Category: India

The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts has been voted the World’s Best Hotel Brand by Travel + Leisure, USA World’s Best Awards Survey, 2020. Owned by Brookfield Asset Management, The Leela hospitality brand is best known for its cuisine and artisanal craft and is rooted in its offering of India’s rich heritage to the world. This accolade is a recognition of the brand’s consistency in pursuing excellence and an affirmation of its commitment towards curating authentic luxury experiences with the graciousness of Indian hospitality, the hotel said. In the same survey, The Leela Palace Udaipur gained top honours as the #1 Resort ... Read more

India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC), a public sector undertaking, under the aegis of the Ministry of Tourism, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, to implement preventive measures against Covid-19 infections. ITDC wants to provide a safe, hygienic and healthy environment to guests and staff across its hotels and offices and is looking to lay down a relevant protocol in association with AIIMS. To take the initiative forward an advisory board will be formed consisting of representatives from AIIMS, ITDC or representatives from any other organisation to provide inputs on designing and developing the ... Read more

Air India and Air India Express have confirmed that it will operate repatriation flights to the UAE to fetch stranded citizens from the country. The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) said that the repatriation flights will commence from July 12 and will go on till July 26. An agreement for the same has been signed between the civil aviation authorities of the two countries, putting an end to the long traumatic wait for hundreds of Indians, Khaleej Times has reported. Many are currently stranded in India since March when both the UAE and India closed their airspaces to curb the ... Read more

Uttarakhand has decided to allow tourists from other states provided they bring along a Covid-19 negative medical report taken not more than 72 hours before their arrival. The tourists will not be quarantined on their arrival in the state. However, till further orders, the Char Dham Yatra will remain closed for them as only residents of Uttarakhand are allowed to undertake this pilgrimage in a regulated manner. The State’s Tourism and Culture minister Satpal Maharaj said, “We welcome tourists from other states to the Devbhoomi. We hope each tourist will bring the Covid-19 negative test report and enjoy the beautiful ... Read more

After lifting all travel restrictions, Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board (MPTB) has introduced a new campaign Intezaar Aapka to attract tourists who would like to visit the state. The campaign is running currently on all social handles of the state tourism board. The campaign includes a series of communications about the destinations that are awaiting tourists.  Being under lockdown for more than 100 days now, travellers are eager and willing to come out of their houses with families, not far but for a short weekend getaway. Keeping such points in mind, the MPTB is promoting places of tourist interest such as Ujjain, Panchmari, Amarkantak, Bandhavgarh, ... Read more

Niraamaya Wellness Retreats, known for its bespoke wellness offerings, has devised a set of ayurvedic treatments that are being offered to boost immunity. The Niraamaya Immunity Booster Package, the hospitality firm says, is designed to help strengthen you against the various afflictions in the world today. In Ayurveda, the objective of immunity-boosting is achieved through rasayana, vajikarana and ojovardhaka therapies. Rasayana and vajikarana medications enhance the immune system by using immuno-modulatory agents of herbal origin. The Ayurvedic concepts of Vyadhi Kshematwa, Ojas and Bala are the primary focus areas, Niraamaya stated in a press release. The therapeutic strategy of this ... Read more

The Tata group is the only bidder in the fray for national carrier Air India with just a month left for the final bidding date. The Tata group, which already has a footprint in the airlines business, has shown interest in acquiring Air India, which at one point of time was under the Tata umbrella, news agency IANS has reported. The other bidders will be known in due course as globally airlines are under severe stress due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the resultant disruptions on air travel and tourism. The Tata group is likely to go ahead with the ... Read more

In an effort to help the ravaged tourism sector, India has decided to develop existing lighthouses across the country and turn them into travel destinations. The Ministry of Shipping has identified 194 lighthouses for the purpose. The ministry will also step up efforts to identify lighthouses which are more than 100 years old, news agency PTI has reported. A high-level meeting was called by Union Minister of Shipping, Mansukh Mandaviya, to take stock of the preparations to develop these lighthouses. The move to develop the selected lighthouses will not only boost tourism in these areas but also provide people an ... Read more

The Travel Agents and Tour Operators Association of Gujarat (TAG) has submitted a memorandum to the state tourism minister, Jawahar Chawda, seeking relief measures through a tourism aid package. Rannotsav and the Statue of Unity attract tourists to Gujarat and travel agents who help bring in bookings should be incentivised, they said in their submission. Tourist-friendly infrastructure including stopovers with proper amenities should be developed along the key state highways and also highways leading to tourist destinations,” mentions the representation. In their letter, travel agents sought industry status for the travel and tourism sector and suggested several measures for reviving tourism in the ... Read more

The Karnataka government on Tuesday banned all tourism activities in the Kodagu district with immediate effect till further orders, in view of rising COVID-19 cases. An order issued by the Deputy Commissioner, Anis Kanmani Joy said that all resorts and homestays are to be closed for public and tourists till further orders. The order has asked owners of homestays or resorts not to take any new bookings and ordered to cancel the future bookings and refund the money back. However, it read that if someone is already staying in those resorts they can stay till their booking period is over, ... Read more

India’s Ministry of Tourism, under the Dekho Apna Desh series, organised its 40th webinar titled “Women of India – Shifting Gears” outlining the thrills of women biking. The webinar session was held by two women bike enthusiasts of India – Jai Bharathi who is an avid motorcyclist, travel enthusiast and co-founder of MoWo (Moving Women), a social initiative encouraging women to travel on motorcycles; and Candida Louis, a biker, blogger, storyteller and motorcycle tour guide. Moderated by Rupinder Brar, additional director general, ADG, Ministry of Tourism, the hour-long session touched upon various aspects surrounding safety of women bikers of India, the ... Read more

The Haryana Tourism Corporation will run six liquor shops in Gurugram as a pilot project starting today. Officials said that it is the first time that a state government entity will be operating liquor vends in the district. The decision was taken by the state government after the tourism department suffered huge losses due to closure of tourism complexes and guest houses during the lockdown imposed to contain the spread of Covid-19. During the lockdown period, the revenue receipt of the corporation was almost nil. The Gurugram excise department had placed an advertisement on June 23 for auction of 78 ... Read more

The Hotel Association of India (HAI) on Monday appointed former Ministry of Tourism secretary, Madan Prasad Bezbaruah, as its secretary general. Bezbaruah succeeds R K Puri, a senior bureaucrat and first Director of Tourism, Railway Board, who was instrumental in the conceptualisation and launch of “Place on Wheels”. The appointment comes in the wake of the hotel industry struggling on account of the pandemic. Puneet Chhatwal, president of HAI and managing director and chief executive of the  Indian Hotels Company Limited said that it is now time to devise ways in which the hotel industry can evolve from the Covid-19 ... Read more

Two pilot wings of national carrier Air India — Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association (ICPA) and Indian Pilots’ Guild (IPG) — have written a letter to the airline’s Chairman and MD (CMD) Rajiv Bansal, mentioning steps that should be taken to secure the survival of Air India. “Presently, the management has resorted to an across the board 10% cut on allowances. While prima facie appearing to be fair, this scheme distributes the financial burden across the various categories of employees in an extremely discriminatory manner amounting to treating unequal people equally,” said the pilots in the letter. The letter suggested that ... Read more

The Hotel and Restaurant Association of Western India (HRAWI) has assured the Maharashtra government that it is safe to restart operations of hotels and restaurants. HRAWI informed Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Tourism Minister Aaditya Thackeray that it will be taking all necessary precautions while opening the sector. The association will launch a COVID-19 Food Safety Training and Certification programme by the Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI)/HRAWI and a desktop audit programme which deals with all required compliances. HRAWI has called for government’s support on certain aspects to revive the industry such as bar opening, property ... Read more