Category: India

Lemon Tree Hotels Ltd announced it will be investing Rs 850 crore in the next three years for expanding its footprint in the country. The company has earmarked a total of Rs 1,700 crore for adding 1,500 rooms, which are currently under construction and expected to be completed by financial year 2021 and spent half of the total budget. “The total capital that will be deployed in these 1,500 rooms will about Rs 1,700 crore. Of this roughly half of it has already been deployed and another half of it will be deployed near completion by FY21. All the 1500 rooms ... Read more

In its endeavor to further ease visa applications for Indians planning to visit Greece, Global Visa Center World (GVCW), the Greek visa service provider for India, said it will open its Visa Application Centres on Saturdays also. Applicants can now avail prime time visa services offered by GVCW to submit their applications at the 15 visa centres across India. There centres are in cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Goa. “These services will be available every Saturday from 10 am to 4 pm. Applicants can also collect their passports on Saturdays,” said a GVCW press release. GVCW ... Read more

The Telangana state government has constituted Manair River Front Development Corporation Limited for development of the river front along the shores of Lower Manair Dam (LMD) reservoir at Karimnagar. A Haritha hotel and convention centre on the shores of LMD reservoir is also proposed along with the project. The hotel would serve as an added advantage to encourage tourism by providing accommodation facilities. The Haritha hotel and the convention centre would be constructed at a cost of Rs 15 crore with Additional Central Assistance funds from the Union government. The foundation stone for the project would be laid by Minister ... Read more

The four-day annual summer festival in Yercaud is slated to begin on May 12. Chief Minister, Edappadi K Palaniswami, will inaugurate the event. The horticulture department is taking all measures and have begun to decorate the flowers of various varieties for the flower show. The department has already procured eye catching colourful flowers from various parts of the state and also from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. It is reported that around 22,000 rose flowers have been fetched from Uthagamandalam alone. A replica of St. George Fort, tractor, and arch towers would be the highlights of this year’s festival. Vegetables and fruits carving, ... Read more

Photo Courtesy: scroll The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has announced that it will start issuing receipts for the food items sold on trains. IRTC had issued a letter to all zonal heads on Monday instructing that a minimum 10 point-of-sale (POS) machines should be provided in each train in their respective zones. According to a Railway Board directive, it is mandatory for licensees to issue proper bills to passengers for the sale of food items. “However, it has been observed that despite the instructions issued to licensees and IRCTC zones, hand-held electronic bill printing devices are not ... Read more

Awarded Luxury Beach Villa – Pinilla, Costa Rica TripAdvisor has announced the winners of the second annual Travelers’ Choice awards for Rentals. 30 best holiday homes across the globe are awarded across three categories i.e. Luxury ($300+ USD per night), Mid-Range ($100-150 USD per night) and Affordable ($99 USD per night and below). A Cozy Designer Minerva Apartment located in downtown Rome was declared the winner in Affordable category with the rates starting as low as $66 per night. An oceanfront condo in Kauai, Hawaii tops the list in Mid-Range category. A Luxury category was topped by a Costa Rican beach ... Read more

Bird Academy has won IATA 2018 Regional top performer award at the recently concluded Global Training Partners Conference in Istanbul. “We are thrilled & thankful to have received this prestigious award from IATA. It is an acknowledgement of the dedication and hard work that has been put in by everyone at Bird Academy since its inception. With our growing portfolio of training programs and our partnership with IATA, we aim to bridge the employability gap within the aviation and aerospace sector,” said Radha Bhatia, Chairperson, Bird Group. The IATA Regional top performer award recognizes training centers for their contribution to ... Read more

Jet Airways has completed 25 years of operations from Mumbai to Ahmedabad. Jet Airways first flight, 9W321, took off on 5 May 1993 from Mumbai to Ahmedabad. “This day represents an unforgettable milestone and is a mix of emotion and elation for us all. We are both humbled and honoured by the overwhelming trust, support and appreciation received from our Guests over the years, as we fondly recall the first steps we took on what has been a truly exciting journey in bringing the Joy of Flying to millions of our Guests. It gives me great pleasure to reaffirm our commitment ... Read more

The Maharashtra government is planning to develop the ‘Mumbai-Aurangabad-Nagpur’ triangle as a tourist circuit to attract visitors. The circuit will be developed on the lines of the Jaipur-Delhi-Agra Golden Triangle tourist circuit. A detailed project report on this matter will be prepared in three months and global tenders will be floated to appoint a consultancy firm for the purpose. “The state has immense tourism potential and the need of the hour is to attract more visitors. Despite being a large state, we still lag behind in terms of tourism though we have a long coastline, tiger safaris and naturally rich tourist destinations,” ... Read more

Jharsuguda Airport has received DGCA licence and said it will commence flight operations from June 14. Air Odisha, which bagged the bid, will operate flights from Jharsuguda to Bhubaneswar, Ranchi and Raipur thereby meeting the long-standing demands for air-connectivity to the Western Odisha region. The airline will use a 21-seater dual-engine Beechcraft aircraft (1900D) to operate from Jharsuguda to the three destinations under the regional connectivity scheme. “We received Jharsuguda Airport’s commercial operations licence on May 4. We are taking a month’s time before starting the operations for marketing purposes,” said an Air Odisha spokesperson. Air Odisha will operate one flight each daily ... Read more

The government of Himachal Pradesh is planning to promote tourism at Haripurdhar in Sirmaur district. The state government will request the Central Government to include it under the Swadesh Darshan Programme. The Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur elaborated the governments plans at the closing ceremony of the three-day Mata Bhangayani Mela at Haripurdhar. Thakur said the area had immense tourism potential and basic facilities would be provided to devotees at the Mata Bhangayani temple complex. “With over 90 per cent of the state’s population residing in the rural areas, the government is keen to develop these,” he added. He said ... Read more

Uttarakhand has received the Global Star award on tourism from the Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Suresh Prabhu. The Joint Director Uttarakhand Tourism, Poonam Chand received the award at a programme held at Hotel Le Meridien in Delhi. Expressing happiness on receiving the award, the Tourism and Culture Minister Satpal Maharaj attributed it to love of the people of the state for the environment. “The dream of sustainable tourism can be achieved only by environmental protection, efficient waste management and eco tourism,” he said. “The state has been felicitated for prompting tourism while conserving bio diversity and complex ecosystem of ... Read more

The IRCTC Tourism offers an 11-night, 12-day trip covering Kullu, Manali and Manikaran. The package includes catering breakfast, lunch, evening tea, snacks and dinner. The IRCTC Tourism package includes a visit to Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, Qutab Minar, Lotus Temple, India Gate, Indira Memorial, Raj Ghat, Wagha Border, Golden Temple, Hadmiba Devi Temple, Vashisht Kund, Tibetan monastery, Snow Point (subject to vehicle permission), Rock Garden and Sukhna Lake among other places. The package excludes entrance fee, entertainment charges, Manali snow point trip transfers, laundry, medicines, tour guide services and all other things not mentioned in the package inclusions. The travellers can place ... Read more

National Rail Museum will now be open in evening also for visitors. Museum will remain open for extended hours of 6 pm to 9 pm for visitors on weekends. National Rail Museum is one of the prime tourist attractions in Delhi NCR. Spread over 11 acres at Chanakyapuri Diplomatic Enclave, National Rail Museum recreates nostalgia and romance of railways. It has fascinating collection of more than 75 real exhibits of bygone era of railways. Visitors will be able to enjoy indoor gallery, musical fountain, multicolour lighting of exhibits. Entry passage, toy train station and surrounding area has been lit with ... Read more

Global timeshare firm RCI has recently published a report which studied holiday and vacation patterns of 50,000 RCI members in India, and found that there was a 13 per cent growth in the number of Indians taking vacations abroad in 2017-18. The report,  found that the US was the most preferred destination in 2017-18 while for those headed for Europe, Switzerland and Spain were the top choices. The report also said that there is an 8 per cent growth in domestic travel, with Goa being the preferred choice in 2017-18, followed by Coorg and Munnar. Among the South-East Asian countries, the top picks were ... Read more