Archive January 2018

31 Jan 2018 Tourism

Sri Lanka to Spent USD 7 Lakh for Tourism Campaign in India 2018

With an aim to promote Sri Lanka as a preferred destination for Indians, Sri Lanka tourism board of the country, promote Sri Lanka tourism digital campaign in India. The national embark on a major digital marketing campaign spending USD 700,000 exclusively for India this year.

According to Sutheash Balasubramaniam, Managing Director of Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, they have already floated bids for the campaign and are in the process of finalizing the proposals to start the digital campaign latest by April or May this year.

"We believe that the potential of the Indian travel market is yet to realize in terms of attracting longer stay and higher spending travelers. It is our fervent hope to make Sri Lanka the most preferred destination in Asia for Indian travelers," he said.
 
Chitranganee Wagiswara, High Commissioner of Sri Lanka in India proposed advancing India and Sri Lanka as double goals as a component of a movement bundle. 

" Governments can loan bolster, it is the duty of private industry to configuration travel bundles joining the two India and Sri Lanka. " She said in her current gathering with India's Tourism Minister, KJ Alphons.

Sri Lanka Tourism will be participating at the SATTE 2018 (South Asia's travel and tourism exhibition), with 52 travel agents and hoteliers.

Source: travel biz monitor
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30 Jan 2018 Tourism

Women's No Longer Need Any Companion to travel Saudi Arabia

Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH) stated that  “women aged 25 and over can be granted a tourist visa to go to Saudi Arabia alone” 

Big changes are coming this year, the move gave freedom to women to travel alone to the country without any companion (no male escort or any family member will assist them as it was before). But women under 25 do need to be accompanied by a companion

Omar Al-Mubarak, Director General of the commission's licensing department said, "The tourist visa will be a single-entry visa valid for a maximum of 30 days. This visa is added to those currently available in the Kingdom. It is independent of work, visit, Hajj and Umrah visas."

According to the reports, the country has many rules and regulations for the tourist visa. It is been finalized and their issuance will be announced during the first quarter of 2018. 

"The executive regulations for tourist visas have been finalized. The commission's IT department is currently building an electronic system for the issuance of tourist visas, coordinating with representatives of the National Information Centre and the Foreign Ministry," Al-Mubarak was quoted in Arab News.

Its good for Saudi Arabia government as it will definitely increase the tourism and revenue generation for the country. It will help those women who do not have a companion or cannot afford one on their journey.

Source: India today

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29 Jan 2018 Tourism

UDAN Scheme Introduces 325 More Routes to Airlines Says Civil Aviation

According to the reports, the government introduces 325 more routes to airlines as well as helicopter operators under its regional connectivity scheme (RCS) to enhance flight services to hilly and remote areas, including Kargil.  

Ministry of Civil Aviation, 56 new airports and helipads are being connected to 36 existing aerodromes. The routes have been awarded to 15 airlines and helicopter operators after the bidding process for the second round of RCS, also known as UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik), which aims to connect tier-2 and tier-3 cities and take flying to the masses. Among the major domestic carriers, out of total IndiGo has bagged 20 proposals, SpiceJet got 17 while Jet Airways won four.

"In the second round, we have given RCS routes to helicopter operators also. In all, we got 141 proposals for 502 routes (for both planes and choppers). Letters of award have been given to 90 proposals for 325 routes. Out of these, 129 routes are in a newly created category of 'priority areas' that include Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal, Uttarakhand, North East, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep Islands," R N Choubey, Secretary, Civil Aviation said.

As per the scheme, RCS flights' fares are capped at Rs 2,500 per hour of flight for fixed-wing aircraft and for 30 minutes on a helicopter. This clearly give aviation industry a great height.

source: Travelbizmonitor 

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25 Jan 2018 Tourism

Tourism Ministry launches Incredible India Digital Calendar

Government's Digital India initiative, Minister of State for Tourism and Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, K.J Alphons launched the Incredible India digital calendar in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Along with the digital Calendar, he also launched the Incredible India wall and desk calendar for 2018. The calendar has an application that enables users to know about the events and festivals happening in India on the go. The digital calendar App can be downloaded on Android and iOS platforms.

It contains all the information about the festivals and events happening in the country and will also allow the user to plan their personal events accordingly. It helps the user by notifying the upcoming festivals and events, allow set up of customize reminders for individual events, share the events with friends and contacts, etc.

The calendar contains all exclusive features making it a perfect travel planner on to go. The calendar is designed in such a way that, each day the user will get a different experience, stunning images of different tourist destination from all across India. which can be shared on various social media platforms also. Incredible India Desk calendar 2018 profiles has 12 different kinds of travelers that suggests the great destinations for them.

The theme of the Desk Calendar is designed as "India for Everyone" showcasing India's incredible destinations for travelers.

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23 Jan 2018 Tourism

FAITH had Made 9 Recommendations on GST Rate Change

In 25th GST council meeting FAITH had made 9 major demands to the GST council in meeting with the ministry of finance. On 17th January 2018.

FAITH  statement says-
“To push through the remaining recommendations, FAITH and its member associations will keep on engaging with the central and state policy-makers to hone in the realization that a strategic GST regime is very critical for competitiveness of our tourism & hospitality industry and consequently for higher employment in India,”

FAITH pay gratitude to honorable Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and pay special attention to the two main bottleneck points in the GST council meeting -

1. Tour operator to tour operator GST to be made available as it was earlier in the service tax regime.This will prevent the tax on tax in the tourism distribution value chain.

2. Administrations like elephant rides, camel safaris, event congregations and such others are at 0% rating. Elephant rides, camel rides, Amusement parks, joy rides have been brought down to 18% from 28%.  

Complete Highlights of the Meeting are-

  • IGST be made accessible for ardent properties for tourism convenience such as for hotels, cruises, campgrounds and for eateries (restaurant).
  • Trade profit in tourism benefits as fares and give a zero rating or an extraordinary rating of 5%.
  •  Exchange esteem and not Declared Tariff ought to be the reason for rate arrangement of lodgings.
  •  Hotels above 7500 charge 28% GST,  will be rationalized.
  •  An option to discharge under presumptive model may be extended to travel agents, tour operators who are booking hotel accommodation/ any other tourism products/ tour packages (1.8% for B2C & 0.9% for B2B)
  •  Tour operator to tour operator GST to be made available as it was earlier in the service tax regime.
  •  Travel and Tours administrations outbound from India ought not draw in GST as they are in the nontaxable domain.
  •  Administrations like elephant rides, camel safaris, event congregations and such others be at 0% rating.
  •  Special arrangement and administrations account code of experience for visit administrators.
Source: travelworldonline

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