Category: News

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the UNWTO are joining forces to boost the recovery of the tourism sector across the 38 economies where the Bank invests. According to UNWTO, all worldwide destinations introduced restrictions on travel in response to Covid-19. While some destinations are starting to ease restrictions, the crisis is far from over and this lockdown has led to a massive fall in international tourist arrivals. In light of such unprecedented events, the EBRD and UNWTO have agreed to take immediate action to facilitate the recovery of tourism. The immediate response was designed along the three ... Read more

Air India has announced eight evacuation flights between India and Australia under the Vande Bharat Mission. The flights will be operated from July 1 to July 14. Bookings will begin on June 28 from 12 PM — only on the Air India website. The national carrier will operate four flights each to Melbourne and Sydney. Since May, Air India has carried out repatriation flights under the Vande Bharat Mission. Recently,  the US, France and the UAE governments raised objections to these flights saying that India was not allowing these countries to carry out their own repatriation flights. While India was ... Read more

Dubai carrier Emirates is looking to resume another seven passenger services next month as the emirate continues to ease travel restrictions. The airline will relaunch flights to Khartoum from July 3, Osaka from July 7, Narita from July 8 and Athens, Larnaca and Rome from July 5. The latest series of resumptions means the airline will fly to 48 destinations. The Dubai carrier previously reopened routes to London Heathrow, Frankfurt, Paris, Milan, Madrid, Chicago, Toronto, Sydney, Melbourne, Manila, Kabul, Bahrain, Manchester and Zurich. It will also restart services to Auckland, Beirut, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh from July 1 and ... Read more

The tourism sectors of India, Indonesia and the Philippines are likely to be the laggards among countries trying to revive the travel industry, a report released by ANZ Research has said. Since most countries are now past the worst of their Covid-19 outbreak, restrictions on travel are being eased and appetite for travel would gradually return, the report said. But in the three aforementioned countries, the number of active coronavirus cases continue to rise, making recovery difficult. Tourism in the region is entering the recovery phase, but the pace of this recovery [would] depend on the evolution of the pandemic ... Read more

Eighteen international repatriation flights are expected to bring 3,630 expatriates to the Kochi airport today. Air India will operate a flight from Paris via Delhi and Azur Air is scheduled to operate a direct flight from Kiev in Ukraine. Repatriation flights from Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah, Kuwait, Doha, Muscat, Paris and Ukraine are also scheduled to arrive on Saturday. On Friday, 21 flights brought 3,960 passengers at the airport. Rapid antibody tests were conducted on 85 passengers who arrived till 6pm. Meanwhile IndiGo airlines cancelled its Riyadh flight while SpiceJet rescheduled its Ras Al Khaimah flight to Saturday. The ... Read more

Russia’s Energia Space Corporation has said it will take a tourist on a space walk in 2023, under the terms of a new contract with a US partner. Energia has inked a contract with Space Adventures, which promises to take two space tourists to the International Space Station (ISS) that year.  “We plan that one of the participants of the expedition will do a space walk from the Russian segment, together with a professional Russian cosmonaut,” said Energia, which is part of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos. The announcement comes days after NASA signed a deal with Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic ... Read more

People who planned to travel to Las Vegas are increasingly having second thoughts about their vacations as coronavirus cases have shot through the roof in Nevada. Members of the Nevada Commission on Tourism met by videoconference earlier this week to hear how hard tourism has been hurt by coronavirus and how to move forward. Steve Hill, head of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, said the demand for Vegas visits was higher than expected when casinos reopened earlier this month but a drumbeat of bad news has chilled the enthusiasm. “That information has started to cause the numbers that ... Read more

One of Kazakhstan’s top ten travel destinations, the Balkhash Lake shoreline, will have a major “infrastructure renovation” finished by 2025. The Karaganda Region Akimat (administration) plans to build more than 20 new coastal recreation areas, to complete the repair of the Karaganda-Balkhash highway and to reconstruct the Balkhash city airport, the regional akimat’s press service has reported. Balkhash Lake is one of the largest lakes in Asia and one of the most unique features of the lake is its chemical composition. The western part of the reservoir has freshwater, while the eastern part is salty. The region attracts approximately 80,000 people ... Read more

American Airlines will book flights to capacity effective July 1, the company said in a press release on Friday. The airline said it will notify customers and allow them to move to more open flights if they are available at no extra price.  “As more people continue to travel, customers may notice that flights are booked to capacity starting July 1,” the airline said, adding that customers can also move to another seat if space is available once boarding is complete. American has blocked off 50% of the main cabin middle seats and has been notifying customers if their flight ... Read more

To showcase the benefits of India’s ancient form of health science – yoga – and the potential of it as a tourism product, the Ministry of Tourism presented a webinar on ‘India as a Yoga Destination’ under the Dekho Apna Desh series. The webinar highlighted the current yoga landscape and how it can be leveraged to broad base and scale up tourism in India. The session was moderated by Rupinder Brar, additional director general of Ministry of Tourism and  presented by Achal Mehra who is the CEO of Greenway (a social impact company) and founder of an eco-friendly resort Mahua ... Read more

Rajasthan’s tourism minister Vishvendra Singh has expressed his public displeasure at the functioning of the tourism department in the state. The coronavirus outbreak has severely impacted the sector, counted as one of the major sources of Rajasthan’s revenue. In a series of tweets, the minister questioned the indifferent working of the department officials and their shortcomings while urging chief minister Ashok Gehlot to take harsh action against the errant officials. “I have maintained a silence on too many things for too long, going against my temperament and work ethics. But, my chief minister, has always advocated transparency and in that ... Read more

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has partnered with Wanderlust World for the launch of a new app designed to facilitate safe and seamless travel in the wake of COVID-19. The new ‘World Tourist Identification’ app is one of many solutions developed to meet the new demands of both tourists and destinations, UNWTO said. The app allows tourists to carry digital copies of key documents in one place. This will make identification of tourist arrivals easier, quicker and safer. The app is also designed to reduce the risk of fraud and identity theft. As many countries around the world begin to ... Read more

Commercial international flights to and from India will continue to remain suspended till July 15, according to a government release issued on Friday. A circular released by the Director General of Civil Aviation in New Delhi said that “scheduled International commercial passenger services to/from India shall remain suspended till 23:59 hours IST of 15th July, 2020.” It specified that this restriction will not apply to international cargo operations and certain flights specifically approved by the aviation regulator. The official release says some international scheduled flights on “select routes” may be allowed by the competent authorities on a case to case ... Read more

Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren on Thursday directed senior officials to initiate action to acquire ITDC’s Ranchi Ashok Bihar Hotel that had been lying idle for over three years. At a meeting held at the state secretariat at Project Bhavan, Hemant discussed the possibility of a full take-over of the property with chief secretary Sukhdev Singh, his principal secretary Rajeev Arun Ekka, finance and planning secretary Himani Pandey and tourism secretary Pooja Singhal. The hotel was established as a joint venture between Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) and Bihar Tourism and started functioning in January 1987 when Ranchi was in ... Read more

People should keep track of their travel history as it would help in contact tracing in the event of them getting infected by coronavirus, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Thursday. Noting that the state disaster management authority has warned of a spike in the number of active cases in the southern state by the end of August, Vijayan said people should cooperate with the government in COVID-19 mitigation efforts. “People need to note down their travel history in a ‘break the chain’ diary or their phones, including the vehicle in which they had travelled, the vehicle number, the time, ... Read more