Category: News

Tourism Malaysia conducts 4-city Product Briefing Seminar

Picture for representational purpose only Tourism Malaysia, in association with Kesari, has successfully concluded their 4-city Product Briefing Seminar in Surat, Indore, Nasik and Pune. Tourism Malaysia had an overwhelming response from Kesari’s PSAs as well as other members from the travel trade fraternity in all 4 cities. Mohd Hafiz Hashim, Director, Tourism Malasyia headed the seminar along with product partners of Malaysia like Nepcare Hospitality (Legoland & Lexis), Resorts World Genting, Desaru Coast, Malindo Air & Genting Cruiseliners (Star Cruise). The Product Partners briefed and shared many attractive packages with amazing discounts and incentives with the travel agents who attended the ... Read more

J&K Tourism organises Kashmir Conclave in Mumbai

With an aim to address the safety issue in the state and to encourage the travel agents in India to continue to sell packages J&K Tourism, J&K Hoteliers Club and Maharashtra Tour Organisers’ Association (MTOA) has organised a Kashmir Conclave in Mumbai. “We recently met in Srinagar under the chairmanship of Mushtaq A Chaya. The kind of media publicity that Kashmir tourism received for the Kashmir situation, we felt that we need to come and interact with the stakeholders in the country and particularly starting with Mumbai and the surrounding areas because that is our main source market. Jammu & ... Read more

MakeMyTrip unveils new campaign with Alia Bhatt & Ranveer Singh

MakeMyTrip has launched its new ad campaign with brand ambassadors – Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt. The campaign aims to reach out to consumers with clearly defined value proposition of online hotel booking on MakeMyTrip – be it for leisure or business travel to ensure a convenient, hassle-free experience. With its popular brand ambassadors, the ad campaign delivers clear message of reliability and perks of booking hotels online over all other means of travel booking. “There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to hotel choices for Indians – whether you are travelling for business or are holidaying with family – ... Read more

Cox & Kings opens its 12th franchisee store in Delhi

Cox & Kings has opened a new franchisee store in Delhi which offers holistic travel solutions to travellers from Patel Nagar, Delhi and extended areas. The store is inaugurated by Hon’ble Mayor-North Delhi Municipal Corporation Adesh Kumar Gupta. Owned by Bharti Dhingra, presently it is Cox & Kings’ 12th franchisee store in Delhi. “Since the past few years there has been a 25 per cent growth in travel demand from Delhi. To cater to this demand, we felt the need to expand our presence here with a new franchisee store. A range of Cox & Kings travel services from group tours, ... Read more

Sharjah Flag Island hosts Kalinga Festival

The Flag Island, Sharjah’s leisure, tourist and family destination, is to host the International Festival ‘Kalinka’. The 2-day festival on 29 – 30 March 2019, will be showing spectacular cross-cultural performances as Russia and Kazakhstan combine their talents in a dazzling display of music and dance at the Flag Island’s amphitheatre, from 7:00 p.m – 11:00 p.m. The Flag Island will be providing families, children and audiences of all age groups, with a full spectrum of Eastern Europe’s most authentic styles and genres. The Festival Committee collaborates with local artists from Russian and Kazakhstan, both children and adults, aiming to ... Read more

Taj Rishikesh Resort & Spa, opens with 79 rooms

The Indian Hotels Company has opened its Taj brand in Rishikesh, Taj Rishikesh Resort & Spa, Uttarakhand. This will be the company’s third hotel in the state. “We are honoured to partner with Mehra for Taj Rishikesh Resort & Spa, an exciting new addition to IHCL’s expanding resort portfolio. With its idyllic setting and unrestricted views of the Himalayas, the resort is well positioned to tap into the growing potential of the wellness and spiritual tourism market. This is consistent with our commitment to offer global travellers’ new and unique experiences in hospitality,” said Puneet Chhatwal, Managing Director and Chief Executive ... Read more

Emirates increases flights to Durban, introduces its First Class service

Emirates has announced a seasonal increase to its existing daily service to Durban, with four additional flights a week, effective from 14 June to 04 August 2019. This is in response to growing demand for travel during this period. The airline will also be introducing its award-winning First Class experience on the additional flights. “Emirates’ decision to increase capacity is a clear indication of customer demand for our award-winning travel experience. We are committed to servicing Durban and offering our customers greater flexibility and travel choices during this busy season. The introduction of the First Class cabins will allow customers ... Read more

Entries called for WTM World Responsible Tourism Awards 2019

The WTM World Responsible Tourism Awards 2019 have been launched. This year the awards will be of six categories and a panel of expert judges will select the finalists from across the six categories. The overall winners are to be announced at WTM London, on Wednesday 6th November, 2019 as part of WTM World Responsible Tourism Day. This year’s categories are: Best for Benefitting local People Best for Wildlife & Nature Conservation Best for Reducing Plastic Waste Best for Reducing Carbon and Other Greenhouse Gasses Best for Transparent Reporting Best for Coping with Success, dealing with Overtourism “The ambition of the ... Read more

European visitors to the GCC are set to increase 29% by 2023

Arrivals from Europe to the GCC will increase 29 per cent over the period 2018 to 2023, driven by new and direct flight routes, a growing number of millennial and middle-class travellers and competitive air fares, according to the latest data released ahead of Arabian Travel Market (ATM) 2019, which takes place at Dubai World Trade Centre from 28 April – 1 May 2019. According to ATM’s research partner, Colliers International, as many as 8.3 million EU residents will travel to the GCC in 2023, an additional 1.9 million travellers when compared to 2018 arrival figures. Adding to this, figures ... Read more

Oman tourism arrivals to increase 5% annually to 2023

Tourism arrivals to Oman will increase at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 5 per cent between 2018 and 2023 to 3.5 million, according to data released ahead of Arabian Travel Market 2019 (ATM), which takes place at Dubai World Trade Centre from 28 April – 1 May 2019. Commissioned by ATM, the Colliers International data predicts the rise will be fuelled by visitors from India, who accounted for 21 per cent of total international arrivals during 2018. In addition, arrivals from the UK (9 per cent), Germany (7 per cent), Philippines (6 per cent) and the UAE (6 ... Read more

The Great Indian Travel Bazaar to be held from April 28

The Great Indian Travel Bazaar, India’s leading business networking platform for Inbound Tourism, is scheduled to be held in Rajasthan from April 28-30, 2019. Organised by the Department of Tourism, Government of Rajasthan, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), the event is expected to receive participation of more than 280 foreign tour operators from all over the world and 270 Indian Exhibitors to showcase their products. Over the period of two days more than 11,000 pre scheduled structured face to face business meetings takes place between Foreign buyers and Indian Sellers. 96000 B2B ... Read more

Ethiopian Airlines refutes baseless allegations against it

Ethiopian Airlines strongly refutes all the baseless and factually incorrect allegations written in the Washington Post dated March 21, 2019, the airlines said in a statement. All the allegations in the article are false defamations without any evidence, collected from unknown and unreliable sources and meant to divert attention from the global grounding of the B-737 MAX airplanes, it said. Ethiopian airlines operates with one of the highest global standards of quality and safety performances certified by all National, Regional and International regulators like the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority, the FAA, EASA, IOSA and ICAO and other National regulatory authorities. ... Read more

Cambodia Association of Travel Agents sign MoU with Indian firm

The Cambodia Association of Travel Agents (CATA) has signed a memorandum of understanding with India’s SRAM & MRAM to increase the flow of tourists between the countries. The MoU was signed on Wednesday by Chay Sivlin, president of CATA, and Sailesh Lachu Hiranandani, SRAM & MRAM director. SRAM & MRAM Group is a conglomerate with branches in Cambodia, South Africa, Indonesia, Malaysia, Bahrain, Georgia, and Bangladesh. It is present in a wide range of sectors, from agriculture to artificial intelligence and foreign exchange management. The agreement focuses on religious and wedding tourism with the goal of strengthening tourism ties between the ... Read more

India, Vietnam seek to attract more tourists

Fifteen major tour-operators from India and 35 Vietnamese tour operators held meetings at a tourism promotion event in HCM City. The event, titled ’Visit Incredible India in 2019’, invited Vietnamese to experience Indian culture, cuisine, bountiful nature, and religious places. “Leaders of both countries have focused on strong tourism co-operation and people-to-people relations as a key element of our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership,” said K Srikar Reddy, the Indian consul general in the city. India’s Minister for Tourism K J Alphons attended the Seventh Meeting of Tourism Ministers of ASEAN and India held in Ha Long City this January. At the meeting, the ministers ... Read more

J&K Govt to launch promotional campaign to lure visitors

The tourism industry of Kashmir has been suffering great loses post Pulwama attack owing to ‘negative publicity’. To counter this and clear apprehensions of people in other states about visiting Kashmir, the state government of Jammu and Kashmir is all set to launch a tourism promotional campaign from March 25 with an aim to lure visitors. Tourism department, along with other stakeholders including representatives of tourism trade fraternity from all the three regions—Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh, has decided to launch a sustained campaign to promote Kashmir’s tourism in other states in a meeting on March 16. The campaign will be kick ... Read more