Category: News

IRCTC comes up with a striking escapade for everyone on this summer. The IRCTC tourism is offering a 6D/7N air package which will have the beautiful destinations Chandigarh, Shimla and Manali. The trip that starts on May 26th will include stays at deluxe hotels, breakfast, dinner and return airfare on Air India, as reported by IRCTC Tourism on their website. The starting fare of package is priced at Rs 32,937 per person. This rate is for triple occupancy, and the rates of double and single occupancy are priced at Rs 34,710 and Rs 45,660 per person respectively. Kufri, Shimla The ... Read more

The Tourism Authority of Thailand, Mumbai and New Delhi, recently organised the 6th edition of Indian wedding Symposium and B2B session 2018 exclusively for the Indian market. Top 8 wedding planners from South and West of India and 10 wedding planners with 1 media from North and East of India were hosted in Thailand from April 23-27, 2018. The itinerary included the scenic route of Phuket-Khao Lak-Krabi-Bangkok. During the trip, the group visited numerous beautiful hotels in these destinations to evaluate their potential as ideal venues for grand Indian weddings. The trip concluded in Bangkok with a Wedding Planners’ Symposium ... Read more

Travellers from Russia, China and Iran can now enter the Sultanate of Oman without a pre-entry tourist visa. The move is an extension of new visa policy introduced by Oman in March including the new online application process. By this Oman joined its neighbour UAE in relaxing the visa policies for travellers from Russia and China in the recent years. The Sultanate had already facilitated visa on arrival for travellers from 68 countries including USA, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom and the European Union’s Schengen area. Russia, China and Iran are the latest to join the list. Since UAE granted visa ... Read more

As a tourist, you might have got stranded in the midst of the city you are visiting not knowing what to do, where to go, how to proceed etc. The risk is more if it is a bustling destination like that of Varanasi. But, you will not be stranded any more as the tourism department is launching a 24-hour helpline to answer all your queries related to the city. All you need to do is call on the 24-hour helpline. The state tourism department is yet to officially launch the helpline, but a trial of the helpline 18601801364 is underway. “The ... Read more

Philippine President Rodrigo Dutetre has named Agriculture Undersecretary Bernadette Puyat as the new secretary of the Department of Tourism (DOT) a day after he fired Wanda Teo over corruption allegations. Duterte made the appointment on Tuesday night. Duterte’s aide Christopher Go confirmed Puyat’s appointment late Tuesday. Puyat was undersecretary for administration, agribusiness and marketing, and regional engagement at the Department of Agriculture before her appointment as tourism secretary. Teo is the latest senior government official that Duterte fired over corruption charges.  The tourism department has been burdened by corruption issues and the impact of the six-month closure of Boracay island, ... Read more

Belarus As said by Belarusian parliament speaker Mikhail Myasnikovich, Belarus and China will be signing an agreement for a 30-day visa-free policy. The signing of this policy will be one of the major events of the Year of Tourism of Belarus in China, which will benefit in promoting the development of tourism. As part of the Year of Tourism, several events will be held in order to promote Belarus as a striking tourist destination. The events planned will include Belarusian art exhibitions and special activities with Chinese airlines. Belarus had more than 20,000 visitors from China in 2017. It is ... Read more

Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation (TTDC) is planning to add 120 new boats, including kayaks, pedal boats, motorboats, outboard boats and water scooters. Tenders have already been floated to acquire kayaks, pedal boats and water scooters. TTDC has floated tenders for acquiring 120 boats, including five single-seater kayaks, five double-seater kayaks, 27 two-seater pedal boats, 35 four-seater pedal boats, six four-seater row boats, six eight-seater motor boats, two 15-seater motor boats, eight 15 HP outboard motorboats, four high-speed water scooters and two four-seater speed boats. The new boats would either be added to the fleet or would replace the existing boats being ... Read more

Myanmar Travellers from Myanmar to India have reportedly gone up by more than 10% last year when compared to 2016. The free visa to Myanmar citizens was declared by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his visit to Myanmar in last September and the free visa policy was initiated that month itself. Most travellers from Myanmar are reportedly visiting Bodh Gaya. Around 30,000 pilgrims used to visit annual Bodh Gaya festival every year and now more than 50,000 pilgrims from Myanmar came to attend the festival in 2017. According to ministry reports, Myanmar travellers are also coming for medical tours ... Read more

The carbon footprint of tourism is about four times larger than previously thought, according to a world-first study published in Nature Climate Change. The researchers worked to assess the entire supply chain of tourism, which includes transportation, accommodation, food and beverages, souvenirs, clothing, cosmetics and other goods. Altogether, global tourism produces about 8 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, much more than previous estimates. The study, published in Nature Climate Change, estimates that global tourism produced about 4.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2013. Air travel accounts for one-fifth of these emissions. And the United States, which is ... Read more

The no change in visa rates for Pakistani citizens confirms that they will still have to pay 0.1 million to rupees 0.4 million for attaining the tourist visa. Reports say that the Pakistan embassy in Saudi and the Pakistan’s foreign office wasn’t aware of this policy and are yet to respond on this. The double pricing in visa policy of Saudi has come under discussion and has even put Pakistan under scanner. The reduction in the visa fee was initially denied by Saudi Gazette, the leading English-language daily newspaper published in Jeddah. However, they gave credibility to the news as ... Read more

After launching a series of award-winning design and renovation projects last year, Belmond revealed the details of seven highly distinctive developments across its portfolio of hotels, trains and cruises in 2018. Beginning last month with the launch of three new Art-Deco Grand Suites onboard historic Venice-Simplon-Orient-Express, Belmond’s diverse range of designs honour timeless craftsmanship, celebrate heritage and tradition and look to the future working with innovative designers and local materials. Lined up for the year is Belmond Savute Elephant Lodge in Botswana; Belmond Casa de Sierra Nevada in Mexico, a historic renovation of Belmond Cadogan Hotel in London and a ... Read more

Lemon Tree Hotels Ltd announced it will be investing Rs 850 crore in the next three years for expanding its footprint in the country. The company has earmarked a total of Rs 1,700 crore for adding 1,500 rooms, which are currently under construction and expected to be completed by financial year 2021 and spent half of the total budget. “The total capital that will be deployed in these 1,500 rooms will about Rs 1,700 crore. Of this roughly half of it has already been deployed and another half of it will be deployed near completion by FY21. All the 1500 rooms ... Read more

As a part of expansion and attracting more tourists to Kingdom of Bahrain, Gulf Air, flag carrier of Bahrain is set to undergo rebranding and the new brand identity was unveiled at the VIP event marking the beginning of Gateway Gulf Investor Forum Bahrain 2018. Gulf Air launched the worldwide exclusive premiere of its outdoor 3D projection #yearofchange video at one of the topmost projections in the world, on the Four Seasons Hotel, Bahrain Bay. The video will soon be displayed across the airline’s network. The event was carried out under the backing of Shaikh Khalid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, ... Read more

In its endeavor to further ease visa applications for Indians planning to visit Greece, Global Visa Center World (GVCW), the Greek visa service provider for India, said it will open its Visa Application Centres on Saturdays also. Applicants can now avail prime time visa services offered by GVCW to submit their applications at the 15 visa centres across India. There centres are in cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Goa. “These services will be available every Saturday from 10 am to 4 pm. Applicants can also collect their passports on Saturdays,” said a GVCW press release. GVCW ... Read more

SriLankan Airlines  said its traffic went up 48 per cent from Delhi and 24 per cent from Mumbai “mainly daily due to the capacity additions effected from these stations,” said Chinthaka Weerasinghe, Manager – North & Eastern India, SriLankan Airlines. The airline has introduced two daily flights from Delhi and Mumbai stations to Colombo last year. “It is genuine leisure traffic which is largely point to point filling up our aircraft from North and West. The load factors are in the range of 85 to 90 per cent from these regions,” he said. Overall, India is the top source market for tourism ... Read more