Category: India

Golden Temple, Amritsar, Punjab As part of their Social Responsibility policy, corporates and public sector undertakings are planning to adopt 10 more tourist places to make them ‘Swach Iconic Places’ IOC, GAIL, Idea Cellular, AAI, ONGC, Hindustan Zinc Ltd., NTPC, NALCO, NHPC and SBI are the institutions came forward to adopt the tourist places. They will pick one or two each to make them clean tourist places. Shree Jagannath Temple, Puri, Odisha This programme is initiated realizing the fact that most of our famous tourist destinations attract lakhs of tourists and pilgrims every year, but the cleanliness and basic amenities ... Read more

The frequency of train number 12583/12584 Lucknow-Anand Vihar-Lucknow Double Decker Express will be changed to four from two currently in order to accommodate the increasing number of passengers. Due to this change the timing of train number 15060 Anand Vihar (T) Lal Kuan Intercity Express, as tweeted by Northen Railway on Saturday. These changes will be effective from 3rd July 2018 on wards.

Aiming to boost tourism in the state, Odisha Government is planning to launch a luxury train service in line with “Palace on Wheels.” The announcement came after a discussion between the Odisha Chief Secretary A P Padhi and Sanjiv Garg, additional member of the Railways (Tourism and Catering),  on June 28. “The railways had a word with the state government to introduce luxury trains in lines with the Palace on Wheels. Some states in the country have already started operating such luxury trains,” said Padhi. The proposed train will mainly aim at foreign tourists and local tourists who can afford ... Read more

Srinagar-Jammu highway reopened on Saturday, 30th June, after remain closed for a day due to landslide and shooting stones caused by heavy rains. Closing of the 300 Km long passage connecting Kashmir to the rest of country adversely affected the traffic, including the Amarnath pilgrimage, which started recently.

IndiGo has announced its 56th destination as Surat, and will now operate new flights connecting Surat with Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Jaipur at a starting all-inclusive fare of Rs 1,999. The new services will start from August, 2018. The carrier will be operating three new routes, including Jaipur- Varanasi, Jaipur Guwahati, and Mumbai-Bagdogra. Customers who wish to plan their travel can book tickets via IndiGo’s official website- http://goindigo.in. IndiGo has launched 7 domestic and 2 international destinations since January 2018. The budget carrier has also announced the introduction of additional daily, non-stop flights from Guwahati to cities like Delhi ... Read more

Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) said it has recommenced its white water rafting activity on Mhadei river till September this year. There will be two rafting trips held each day with the first trip starting at 9:30 am and the second at 2:30 pm. Each trip will go on for 2.5 to 3.5 hours running 10 km each. For white water rafting, people are needed to assemble at The Earthen Pot Restaurant in Valpoi. There will be a 25-minute drive and a 10-minute walk from there to the Mhadei river valley. From there, the group will be lead to the ... Read more

Photo Courtesy: Aasif Shafi/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images Heavy rainfall has delayed the commencement of the annual pilgrimage of Amarnath Yatra, the annual 60-day pilgrimage to the holy cave of Amarnath. It is reported that only 1,007 pilgrims could pay obeisance to the naturally formed ice-lingam at the holy cave shrine. It is also reported that around 1,735 pilgrims are stranded at the Nunwan base camp. The yatra was earlier suspended on Thursday, when intermittent rains forced authorities to suspend the yatra briefly on the Baltal route and ask pilgrims to stay put at the Domel camp. However, as weather improved, the ... Read more

The High Court of Uttarakhand has recently imposed a ban on all water-based adventure sports activities, including white water rafting, zip lining and paragliding, until a policy is framed to regulate these activities. In the order dated June 18, the court directed the state government to “prepare a transparent policy in this regard within a period of two weeks”. In view of this, the Union Ministry of Tourism (MoT) has urged state governments to implement the revised Guidelines for Adventure Tourism in India in letter and spirit as early as possible. MoT had recently brought out revised Guidelines for Adventure Tourism in India ... Read more

Casinos in Goa to be retained and legalized as per a recent research paper published by a scholar of south Goa. Dr. Afonso Botelho, an associate professor of Sociology at the Rosary College of Commerce and Arts. He explains in his paper that the Indian middle class tourism is in a boom stage and preserving the casinos would help the economic development of the region. However, the study specifies that sustainable strategies to be implemented to counteract possible ill-effects of casino gambling. Dr. Afonso also recommended setting up of an authority to regulate casinos in order to contain the potential ... Read more

 “The central ministry is considering receiving the foreign tourists coming to our country by assigning government representatives,” said union minister of state for tourism Alphons Kannanthanam. He was talking to the media after the road show in various American States to showcase Indian Tourism industry under the brand name ‘Incredible India’.

Next time you visit Bhavani Island, there will be two new attractions, a Bird Arena and a Sea Lion Park. The project will be carried out by Ocean Aquarium, a Turkey-based company for a total project cost of Rs 9.99 crores. While announcing the project, Executive Engineer of Bhavanai Island Tourism Corporation G Uma Maheswara Rao claimed, “There have not been such shows in the country so far and this would make Bhavani Island a global tourism hub”.

Almost 30 tourist destinations in the states will be enhanced with a cost of Rs 590.97 crores, said Cultural Affairs and Tourism Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu. Once the project is completed, Amritsar would be the centre of tourist activity, with its 11 destinations on the list. This will be done with the aid of Asian Development Bank worth Rs 344 Crores. Apart from this Rs. 96.67 Crores will be availed from the Swadesh Darshan Scheme, aiming at revamping religious and historical cities. Rs. 50 Crore will be sanctioned under the Prasad scheme for Amritsar city. The department has set aside ... Read more

Yoga Ambassador’s Tour is all set to begin on June 14th with an aim to propagate Kerala as a global destination. Around 60-plus Yoga professionals from across the world will be a part of the tour. ATTOI (Association of Tourism Trade Organizations, India), in association with Ministry of Ayush and Kerala Tourism, is organising the tour, which is first-of-its-kind in the world. Kerala is believed to be the birthplace of yoga and the ‘Muniyara dolmens’ are believed to be the evidence for this. The dolmens which are 4000-5000 years old are considered as the remains of the Neolithic Age. The ... Read more

Odisha’s Chandrabhaga beach on the Konark coast is the first beach in Asia to get the Blue Flag certification — the tag given to environment-friendly and clean beaches, equipped with amenities of international standards for tourists. It was awarded as an honour on World Environment Day on June 5. Twelve more beaches in the country are to be developed into plastic-free zones with international amenities. These beaches are being developed by the Society for Integrated Coastal Management (SICOM), an Environment Ministry’s body working for the management of coastal areas, in accordance with the Blue Flag standards. These 12 beaches include – Shivrajpur (Dwarka) Gujarat, ... Read more

Though the government has passed a legislation way back in April 2014 stating that every trekker should bring back at least 8 kgs of waste per person including their own, the Himalayas are drowning in trekker’s waste. The legislation has not reached all who travel up the hill. It is in this situation that the Green Stars is taking initiative to launch the ‘Guardians of the Himalayas’ programme on the World Environment Day this year. Green Stars Founder, Alan Bywaters has decided to launch ‘Guardians of the Himalayas’ programme in an effort to engage everyone involved in the trekking and expedition industry ... Read more