Archive December 2017

‘Travel and Tourism’-the new engine for India growth. Cruise tourism is one segment of the tourism industry and is famous all over the globe. It is one of the expensive, luxury tourism witnessed a steady growth over time. India also has a large number of travelers who choose to spend time at sea and explore popular destinations at the same time.

Maharashtra's Minister of Tourism Jayakumar Rawal said cruise tourism will “create more jobs while making a value addition of Rs 32,500 crore to the national economy.”

An increase in the cruise tourism will increase the economic growth of the country as the purchasing power for India’s middle class has fuelled a rising demand for luxury travel. 

Mumbai developing the city as a homeport, Jayakumar Rawal along with the chairman of the Mumbai Port Trust Sanjay Bhatia working to boosting tourism in Mumbai the port has huge capacity to explore. 

Tourism Minister Jayakumar Rawal said that the “shipping ministry plans to convert all six ports into cruise ports”. He also lauded the Immigration Department for introducing e-visas at ports like Mumbai, Goa, Kochi and Chennai.

He also announced Mumbai Mela, a shopping festival on the lines of the annual shopping event in Dubai to attract more people to the city.

The European Union’s Mobility and Transport Commissioner Ms Bulc has invited India to explore a longer engagement in the civil aviation industry.
Ms. Bulc talked focused on the importance of global agreement on railways and safety, security and improvements in airports.

Which result is the growth in the aviation sector in India. This will explore new career opportunities in the aviation industry in all possible concrete areas.
In an interview, Violeta Bulc said that she met Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju on Tuesday and had suggested holding an annual aviation summit in India to explore ways to improve safety, security, and the size of airports.

Ms. Bulc said - 

“We shared connectivity issues during our meeting,”  “That's why I invited the minister to consider the next step in our bilateral agreement, which would be a comprehensive aviation agreement. That will, of course, have a direct positive impact on tourism as well.”

She also met Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal, where she discussed the issues related to railways and road safety.

She said - “Road safety is at the top of our agenda,”
“It has become a very important global issue. It has been elevated at the UN level as well. The Minister [Mr. Gadkari] expressed an interest in how we approached the systemic issues to decrease road safety, especially fatalities. So, I shared with him our policy attention, and also our Vision Zero, which I invited India to join.”

“One thing that was very effective in the EU was that we started to collect statistics on road safety and compare member states and wherever we saw that there was not such a good performance, we would then engage with the member state and help them make the next step,”

“In engineering, many new features will be introduced in cars, we are working with industry.”

While talking to Mr. Goyal Ms. Bulc Highlighted on the importance of global standards and had also said that there is emerging a need for an international agreement regarding railways.According to Ms. Bulc

“So, we will initiate a joint global event where we can start discussing standardization and regulator alignment on a global scale. We hope that this will emerge next year. There could be potential for a new UN chapter like we have for aviation,”

Source:thehindu

Alphons says the tourism ministry has recognized medical and wellness promotion tourism by organizing campaign shows

The government said that the value of medical tourism in India is likely to touch USD 9 billion by 2020 forecast as compared to the USD 3 billion in 2015.

Tourism Minister KJ ALphons today informed the Lok Sabha that India has developed as a major medical tourism destination over the years.

According to a Ministry of Commerce report 2016- India is ranked among the top six medical value travel destinations of the world including - Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and Mexico.

"It is further informed that as per the report, through adequate focus and effective execution, Indian medical value travel, pegged at 3 billion USD in 2015, can be 9 billion USD opportunity by 2020", the minister said.

Kerala, is now an all weather tourist hotspot. The state Tourism Department is all set to promote Global Awareness campaign to promote MICE tourism ( meeting, incentives, conference, exhibitions) promoting withdrawal of liquor ban as it widely liquor ban decreased the popularity of the state as MICE.
The meating is all about how how tourism industry generally felt that tourism policies should hold good for least 5 years."Targets should be set, and the implementation of various aspects of the policy should also be subjected to regular monitoring and supervision," Mr Iyer said.

The tourism minister Kadakampally Surendran mentioned many points as-

"MICE tourism has opened up infinite possibilities for tourism in the state but the policies of the former government had played spoilsport," tourism minister Kadakampally Surendran said.
"MICE tourism will go a long way in tackling the crisis in the tourism sector," the minister said. 

"Water sports, golf and casinos that were in the wish list of foreign travellers should be set up at any cost," Mr Iyer said. The minister, however, was sceptical about giving in to the wishes of foreigners.

"We need to create a unique Kerala experience," he said. Mr Iyer also raised the militancy of trade unions in the state.
"Such issues have dampened the state's MICE tourism potential. Demonetisation and the liquor ban imposed by the former UDF government had also affected MICE tourism in the state," he added.

It is decided a digital platform should be created in order to promote MICE tourism   "A blog should also be created for the internet promotion of MICE tourism in the state," said Anish Kumar, the president of ATTOA. 

The city of ports got new wings, Visakhapatnam airport (Vizag Airport) is now the entry gate for foreign tourist. The center has finally given approval for the introduction of e-Tourist visa on arrival (e- TVOA) launched by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday.

State Tourism Secretary Mukesh Kumar Meena informed visa stamping on arrival-

"Tourists and businessmen coming to Visakhapatnam so far had to get their e-Visas either in Hyderabad, Bengaluru or Chennai. The e-Visa facility will now make it easier for them to land in Visakhapatnam directly. Already visa-on-arrival facility is available for visitors from certain countries," Meena said.

In Andhra Pradesh Vizag airport is the first to facilitate e- tourist visa, the visitor could stay here for two months and can utilize the medical tourism facilities provided by the state.

There are 16 airports in India that give e- Tourist visa on arrival and now Visakhapatnam joined the list.

The facility of e-visa is extended to facilitate foreign tourist to fly into Andhra Pradesh. Tourist from Finland, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Singapore, Cambodia, Japan, Vietnam, Philippines, Laos, Indonesia and Myanmar do not need e-Visa or Visa in advance and they can take the Tourist Visa on Arrival (TVOA) at eight airports — Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Hyderabad and Bengaluru.
source:TheHindu