Travel News and Updates: travel

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 

With annual “Beat the Peak” campaign – the united kingdom to encourage Indian visitors to make use of the UKVI’s post-dated visa offer, which allows travelers to apply three months in advance from the date of their visa for when they travel.

The post dated service benefit the visa applicant as Indian visitors are allowed to start their visa on their intended travel date. For example, If you are planning to travel in April, you can apply for the visa 3 months before  January, whilst keeping the full six-month validity for when they intend to travel.

According to Dominic Asquith, the British High Commissioner to India said:-

“2017 was a record-breaking year for the UK-India relationship, with more Indians traveling to the UK than ever before. In the year ending September 2017, well over half a million visas were issued to Indian nationals and visit visas alone were up by 11% year-on-year,”

“We want the UK to be a ‘must-go-now’ destination for visitors from India. Making it easy to travel here is an important part of our tourism offer.  With our hotels, attractions, and shops, all offering great value for Indian visitors right now, it is a great time to come to Britain.” said by Tricia Warwick, Interim Director for Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa.

#BEATthe peak campaign 2018 was launched by the British High Commissioner to India, Sir Dominic Asquith KCMG to begun that intend to connect with the Indian visitor's showcase and urge them to visit Britain and apply ahead of schedule for their visa to do so.

Source: Travelbizmonitor

Road transport and highway minister on Monday came with a big plan to promote Indian tourism industry by exploring the possibility of connecting India with Asean Countries through cruise tourism.

He said that he already had talked about this with the companies about the cruise connectivity from Singapore exploring the various option.

Gadkari said:

“We plan to boost cruise tourism from 80 ships per year to 900 per year. Cruises from India can start from Mumbai or Cochin and can go to Thailand, Philippines and Cambodia, saving Indian tourists time and money for specially travelling to Singapore to enjoy cruises,”

He also added, saying that India has already proposed a $1 billion credit to promote Asean countries connectivity through roads, air and waterways.The minister also address towards Asean- Indian Connectivity Summit organised by Confederation of Indian Industry and Asian Indian centre said,

“The Asean India maritime transport cooperation agreement is being negotiated...An Asian Indian civil aviation task force has been established to see optimisation of air connectivity.”

He also pointed to the connectivity projects such as India -Myanmar-Thailand trilateral highway project and also discussed about the establishment of marine transport working group with Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

source: financialexpress

Observing the tremendous tourism potential in Northeast the Union Ministry of tourism decided to promote Northeast as a single tourism destination targeting to double the tourist inflow within next three year.

"From 2013 to 2016, the tourism sector in North East grew by 5.2% During this period, 77 lakh domestic and 1.6 lakh foreign tourists visited the region. This growth is encouraging, but it is just the tip of the iceberg," According to Ms Verma, "If we do an aggressive marketing campaign and awareness it is not difficult to double the foreign and domestic tourist arrival in next few years."

Reportedly the ministry has selected to promote eight north-eastern states (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura) as the region has a huge potential of cultural heritage, eco-tourism and adventurous tourism under the current slogan- Paradise Unexplored.

The tourism ministry informed that they are also working with border countries like Nepal so that tourist coming to Nepal can also come to India they said

"We are working out packages with BIMSTEC and ASEAN countries. Very soon we will have a tourism roadshow in Thailand. With this efforts, we expect the growth of tourism in Northeast India will commensurate with the growth of tourism in the country”

Thus, it's good news for the tourism industry, We can expect that this will create a lot of jobs and opportunities for locals as well as travel agencies.