Category: News

The Fern Hotels & Resorts has opened UK 27 The Fern – an Ecotel Hotel at Belagavi (Belgaum) in Karnataka. With its new hotel, the group now have a portfolio of 53 hotels. UK 27 The Fern is an upscale 90-room hotel situated in the heart of the city with different categories of rooms such as Winter Green, Winter Green Premium, Fern Club Studio, Fern Club Premium Studio, Hazel Suite, and Fern Club Suite. All the rooms are equipped with modern amenities suiting the requirements of a business traveller. The hotel offers dining and entertaining options including Mélange – the ... Read more

Traveller Made, world’s leading network dedicated to ultra-luxury travel, has announced the Luxury Travel Designers awards 2018 at the recently held The Essence of Luxury Travel show held recently at Barrière Hotel Le Normandy in Deauville. The winners were selected through a voting among a 3,000 strong community specialising in luxury comprising 700 hoteliers, 120 DMCs, 2,000 Travel Designers. The eight winners are Sanjay Arya of KFT Corporation from India; Christopher Wilmot-Sitwell, cazenove+loyd, United Kingdom; Kathy Stewart, Butterfield & Robinson, Canada; Panos Spiropoulos, Seez Travel, Greece; Maud Auvray, Peplum, France; Quentin Desurmont, President, Traveller Made; Reem Shaath, WhyWander , Saudi Arabia; Jackie ... Read more

With an aim to give boost to culinary tourism in Uttarakhand, the state government is planning to launch a scheme under which all “delicious ethnic pahari cuisines” will be popularised among tourists visiting the Himalayan state. “We have a unique gastronomy culture in the state, which reflects from a number of tasty and nutritious local dishes but hardly anybody outside the state knows about them. We will soon introduce a scheme, under which ethnic cuisines will be popularised among tourists to give boost to culinary tourism in the state,” he said. “The scheme will also give boost to the locals’ ... Read more

The government already had plans to have seven main Buddhist pilgrimage sites in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Now the government plans to expand the ‘Buddhist Circuit’ to other 21 states. The states included in the plan are Kerala, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir and West Bengal. The Ministry of Tourism has already identified stupas and viharas in these states and small intrastate Buddhist zones will be made around these. The Buddhist circuit is considered as India’s first trans-national tourist circuit. The plan is to promote tourism starting from Lumbini in Nepal, where Buddha was born, to the ... Read more

IndiGo is offering discounts for students above the age of 12 years on domestic flights. The customers can only avail the offer if the booking is made at least seven days in advance. For bookings made under the scheme, students are eligible for total baggage allowance of 25 kilograms. The discount is valid on both, one-way and round-trip bookings. Eligible student booking flight tickets under the scheme shall be required to furnish their valid school/ university ID card at the time of check-in at the airport. In case, the student fails to furnish their ID Card, the benefits will not be extended to the ... Read more

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has called for Swachh Bharat enthusiasts to join the summer internship to boost tourism. Modi has asked youngsters to join the Swachh Bharat Summer Internship 2018 launched by the central government. He also announced incentives, including credit point by UGC, for participants, saying it is an opportunity for those who want to make a change in the society. The Prime Minister has said this in his monthly Mann Ki Baat broadcast addressing the nation. He said three ministries of his government have launched an internship programme and it is an opportunity for those who want to work ... Read more

Goan Agriculture Minister Vijay Sardesai calls for an association with Maharashtra to explore the massive possibility of agro-tourism especially in the Konkan region. He was speaking at the opening ceremony of the International Mango Conference held at the Regional Fruit Research Station in Vengurla organized by the Dr Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth and Interdisciplinary Society for Advancements of Agriculture Sciences and Technology (ISasAT). He urged Maharashtra to follow Goa’s tourism model and in return they could share the particulars on the development in agriculture made by them. He believes this could be a major step in making Konkan region ... Read more

Wayanad is unique for its lush greenery and serene environment. Considered as one of the best tourist spots in Kerala and South India, it attracts a great number of tourists every year. However, the flow of visitors to the destination is less compared to the other famous spots in Kerala. So, the Tourism Department is preparing a tourist master plan which will improve the tourism sector of Wayanad and will lead to its overall expansion. The master plan is set in a way that will supply the needs of the destination till 2050. The first step of the master plan ... Read more

It was a surprise when Uber announced that it has plans to launch flight demonstrations of uberAIR in Dallas-Fort Worth/Frisco Texas and Los Angeles. But now, with important partnerships with key manufacturers and technology companies, the cab aggregator  is all set to make further inroads into the aviation sector. Uber plans to launch the flight demonstrations in 2020 and commercial trips by the year 2023. Uber launched its Elevate programme in October 2016. Since then, it has entered into partnerships with experienced aircraft manufacturers who are developing electric VTOL vehicles including: Embraer, Bell, Aurora Flight Sciences (now a subsidiary of Boeing), ... Read more

The Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (MDoNER) has asked the Finance Ministry to allot funds and special packages for the development of tourism in North Eastern states. The proposal for funds and package was confirmed by Department of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER)  Minister Jitendra Singh on Friday after a meeting with Union Tourism Minister Alphons Kannamthanam. As per reports, the ministers discussed about recognizing new projects stressing the development of tourism in Northeastern states. The meetings are part of the regular Inter-Ministerial discussions regarding the development of the region. Minister Jitendra Singh said that the DoNER ... Read more

As part of its expansion plans to reach out to European countries, Air India is planning to start a direct flight from Mumbai to Frankfurt from June. The airline is likely to operate thrice a week from Mumbai and depart for Frankfurt in the morning hours. Air India currently operates a regular flight on the Delhi-Frankfurt route. Air India flies directly to destinations such as Stockholm, Madrid, Vienna, Paris, London, Rome, Birmingham and Milan in Europe. The state-run airline had recently announced that they would increase the frequency between Delhi-Copenhagen to four days a week as part of its efforts to ... Read more

‘AR Rahman’ is a name that is loved all over India. The ‘Mozart of Madras’ AR Rahman will be weaving his magic on Kerala as he arrived for performing at Kochi on Saturday. The concert hosted by Flowers TV will be held at Medical Trust Institute Ground, Tripunithura, with the gates opened at 4pm. The musical feast beginning at 6.30pm is sure to thrill the audience. This is the for the first time he is performing in Kochi and the second time in Kerala, the first being ‘Jai Ho’ concert in 2009 at Kozhikode. It’s expected that Kochi will be ... Read more

Kenya is all set to benefit from a new visa regime by South Africa that is aimed at increasing intra-Africa travel. South Africa has announced it will start issuing visas on arrival for travellers from selected countries, including Kenya. The two countries have been involved in critical dialogues that developed into a diplomatic row. Kenya even threatened to introduce a new travel rule requiring South African passport holders to apply for a visa prior to traveling or transiting through the country after the latter refused to reciprocate. South African Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom has, however, said his country is in ... Read more

So, Macau tourism gets a cute face-lift. Mak Mak, the black-faced spoonbill with shades of red, yellow and blue, has been officially declared mascot of Macao Tourism after winning a contest which had more than 110 entries. Mak Mak will now be the face of Macau and will be responsible to promote Macau globally, tempting tourists to discover and know the city made of Chinese and European cultures and traditions. The aim of the contest was to find a mascot that uniquely represents Macau. Mak Mak was designed by Tou Chon Wai whose design was inspired by city’s historic whitewashed Guia ... Read more

Greece was awarded as the leading tourism destination in the Mediterranean and southeastern Europe for 2018 by SACEN International during a special ceremony recently held in Belgrade, Serbia. Hailed as the “Oscars of Tourism”, during the last 17 years the awards are given to countries and enterprises active in the field of tourism in the Mediterranean and southeastern Europe. The winners are selected in seven categories: Tourism destination; business tourism; cultural tourism; tour operator; gastronomy tourism; best enterprise in the catering sector; tourism personality of the year in the Mediterranean and southeastern Europe. Greece’s award was received by the head ... Read more