history of Uttarakhand and Shashank Pandey, a certified outbound trainer, MD of Aspen Adventures, Rishikesh. The session was ... Read more

India’s tourism minister Prahlad Singh Patel has said there won’t be any need to wait for long periods of time, to secure permission to shoot films in any of the monuments of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Patel said that film makers will get permission for shooting within 3 weeks of applying online on the ASI website (asiegov.gov.in/login).  He further said that this move is aimed at not only promoting  film shooting within India, but will also increase the popularity of Indian monuments. Patel urged the film industry to shoot at less popular ASI monuments along with known ones, ... Read more

Punjab’s Tourism Minister Charanjit Singh Channi has directed the officials of the department to complete all projects on time, after assessing the situation along with the concerned officials. Principal Secretary Tourism & Cultural Affairs Hussan Lal, IAS, along with Director, Tourism and Cultural Affairs Kanwalpreet Kaur Brar held a review meeting to discuss the deadlines regarding completion of all projects. During the meeting the officials inspected the work on the Medal Gallery & Coin Museum being developed at Mohindra Kothi, Patiala, which is being done at an approximate cost of Rs. 8.95 crores with the help of the Asian Development ... Read more

Demand for charter flights from tier-2 cities is encouraging, IndiGo CEO Ronojoy Dutta has said. At present, the country’s largest airline is operating at 30% of its capacity, as restrictions by state governments on travel is hurting traffic. “The demand shows that we will reach 80% of our capacity by early next year,” Dutta said while addressing a webinar. “Our charter flights from the Middle East are good. And there is growth in smaller cities,” Dutta said. He said the airline’s passenger loads are decent, but added that in a route like Delhi-Ranchi, one leg may have 15 passengers, and ... Read more

India’s national carrier Air India has started ticket bookings for five new flights from Dubai and Sharjah, scheduled to operate between July 11-14. The first of these flights, under the Vande Bharat Mission, will leave for Delhi from Dubai at 4 pm on Saturday. The rest of the flights will be from Sharjah. On Sunday, there will be two flights. Flight AI0904 will depart for Indore at 10.25am and AI1976 to Srinagar will depart at 11.40am. On July 13, there will be a flight to Chandigarh at 10.25am, followed by one to Ahmedabad on July 14. Announcing the schedule on ... Read more