Category: News

The Roman Amphitheatre in Plovdiv Bulgaria has two major tourist destinations, which add to the tourism potential of the country – Plovdiv and Varna. Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s second-largest city, has got the European Capitals of Culture award for the year 2019, sharing with Matera, Italy whereas Varna is the maritime capital of Bulgaria. Plodiv is one among the oldest continually inhabited cities in Europe, established around the 6th century BC and a tourist destination, which is in its growth path. Currently it is a modern and vibrant city, which serves as the administrative, academic, economic, commercial and transportation centre of the south-central ... Read more

Great news for FIFA 2018 Fan ID holders! Holders of FIFA fan ID will be granted visa-free entry to Russia until the end of this year. Furthermore, family members and friends of the cardholders travelling with them may also be exempted from the requirement of visa to enter the country. This was declared by the Russian President, Putin at a meeting with World Cup volunteers, as reported by the Russian news agency TASS. The bill is now with the Federal Assembly for their consideration. The legislation comes as part of Russia’s desire to increase tourist inflow, said Olga Golodets, Deputy ... Read more

Skål International, Bombay Club (144) at its 62nd Annual General Meeting on July 18, 2018, elected Kuldeep Bhartee, Area Manager – West, ITC Hotels and General Manager, ITC Maratha as its President unopposed. The meeting, held at West End Hotel in Mumbai, was well attended by more than 80 members. The new committee members of Skål Club of Bombay are Sunil Chopra (Vice President), Vaibhav Kedia (Vice President), Sunil Acharya (Hon. Secretary), Kunal Sampat (Hon. Jt. Secretary) and Arvind Tandon (Hon. Treasurer). Other committee members of the Club include Suresh Gulrajani, Rosita Haribal, Jyot Jhaveri, Vinayakk Laud and Sujata Mariwala, ... Read more

The holy annual Amarnath Yatra has been suspended on Baltal route due to inclement weather conditions. The route of Amarnath Yatra from Baltal has become slippery and muddy due to continuous rain last night. The yatra on Phalgam route, however, is unaffected and is going on as per schedule. An organization providing free food, night shelter and blankets to the Amarnath yatra pilgrims suggested to Shrine board headed by Jammu and Kashmir Governor NN Vohra, the Shri Amarnathji Barfani Langer Organisation, to limit the annual pilgrimage to 30 days. The 60-day long annual yatra to the holy cave shrine of Amarnath in ... Read more

The Mumbai-Goa cruise ferry service, which is set to start after the monsoon, will also have its halts in towns like Ratnagiri, Malvan, Vijaydurg and Raigad. The Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT), the executing authority of the project has already appointed an operator who will run the cruise services. Maharashtra Maritime Board (MMB) is currently working on the feasibility of having additional jetties for the cruise service. “The jetties can be used by all the vessels, and are being constructed as part of coastal tourism plan which means it will also boost tourist activities in the Konkan region. The jetties are ... Read more

Anjnapura Dam, Shikaripur, Shimoga District, Karnataka The Anjanapura dam garden in the Shikaripur Taluk of Shimoga to become one the favourite tourist attractions of Karnataka in the coming days. The dam was declared a public tourist place only recently.  The State government had sanctioned Rs 6 crore to develop a garden in the vicinity of the dam area. Cement sculptures of Dollu Kunitha artistes at Anjanapura dam garden (Photo Courtesy: Hindu) The garden will be set up on a 6.5 acre land and has extensive lawns, a music fountain, pergola, walking path and fruit-bearing trees. The Esur freedom struggle – ... Read more

Minister of Tourism for Government of Uttarakhand, Satpal Maharaj has sought support of Central Tourism Ministry to develop new tourism circuits around Buddhist travel and destinations associated with Ramayana and Mahabharata in the state. Satpal Maharaj called on Union Tourism Minister, KJ Alphons in Delhi to seek support for the state and thank him for financial support of Rs 85 crore under Swadesh Darshan and PRASAD which are currently under progress in the state. Maharaj said that projects worth Rs 65 crore have already been completed in the state. The minister said that a marathon meeting is being scheduled in ... Read more

Sony has introduced world’s first 48MP sensor that will debut in September this year with a unit price of 3,000 yen ($27 or a little over Rs 1,800) each. The stacked CMOS image sensor “IMX586” features a pixel count of 48 effective megapixels and an ultra-compact pixel size of 0.8-micron pixels, the company said in a blog post. “These days, high-end smartphone models require even greater imaging quality from their cameras. The new Sony sensor features 48 effective megapixels — a pixel count which rivals that of high-performance SLR cameras, making it possible to capture beautiful, high-resolution images even with ... Read more

As per the first six months’ reports of 2018 by the Immigration Department of Nepal, almost one lakh Indians visited the Himalayan Nation, out of the total 5,20,000 foreign tourists. Chinese came second with 71,379 visitors, while US became third 43,816 visitors during the six months. The total number of foreign visitors during this period shows an increase of 13 per cent, when compared to the same period in the previous year. Other foreigners who visited Nepal were from South Asia and European countries, including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden etc. “The number of foreign ... Read more

As part of the tourism development campaigns during the period between September and November 2018, Kerala tourism will take part in six trade fairs and will organize 15 B2B meets with focus on Russia, Japan and China. Kerala Tourism will participate in trade fairs in London, PATA, Moscow, Tokyo, Singapore and in Shanghai Mostly tour operators and hoteliers are the participants of tourism road shows, however this time approved Ayurveda centers will also take part in the meets in Japan and Russia. The tourism department is also planning to have more intensive promotional activities in these countries, as the number ... Read more

Bernadette Romulo Puyat, Secretary, Philippines Tourism  As per the statistics of the Philippines Department of Tourism (DOT), foreign visitor arrivals reached an all-time high of 3.7 million for the first half of 2018. In a statement, the DOT said inbound tourists from January to June this year rose by 10.4 per cent when compared to the 3.3 million arrivals recorded in the same period in 2017. Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat said “Our continuous marketing promotions, belligerent actions to create new air routes and develop new tourism products, travel facilitation, and confidence in tourism investments boosted the industry and resulted ... Read more

At a time when most of the states are taking the help of private channels and medium to promote their destination, Meghalaya is all set to tie up with the national channel Doordarshan to promote tourist places and cultural centres in the state. Following the unrest in the city last month over the Sweepers’ Lane issue, the state highly need a promotion about the destination at different levels. “We lost many tourists in June due to the unrest and we want to make up for the losses,” said Metbah Lyngdoh, Tourism Minister. The minister, along with Chief Minister Conrad Sangma ... Read more

Pachmarhi – Pandava Caves This year’s monsoon season has been in favour of the tourism industry of Madhya Pradesh. As per Hariranjan Rao, Principal Secretary, Madhya Pradesh State Tourism Development Corporation (MPSTDC), there has been an increase of 15 per cent in hotel bookings in this season. Other than the favourite Pachmarhi, tourists are opting for other destinations like Raneh falls in Chhatarpur, Patalpani and Mandu in Indore etc. “Most of the hotels remain packed at weekends since the beginning of the monsoon the average occupancy of MPSTDC properties shown about 65 per cent,” said Rao. Rane Falls Earlier, the ... Read more

Inland Waterways Authority of India is planning to construct a Rs 169.59 crore multi-modal terminal (MMT) at Varanasi. The MMT built under Jal Marg Vikas project is set to be completed by November 2018, which would be a major landmark for the project. The construction of the Rs 280. 90 crore MMT at Sahibganj is to be completed by May 2019, and the one at Haldia, being constructed at a cost of Rs 517.36 crore, is scheduled to be completed by December 2019. Jal Marg Vikas is a Rs 5,369 crore World Bank aided project on National Waterway 1 (River ... Read more

Considering the footfall of tourists, Andhra Pradesh Tourism Department (APTD) is expecting one lakh room accommodation will be required by 2025. Andhra Pradesh has been actively promoting and exploring the possibilities of tourism in the state since the bifurcation. With APTD being aggressively marketing the tourism activities, the state climbed from fifth place to third this year. “About nine crore tourists visited the state in 2014 and it has now reached 15.37 crore in the state,” said Mukhesh Kumar Meena, Secretary, Andhra Pradesh Tourism Department. Andhra Pradesh, with about 975-km long coastline with plenty of tourist attractions, is aiming to reach number ... Read more