Category: India

During the month of February, 2018, a total of 2.76 lakh foreign tourists arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 1.70 lakh during the month of February, 2017 registering a growth of 62.0 per cent. During January- February 2018, a total of 5.16 lakh tourist arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 3.22 lakh during January-February 2017, registering a growth of 60.3 per cent. The percentage share of top 15 source countries availing e- Tourist Visa facilities during February, 2018 was as follows: UK (20.1 per cent), USA (10.3 per cent), France (7.0 per cent), Canada (5.5 per cent), Russian Fed (5.4 ... Read more

Forests cover one third of the Earth’s land mass, and around 1.6 billion people – including more than 2,000 indigenous cultures – depend on forests for their livelihoods, medicines, fuel, food and shelter. Forests are home to more than 80 per cent of the terrestrial species of animals, plants and insects. Yet despite all of these priceless ecological, economic, social and health benefits, global deforestation continues at an alarming rate – 13 million hectares of forest are destroyed annually. Deforestation accounts for 12 to 20 per cent of the global greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. The International Day ... Read more

Photo Courtesy: Patrika.com Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), has announced the 2018 summer edition of the much awaited Bharat Dharshan Tourist train services, scheduled to start from April and May this year. Three trains with 3 different itineraries are launched by IRCTC, that mainly focuses on pilgrims, who occasionally travel to various temples across India. The Train schedules are divided into three parts in terms of the destinations. ‘Nava Jyotirlinga Yatra’ – Starts from Renigunta on 3rd April (00.05 hours) on Tuesday and will arrive at Vijayawada on 14th. The packages include Bhimashankar (near Pune), Nageshwar (near Dwaraka), ... Read more

Ola, in association with Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), is planning to reduce the commuting difficulties of passengers through the IRCTC app. The new proposal will enable the passengers to directly book Ola taxi directly from the IRCTC app. The tie-up is first launched as a pilot project for 6 months, said IRCTC in a statement. Meanwhile, the new feature won’t provide conventional discounts offered by Ola and can choose Micro, Mini, Auto and Share options with advance 7 days booking. The new move thus hopes to reduce waiting for cabs, followed by long queues outside the railway station. ... Read more

Mobycy, India’s first dock-less bicycle sharing technology, launched 200 cycles in Pune. Tagged as ‘Pollution ka Solution’ it is the cheapest form of transportation, besides auto and cabs, and is healthy as well as eco-friendly. The bicycles are available exclusively via Mobycy App on a rent basis. Bicycles are located in various locations across Pune – EON, WTC IT Park, Symbiosis Campuses in Viman Nagar, and in Airport area. “I always wanted to launch cycles in Pune, owing to the number of students and young working professionals the city. We have deployed our smart bikes at various strategic locations, providing everyday ... Read more

As per the latest HSBC report on climatic change, which was published on Monday, India would face a huge climatic change in the near future. The Bank has accessed over 67 nations in terms of sensitivity to extreme weather, exposure to energy transition and the responding ability to face the climatic change. The report further states that the neighbouring countries of India namely Pakistan, Philippines and Bangladesh are also prone to climatic vulnerability. Among other nations, India would face the most hazardous situation that could affect agriculture due to decline in rainfall. On the other hand, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Philippines ... Read more

At Kerala’s Kunnamthanam village in Pathanamthitta district, at least one member of every family is yoga practitioner. The Central Ministry is planning to launch a similar initiative to turn at least 500 villages in the country into “Sampoorna Yoga Grams” (complete yoga village). Similar to that of Kunnamthanam village, at least a member of each family will follow the discipline. The AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Homeopathy) Ministry will announce the launch of the “Sampoorna Yoga Grams” plan as a part of the Government’s ambitious Ayushman Bharat Scheme at the three-day International Yoga Festival, which is scheduled to be held from March ... Read more

Owning to poor visibility as many as ten flights were diverted and four cancelled at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad. Of the four flights cancelled was a Muscat-bound international flight scheduled to depart at 3.30pm. Airlines, including Jet Airways, Indigo, Spice-Jet and Air India, were forced to divert and delay flights due to poor visibility on the runway. The recent flight cancellations by IndiGo and GoAir because of engine failure and the high surge in ticket rates have turned the passengers violent as most of them started venting out their anger through the social media channels.  

The Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) is planning to conduct the 64th Annual Convention at Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC) at Srinagar on 27th March. “The primary focus of this cultural extravaganza is to promote tourism in Jammu and Kashmir and reinforce its position on the tourism map as a major draw for travellers,” said Sunil Kumar, President of TAAI. The programme is scheduled for three days. “On the first day (March 27), a mini-golf tournament will be held in the morning at the Royal Springs Golf Course, followed by the inaugural event at the SKICC. On the second day, ... Read more

Indians like travelling more with an average 5.6 trips annually, significantly above the global average of 4.2 trips, according to the Global Travel Intention survey report by Visa. The report revealed that trips taken by Indians were largely contributed by business travel at 2.6 trips compared to APAC (1.6 trips) and global (1.4). The GTI study was conducted in collaboration with research and business intelligence firm ORC International and collected data over the course of 12,400 interviews in 27 markets. The study found that Indians are good spenders doling out an average of USD 2,334 against APAC’s USD 1,677. Indians plan to ... Read more

The online peer to peer cab service, Uber and Ola drivers from Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad had declared, a national wide infinite strike from Saturday midnight. The drivers collectively have put forward over 6 demands against the corporates. The advertisement from Uber and Ola are misguiding the drivers, as they fail to generate revenue to return their monthly vehicle EMI. The main problem faced by the drivers from the states, was the increasing number of cars and fewer customers, which further raised suicides among the drivers, due to the accumulation of bank debts. Frequent fine collection from ... Read more

The fifth edition of the much awaited, annual two-week-long bus trip, the Kerala Blog Express, organised by state Tourism Department has been flagged off from Mascot Hotel by Minister for Tourism Kadakampally Surendran. “The two-week journey by ‘Kerala Blog Express’ would cover all the important destinations in Kerala and would conclude the trip in Kochi on 1st April. The event is aimed to promote Kerala Tourism on a global perspective, through the views of bloggers,” said Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran. Around 30 bloggers from 28 countries – US, Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria, Romania, Venezuela and Peru, will be ... Read more

The tourist arrivals to Rajasthan recorded a double-digit growth for the second year in 2017.  The tourist arrivals increased 10.50 per cent to 45.91 million in 2017 compared to the previous year. Jaipur, Mount Abu, Pushkar, and Jaisalmer helped flourishing domestic arrivals.But inbound tourism is still an area of concern even though the trend in the last couple of years shows an initial turnaround. “The rising curve after the degrowth in 3 per cent in 2015 is a secular trend which has taken root in the sustained marketing and promotional activities the department is pursuing for the past couple of ... Read more

As part of its new promotional offer, GoAir is offering domestic flight tickets starting at an all-inclusive price of Rs 991 on select routes. The new offer is available till March 20, 2018. If you are booking the tickets via SBI Bank credit cards by using promo code GOSBI10, you can avail an extra 10 per cent discount. GoAir is offering domestic flight tickets starting from Rs. 991 from Bagdogra to Guwahati. The airline is also offering discounts on domestic flight tickets from Chennai to Kochi (starting at Rs 1,120), from Lucknow to Delhi (starting at Rs 1,205), from Chandigarh to Delhi ... Read more

The 8th Bhoj Adventures Fest kick starts in Bhopal featuring sky diving for the first time. The 16-day event at Kaliyasot ground near Pt Khushilal Ayurvedic College, Nehru Nagar Road, will give a chance for around 1000 students from various schools to learn adventurous sports in the free adventure camp. Full length bungee jumping, sky diving, inflammable rock wall, paintball arena with 12 paintball shooting rifles, hot air balloon, paramotor riding, parasailing, reverse bungee jumping, ATV bike, Burma bridge, ziplining, Rifle shooting, aeromodelling training and aeromodelling shows, Science fest and various other adventures rides will make the event lively throughout. Sky diving ... Read more