Category Archives: States

Addressing a webinar ‘India’s Heritage: Powering Tourism’ organized by Ministry of Tourism on World Heritage Day, Union Minister of State for Tourism & Culture, Prahlad Singh Patel, said “We have several ancient sites and temples but they have not received their due they deserve on the global platform. It is essential to bring together our pool of conservationists, archaeologists and historians who can throw light on our heritage on the world platform.”

Odisha Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik has inaugurated the Silver City Boat Club in Cuttack to promote water-based recreation in the Mahanadi River. The revamped boat club has been created by Odisha Tourism through OTDC, and is expected to boost tourism to the region. While infrastructure augmentation at the Boat Club will be undertaken in phases, it is said to offer activities such as jet skis, speed boats, day cruises, water scooters, kayaking, canoeing and scuba diving among other offerings.

Three female bikers — from Assam, Nagaland and Mizoram – are on a road journey to promote tourism in the north east region. The trio who are promoting their trip on social media are touring all the 7 sister states of the Northeast Indian region within a span of 7 days.

The recently-held AGM of the Tour Operators Association of Assam (TOAA) in Guwahati was marked by the formation of the new Executive Committee where Debajit Borah was selected as the new President, Rajkumar Das, Mukul Medhi and Dipak Sarma as Vice Presidents, Kundol Roy as Secretary, Nipan Sarmah as Treasurer, Pranjal Bora and Sushmita Hazarika as Joint Secretary along with 10 new EC members. The outgoing President is Ranjeet Das.

In a virtual address at the inauguration of the mega tourism promotion event in Srinagar titled, ‘Tapping the Potential of Kashmir: Another Day in Paradise’ Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State, Tourism & Culture, said, “The country has seen a five-time hike in tourists in January 2021 compared to January 2020 in Jammu and Kashmir. This initiative will further help to revive tourism in the UT.” He added that tourists started visiting J&K after the abolition of Section 370.

As part of its efforts to develop tourism in the state, the Karnataka government has decided to build heliports at major tourist destinations, informed, Tourism Minister CP Yogeshwar. He said that Kalaburagi, Bengaluru, Mysuru, Hubballi, Hampi and Mangaluru are the destinations where heliports will be developed.  

Pu Robert Romawia Royte, Hon’ble Minister of State for Tourism, Mizoram, recently graced the function of Certification and graduation ceremony of tour guides sponsored by the North Eastern Council in Aizwal, Mizoram. Out of 95 trainees, 83 qualified for certified tour guide. Rajasthan government gave its nod to the selection, training and licensing of 6,000 new tourist guides, and approved the use of residential premises as guest houses in urban areas.

The Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Limited (TCGL) will offer 15% commission to Andhra Pradesh-based travel agents and agencies for promoting the ‘Statue of Unity’ at Kevadia in Gujarat. TCGL Tourism Officer (Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Tamil Nadu) Ajit Kumar Sharma, said, “Our state government is welcoming travel agents from Andhra Pradesh to be registered with the TCGL to give a fillip to the tourism at the Statue of Unity. Post COVID-19, we will offer a maximum of 15% commission to the agents from Andhra Pradesh.”

The sixth edition of the Bengal Travel Mart (BTM) will be held from 10th April, 2021 to 12th April 2021 at Mayfair Tea Resort, Siliguri – the gateway to the North Eastern part of India. Bengal Travel Mart is an initiative of the Eastern Himalaya Travel & Tour Operators Association (EHTTOA), West Bengal Tourism and the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India to showcase tourism in Siliguri, West Bengal.

Kerala Tourism today launched a pioneering travel initiative led by ten influencers from around the country who will carry out a new-media campaign to attract domestic tourists in the post-Covid era. Rani George, IAS, Principal Secretary, Tourism, flagged off the Kerala Blog Express, titled ‘My First Trip 2021’, which is slated to conclude on March 29. The influencers will tread different itineraries for six nights and five days, facilitating production of exclusive contents for Kerala Tourism.The images, videos and literature generated by them will be shared on social-media platforms as #MyFirstTrip.  They will announce to the world that destinations in God’s Own Country continue to be open for tourists. Kerala Tourism Director V.R. Krishna Teja, IAS, and Biju. B.S, Deputy Director, Marketing, Kerala Tourism, were also present at the function held at the Hotel Mascot in the city. “The trip will give the participants a chance to not just visit the famous tourist destinations in Kerala, but experience the cuisine, culture, art and other popular activities around,” Smt George said. “Tourism industry was struck by the pandemic and Kerala was no exception. Gradually, we learned to live on with Covid-19. We started to see visitors coming to Kerala from November-December 2020. Now, these vloggers can also spread the word to the world that Kerala is safer to explore since Covid-19 cases are on the decline in the state. So, people would understand the situation,” she added. Teja, in his address, said that through the trip, the vloggers would certainly experience the warmth of people and understand how safe the state was to explore. While the previous editions of the Kerala Blog Express had only international bloggers and social media influencers, …