Category: News

The Hashers, a cross border community association in Kabale-Uganda, has launched a new campaign aimed at promoting tourism and trade between Uganda and Rwanda. About 50 members of Kabale hashers group, together with 52 members from Rwanda-Kigaly walkers group, launched the joint group to promote community tourism and healthy living on Sunday, 1st July 2018 Mount Muhavura, on the border between Rwanda and Uganda. Jean Nyamuninga, the president of Rwanda-Kigali walkers group, along with the leader of Ugandan group Richard Shyaka, said that the group shall help in enhancing cross border trade in the spirit of the East African Community. ... Read more

After the rain havoc halting the Amarnath Yathra for the past two days, it restarted again with the sixth batch of 3,489 pilgrims leaving from Jammu today. The pilgrims, including 774 women and 237 sadhus, are headed to the 3,888-metre-high cave shrine in south Kashmir Himalayas, amid tight security. The pilgrims left for the cave shrine in 114 vehicles from the Bhagwati Nagar base camp at 2:30 am. So far, 36,366 pilgrims have visited the shrine by taking the 36-km Pahalgam track in Anantnag and 12-km Baltal route in Ganderbal since the commencement of the annual 60-day pilgrimage on June 28. ... Read more

Image for representative purpose only Airports in Kerala to have ‘Fly Buses’, to carry passengers from the airports to nearby cities. The 42-seater air conditioned bus service by Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) will operate from Thiruvananthapuram, Cochin and Karipur International airports to the nearest cities. The Minister for Transport, A K Saseendran will inaugurate the service at Thiruvananthapuram Airport today by 4.30 pm. The Fly Bus will operate every 45 minutes round the clock from the premier airport of the State in the capital to East Fort and Thampanoor, every 30 minutes from Cochin international airport in Nedumbaserry ... Read more

The new, improved infrastructure facilities and air connectivity to the North-East have made it a tourist hotspot among travellers, and is expected to grow by 10-12 per cent in 2019. “The bookings for North-east have gone up by 18 per cent as compared to the same period (April-June) last year. Tourism in the North-east region is expected to grow by at least 10-12 per cent even in the next year,” Cox & King’s Head, Relationships, Karan Anand told PTI. Improved air facilities is considered as one of the prime reasons for an increase in tourists in the eight northeast states. “Air connectivity ... Read more

With an aim to increase the domestic tourist inflow to the state by 50 per cent by 2021, the Kerala Tourism Department is planning to have a five-month promotional campaign in nine states. The outbreak of Nipah virus has adversely affected the tourism industry of Kerala in recent months. The five-month promotional drive is to overcome this situation and attract more tourists to the Gods Own Country. Fifteen B2B meetings are scheduled between July and November. The first phase of the campaign will commence with a Travel and Tourism Fair in Kolkata (West Bengal) from July 6-8, followed by tourism ... Read more

The Kerala Tourism department is preparing a master plan for the comprehensive development of Kovalam. The tourism minister, Kadakampally Surendran has informed that necessary infrastructure facilities will be set up at Kovalam before the next tourism season. The new facilities include toilets, parking facility, waste management system, safety measures and street lighting at a cost of Rs 24 lakh. The department has already spent for lighting facilities. Rs 70 lakh was sanctioned for the renovation of the footpath. The government is taking necessary steps to develop various tourist destinations in the capital city of Thiruvananthapuram. Blueprint for the heritage street project at Chalai is ... Read more

Lalitha Mahal Palace Hotel, Mysuru As part of the initiatives taken by Karnataka Tourism Ministry for the overall development of tourism industry in Mysuru, an innovative programme named ‘Tent Tourism’ is recently announced by the Tourism Minister. The idea behind this project is to make Mysuru an ideal place for tourists to stay overnight, than a one-day picnic destination. Tents in Rann Utsav – Kutch, Gujarat Increasing demand for eco and adventure tourism where tourists prefer staying in tents instead of holidaying in permanent concrete structures made the Mysuru tourism authorities think differently to cater the demands of the tourists. ... Read more

Over 1500 pilgrims along the route of Kailash Mansarover Yatra in Nepal are stuck in Nepal due to bad weather. About 525 pilgrims are stranded in Simikot, 550 are in Hilsa and another 500 more in Tibet side, an official statement by the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu said. Indian Embassy has issued helpline numbers for pilgrims and their family members. The pilgrims have been stranded after heavy rains caused landslips at several locations. The embassy said that the stranded pilgrims are being given proper medical attention and arrangements have been made to ensure the availability of food and water. “The Indian Embassy in Kathmandu ... Read more

Nagaland Tourism Department has organized a one-day workshop on “Tour guide” in Kohima on June 25. Fifty-three tour guides from all over Nagaland have participated in the event. Neteno Yhoshu,Ddirectorate of Tourism stated in a press release that, the first resource person Richard Belho, architect from ‘Zynorique Initiatives ’ spoke about the career prospects in the tourism industry. Discussing the economic system, he stated that Nagas needed to work out a business ecosystem and systematic procedures for a scenario where successful businesses can be operated. Zynorique Initiatives is a registered society under the Govt. of Nagaland. The primary objective is ... Read more

Considering the breeding season for wild animals, especially the tigers, Ranthambore National Park and Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajastan  will be partially closed this monsoon, i.e., from July 1 to September 30. However, Ranthambore safari in zone 6 to 10 will be opened for tourists same as in the past years. Similarly, Alwar’s buffer zone will also be open during this period. While talking about the closure of the park, the Chief conservator of forests at Alwar, Gobind Sagar Bhardwaj, said, “The Park will remain closed for three months. However, pilgrims visiting Pandupol temple will be allowed to enter inside ... Read more

Prominent tourist place of Mysore, the Brindavan Garden will be renovated, said the Sericulture and Tourism Minister Sa Ra Mahesh. He was interacting with reporters during a programme organized by Mysuru District Journalists Association on Friday, 29th June 2018. He said the design and structure of the Brindavan Garden has been obsolete and there have not been any changes since its launch, except for the dancing fountain.  He reiterated the need of redesigning and revamping of the garden. The tourism department also plans other innovative programmes for the development of tourism in Mysuru. The main intention is to make Mysore ... Read more

Travelling of Malaysians to India will be expensive as the India’s eVisa charges increased from RM200 (Rs 3,400) to RM 320 (Rs 5,440), and is valid for four months. The new charges came into being on June 25 2018; scraping the cheaper six-month visa that was priced at RM194.56 (Rs 3,308). Over-the-counter visas are now priced at RM462.56 (Rs 7,865), excluding service charges. Validity is one year. The Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) member Gopalan Mariappan said the price increase will adversely affect the inflow of Malaysian tourists to India “The stoppage of the cheaper six-month visa ... Read more

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.

Tourism stakeholders of north Bengal and Nepal have decided to promote both regions as an integrated tourism circuit. The decision was made at the Third Indo-Nepal Friendship Meet that was organised by the Nepal Consulate General office in Calcutta and Association for Conservation & Tourism (ACT) in Mirik. “As the landscape is contiguous, we want the tourism sector both in north Bengal and eastern Nepal to flourish. A joint effort to promote the region as an integrated circuit can help in this growth,” said Raj Basu, a representative of ACT. As part of the meet, it was decided that a team ... Read more