News

Vietnam witnesses surge in international arrivals in first 5 months of this year

Vietnam witnessed more than 365,300 international arrivals in the first five months of this year, a 4.5-fold increase from the same period in 2021, the General Statistics Office said recently. In the period, visitors entering the country via air travel accounted for around 87.8 per cent of the total, reports Xinhua news agency. Over the five months, approximately 230,988 foreign visitors to Vietnam were from Asia, tripling the figure of the same period last year. The number of tourists from Europe, America and Oceania also saw hikes of about 11 times, 23 times and 30 times respectively from the same period last year. Vietnam fully reopened its borders to international visitors on March 15 as part of its efforts to revive the country's tourism and economy after nearly two years of interruption due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The country received a record number of over 18 million international arrivals in 2019, the last full year before the pandemic broke out, according to the office. In 2020 and 2021, the number of international arrivals to Vietnam plunged 78.7 per cent and 95.9 per cent, respectively. The country has targeted to serve over 5 million overseas tourists in 2022, according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.

Read more

Indian travel trade welcomes visa-related relaxations by various nations: TAAI

India has always been one of the biggest source market of travellers to various nations across the globe. On one hand, where inbound tourism is on the rise, parallelly an upward trend can be seen in the outbound travel numbers, be it in India or any other country. However, the biggest hurdle is and have always been, especially post-pandemic, given the dependence on the tourism business, is the non-availability of visa. And, as Asia contributes significantly to various tourism-based economies, the resumption of different visa-related services ie, Tourist Visa, E-Visa and other categories is indeed a welcome step. Commenting on the resumption of additional categories of visas for Indians by the United States and Malaysia; Jyoti Mayal, President, TAAI said that it is indeed a commendable move. "Scores of Indians visit both countries, US and Malaysia for tourism, business, education, and many other reasons. And, travel trade fraternity, which earns its bread and butter from facilitating ticketing, visas and other arrangements is indeed delighted to hear the news," Mayal added. Jay Bhatia, Vice President, TAAI further added that TAAI being the apex body of the travel trade fraternity of India has been retreating to the Embassies/High Commissions for resumption of visas at the earliest. Bhatia said that be it the acceptance of Indian origin vaccination, issuance of visas, uniform travel protocols or dealing with the airlines, TAAI have been working diligently in taking up and facilitating redressal of any such issues of our members. Bettaiah Lokesh, Hon Secretary General, mentioned that TAAI has been pushing at every level in the government that when flights have already started operating since March 2022, then why there is a delay/ or non issuance of tourist visas. "Indian travellers have had to go through a really tough time due to the non-availability of visas," Lokesh apprised. "We have arranged meetings for our members, especially in the last year, with all major visa facilitating companies like VFS, BLS etc, and maintained fruitful relations for many decades now," supplemented Shreeram Patel, Hon Treasurer, TAAI. "And, with countries like the US and other major economies starting tourist visas, we are expecting a big boost for the travel trade business," Patel further added.

Read more

Bangladesh minister in favour of visa-less travel for students of BBIN countries

Shamsul Alam, Bangladesh Minister of State for Planning stated that he is in favour of visa-free travel for students in the Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal (BBIN) countries, as the neighbouring nation strives to become illiteracy-free by 2041. Addressing the valedictory session of the two-day ‘Natural Allies in Development and Interdependence’ conclave here, the Bangladeshi economist also mentioned that his country will become ‘hunger-free’ by 2041. “Let us open up doors in the countries for the students. I am not talking about government centres or the scholarship programmes. I am talking about the private sector, too,” Alam said. Alam noted that the South Asia region does not have a visa-free regime like that of the European Union, where no visa is required to visit a country that is part of the block. “But for the students, we can have free access to the educational institutes. Let us allow the students to go freely for education as well as for tourism. We can start with the BBIN countries,” Alam added. According to Alam, Bangladesh has around 50 public and 108 private universities. Its literacy rate increased to 73% from 43% in 2005-06, while life expectancy has risen to 75 years from 65 years a decade ago. The minister further asserted that Bangladesh will enter the league of prosperous or developed nations with a per capita income of $16,400 by 2041. “The current per capita income of the country is $2,824. We need skilled manpower to cope up with the fourth industrial revolution that is coming up. We have already created a big educational infrastructure,” Alam said.

Read more

Shanghai eases return to work, moves to support economy

Shanghai authorities will cancel many conditions for businesses to resume work from Wednesday, a city official said on Sunday, easing a city-wide lockdown that began some two months ago, and will also introduce policies to support its battered economy. China's commercial hub of Shanghai reported a broad decline in its economy last month as Covid-19 outbreaks prompted stringent restrictions and lockdowns, impacting manufacturing to retail sales and its property sector. Now, the city government will revise guidelines for epidemic prevention and control of returning to work, cancel "unreasonable restrictions" on the resumption of work and production for enterprises and do away with its "white-list" system, Vice Mayor Wu Qing told a news briefing, referring to how it had previously prioritized some companies in resuming work and had published lists of names. Businesses will also from June 1 no longer need to apply to resume work, he said, without detailing what other restrictions were being removed. City officials also announced an action plan - consisting of 50 policy measures - to boost the economy, aimed at helping enterprises and promoting consumption. They include accelerating the issuance and use of local government bonds, asking banks to renew loans for small and medium-sized enterprises, and establishing a green channel for approving real estate projects. The city will also reduce some passenger car purchase taxes to spur auto consumption, and increase the quota of license plates for passenger cars by 40,000 this year. Shanghai had issued 135,000 such license plates in 2021. A 10,000 yuan subsidy will also be granted to people looking to switch to an electric vehicle. Additionally, authorities will seek to help companies impacted by the lockdown by allowing them to delay insurance payments and rent, as well as offering subsidies on their utility bills. E-commerce platforms and large retail businesses will be supported with voucher handouts, particularly for the cultural, tourism, and fitness industries. All these measures, combined with others that were rolled out at the end of March, are estimated to reduce over 300 billion yuan of the financial burden as a result of the pandemic for market players for the full year, said Hua Yuan, deputy secretary-general of Shanghai's municipal government. "In short, we will do our best to help all kinds of enterprises... and work together to restore and revitalize Shanghai's economy," said Wu. "Although the pandemic had a great impact on Shanghai's economy and society... The long-term positive trend of Shanghai's economy has not changed."

Read more

Chennai to host much-awaited Dinosaur Festival in June

Dinosaurs are a rage right now in India. First it was Delhi, and next is Chennai and Mumbai. It’s going to be a fun summer, with a lot of learning, a ton of fun with friends and family, and a chance to come face-to-face with life-size dinosaurs (replicas). Chennai Centre is all geared up to host the grand Dinosaur Festival from 10th to 19th June, 2022. This is a Dinosaur Festival India initiative. So, if you are in Chennai, you know where to go for fun this summer. And, if you are wondering how to spend the summer break with family, head to Chennai for this 10-day festival. The Dinosaur Fest Chennai will be a world-class dinosaur exhibition where visitors will get to experience the Jurassic world. The visitors will not only get to see life-size replicas of the prehistoric animals but will also get to learn a lot of things about the kinds of dinosaurs that once roamed India more than 65 million years ago. This fun and unique exhibition will be a lot of fun for kids, especially because they will also get to be a part of the fun and cool activities like fossil excavation, jumping castles, and a lot of photo sessions with the prehistoric giant creatures. There will be animatronic dinosaur species that once lived in India more than 65 million years ago. Some of them are Isisaurus, Rajasaurus and Bruhathkayosaurus. It doesn’t matter whether or not you are a fan of the Jurassic Park movies, you are going to love this unique festival because it will also bring you a chance to get to know very popular dinosaurs species, such as the 20m Brachiosaurus, 15m Tyrannosaurus Rex, 10m Triceratops. There is free entry on Friday and Monday for public schools in and around Chennai.

Read more

MoT to roll out many sustainable tourism initiatives on World Environment Day

The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, is preparing to roll out a slew of initiatives to bring sustainable and responsible tourism to the forefront of the tourism framework of the country. These initiatives will be rolled out as part of the World Environment Day celebrations this year. by the Union Tourism Minister, G Kishan Reddy. The Ministry will be hosting a national seminar on developing sustainable and responsible tourism destinations in the national capital Delhi on June 4 where tourism. As per the information shared by the Ministry with the stakeholders, the Union Tourism Minister, G Kishan Reddy will unveil officially the national strategy for sustainable tourism and the revised Swadesh Darshan 2.0 scheme, and the much-anticipated Responsible Traveller campaign to create awareness about the Do’s and Don’ts while traveling The Ministry of Tourism notified the National Strategy for Sustainable Tourism in the last week of April and appointed the Indian Institute of Travel and Tourism Management (IITTM), Gwalior as the Central Nodal Agency to assist the Ministry in the implementation of the strategy. Tourism is all-encompassing in Indian tourism, the Ministry has revised its flagship program Swadesh Darshan scheme adding core principles of sustainable and responsible tourism into its framework. Swadesh Darshan Scheme 2.0 will implement sustainable and responsible tourism practices and encourage the adoption of principles of sustainable tourism including environmental sustainability, socio-cultural sustainability, and economic sustainability into all future projects, the Ministry note says. The day-long national seminar will deliberate issues like ‘aligning sustainable tourism to SDG 2030’, ‘tourism as a tool for conservation’, ‘creating carbon neutral destinations’, ‘heritage conservation and socio-cultural sustainability’, etc. As per the program, states like Kerala, Odisha, Sikkim, etc. will share the best practices in responsible tourism, ecotourism master planning, and community-based tourism, respectively. Meanwhile, the latest global Travel & Tourism Development Index by World Economic Forum (WEF) indicates that Indian tourism has a lot of hard work to do on the sustainable development front. While India as a tourism destination has lost 8 positions in the TTDI ranking (from 46th rank in 2019 to 54th in 2021) compared to the last edition, its performance on the sustainability front leaves a lot to be desired among competing destinations On the environmental sustainability front, India’s score was 3.3 and ranked 113 among 117 countries that participated in the TTDI ranking. Similarly, in the socio-economic sustainability associated with travel and tourism, India’s score was as low as 2.8 and its ranking was 113. The National Summit on Sustainable and Responsible Tourism Destinations has the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the Responsible Tourism Society of India (RTSOI) as partners. Ministry of Tourism signed an MoU with these two organizations last year to promote sustainable and responsible tourism in the country.

Read more