Category: News

The 9th annual Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Carnival will be held from 22 to 24 June. Organised by the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) in partnership with the Hong Kong China Dragon Boat Association (HKCDBA), the dragon boat races will be held on Victoria Harbour. The event is expected to attract more than 4,500 paddlers from 165 local and international teams. The festival has its origins in a tragedy that occurred 2,000 years ago. Dragon Boat Festival, also known as Tuen Ng Festival, commemorates the death of Qu Yuan, a Chinese national hero. In a protest against corrupt rulers, Qu drowned ... Read more

In a move to attract international tourists and boost the tourism prospective of Odisha, the state government plans to offer special tour packages to players, delegates and tourists during the men’s hockey world cup which is scheduled to be in November. The tourism department has been given the responsibility for framing the tour packages, which would be different from the ones that are being currently offered to the tourists. The idea was suggested by government’s core committee after reviewing the preparations made for hosting the world cup. The reports suggest that the packages will be designed in such a way ... Read more

The Myanmar Department of Meteorology and Hydrology has raised a red alert for flash floods, landslides and storm surges as a tropical depression makes landfall. The Met department has warned that a deep depression is occurring over middle-east part of the Bay of Bengal and the cyclone storm will land in coastal areas of Rakhine state within the next 12 hours. Strong winds of up to 80 kilometres per hour could hit some coastal areas, and storm surges as high as 16 feet could pummel the shores, it said. The bad weather the country is experiencing is caused by a strong ... Read more

In a move to promote Kerala Ayurveda globally and within India, Ayurveda Hospitals, Ayurveda Resorts, Ayurveda Centre, Clinics, Ayurveda Medicine Drug Manufacturers, Ayurveda Medical Institutions have come together to form ‘Ayurveda Promotion Society’. The main aim of the society is to promote Ayurveda under one platform with proper guidance and directives, thereby becoming a global brand of the state. The society will carry out the initiative with the support of Ayush, Health Ministry, Tourism Ministry, Industries Ministry and Education Ministry. The society aims at Ayurveda promotion by conducting seminars, workshops, exhibitions, tours, study classes, through magazines etc. The society will ... Read more

Ireland has registered more than 7.3 per cent growth during the January-April period, around 191,100 additional overseas arrivals when compared with the first four months of 2017. “North America continues to perform extremely well – with arrivals up +13.6 per cent, an extra 61,100 US and Canadian visitors. We’ve also seen excellent results from Mainland Europe, up over +12 per cent on January-April last year, with particularly strong performances from Germany (+24.3 per cent) and Italy (+21.9 per cent). Tourism Ireland has prioritised Mainland Europe and North America, as markets which offer a strong return on investment, in terms of holiday ... Read more

It is recently found that a coffin at the University of Sydney’s Nicholson Museum, which was thought to be empty all these years had a 2,500-year-old Egyptian mummy inside it. The coffin was originally bought from an antiquity market in Egypt back in 1858, by Sir Charles Nicholson, one of the first chancellors at the University of Sydney. “We expected a few bandages or maybe a couple of bones, but when we took the lid off we were just astonished by what we had found. The coffin was made for a lady called Mer-neith-ites and we know that she lived in Egypt ... Read more

Happy news for Elephantidae lovers and friends! Thailand’s Happy Elephant Care Valley is set to proceed on a milestone agreement in an evolution to become a truly elephant-friendly venue. This will result in end of all interaction between tourists and elephants at the camp, in order to gratify the mounting demand for responsible elephant experiences. This change at the camp will let tourists experience the elephants free to behave as they would in the wild; roam the valley, bath in mud, dust, water or feeding at a safe distance. Till recently, the tourists had the opportunity for close communication with ... Read more

The tier-two cities like Warangal and Karimnagar have become top preferred destinations for the domestic tourists as the number of tourists has increased considerably after the formation of new state Telangana. As per the statistics of authorities, the number of tourists to Warangal has surged substantially over the last two years. Around 2 crore tourists visited Warangal in last four years; Karimnagar had the second most tourists with the numbers touching more than 1 crore, succeeded by Mahbubnagar with more 90 lakh tourists, Khammam with more than 70 lakh and Nalgonda with 64 lakh. The state capital Hyderabad used to ... Read more

The much awaited Himalayan Travel Mart (HTM) 2018, a mega tourism event, is scheduled to be held at Kathmandu in Nepal on June 1. The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Government of Nepal in association with Nepal Tourism Board, Pacific Asia Travel Association – Nepal Chapter and Nepal Airlines, is organising the 3-day event. PATA Nepal said that preparations have been completed to host the three-day event that aims to re-define adventure tourism in Nepal. “HTM 2018 is Nepal’s international travel trade show and a business-to-business event for the Himalayan tourism industry, which draws global buyers, Himalayan sellers, travel bloggers, ... Read more

With an aim to attract more tourists, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is all set to host a two-day Asia music festival on August 18 in southern Thai island of Koh Samui. The music festival, co-organized by TAT, Singaporean company IMC Live Group and Koh Samui Municipality, will showcase different genres and tongues of music from all across Asia over the weekend. It will also showcase Thailand’s flavorful music scene. The festival is a non-ticketed event and festival-goers will be treated to a weekend of solid music performances and enjoy food and beverage options in the festival market, the tourism ... Read more

China has the most number of outbound travellers these days. However, China is also aiming at enticing more tourists to the country too. Lot of initiatives are being taken for that and the latest to the list is the launch of Anhui tourism promotion center in New York on Monday. Organized and managed by Anhui Provincial Commission of Tourism Development, the center will offer travellers with multiple tourist routes like ‘Ancient Anhui Tour’, ‘Anhui Cultural Tour’ and ‘Mt. Huangshan Tour’. Anhui, located at eastern part of China, has an array of prime picturesque spots and has attracted large number of ... Read more

Around half a million tourists have visited the Maldives in the first quarter of this year. Chinese tourists contributed to the growth in arrivals. A total of 539,816 travelers arrived between January and April, registering a 12.7 per cent increase from last year’s 478,827 tourists who arrived during the same period. According to statistics released, a total of 87,632 Chinese travelers have visited Maldives between January and April, which is up 16 per cent, followed by Italy which saw a 9 per cent growth, both Britain and Germany with a 8 per cent growth and Russia with a 6 per ... Read more

As per the recent statistics by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), tourist arrivals for the first quarter of the current year were up by 7.1 per cent compared with the same period last year. Around 17.4 million visitors arrived last year and their spending hit $26.8 billion. “The winds are in our favour because the outbound growth potential in the Asia-Pacific is the highest in the world. In our backyard, there is going to be growth in travel from a growing Asian middle class,” said STB chief executive Lionel Yeo. “While there is a higher demand for travel in the region, there has also ... Read more

The statistics released by West Midlands Growth Company and research body Global Tourism Solutions (GTS) shows that the city of Birmingham had a boom in tourism sector recording a tourist footfall of 41.8 million in 2017. The total expenditure of the tourists amounted to £7.1 billion, registering a growth of 9 per cent in a year. The average hotel occupancy recorded 75 per cent, same as that in 2016. The RevPAR (revenue per available room) recorded £51 in value, marking the highest figure ever recorded. The growth in tourism industry has led to a rise in number of jobs from ... Read more

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has announced the country will “very soon” follow Rwanda’s example allowing all Africans to travel to the country without visa. The policy will open up the east African country to African visitors, and it will boost tourism. The plan was announced during a state banquet hosted by Prime Minister Abiy for Rwandan President Paul Kagame who is in Ethiopia on a three-day official visit. The Prime Minister did not give any specific details of the plan to allow visa free travel to all Africans. As part of the visit, President Kagame also visited Hawassa Industrial Park which ... Read more